[Tony Kambic]

Wilhelm Raithel, 95, a former member of the team of engineers
led by Wernher von Braun to create the intercontinental ballistic
missile for the U. S. Army, died Nov. 15 in Maryland.
Wilhelm Raithel was born in Hoechst an der Nidder, a village in Germany.
He received a degree in civil engineering in 1936 and a doctorate in
engineering in 1944, both from the Institute of Technology in Darmstadt, Germany.

In 1936, he began his professional career as a civil engineer in Munich
for Philip Holzmann AG, a Frankfurt-based construction company.
During World War II, he was the chief of structures at the Peenemuende
Rocket Development Center in Germany, working on the development of the V-2 combat rocket used by the Germans during the war.

Dr. Raithel was recruited by the Army in 1947 to work with a
team led by von Braun to analyze and test V-2-type rockets.
In 1950, he moved with the team to Huntsville, Ala., as the
director of the Structures and Mechanics Laboratory of Redstone
Arsenal's Guided Missile Development Division. There, he helped
develop short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles,
including the Redstone and Jupiter.

He left the Army in 1956, accepting a position with General Electric
in Philadelphia to help create reentry vehicles for missiles,
satellites and warheads as part of a contract with the Air Force.
He also helped create communication, weather and spy satellites.