FROM HELL TO THE STARS

About the History of a "Wonder Weapon"

Author & Director:

Juergen Ast

Commissioning Editors:

Martin Huebner | Johannes Unger | Juergen Tomm

Duration:

45'

Production:

MDR | ORB | SFB // ARD

Fifty years ago, on July the 8th 1943, Adolf Hitler personally gave the order to make the mass-production of the V2, the first large rocket of the world, the top priority of wartime economy. Two months later in the Harz, close to Nordhausen, the work on the largest underground weapon-factory in the 2nd World War started. The "Metropolis" of the "wonder weapons", for tens of thousands prisoners of the concentration-camp DORA-Mittelbau it became hell, more than 20.000 died.

The "wonder weapons" did not bring the so called "Endsieg", the ultimate victory. But they, as well as those who invented them, became an important asset for the necessary power after the war. The Cold War between the new superpowers had already started and the rocket as well as the atomic bomb, they were for decades the arsenal needed for a global military policy, consisting of threats and power.

The documentary-film is looking for the traces of the German rockets and their scientists. A search from Peenemuende and Nordhausen to White Sands in the USA and Kapustin Jar in Russia. It is the story of a competition, the footrace to catch the secret of the "wonder weapons" first. The film explains the different strategies of the rivals and recalls in detail the greatest know-how deal by the Americans as well as the most spectacular kidnapping in the post-war era by the Russians. From hell to the stars tells the story of the V2 and remembers the path that was taken from the hell in DORA to the Stars & Stripes and to the Red Star.