Talk:Fritz von Opel

Possible Shuffling for Clarification
In this article, there is a section that talks about Wernher von Braun's enthusiasm about the Opel-RAK demonstrations, stating that von Braun was 16 when these were taking place, and nearly blowing himself up with a rocket car. This comes right after the section on 1929 and rocket-powered flight, even though the article which is the source for the story of von Braun and the rocket car places the event in 1928. Could this be moved upwards to be in the area for Opel-RAK rocket cars and have added text to clarify that von Braun's event takes place in 1928? Fungustober (talk) 18:40, 1 May 2023 (UTC)

Dubious Source
In the paragraph on von Opel's flight and subsequent media coverage, there's a few sentences that talk about a young Wernher von Braun nearly being killed in a homemade rocket car accident. However, the citation leads to an article from the Smithsonian Magazine which has no citations for any of the claims it makes. The article also has a number of factual errors, particularly towards the start of the article when it tries to make the tenuous connection between Elon Musk and Fritz von Opel. During this attempted comparison, it says that both men "start[ed their] own privately funded automobile [...] business[es]." While this may or may not be true for von Opel, it is verifiably false for Musk, as he bought Tesla from its founders Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. It also states that Fritz von Opel inherited his fortune while Elon Musk made his own fortune himself. This is not remotely the case, as Musk admitted himself in a 2014 interview that his father had "a private plane" and "a share in an emerald mine in Zambia." It also gets the date of the publishing of Max Valier's Der Vorstoss in den Weltraum wrong, claiming that it came out in 1925. However, as according to a paper (4th page of pdf, second paragraph) by a curator at the Smithsonian who actually bothered to cite his sources, it was originally published in 1924. It received a reprint in 1925, which may be where some of the confusion comes from, but even the smallest amount of due diligence in fact checking would have given the correct date.

Additionally, beyond the shoddy work of the Smithsonian article, the sentences in this Wikipedia page which cite it seem to paradoxically contain more content than what was written in the citation. Von Braun is mentioned in a single sentence in the article, that being: "Even 16-year old Wernher von Braun was bitten by the bug, constructing his own homemade rocket car and nearly killing himself in the process." However, in this Wikipedia page, von Braun is said to have caused a disruption in a crowded street, created the rocket car with fireworks and a toy wagon, and been taken into custody by the police until his father retrieved him. The assumption that the rocket car "detonated" is also flawed, because the article doesn't even say that he nearly killed himself after trying to fire the rockets. It says that he nearly killed himself in the "process" of "constructing his own homemade rocket car," which could mean a number of things. Maybe he accidentally inhaled some fumes he shouldn't have, or almost dropped something heavy on himself. The vagueness of the cited article combined with the strange specificity of the sentences in this Wikipedia page give me some pause.

Most damning of all is the fact that the previously mentioned paper does not mention this event happening at all. One would assume a paper on the "rocket rumble" would make a mention of such a standout example to help highlight the effects of the fad. However, even at the most opportune time the paper could talk about this happening (page 8, "[...] a number of future engineers at Peenemünde, notably Wernher von Braun, had their interest in rocketry sparked or increased by the publicity [of the Opel RAK tests]."), it doesn't make even a passing reference to the event.

With that said, I believe the sentences on the rocket car accident should either be edited, removed, or a better source for them–if any exist–should be used instead of the current one. Fungustober (talk) 20:20, 17 December 2023 (UTC)


 * Michael Neufeld’s Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War details this incident, however it make no mention of Von Braun nearly being killed. will update and replace the reference.  Note that the same section of this book has a fairly unflattering description of Fritz von Opel -  “Fritz von Opel was a dashing playboy in search of publicity and fame and was not committed to spaceflight; he proceeded to use Valier and then push him aside.” Ilenart626 (talk) 13:09, 6 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Ah, wonderful! Thank you for your assistance.
 * Fungustober (talk) 06:15, 8 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Frank H. Winter is one of the most famous space historians. To discredit his article in the Smithsonian magazine, a highly reputed source, is rather strange 93.237.69.147 (talk) 18:06, 19 January 2024 (UTC)

POV tag
Since September 2021 a SOCK has made multiple entries on this article that exaggerates Fritz von Opel's importance in the history of aviation and space exploration. Refer to this discussion on the Neutral point of view Noticeboard for further details. The article needs an extensive rewrite for it to present a NPOV view, supported by citations from reliable published sources. Ilenart626 (talk) 16:43, 4 February 2024 (UTC)