Johannes Winkler was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 rocket

Rocket

A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction...

 pioneer who founded the first German rocket society and launched the first successful liquid-fuelled rocket in Europe.

In 1915 during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, he joined the German army

German Army (German Empire)

The German Army was the name given the combined land forces of the German Empire, also known as the National Army , Imperial Army or Imperial German Army. The term "Deutsches Heer" is also used for the modern German Army, the land component of the German Bundeswehr...

 and was wounded in action the following year, leading to a lengthy hospitalisation. After his recovery, he studied as a machinist at the Danzig

Gdansk

Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...

 technical college and found a job at Junkers.

On July 5, 1927, he was one of the founders the Verein für Raumschiffahrt

Verein für Raumschiffahrt

The Verein für Raumschiffahrt was a German amateur rocket association prior to World War II that included members outside of Germany...

 (VfR - "Spaceflight Society"). He also was the society's first president and editor of the VfR's Die Rakete journal.

On March 14, 1931 at 4:45pm, he launched the Hückel-Winkler I (HW-I) at the Gross Kühnau drill field near Dessau

Dessau

Dessau is a town in Germany on the junction of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it is part of the merged town Dessau-Roßlau. Population of Dessau proper: 77,973 .-Geography:...

. According to his account, it was planned to reach an altitude of 500 meters, but it turned and flew horizontally, landing 200 meters from the pad. The maximum altitude of the rocket was not recorded. It was powered by liquid oxygen and liquid methane.

Eighteen months after the HW-I flight, Winkler launched the HW-II on October 6, 1932 in a public demonstration, which included invited officials from the Königsberg

Königsberg

Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945 as well as the northernmost and easternmost German city with 286,666 inhabitants . Due to the multicultural society in and around the city, there are several local names for it...

 council. Unfortunately, the rocket exploded within seconds of ignition because of a faulty fuel valve.

Winkler designed a number of other rockets and JATO

JATO

JATO is an acronym for jet-fuel assisted take off. It is a system for helping overloaded aircraft into the air by providing additional thrust in the form of small rockets....

units for Junkers and then a government aviation research institute, but none left the drawing board.