Herman Potocnik
and his book Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums (The Problem of Space Travel)

In 1929 the book Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums (The Problem of Space Travel) was published in Berlin. It was one of the basic works during the pioneer days of aeronautics. The author, who had taken the assumed name of Herman Noordung, was Slovene. His real name was Herman Potocnik. His father, Joseph, was born in 1841 at the village of Razbor near Slovenj Gradec, whereas his mother. Minka Kokosinek, came from Maribor. His father was a doctor in the Austro-Hungarian navy and was stationed in Pulj, where Herman was born on December 22, 1892. After Joseph's death, his widow moved with the children to Maribor where Herman attended primary school. He attended the military secondary schools in Fischau and Hranice in Moravia. From 1910-13 he continued at the technical military academy in Modling and graduated from it as a lieutenant specializing in building railways and bridges. During the First World War he fought in the battlefields of Serbia, Bosnia and Galitsia and was promoted to the rank of Oberleutnant. He saw out the end of the war on the south-western front between the rivers Soca and Piava. Because he suffered from tuberculosis, he went into retirement in 1919, having reached the rank of capitan. From 1918 to 1922 he studied machine engineering in Vienna and became an engineer in 1925. He did not take a job, but devoted himself entirely to the problems of rocket and space technology. To many of his contemporaries his ideas seemed fantastic. However, he was taken seriously by Hermann Oberth and his circle, and this made him draw closer to the German North and to adopt the pseudonym Noordung. Struggling with his advancing illness, he wrote his book and finished it only in 1928. He added 100 illustrations and lived to see its publication in the following year. He died in August 27, 1929, in Vienna, where he was also buried.

Wernher von Braun wrote that it was a turning-point in the field of rocket and space technology and that it was a standard work for the space engineers of his generation. Experts in space medicine also regard Potocnik as one of its founders. Today his work is mentioned along with that of the founders of astronautics and the author's name is ranked longside among those of Ciolkovski, Goddard, Oberth etc... Potocnik contributed ideas for space station in the form of a wheel, which would produce artificial gravity by rotating, which in its circumference would equal the gravity of the Earth and obtain energy by a combination of a sun, steam and electrical power engine. The geostation satellite is Potocnik's invention. However, he not only contributed engineering details to space technology, but also designed a complete strategic plan for man's gradual progress in space. What has been achieved so far, has mainly confirmed Potocnik's forecast, which will evidently continue to prove accurate in times to come. This Potocnik's book is at the same time an insight into the history of astronautics and a topical forecast of future events. The Slovenes, however, look upon him as one of those creative people who emerged from this country, then worked on foreign soil and achieved international fame.

Translated by Alenka Gorican