Knowledge without frontiers Knowledge Without Frontiers | Page 42

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No 1892-1929
Herman Potočnik Noordung was born on
22nd December 1892 in Pula, where his father,
THE FIRST
SPACE ARCHITECT
a native of Slovenj Gradec, was working as a
navy physician. Following his father’s sudden
death, the family moved to his mother’s birth-
place, Maribor, where he completed elementary
One of the few photos of Potočnik.
Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies.
school. He attended the junior military school
in Bad Fischau near Vienna and senior military
school in Hranice in Moravia before enrolling in
the technical military academy in Mödling near
Vienna. He finished his studies in 1913 as an ex-
pert in bridge and rail construction and a year
later he would end up on the battlefields of the
First World War. Following deployments on the
Bosnian-Serbian, Galician, and Isonzo fronts, he
contracted tuberculosis and received a medical
discharge at age 27. Despite poor health and fi-
nancial problems, he managed to graduate from
the College of Technology in Vienna. He died on
27 August 1929 in Vienna, where he is buried.
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Engineer, rocket technology
specialist, military officer, and as-
tronautics and space fight pioneer.