Spellbreakers Ep. 170: First in Space - A History of the German Space Program, Part I - The Early Years

Spellbreakers Ep. 170: First in Space - A History of the German Space Program, Part I - The Early Years

From Badlands Media by Badlands Media

June 13, 2026 · 1h 19m · Episode 5678

About this episode

Matt Trump explores the early years of the German space program and its connections to science fiction and historical figures.

Forget the "well, actually" crowd. Yes, the Germans were central to the space race, and host Matt Trump is leaning all the way into it. In Part I of this new series, Matt traces humanity's first object to ever cross into outer space back to a test launch from Peenemunde on June 20, 1944, two weeks after D-Day, and the weapon it became, the V2. But the real story starts decades earlier with Jules Verne, whose 1865 novel "From the Earth to the Moon" predicted Apollo and Artemis with eerie accuracy, and inspired a young Transylvanian Saxon named Hermann Oberth to turn science fiction into the actual rocket equation. Matt also dives into the strange, tangled connections between Oberth, Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou, and the silent film "Metropolis," and what that film really reveals about how the Nazis saw themselves. Next week, the warriors arrive: Wernher von Braun.

People in this episode

Host: Matt Trump

Topics covered

  • German Space Program
  • V2 Rocket
  • History of Space Exploration
  • Jules Verne
  • Science Fiction Influence
  • Nazi Ideology

Keywords

  • German Space Program
  • V2 Rocket
  • Hermann Oberth
  • Jules Verne
  • Metropolis
  • Space Race
  • Nazi Germany

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Metropolis, From the Earth to the Moon

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