Following the humiliation of World War I, Germans longed for a new start. The rockets that Hermann Oberth envisioned in his book, Die Rakete zu den Planetenraumen, quickly became a symbol of a hope-filled future.
Max Valier, a World War I aviator who made a name for himself as a popular lecturer, read Die Rakete and was struck by its realism. He quickly saw that a less scientific version could reach an even larger audience, and he approached Oberth about collaborating on a revised edition.
The new book appeared in 1924 under the title Der Vorstoss in den Weltenraun (The Advance into Space), and it was an immediate popular hit. It made the adventure of space exploration seem imminent -- many who read the book thought the sketches inside weren't visions of what could be, but renditions of actual rockets in the final stages of construction!
Imminent or not, the idea of space exploration began to draw a core of enthusiasts. In July 1927, the Verein f├╝r Raumschiffahrt (Rocket Society) was formed to raise money to build and test real hardware for developing space craft.
Interest in rockets became so widespread that the car magnate Fritz von Opel became involved in building a rocket car, and the great film director Fritz Lang approached Oberth to construct a realistic model of a space ship for his movie Frau Im Mond. Even product designers and advertisers indulged in all kinds of propulsion motifs as the wave of rocket mania swept on.
