Postwar peregrinations of Willy Messerschmitt, Kurt Tank et al.

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16 years 6 months

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Having experienced my own 'wandering years', I am curious to know if there are there any English-language books on what one might describe as the post-war wanderjahrs of Willy Messerschmitt, Kurt Tank, and their associates in places such as Argentina, Egypt, India, and Spain. I have often wondered why they chose this course. In some cases, moves from one country to another were the result of project cancellations, but there must have been political pressures and other factors (as the OTRAG experience in the late 1970s and early 1980s demonstrated). To the best of my knowledge the 1960s Mossad campaign to persuade 'foreign experts' to leave Egypt remains largely undocumented, but it is unlikely to be forgotten by those it targeted. A threatening letter with a Cairo postmark can be an effective way of persuading the recipient to plan an immediate change of employer.

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19 years 5 months

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I'd be interested in reading more on the topic.
However, at least those designers seem to have escaped jail, unlike Ferdinand Porsche who designed the Tiger tanks (and of course the Volkswagen).

Most Porsche histories mention his imprisonment, but neglect to mention he was a party member as well as the SS, so that may explain why he was in jail.

And to add to your list of post-war work by German aircraft designers, I would suggest Brunolf Baade, designer (apparently with ex-Junkers staff) of the I'll-fated East German (I Don't know if that qualifies him as a "foreign expert") Baade 152 jetliner of the late '50s.

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14 years 11 months

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Reimar Horten's post-war work in Argentina is well published in several books, including Nurflügel.

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11 years 11 months

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If you see the career of some rocket engineers of the early Saturn programme, nobody cared too much about their political history before 1943.

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17 years 5 months

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Didn't Kurt Tank want them to race the Dora that's in the US post war

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11 years 11 months

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I think the 335 would have been much more interesting....

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19 years 5 months

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If you see the career of some rocket engineers of the early Saturn programme, nobody cared too much about their political history before 1943.

But unlike aeroplane designers who could peddle their talent to a host of regimes, rocket scientists had only two options...
either live in a gray apartment block in Russia,
or live the 50's-style good life in America (albeit Alabama!) with a house, huge chrome laden two-tone? cars and all the other benefits of a western lifestyle.

I know a few German designers/engineers who joined major aircraft builders in the UK and US (and I would suppose France), but you don't hear a lot about them.

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11 years 11 months

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Donˋt understand me wrong, the rocket guys didnˋt make a mistake! It is only a fact, that even if you have been a real Nazi, your profession and your knowledge could secure your personal standard and keep you away from prison in some countrys. Even if you were responsible for the death of many civilian people.

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19 years 5 months

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"...deaths of many civilian people."

Best not to go there.
They were just airplane and rocket designers whose country...right or wrong...was at war. They designed the things, and did not have any day in how they were used...or by who.
If the Axis had won, designers like Barnes Wallis and R.J. Mitchell would have been tagged as criminals, not lauded for their efforts with films about them and schools named after them.