Wernher von Braun was a German engineer who worked on rocket technology, first for Germany and then for the United States. Wernher von Braun was one of the most important German weapons specialists to work on rocketry and jet propulsion in the U.S. after WWII. He disapproved of military use of the rocket and surrendered willingly to American troops in 1945, eventually becoming technical director of the U.S. Army Ordnance Guided Missile Project in Alabama. He was also chiefly responsible for rocketry for the nation's space program. Engineer and rocket expert Wernher von Braun was born in Wirsitz, Germany on March 23, 1912. Von Braun enrolled at the Berlin Institute of Technology in the late 1920s, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 1932. He then enrolled at the University of Berlin to study physics. While completing his graduate studies, von Braun conducted in-depth research on rocketry, for which he received a grant from the Ordnance Department of Germany. He received the National Medal Of Science in 1975.