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Nazi rocket scientists, including Wernher von Braun, surrendered to this Sheboygan man in May 1945

Wernher von Braun eventually became part of NASA, where he became the chief architect of the Saturn V launch vehicle, the super booster that would send Americans to the moon.

Sheboygan Press

SHEBOYGAN — The Soviet Union could have been the first to step foot on the moon if Sheboygan's Fred Schneikert wasn't on guard duty to accept the surrender of a group of German scientists in the waning days of World War II.

In May 1945, with Adolph Hitler already dead in his bunker, both American and Soviet Union forces focused on obtaining German technology with the defeat of Nazi Germany.

A group of German scientists led by Wernher von Braun realized the war was ending. The scientists decided it would be better to be captured by Americans than the Soviets, according to an article in Air and Space Forces magazine.

Magnus von Braun, left, Pfc. Frederick P. Schneikert, middle, and Wernher von Braun, right, pose, Tuesday, May 8, 1945, following the two von Braun scientists surrender to the U.S. Army at the end of World War II. Magnus von Braun approached Schneikert on a bicycle to surrender.

Magnus von Braun, Wernher's brother, had a better handle on English than the famed scientist and was drafted for the surrender. He went on a bicycle in search of American troops.

Schneikert, a private first class with the U.S. Army's 44th Infantry Division who was fluent in German, was on guard duty in a ditch when a German approached him on a bicycle. Schneikert said in German: "Halt! Komme vorwarts mit die hande hoch!," which means "Stop! Come forward with your hands up!"

Magnus von Braun obeyed the order. He was the brother of Wernher, the German inventor of V-2 rockets. This encounter would begin the surrender of the famed rocket man Wernher von Braun, along with more than 100 of his scientist colleagues.

Schneikert, who attended Holy Name grade school and Sheboygan High School, was at first skeptical in the encounter and said to his fellow soldiers, "Hey, I've got a nut here. What should I do with him?"

Schneikert, after the war, became a polyphase meter man for Wisconsin Power and Light. Former co-worker Ron Navis of Sheboygan Falls recalled he was a modest man who was one of the few German-speaking American soldiers at the time, which allowed him to fully understand what Magnus von Braun was saying to him. Navis thinks if it were anyone else, that man would have likely been shot.

Wernher von Braun was head of the V-2 rocket development team. The rocket was used in the twilight hours of World War II. The rocket wizard was quoted in a 1952 Press clipping that if Germany had two more years on development of a V-2 rocket bomb, the outcome of the war could have been different.

Dr. Wernher von Braun (1912–1977) was one of the most important rocket developers and champions of space exploration in the twentieth century. As a youth he became enamored with the possibilities of space exploration by reading the work of Hermann Oberth, whose 1923 book The Rocket into Interplanetary Space, prompted von Braun to master calculus and trigonometry so he could understand the physics of rocketry.

After the group was detained by the U.S. troops, Pfc. Schneikert was assigned to guard the group for the next two weeks, according to a 1985 Sheboygan Press clipping announcing his death. He forged friendships with the scientists and, in particular, scientist von Braun, which would last a lifetime. Von Braun would stop in Sheboygan to visit Schneikert and invite Schneikert to a rocket launch in the 1960s.

Von Braun and his cadre of scientists were fearful of being dragged to the U.S., then sent back to Germany, which worried many of the group. It was decided by the government to offer guaranteed long-term employment to those who settled in the U.S.

According to the NASA website, as part of a military operation called Project Paperclip, he and an initial group of 125 scientists were sent to America to Fort Bliss, Texas. There, they worked on U.S. Army rockets and assisted in V-2 launches at the White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico.

In 1950, von Braun's team moved to Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville, Alabama, to continue their missile work.

Von Braun became an advocate for space exploration during the 1950s. He eventually became part of NASA, where he became the chief architect of the Saturn V launch vehicle, the super booster that would send Americans to the moon.

World War II veteran Fred Schneikert as he appeared in a 1958 Sheboygan clipping.

Schneikert married Erna Steffen of Fond du Lac in 1940. Following the war, he lived a quiet life working and later spending his retirement years in Largo, Florida. Erna died in 1975, and Schneikert married Peggy MacDonald of Sheboygan in 1976. Peggy died in 1982, and Schneikert came back to Sheboygan in 1985.

Schneikert, who died in 1985 at age 75, was a member of the Jensen-Van Thruler Chapter 15 of Disabled American Veterans and of Sheboygan Memorial Post 9156 Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Gary C. Klein can be reached at 920-453-5149 or gklein@gannett.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @leicaman99.