Otto Willi Gail
From The Space Library
 Otto Willi Gail ca. 1928 | |
| Birth Name | Otto Willi Gail |
|---|---|
| Birth Date | Jul 18 1896 |
| Birth Place | Gunzenhausen Germany |
| Date of Death | Mar 29 1956 |
| Place of Death | Munich Germany |
| Occupation | Author, Engineer |
| Nationality | German |
| Notable Works | Der Schuß ins All, |
Otto Willi Gail was an author and popularizer of space travel in the 1920s and 1930s in Germany. He was educated in Augsburg and was an artillery officer in the First World War. He studied electrical engineering and mathematics at the Munich Technical University. For economic reasons, he was unable to pursue a profession commensurate with his studies. He became a merchant, traded in typewriters, lumber, and founded his own company, which did not survive the Great Depression and went bankrupt in 1924. He moved into the country with his wife and child, his last means melting away, and in dire straits, literally starving, he wrote his first novel "Shot in Space" in the autumn of 1924. The book was a great success and started his career as a writer.
In the later 1920s he became interested in rocketry and joined the VfR. He capitalized on the experimental rocket work done by his friend Max Valier and the writings of Hermann Oberth. He worked with the German movie maker Erich Menzel and wrote the screenplay for the movie Griff nach dem Atom in 1949. Later that year he wrote the first draft of the animated documentary Raketen im Weltraum which featured a space station with artificial gravity provided by spinning rotation. The movie would not be completed until 1958 by which time Gail was dead and his name had been removed from the credits. Several of his stories were published in English in American science fiction magazines.
Novels
- Der Schuß ins All (1925) (The Shot into Infinity)
- Der Stein vom Mond (1926) (The Stone From the Moon)
- Hans Hardts Mondfahrt (1928) (By Rocket to the Moon)
- Die blaue Kugel (1929)
- Der Herr der Wellen (1949)
Non-fiction books
- Mit Raketenkraft ins Weltenall (1928)
- Wir plaudern uns durch die Physik (1931)
- Der Griff nach dem Atom (1947)
- Ebbe und Flut (1947)
- Physik der Weltraumfahrt (1948)
- Was weißt du von der Welt? (1947)
Books by Otto Willi Gail
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