The German Wife

In 1945, the United States began a controversial program they called “Project Paperclip.” The goal of the program was to bring German scientists, engineers, and other technicians into the United States to increase US scientific and technological expertise to help win WWII. The program was controversial largely because it involved recruiting scientists who had either cooperated with the Nazi Party or were members of the Party during the war. The program was initially supposed to be temporary, bringing the German and Austrian specialists over only to help with the war in Japan, but the end of the war opened the door for permanent immigration, employing the specialists to assist in the space race and Cold War. A specific group of specialists led by Wernher von Braun moved to Huntsville, Alabama, in 1950, as described in the novel, and went on to be fully naturalized by the mid-1950s. This group joined NASA and were pivotal in the development of rocket technology that led to the moon landing in 1969. In her note following the narrative, Rimmer says that the character of Jürgen Rhodes is loosely based on von Braun. He was a particularly controversial figure because of his significant contributions to US science and technology, but his Nazi past eventually came to light and prevented him from receiving various awards. Overall, more than 1,600 German experts were brought to the US as part of Project Paperclip, and most of those experts were granted citizenship and had their past involvement with the Nazi Party erased. They were also allowed to bring their families into the United States as part of the agreement. Journalist Annie Jacobsen, author of Nuclear War: A Scenario, wrote Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to America, which describes the long-reaching effects of the program on global science and politics.