Conrad Haas (1509–1576) was an Austrian or

Transylvanian Saxon The Transylvanian Saxons (german: Siebenbürger Sachsen; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjer Såksen''; ro, Sași ardeleni, sași transilvăneni/transilvani; hu, Erdélyi szászok) are a people of German ethnicity who settled in Transylvania ...

military engineer Military engineering is loosely defined as the art, science, and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and military communications. Military engineers are also responsible for logistics ...

. He was a pioneer of rocket propulsion. His designs include a three-stage rocket and a manned rocket. Haas was perhaps born in Dornbach (now part of Hernals,

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

). He held the post of the ''Zeugwart'' (arsenal master) of the Imperial Habsburg army under Ferdinand I. In 1551,

Stephen Báthory Stephen Báthory ( hu, Báthory István; pl, Stefan Batory; ; 27 September 1533 – 12 December 1586) was Voivode of Transylvania (1571–1576), Prince of Transylvania (1576–1586), King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (1576–1586) ...

, the grand prince of

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the A ...

invited Haas to Nagyszeben (german: Hermannstadt),

Eastern Hungarian Kingdom The Eastern Hungarian Kingdom ( hu, keleti Magyar Királyság) is a modern term coined by some historians to designate the realm of John Zápolya and his son John Sigismund Zápolya, who contested the claims of the House of Habsburg to rule th ...

(now

Sibiu Sibiu ( , , german: link=no, Hermannstadt , la, Cibinium, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'', hu, Nagyszeben ) is a city in Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Ci ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

), where he acted as weapons engineer and also he started to teach at

Klausenburg ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Status , subdivision_name2 = County seat , settlement_type = City , le ...

(now

Cluj-Napoca ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = Counties of Romania, County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Subdivisions of Romania, Status , subdivision_name2 ...

). He wrote a German-language treatise on rocket technology, involving the combination of

fireworks Fireworks are a class of low explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large number of devices ...

and weapons technologies. This manuscript was discovered in 1961, in the Sibiu public records (Sibiu public records ''Varia II 374''). His work also dealt with the theory of motion of multi-stage rockets, different fuel mixtures using liquid fuel, and introduced delta-shape fins and bell-shaped

nozzle A nozzle is a device designed to control the direction or characteristics of a fluid flow (specially to increase velocity) as it exits (or enters) an enclosed chamber or pipe. A nozzle is often a pipe or tube of varying cross sectional area, ...

s. In the last paragraph of his chapter on the military use of rockets, he wrote (translated):

"But my advice is for more peace and no war, leaving the rifles calmly in storage, so the bullet is not fired, the gunpowder is not burned or wet, so the prince keeps his money, the arsenal master his life; that is the advice Conrad Haas gives."

Johann Schmidlap, a German fireworks maker, is believed to have experimented with staging in 1590, using a design he called "step rockets." Before the discovery of Haas' manuscript, the first description of the three-stage rocket was credited to the artillery specialist Casimir Siemienowicz, from the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...

, in his 1650 work, ''Artis Magnae Artilleriae Pars Prima'' ("Great Art of Artillery, Part One").

References

*
"Erstlich schöne Racketten mancherley Art"

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...

, 30 December 2009, Richard Friebe
''Conrad Haas in: Austrian Space and Rocket Pioneers''. Text by B. Besser, painting by G.Deutsch.
* "The History of Manned Space Flight" - David Baker, Ph.D. - Crown Publishers, Inc, 1982, pp. 8-13 * "Conrad Haas oder Das Spiel mit dem Feuer", a film by Frieder Schuller, 1984 * * Doru Todericiu: Preistoria rachetei moderne. Manuscrisul de la Sibiu 1529 - 1569, Editura Academiei RSR, Bucureşti, 1969 * Doru Todericiu: Preistoria rachetei moderne. Manuscrisul de la Sibiu 1529 - 1569, Editura Academiei, Bucureşti, 2008 *Doru Todericiu, 'Raketentechnik im 16. Jahrhundert', ''Technikgeschichte'' 34.2 (1967), 97–114 {{DEFAULTSORT:Haas, Conrad 16th-century Austrian people Austrian scientists Austrian soldiers Austrian military engineers Rocket scientists Early rocketry 16th-century people of the Holy Roman Empire Transylvanian-Saxon people People from Hernals People from Sibiu 1509 births 1576 deaths