A scientist who only cares for his or her research is a fool. Scientists who know their work is to be used for evil yet willingly continue are themselves, by definition, evil.
Von Braun is still part of the public conscious and will stay so long after Lehrer is long dead and forgotten. Von Braun has left humanity an enormous legacy through his contributions to space flight. Unfortunately, Von Braun was born into a Germany in turmoil and became involved in his profession where he had little power to dictate where his work would be used. For Lehrer to take a cheap shot at him in this song really only diminishes Lehrer who I had long forgotten until I saw this
And all of you above don't need to "sell" the genius that is Tom Lehrer! I am so old that I grew up with him and my father owns both of the Tom Lehrer songbooks. Continue to share his social criticism but stop trying to make money from his contribution to society. Though I love pigeons, that I mainly meet in Italy, I would really like to poison you, whoever you are.
It is worth noting that Tom Lehrer was all about the comedic value, not necessarily accuracy. Another case where he frankly didn't care for the facts was the song about Nicholai Lobachevsky.
Reminds me of Georg Kreisler! :) (RIP, November 2011). Love this humor. They are both the intellectual parents of Seinfeld's Larry David, in my humble upstate New York opinion. :) Danke! - Larry
wernher was actually arrested by the gustapo (nazi secret police) for not being dedicated enough to the development of the V-2 bombs. Wernher was always more interested in space travel than bombs and i dont think the guy singning this song knew that much about him.
I was trying to frame the argument in terms that abex701 would understand and I was assuming that his/her/its knowledge of history probably didn't encompass WWII-era terminology, but would (or at least might) extend back as far as the Gulf War
Seriously! What in all creation is worth denigrating Tom Leher's genius in making wonderful comedic lyrics that go brilliantly with his amusing music? Get a life AND a sense of humor!!!
@eldictator1 You should not use language like that when you are a right-wing dictator type like your hero from WW2. and we all know what you are. PS if this is removed the statement I am remarking about MUST BE REMOVED as it is advocating violence!!!!!!!!!
Tom Lehrer is a genuis, there is nothing wrong with him. He was very brave as he spoke the truth! If you don't like it, don't listen! Go and listen to Britney Spears!
Michael Neufeld stated it best by noting that... " it is comforting to pigeon hole him as either white or black, because then one does not have to deal with his ambiguity and complexity, or the ambiguity and complexity of the moral and political choices offered to scientists and engineers in the modern era. One thing is, however, clear: the foundation of his remarkable career as an engineer manager and space visionary was his romantic ambition to explore space, if possible personally.
so mjeshaw your logic is the lifes of French workers abused by the germans are more important that the lifes of the civilian people killed in Nuclear Bombing in Nagasaki? Wow What a revelation!!! Hail the White Supremacy!!!! Tom Lehrer is a fucking Racist...Also all of the Allied Soldiers and German Soldiers Wish there is a hell waiting for the dead soldiers from Both Sides and Burn in Hell to Ashes...
@jamesefarkas, loved your comment, love word plays. Tom Lehrer is still witty, but now as a very private person, not a comedian, singer/songwriter and performer :-)
yeah, Tom Lehrer no longer thinks he has what it takes to be a pundit in today's world. If Tom Lehrer reads this, prove me wrong. One time thing, lampoon someone :D
@gaspode18 Look, the guy's a scientist, not a war criminal. And whatever contribution he had to give to the German war effort, anyone would have done as much in his stead. Alfred Nobel invented and manufactured dynamite which was used to kill countless people, and he gets to be a hero ; Von Braun gets Mankind to the moon and turns out to be a loathed pariah: don't you think that's a little bit unfair?
Not knocking Lehrer, but perhaps he should be accusing America of being hypocritical not von Braun. It was the US afterall that decided he was more important than the crimes he committed.
For me, Werner Von Braun was a horribly ambitious man who did anything to make his dream come true(put the man on the age of space exploration). Anyway, i find it very scary that he was one of the scientists(Sergei Korolev,Goddard,Tsiolkofsky) who helped us to expand our technology and the knowledge about the space. Even if his morality was rotten, we can't deny his achievements.
Furthermore, the atomic bomb invented by the american scientists killed much more people than the V2 rocket. I will be very surprised if there was a criticism on the moral of the american scientists who participated in "Manhattan project". But, i can't see single person criticizing about the "manhattan project". Werner Von Braun was a genius but not an angel. Like Oliver Stone said "Not Everything is Black or white, the world is grey".
@Chuck6360 - The Manhattan project didn't use slave labour . Von Braun was fully aware of conditions at Nordhausen and the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp but had no qualms about it then. "Prisoners were treated with extreme cruelty, causing illness, injuries and deaths. Examples include severe beatings that permanently disabled and/or disfigured the victims, deliberate and life-threatening starvation, physical and mental torture as well as summary execution under the smallest pretext."
We criticize Werner Von braun for inventing V2 rocket during the world war 2 for nazi germany. But it is very strange that we don't do the same thing with the american scientists who invented Atomic Bomb. Yes, Werner von braun was in SS but he didn't have a choice because god damn nazis threatened him to make his ass stuck in SS. If he refused to do so, this crazy fascists would have killed him including every scientists in his team.
@radia333 Why? Its all true. That little shit Von Braun was responsible for 6,184 people killed by V1s, 17,981 seriously injured and maimed 2,754 killed by V-2s with another 6,523 injured. Most of them civilians.
AND HE FUCKING GOT AWAY WITH IT.
Fuck him. I hope there IS a hell just so the cunt burns for etirnity.
@gaspode18 - Scientists on both sides were working on weapons which resulted both directly and indirectly in thousands of civilian deaths. The difference is that the V2 was built with slave labour, including thousands of skilled French workers transported to the V2 plant at Nordhausen. Thousands more people were killed building the V2 than were killed by it's use. They were beaten, starved and summarily executed on the least pretext. Von Braun knew this but had no qualms about it at the time.
Pff. What do you expect? Him to go up to the Führerbunker and complain? File a nice little appeal at Freisler's Volksgerichthof?
People that demand that obviously have no idea of that time, neither of the Reich, nor of its security apparatus (Gestapo, SS, SD, and so on) - either that, or they're just plain stupid.
@gaspode18 First of all you need to get your facts straight -- von Braun had nothing to do with the V1; the V1 competed for resources with the V2. As far as the allied casualties due to the V2 are concerned, it is a morally grey area -- if you are to condemn von Braun for the V2, then you must condemn Oppenheimer for the A-bombs used in Japan and everyone in the supply and delivery chain for both -- that is the nature of 20th century, technological war.
He wasn't one of these braindead nazis, he surrended to US when he saw that war was going wrong. Yes, he was in ss, but he was a scientist, not soldier nor politician and US needed him. He would take side with anyone, who would keep his science going and fund it, because that was what he cared about mostly of all.
And, about bombing of London, Von Braun said ''Rocket worked fine, but it landed on wrong planet''.
Whether Braun was Nazi or not was not really what Lehrer was attacking. His target is surely the US government for its lack of scruples in whom it hired to achieve its short-term goals, with no regard to the morality to which it aspires in its constitution. He does have a side-swipe at Braun: but for his morals not his politics - "where they come down is not my department". Having said that, what would you have done, with people terrified of Russki nukes in space?
@joaormedeiros just because you were a Nazi in those times doesn't mean you actually did anything to people, and also, at that point it was either join or go to a death camp. Which would you prefer nmh?
A very capable and focussed scientist, but did his dedication to rocketry blind him to what was going on in the factories mass producing his rockets? If he did, at any time, raise objections with his Nazi masters, this fact seems to have escaped history
He did better than Korolev still, who believed that the Soviet regime was benevolent not making objections to it. Despite that position he was imprisoned and forced to work for free, eventually dying of sequellae - poor and vilified by the Soviet space programme successor.
Tom Lehrer is a genius. I as in the Army in 1966 and Gerry Goodstein gave me a tape of That Was The Year That Was -- audio from a 1965 David Frost TV show. It reoriented my standards on satire.
Lehrer has few CDs -- three I can think of. But they are indispensable for any bright American -- Canadian, too -- since a powerful country does the bull in a china shop thing -- all with good intentions. (I listen to Canadian Broadcasting Corporation a lot particularly for that reason).
Песенка о Вернере фон Брауне Давайте-ка вспомним, как Вернер фон Браун И жил и работал, повсюду стараясь, И ни на кого вовсе не обижаясь. "Подумаешь, наци!" - вам скажет фон Браун. А разве мы скажем, что он лицемерен? Он аполитичен и в этом примерен. "Ракеты взлетят и опустятся где-то. Какое мне дело, где рухнет ракета?" Зачем возмущаться, зачем кипятиться? Вот жители, скажем, английской столицы, Какое пособье себе отхватили. Наверно, они его благодарили.
russians used native talent to create something useful, satellites. Americans used nazis to showcase their might and land on the moon. that's pretty pathetics.
Heh, I always had a strange form of admiration for Wernher von Braun and people like him. To be able to focus all your efforts into one goal like that and without any doubts or second thoughts. He loved rockets, and would be willing to work for anyone and do anything to be able to continue to work on his beloved rockets. Yes, I have a strange form of admiration for that complete focus.
You're a fundamentalist, ignorant, piece of shit. In all seriousness, I hope you, your entire family, and your next of kin dies in a fire, but only after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
@KittyRokher I feel sorry that you are such an evil person that has to project his hate on his Zionist brothers, the fundamentalists. You've seen how God has shown his wrath upon the reprobate Jews, and if you goyim dupes continue to support their exploitation and murder I don't think you'll fair any better.
I love you, but I'll be content with God's judgment if you don't repent. God bless!(:
Hi, I'm German and this "Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department, says Werner von Braun" is really brilliant.
The point here is how scientist or engineers face their work. Be honest and think about yourself: How many people might you have killed currently and how many will you kill?
It is not that rockets that bombed London, it was not Second World War II, it is - in the end - that many of us spend time on thinking about how to kill.
Hi, I'm German and this "Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department, says Werner von Braun" is really brilliant.
The point here is how scientist or engineers face their work. Be honest and think about yourself: How many people might you have killed currently and how many will you kill?
It is not that rockets that bombed London, it was not Second World War II, it is - in the end - that many of us spend time on thinking about how to kill.
I think Frank Zappa was influenced by Tom Lehrer before he aimed it at the 'hip' generation. I'd love to be on a pub crawl with those two!! We had something similar this side of the pond musically with Flanders and Swann but the stiff old BBC would never have let them get away with this.
Tom Lehrer was black-listed for this song and his general tone....too bad he wasn't more widely accepted by the military industrial complex! LOL We might live in a slightly nicer world?! who knows
In the 1960's Von Braun wrote an autobiography called "I Aim For The Stars". The joke at the time was it should have been subtitled "But Sometimes I Hit London".
I love the last line "he's learning Chinese" as if Von Braun's loyalty to America was questionable. It reminds me of all the bankers, stock brokers, and merchantile class who are falling over each other to learn Chinese the second that American industry shows cracks. Loyalty is often expediant, and the world is full of hypocrites.
Ultimately Werner Von Braun was the greatest scientist of the 20th century, if material accomplishment alone is the measure of success.
@zzxxyy543 yes but it was a polish war not a European war so the brits and french shouldn't get invald its was never about land it was all about how rich Poland was and how poor germany was after ww1 germany had all the god dame blame and all the dept they had push the german too far
@deathbger and just ot make sure you are aware of what a complete bastard Hitler was from the beginiing of the war he started , look up the Gleiwitz incident on wikipedia.. one of the staged excuses to invade Poland. with Blitzkreig !
@deathbger The Soviet Union did not declare war on Germany they were taken by surprise...I am not going to argue with you further but what you have done is interest me into reading more on this for my benefit, I suggest you do as well!!
Tom Lehrer is Jewish of course so its not surprising that he would attack von Braun at the same time other Americans were welcoming von Braun's help. JFK met with von Braun too. Has Tom Lehrer written any songs about the Israeli massacre of 1,400 Palestinians at Gaza 2 years ago? How about the Israeli attack on the international flotilla bringing humanitarian supplies to the people of Gaza? Have any other jewish songwriters / satirists written such songs?
@pgg804a, I'm no sure about other Jewish songwriters. In 2003 Lehrer told The Sydney Morning Herald that he -- quote -- "couldn't do anything with the Israelis and the Palestinians "because I'm against everybody and I can't take a side". Born in 1928 in Manhattan, Lehrer grew up in a family that was Jewish but had "more to do with the delicatessen then the synagogue," he told Rhino Records. In his home, according to Lehrer, "God was primarily an expletive."
@pgg804a: Hello, is somebody home? Any brain there in that head of yours? Tom Lehrer is 82 now and hasn't written ANYTHING for years, but that's not the important point. Von Braun was an opportunistic scientist, and you don't have to be jewish to make fun of that. You can keep your Jew-bashing nonsense to yourself, and PLEASE: don't use the sufferings of the Palestinians for this pathetic polishing-up of your ego, that's simply disgusting, you should be ashamed of yourself.
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@Tenkton My comment stands. There is no jew-bashing, its just a fact stupid. Some people can dish out the criticism, but can't take any. If you're so sensitive I suggest you stay in your room by yourself. Because as long as Israel keeps murdering defenseless people, the criticism will keep coming.
@pgg804a: Really no brain there! So Lehrer is a Jew. Of course this completely disqualifies him to criticize anyone except other Jews. Hey folks, what we have here is a Nazi-Schmazi! Well, I'm not a jew, so according to your rules I may go on bashing you if you go on using YouTube for your propaganda, right? And this I will do, so stop now, you obviously can't take it, Heulsuse.
@Tenkton You're right, you have no brain and thats why there is no sense in debating something with you. You immediately start with the insults because you have nothing intelligent to say. The propaganda is what Tom Lehrer and those like him are experts at. And morons like you are too stupid to realize it. This tune may be be from the 60's or 70's, but the anti-German hatred and propaganda is just as strong today. Not a day passes without mention of the holocaust.
@pgg804a The United States has built holocaust memorials in every state in the USA to an event that took place thousands of miles away in Europe. Two major memorials have been built in Wash DC and Los Angeles. The Jewish community has pushed and succeeded in this and even got the federal gov't to help pay for it. But not a single memorial for the 300 years of slavery the US imposed on blacks or the killing off of the American Indian.
@pgg804a If Germany were hypocrites the way the US is, they would ignore the holocaust and build memorials to the suffering of blacks in the USA under slavery.
65 years after the end of the war Jewish groups have kept discussion of the holocaust alive and active so its still discussed every day. This is to accrue sympathy and impose guilt on others so they can extract money from Europe and Israel can commit murder without being criticized. But the gig is up and people are finally reacting.
@Tenkton The Jewish scholar Norman Finkelstein has written extensively on this. He coined the term the "Holocaust Industry" and its now recognized as fact. But you're so ignorant you don't know that.
There is no sense in arguing with a moron like you, because you have no knowledge on the subject, but you think you know everything. I'm done arguing with you, because you're an idiot and incapable of understanding until you open your closed, bigoted mind.
@pgg804a: Well, that went better as expected and much quicker also - thank you! These comments are so revealing I don't have to comment anything more.
Keeping Gaza isolated and blockaded is aggressive and cruel. Returning rocket fire with 10x the force is neither measured nor evolved. There's a place for defense, but it looks like Israel is provoking it's neighbors into a first strike so that it can justify its retribution to the west.
@mbucari1 Of course, that is what anyone would say who only listens to the general propaganda that western people and jews are pigs and monkeys right?
I'm not sure what you're trying to say. If you're affirming my statement then good man! if it's somehow a sarcastic rebuke then please expound upon your views.
@mbucari1 expanding ones knowledge is better than to ask one to expound facts that can be seen as a ''view'' but altogether lead to a less p.c. and more realistic conclusion.
So what you're saying is I should do more research to explain your comment? I've made it clear what the Israeli-Palestinian situation looks like to me, but you haven't given a rebuttal or a differing viewpoint. Try ignore the rhetoric and explain to me how the Israelis are the victims.
How very astute. However, I don't think that's what you intended to say in your first, inarticulate response. It sounds like you disagree, would you like to engage in a dialogue or did you only want to point out that what I said was an opinion? If all you wanted to do was make clear that it was "my viewpoint", then there are much more tactful ways of doing that than your straw man. Really, accusing me of thinking that "jews are pigs and monkeys"? Be a little more thoughtful.
@mbucari1 Rabid antisemites who forget that there is such a thing as propaganda tend to be frustrated unschooled whites and illiterate arabs. Be a little more astute.
Please learn to wright. I sense you're trying to express a thought, but it's obfuscated by rage. And remember, condemning Israel's actions isn't antisemitism. Only a moron would conflate the two. Blind support of anything is unhealthy.
I'm finished with you. Keep on praising the state. I usually know better than to argue with someone on the internet (especially someone who can't form sentences), but I ignored my personal rule. signing off.
@rocksparadox I don't want to get into your argument, but it seems that he meant "write", not "right" because you can't learn to "right" since "right" is an adjective
U.S government knew exactly that their technology was far behind the Germans, so the only reaction to profit from the war was stealing the technologie and the inventors so they can print their US Flags on it.
Was Wernher von Braun a bad guy?
A scientist who only cares for his or her research is a fool. Scientists who know their work is to be used for evil yet willingly continue are themselves, by definition, evil.
ianphiliphodge 4 days ago
"und I'm learning Chinese, says Werner von Braun!" Man, not only was he funny, but he has a remarkable ability to see into the future it would seem.
UnshavenStatue 1 week ago
So why are London pensioners indebted to Werner von Braun?
TnseWlms 2 weeks ago
@TnseWlms von Braun pioneered the Nazi V1 and V2 rockets which were used to bomb London during WWII
britboyal 1 week ago
@TnseWlms cause his V2's crippled or killed them
UnwantedStudios3 2 days ago
Von Braun is still part of the public conscious and will stay so long after Lehrer is long dead and forgotten. Von Braun has left humanity an enormous legacy through his contributions to space flight. Unfortunately, Von Braun was born into a Germany in turmoil and became involved in his profession where he had little power to dictate where his work would be used. For Lehrer to take a cheap shot at him in this song really only diminishes Lehrer who I had long forgotten until I saw this
Goatie65 3 weeks ago
And all of you above don't need to "sell" the genius that is Tom Lehrer! I am so old that I grew up with him and my father owns both of the Tom Lehrer songbooks. Continue to share his social criticism but stop trying to make money from his contribution to society. Though I love pigeons, that I mainly meet in Italy, I would really like to poison you, whoever you are.
VivaRenata 1 month ago
@VivaRenata haha I'm only 16 darling ;) although. People do tell me i'm an old soul <3
Undeadjester410 1 month ago
Tom Lehrer is only jealous at the technical & scientific skills of Wernher von Braun ;)
ichmalealsobinich 1 month ago
It is worth noting that Tom Lehrer was all about the comedic value, not necessarily accuracy. Another case where he frankly didn't care for the facts was the song about Nicholai Lobachevsky.
That said, he was still very funny.
jakebrodskype 2 months ago
Reminds me of Georg Kreisler! :) (RIP, November 2011). Love this humor. They are both the intellectual parents of Seinfeld's Larry David, in my humble upstate New York opinion. :) Danke! - Larry
nysengineer 2 months ago
I think von Braun was just 100% scientist all he cared about was his research. He was passioned about his work and didnt care about politics.
Wurto 2 months ago
@Wurto Im impressed over people like you that can have an opinion about something you obviously know nothing about.
TheFelixalexander 1 month ago
Tom Lehrer is honestly the most influential person in my life. I aspire to be like him.
macandease 2 months ago
wernher was actually arrested by the gustapo (nazi secret police) for not being dedicated enough to the development of the V-2 bombs. Wernher was always more interested in space travel than bombs and i dont think the guy singning this song knew that much about him.
Xenphenik 2 months ago
@Xenphenik ..WHen you go as far back as Tom Lerher I'm sure they didnt know alot of things.. You know.. Cause its pretty damn old.
Undeadjester410 1 month ago
@Undeadjester410 Mortacci tuo, vecchio stronzo ....
VivaRenata 1 month ago
Albert Speer 20 years in jai because are Nazi ¿Wernher von Braun?
elsesinaloa 2 months ago
It just occured to me, Lehrer is (artistically at least) Weird Al's grand-daddy.
AmericanAviator 2 months ago 2
hihi meine brüste wachsen
VickeyDonaldbg643 3 months ago
Werner von Braun was a genius, not this wimp
abex701 3 months ago
@abex701 I'm sorry, is the song beyond your understanding?
AntiChristAntiFail 3 months ago
@abex701 exactly.
00asha00 2 months ago
@abex701 Von Braun was a genius - pity he used his smarts to design Scud missiles for the Nazis.
If you listen to the lyrics you'll notice that Lehrer (a genius) is not questioning von Braun's intelligence, but his ethics and morals.
annecm1 2 months ago
@annecm1 He made the V-2s not the Scud rockets, those were made by the Soviet Union based off the V-2s.
orangebiggy 2 months ago
@orangebiggy Indeed.
I was trying to frame the argument in terms that abex701 would understand and I was assuming that his/her/its knowledge of history probably didn't encompass WWII-era terminology, but would (or at least might) extend back as far as the Gulf War
annecm1 2 months ago
why dont songs like this appear on MTV?
martyn580 3 months ago 10
so, marval comics civil war series brought me here.
xProgenituSx 4 months ago
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BobRoberts1st 4 months ago
You had to join the nazi's during that time. Or try to escape the country.
jxsilicon9 4 months ago
so wie geil hab 3 brüste
StellaArnitasg403 4 months ago
Seriously! What in all creation is worth denigrating Tom Leher's genius in making wonderful comedic lyrics that go brilliantly with his amusing music? Get a life AND a sense of humor!!!
SuperAgnosticMan 4 months ago 2
Asshole should have hung
eldictator1 4 months ago
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BobRoberts1st 4 months ago
@eldictator1 You should not use language like that when you are a right-wing dictator type like your hero from WW2. and we all know what you are. PS if this is removed the statement I am remarking about MUST BE REMOVED as it is advocating violence!!!!!!!!!
BobRoberts1st 4 months ago
"I aim at the stars, but sometimes I hit London" Von Braun
Schmitty39 4 months ago
/wiki/Operation_Paperclip
Academician100 4 months ago
Real Time with Bill Maher brought me here.
Aldridge517 5 months ago 2
Brilliant.
Sliptodance 6 months ago
Tom Lehrer is a genuis, there is nothing wrong with him. He was very brave as he spoke the truth! If you don't like it, don't listen! Go and listen to Britney Spears!
TheBimbo101 6 months ago
I love how Leherer is German for teacher.
FourManArmyHD 6 months ago 2
It's funny. We take the top Nazi scientist, and make him take us to the Moon. It's like one last "fuck you" to Hitler.
thenutintheushanka18 7 months ago
Michael Neufeld stated it best by noting that... " it is comforting to pigeon hole him as either white or black, because then one does not have to deal with his ambiguity and complexity, or the ambiguity and complexity of the moral and political choices offered to scientists and engineers in the modern era. One thing is, however, clear: the foundation of his remarkable career as an engineer manager and space visionary was his romantic ambition to explore space, if possible personally.
clapp62 7 months ago 4
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Fuck all the humanity based on the white supremacy... Mr Tom Lehrer you can go to hell.
Chuck6360 8 months ago
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Whatever who cares WW2 isn't even an event that really happened... WW2=Hoax
Chuck6360 8 months ago
@Chuck6360 Hurr, Durr....
Cool story bro, you mad, you sniffing glue ?
rocksparadox 7 months ago
so mjeshaw your logic is the lifes of French workers abused by the germans are more important that the lifes of the civilian people killed in Nuclear Bombing in Nagasaki? Wow What a revelation!!! Hail the White Supremacy!!!! Tom Lehrer is a fucking Racist...Also all of the Allied Soldiers and German Soldiers Wish there is a hell waiting for the dead soldiers from Both Sides and Burn in Hell to Ashes...
Chuck6360 8 months ago
kukuku!
multentlava 8 months ago
That Was the Wit That Was. A genius.
jamesefarkas 8 months ago 34
@jamesefarkas, loved your comment, love word plays. Tom Lehrer is still witty, but now as a very private person, not a comedian, singer/songwriter and performer :-)
6funswede 8 months ago 6
@6funswede
yeah, Tom Lehrer no longer thinks he has what it takes to be a pundit in today's world. If Tom Lehrer reads this, prove me wrong. One time thing, lampoon someone :D
zacharymullin 6 months ago
@jamesefarkas That was a Man with a Dream!
deeppurple28 3 weeks ago
ethics are the enemy of science
kmav81 8 months ago
@kmav81 so damn true
Colton5 8 months ago
@gaspode18 Look, the guy's a scientist, not a war criminal. And whatever contribution he had to give to the German war effort, anyone would have done as much in his stead. Alfred Nobel invented and manufactured dynamite which was used to kill countless people, and he gets to be a hero ; Von Braun gets Mankind to the moon and turns out to be a loathed pariah: don't you think that's a little bit unfair?
radia333 8 months ago
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HenryLuettapv297 8 months ago 57
I don't think that 6funswede is Tom Lehrer. I think that he is his son.
Lamovec 8 months ago 8
@Lamovec, no way! Lehrer is NOT stupid, he is a very clever man :-)
6funswede 8 months ago
@6funswede Oh, he could have been an advisor of US president, indeed ;)
Lamovec 8 months ago
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LawrenceSimpson 7 months ago
Not knocking Lehrer, but perhaps he should be accusing America of being hypocritical not von Braun. It was the US afterall that decided he was more important than the crimes he committed.
smoog 8 months ago
For me, Werner Von Braun was a horribly ambitious man who did anything to make his dream come true(put the man on the age of space exploration). Anyway, i find it very scary that he was one of the scientists(Sergei Korolev,Goddard,Tsiolkofsky) who helped us to expand our technology and the knowledge about the space. Even if his morality was rotten, we can't deny his achievements.
Chuck6360 9 months ago
Furthermore, the atomic bomb invented by the american scientists killed much more people than the V2 rocket. I will be very surprised if there was a criticism on the moral of the american scientists who participated in "Manhattan project". But, i can't see single person criticizing about the "manhattan project". Werner Von Braun was a genius but not an angel. Like Oliver Stone said "Not Everything is Black or white, the world is grey".
Chuck6360 9 months ago
@Chuck6360 - The Manhattan project didn't use slave labour . Von Braun was fully aware of conditions at Nordhausen and the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp but had no qualms about it then. "Prisoners were treated with extreme cruelty, causing illness, injuries and deaths. Examples include severe beatings that permanently disabled and/or disfigured the victims, deliberate and life-threatening starvation, physical and mental torture as well as summary execution under the smallest pretext."
mjeshaw 8 months ago
We criticize Werner Von braun for inventing V2 rocket during the world war 2 for nazi germany. But it is very strange that we don't do the same thing with the american scientists who invented Atomic Bomb. Yes, Werner von braun was in SS but he didn't have a choice because god damn nazis threatened him to make his ass stuck in SS. If he refused to do so, this crazy fascists would have killed him including every scientists in his team.
Chuck6360 9 months ago
is he german or jewish?
flowiepanda 9 months ago
lol i love this. working on a project that includes operation paperclip in ww2. very funny
flowiepanda 9 months ago
This has got to be the meanest song ever - if I were von Braun I'd sew that smart ass big time!
radia333 9 months ago
@radia333 Why? Its all true. That little shit Von Braun was responsible for 6,184 people killed by V1s, 17,981 seriously injured and maimed 2,754 killed by V-2s with another 6,523 injured. Most of them civilians.
AND HE FUCKING GOT AWAY WITH IT.
Fuck him. I hope there IS a hell just so the cunt burns for etirnity.
gaspode18 8 months ago
@gaspode18 - Scientists on both sides were working on weapons which resulted both directly and indirectly in thousands of civilian deaths. The difference is that the V2 was built with slave labour, including thousands of skilled French workers transported to the V2 plant at Nordhausen. Thousands more people were killed building the V2 than were killed by it's use. They were beaten, starved and summarily executed on the least pretext. Von Braun knew this but had no qualms about it at the time.
mjeshaw 8 months ago
@mjeshaw
Pff. What do you expect? Him to go up to the Führerbunker and complain? File a nice little appeal at Freisler's Volksgerichthof?
People that demand that obviously have no idea of that time, neither of the Reich, nor of its security apparatus (Gestapo, SS, SD, and so on) - either that, or they're just plain stupid.
Nice song of Lehrer, though. He's got pepp.
AustrianChaos 7 months ago
@gaspode18 First of all you need to get your facts straight -- von Braun had nothing to do with the V1; the V1 competed for resources with the V2. As far as the allied casualties due to the V2 are concerned, it is a morally grey area -- if you are to condemn von Braun for the V2, then you must condemn Oppenheimer for the A-bombs used in Japan and everyone in the supply and delivery chain for both -- that is the nature of 20th century, technological war.
ghrich83 4 months ago
He's learning chinese....... Tom Lehrer managed to foreshadow the rise of china several decades advance.
NotAnyoneSpecial 9 months ago 68
@NotAnyoneSpecial, you are right and of course this will be one of my favorite comments.
6funswede 9 months ago 5
@NotAnyoneSpecial
So true!
InVlaanderensVelden 9 months ago
He was ''brilliant mind, concealed in silence''
He wasn't one of these braindead nazis, he surrended to US when he saw that war was going wrong. Yes, he was in ss, but he was a scientist, not soldier nor politician and US needed him. He would take side with anyone, who would keep his science going and fund it, because that was what he cared about mostly of all.
And, about bombing of London, Von Braun said ''Rocket worked fine, but it landed on wrong planet''.
Lamovec 9 months ago
never trust an american
Myrna4Loy 10 months ago
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moralizing twat
bluecliff03 10 months ago
moralizing twatt
bluecliff03 10 months ago
@bluecliff03 get bent
jjj1951 9 months ago
Whether Braun was Nazi or not was not really what Lehrer was attacking. His target is surely the US government for its lack of scruples in whom it hired to achieve its short-term goals, with no regard to the morality to which it aspires in its constitution. He does have a side-swipe at Braun: but for his morals not his politics - "where they come down is not my department". Having said that, what would you have done, with people terrified of Russki nukes in space?
JohnMuir29 10 months ago 2
@joaormedeiros just because you were a Nazi in those times doesn't mean you actually did anything to people, and also, at that point it was either join or go to a death camp. Which would you prefer nmh?
EsplodingBomb 10 months ago
I could totally see Adam Sandlers portraying Tom Lehrer in some biography movie drama.
spiralcosmosart 11 months ago
kyle der Deutsch liebt diesen Song! ha ha ich spreche Deutsch
wowspartan11 11 months ago
why are you people defending a fcking nazi?
joaormedeiros 11 months ago
@joaormedeiros Nazis are good people.
DoctorRainbow8321 10 months ago
@joaormedeiros Nazi Shmazi.
RaptorLlama 10 months ago 3
if von braun worked slave workers to death, washington dc worked von braun to death.
macbolan00 11 months ago
A very capable and focussed scientist, but did his dedication to rocketry blind him to what was going on in the factories mass producing his rockets? If he did, at any time, raise objections with his Nazi masters, this fact seems to have escaped history
crocfme 11 months ago
@crocfme
He did better than Korolev still, who believed that the Soviet regime was benevolent not making objections to it. Despite that position he was imprisoned and forced to work for free, eventually dying of sequellae - poor and vilified by the Soviet space programme successor.
I'll take WfB side any day.
vetromaster 10 months ago
Tom Lehrer is a genius. I as in the Army in 1966 and Gerry Goodstein gave me a tape of That Was The Year That Was -- audio from a 1965 David Frost TV show. It reoriented my standards on satire.
Lehrer has few CDs -- three I can think of. But they are indispensable for any bright American -- Canadian, too -- since a powerful country does the bull in a china shop thing -- all with good intentions. (I listen to Canadian Broadcasting Corporation a lot particularly for that reason).
lskarin 11 months ago
von braun worked camp prisoners to death, didn't feed them. that kind of focus deserves a smile .. just under his chin, from ear to ear
howlingsandy 1 year ago
А это конец:
"Мне делать ракеты приятно, привычно.
Могу я сработать для всех их отлично. Попросят китайцы - пожалуйста, братцы! Ведь мне не впервой за подобное браться!"
Tolianchig 1 year ago
Tolianchig 1 year ago
russians used native talent to create something useful, satellites. Americans used nazis to showcase their might and land on the moon. that's pretty pathetics.
MustLovePoop 1 year ago
@MustLovePoop
As far as i know the russians took many scientists too. They were just not so famous as Wernher von Braun
Kerensky234 1 year ago
Heh, I always had a strange form of admiration for Wernher von Braun and people like him. To be able to focus all your efforts into one goal like that and without any doubts or second thoughts. He loved rockets, and would be willing to work for anyone and do anything to be able to continue to work on his beloved rockets. Yes, I have a strange form of admiration for that complete focus.
meanmanturbo 1 year ago
I'm willing to bet this Jewish fellow never composed any ditties against Oppenheimer or Teller.
FreeVonHelton 1 year ago
@FreeVonHelton
Fucking sattire, how does it work.
You understand the meaning of sattire, right?
KittyRokher 1 year ago
@KittyRokher Yes, and it's spelled satire. Fucking spelling! how does it work?
FreeVonHelton 1 year ago
@FreeVonHelton
Well, you seem to understand spelling, but certainly not satire. Also, why didn't my spell check say that sattire was spelled incorrectly?
KittyRokher 1 year ago
@FreeVonHelton they weren't nazis.
dawoool 1 year ago
Noting should be more suspicious than Nazi's being welcomed by a Jewish controlled Hollywood.
eyewitness043 1 year ago
cooles video hab heute n einsamkeits anfall
whoareiamyou 1 year ago
This Jew is just pissed off because he made his kind work. Jews hate work.
2rocker4life 1 year ago
@2rocker4life
You're a fundamentalist, ignorant, piece of shit. In all seriousness, I hope you, your entire family, and your next of kin dies in a fire, but only after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
KittyRokher 1 year ago
@KittyRokher I feel sorry that you are such an evil person that has to project his hate on his Zionist brothers, the fundamentalists. You've seen how God has shown his wrath upon the reprobate Jews, and if you goyim dupes continue to support their exploitation and murder I don't think you'll fair any better.
I love you, but I'll be content with God's judgment if you don't repent. God bless!(:
2rocker4life 1 year ago
@2rocker4life pleas tell me your just hate trolling bc your bored and not mean it?
TonPappa 1 year ago
@TonPappa That Jews exploit the labor of their neighboring Goyim rather than being self-sufficient? Yes, I'm completely serious.
2rocker4life 1 year ago
Hi, I'm German and this "Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department, says Werner von Braun" is really brilliant.
The point here is how scientist or engineers face their work. Be honest and think about yourself: How many people might you have killed currently and how many will you kill?
It is not that rockets that bombed London, it was not Second World War II, it is - in the end - that many of us spend time on thinking about how to kill.
GreifDich 1 year ago 2
Hi, I'm German and this "Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department, says Werner von Braun" is really brilliant.
The point here is how scientist or engineers face their work. Be honest and think about yourself: How many people might you have killed currently and how many will you kill?
It is not that rockets that bombed London, it was not Second World War II, it is - in the end - that many of us spend time on thinking about how to kill.
GreifDich 1 year ago
"Once ze rockets are up, who cares where zey comes down, zats not my department", says Wernher von Braun. I lol'd at this =)
MrSnufselufsen 1 year ago 4
I think Frank Zappa was influenced by Tom Lehrer before he aimed it at the 'hip' generation. I'd love to be on a pub crawl with those two!! We had something similar this side of the pond musically with Flanders and Swann but the stiff old BBC would never have let them get away with this.
pykkervots 1 year ago
1:19 "U2 may be a big hero..." >_<
1nown 1 year ago
Tom Lehrer was black-listed for this song and his general tone....too bad he wasn't more widely accepted by the military industrial complex! LOL We might live in a slightly nicer world?! who knows
Spartreeman 1 year ago
In the 1960's Von Braun wrote an autobiography called "I Aim For The Stars". The joke at the time was it should have been subtitled "But Sometimes I Hit London".
MegaObserver1 1 year ago 5
baha i did a research report for U.S government on von braun. im gona download this song to my ipod and show my teacher.
EatMyButtCheese 1 year ago
I love the last line "he's learning Chinese" as if Von Braun's loyalty to America was questionable. It reminds me of all the bankers, stock brokers, and merchantile class who are falling over each other to learn Chinese the second that American industry shows cracks. Loyalty is often expediant, and the world is full of hypocrites.
Ultimately Werner Von Braun was the greatest scientist of the 20th century, if material accomplishment alone is the measure of success.
CHAS1422 1 year ago
Nazi shmazi!
historygenius 1 year ago
Tom Lehrer was kinda hot.
arolindsay 1 year ago 3
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111WLee 1 year ago
kinda rascis to the germans of WW2 but it had a good tune i give it a middle thumb
deathbger 1 year ago
@deathbger fair game, they started it !!
zzxxyy543 1 year ago
@zzxxyy543 no germany didnt started ww2 the britsh and the french started ww2 because they deciler war on germany
deathbger 1 year ago 2
@deathbger ha ha nice one! there was an ultimatum involving an invasion of Poland , remember ?? By not withdrawing, Hitler started it !
zzxxyy543 1 year ago
@zzxxyy543 yes but it was a polish war not a European war so the brits and french shouldn't get invald its was never about land it was all about how rich Poland was and how poor germany was after ww1 germany had all the god dame blame and all the dept they had push the german too far
deathbger 1 year ago
@deathbger and just ot make sure you are aware of what a complete bastard Hitler was from the beginiing of the war he started , look up the Gleiwitz incident on wikipedia.. one of the staged excuses to invade Poland. with Blitzkreig !
zzxxyy543 1 year ago
@zzxxyy543 yes i know but after ww1 germany had all the dame blame but they never started ww1 nor ww2 it was all the European country
deathbger 1 year ago
@deathbger So yo don't think Hitler would have then invaded France and Russia, Netherlands and tried to invade UK , then?
zzxxyy543 1 year ago
@zzxxyy543 no he would have but not all at once but he had no choose to attack after they had delcear war
deathbger 1 year ago
@deathbger The Soviet Union did not declare war on Germany they were taken by surprise...I am not going to argue with you further but what you have done is interest me into reading more on this for my benefit, I suggest you do as well!!
zzxxyy543 1 year ago
@zzxxyy543 yes i know but hitler all ways hated the USSR
deathbger 1 year ago
I love this song, and I admire Wernher von Braun.
MrTrenchcoatguy 1 year ago
Haha but seriously,
Google project paperclip.
Our government and American corporations have incorporated ex-nazis, or even worked with the third reich.
what's more :
Our governments have been co-opted by th' folks who set up the nazis. infowars.com.
Tailypoe777 1 year ago
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Tom Lehrer is Jewish of course so its not surprising that he would attack von Braun at the same time other Americans were welcoming von Braun's help. JFK met with von Braun too. Has Tom Lehrer written any songs about the Israeli massacre of 1,400 Palestinians at Gaza 2 years ago? How about the Israeli attack on the international flotilla bringing humanitarian supplies to the people of Gaza? Have any other jewish songwriters / satirists written such songs?
pgg804a 1 year ago
@pgg804a, I'm no sure about other Jewish songwriters. In 2003 Lehrer told The Sydney Morning Herald that he -- quote -- "couldn't do anything with the Israelis and the Palestinians "because I'm against everybody and I can't take a side". Born in 1928 in Manhattan, Lehrer grew up in a family that was Jewish but had "more to do with the delicatessen then the synagogue," he told Rhino Records. In his home, according to Lehrer, "God was primarily an expletive."
6funswede 1 year ago 41
@6funswede
That sounds like my family. Secular Jews.
Still, that being said, even if you renounce God as a Jew, it's tough to exit the Jewish mentality. And I wouldn't exit it for the world. :D
Mazel Tov.
MrTrenchcoatguy 9 months ago
@pgg804a eh, since Tom Lehrer stopped writing songs some 40 years ago, it would be sorta odd if his songs dealt with events from a few years ago ;)
Artaxerxes333 1 year ago 2
@pgg804a: Hello, is somebody home? Any brain there in that head of yours? Tom Lehrer is 82 now and hasn't written ANYTHING for years, but that's not the important point. Von Braun was an opportunistic scientist, and you don't have to be jewish to make fun of that. You can keep your Jew-bashing nonsense to yourself, and PLEASE: don't use the sufferings of the Palestinians for this pathetic polishing-up of your ego, that's simply disgusting, you should be ashamed of yourself.
Tenkton 1 year ago 4
This comment has received too many negative votes show
@Tenkton My comment stands. There is no jew-bashing, its just a fact stupid. Some people can dish out the criticism, but can't take any. If you're so sensitive I suggest you stay in your room by yourself. Because as long as Israel keeps murdering defenseless people, the criticism will keep coming.
You should stop your German bashing.
pgg804a 1 year ago
@pgg804a: Really no brain there! So Lehrer is a Jew. Of course this completely disqualifies him to criticize anyone except other Jews. Hey folks, what we have here is a Nazi-Schmazi! Well, I'm not a jew, so according to your rules I may go on bashing you if you go on using YouTube for your propaganda, right? And this I will do, so stop now, you obviously can't take it, Heulsuse.
Tenkton 1 year ago
@Tenkton You're right, you have no brain and thats why there is no sense in debating something with you. You immediately start with the insults because you have nothing intelligent to say. The propaganda is what Tom Lehrer and those like him are experts at. And morons like you are too stupid to realize it. This tune may be be from the 60's or 70's, but the anti-German hatred and propaganda is just as strong today. Not a day passes without mention of the holocaust.
pgg804a 1 year ago
@pgg804a The United States has built holocaust memorials in every state in the USA to an event that took place thousands of miles away in Europe. Two major memorials have been built in Wash DC and Los Angeles. The Jewish community has pushed and succeeded in this and even got the federal gov't to help pay for it. But not a single memorial for the 300 years of slavery the US imposed on blacks or the killing off of the American Indian.
pgg804a 1 year ago
@pgg804a If Germany were hypocrites the way the US is, they would ignore the holocaust and build memorials to the suffering of blacks in the USA under slavery.
65 years after the end of the war Jewish groups have kept discussion of the holocaust alive and active so its still discussed every day. This is to accrue sympathy and impose guilt on others so they can extract money from Europe and Israel can commit murder without being criticized. But the gig is up and people are finally reacting.
pgg804a 1 year ago
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pgg804a 1 year ago
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@Tenkton The Jewish scholar Norman Finkelstein has written extensively on this. He coined the term the "Holocaust Industry" and its now recognized as fact. But you're so ignorant you don't know that.
There is no sense in arguing with a moron like you, because you have no knowledge on the subject, but you think you know everything. I'm done arguing with you, because you're an idiot and incapable of understanding until you open your closed, bigoted mind.
pgg804a 1 year ago
@pgg804a: Well, that went better as expected and much quicker also - thank you! These comments are so revealing I don't have to comment anything more.
Tenkton 1 year ago
@pgg804a You're a moron. What the hell has this got to do with Gaza?
plevyman 1 year ago 6
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pgg804a 1 year ago
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@plevyman Your question proves that you are the moron. Idiot!
pgg804a 1 year ago
@pgg804a Why would you slander Israel for a song that has nothing to do with it?
Oh yeah this is decades old, and you start talking about maybe a thousand palestinians.
The fact that palestinian agression against Jews in the region started way before 1947 ( when Israel was founded)
shows that the hate has always been present in the jealous, underdeveloped minds of primitive people.
Israel needs to defend itself, against opponents who would show no mercy.
Anyone with a brain with do the same.
rocksparadox 7 months ago
@rocksparadox
Keeping Gaza isolated and blockaded is aggressive and cruel. Returning rocket fire with 10x the force is neither measured nor evolved. There's a place for defense, but it looks like Israel is provoking it's neighbors into a first strike so that it can justify its retribution to the west.
mbucari1 6 months ago
@mbucari1 Of course, that is what anyone would say who only listens to the general propaganda that western people and jews are pigs and monkeys right?
rocksparadox 6 months ago
@rocksparadox
I'm not sure what you're trying to say. If you're affirming my statement then good man! if it's somehow a sarcastic rebuke then please expound upon your views.
mbucari1 6 months ago
@mbucari1 expanding ones knowledge is better than to ask one to expound facts that can be seen as a ''view'' but altogether lead to a less p.c. and more realistic conclusion.
rocksparadox 6 months ago
@mbucari1
mbucari1 6 months ago
@rocksparadox
So what you're saying is I should do more research to explain your comment? I've made it clear what the Israeli-Palestinian situation looks like to me, but you haven't given a rebuttal or a differing viewpoint. Try ignore the rhetoric and explain to me how the Israelis are the victims.
mbucari1 6 months ago
@mbucari1 It's your viewpoint. period
rocksparadox 6 months ago
@rocksparadox
How very astute. However, I don't think that's what you intended to say in your first, inarticulate response. It sounds like you disagree, would you like to engage in a dialogue or did you only want to point out that what I said was an opinion? If all you wanted to do was make clear that it was "my viewpoint", then there are much more tactful ways of doing that than your straw man. Really, accusing me of thinking that "jews are pigs and monkeys"? Be a little more thoughtful.
mbucari1 6 months ago
@mbucari1 Rabid antisemites who forget that there is such a thing as propaganda tend to be frustrated unschooled whites and illiterate arabs. Be a little more astute.
rocksparadox 6 months ago
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mbucari1 6 months ago
@mbucari1 Anyway, you got schooled, I asked pgg WHY he had to bring up this Israel theme, and I didn't ask your troll ass anything...
rocksparadox 6 months ago
@rocksparadox
Please learn to wright. I sense you're trying to express a thought, but it's obfuscated by rage. And remember, condemning Israel's actions isn't antisemitism. Only a moron would conflate the two. Blind support of anything is unhealthy.
mbucari1 6 months ago
@mbucari1 Ah, you mean write ''right''
And there you just got educated again, the rage of which you speak must be accumulating in your impressive pedantic brain !
rocksparadox 6 months ago
@rocksparadox
I'm finished with you. Keep on praising the state. I usually know better than to argue with someone on the internet (especially someone who can't form sentences), but I ignored my personal rule. signing off.
mbucari1 6 months ago
@mbucari1 So you are going to stay adamant and in denial with the failure you just created.
You write basic words the wrong way, so I will not be wasting my time with someone who can't form sentences, let alone functional words.
You were not asked anything, you were not asked to meddle here.... yet you did... so you harvest/reap what you sow yourself.
rocksparadox 6 months ago
@rocksparadox I don't want to get into your argument, but it seems that he meant "write", not "right" because you can't learn to "right" since "right" is an adjective
eeg10 5 months ago
@eeg10 yeah, tell the other guy, Zweistein.
rocksparadox 5 months ago
@eeg10 Well to be pedantic "right" is an adjective, noun or adverb. It depends on how you use it I suppose,
BobRoberts1st 4 months ago
@BobRoberts1st Well, you get the point. It wouldn't make sense if you used the noun, or adverb form of right anyways.
eeg10 4 months ago
U.S government knew exactly that their technology was far behind the Germans, so the only reaction to profit from the war was stealing the technologie and the inventors so they can print their US Flags on it.
Wurto 1 year ago
I think Tom would appreciate ALL the comments showing up here. Thats the point to get people talking an issue! Bravo!
ormancam 1 year ago
He is like the original Tim Minchin - if you don't know him, check him out - hilarious, clever, intelligent, piano satire - he's all over YouTube.
BOGGLEO 1 year ago 8
@BOGGLEO, yes, of course I like Tim Minchin! Both he -- and many other musical satirists -- were inspired by Tom Lehrer's old comedy songs.
6funswede 1 year ago 10