One Nation, Two Astrocultures? Rocketry, Security and Dual Use in Divided Germany, 1949–61

Abstract

After the founding of the two German postwar states in 1949, their competition for legitimacy involved an astrocultural dimension. Supported by the US Military Board, West German technology enthusiasts took a leading role in realizing transnational rocketry networks. Their goal of a peaceful European future in the stars was met by skepticism in the East, where the Socialist FDJ youth organization criticized the involvement of former Nazi V-2 engineers. The rearmament of both states in 1955, however, reshaped political representations of the rocket. In the West, controversies arose about the character of rocket technology in general, whereas in the East, the Socialist Unity Party realized that a critical view of progress complicated technology education and propaganda. A mere two decades after the Second World War, East and West German astrocultural narratives gradually diverged from each other – ironically not despite, but because of, growing similarities in the dual use of spaceflight technologies.