Summary The history of German rocketry has been dominated by a master narrative emphasizing the Army Peenemūnde project. An examination of the career of Rolf Engel (1912–1993), an SS officer and veteran of Weimar rocket groups, undermines that narrative. After his arrest in 1933, Engel became a bitter opponent of the Army and joined the Nazi student movement and SD, ending his wartime career as an SS rocket expert. Engel's life demonstrates that the traditional dichotomy between the rocket engineers and “the Nazis,” similar to one used by other German scientists and engineers after 1945, is false. His career also illuminates some of the lesser rocket projects of the Third Reich.