All this talk of Von Braun has reminded me of Fritz Haber. Who pretty much solved the 20th century’s food crisis, and has allowed the planet to support a population of over 7 billion. Also, he developed practical methods for storing and weaponizing mustard gas, and oversaw it’s use during the first world war. He was, quite possibly one of the most diametrically opposing figures in science to Von Braun.
Von Braun was a guy who liked building rockets, and was pretty much forced by circumstance to work for the Germans first, and then later the Americans. He was for the most part a-political. While Haber was a diehard Nazi** supporter of the state, and devoted himself to the state in both word and deed. So much so in fact, his wife threw down the ultimatum that he stop his work creating chemical weapons, threatened to kill herself, and did when he refused to cede to her demand. Then a few days later Haber decided to double down on chemical warfare and went to oversee a chlorine gas release on the battlefield.
** I didn’t read carefully enough and misspoke, it was before the Nazis were in power, as @JonS kindly corrected me.
