A journalist and essayist, Jacques Ahrweiler is the author of this critical biography of Wernher von Braun, published by Seghers in 1972 in the current-affairs series « Événements ». Biographical information about him is scarce: neither his dates nor his career are documented in standard sources. His book is among the earliest French challenges to the von Braun myth, running counter to the heroic image then conferred on him by the Apollo program. In it he develops a reflection on the moral and political responsibility of the scientist, in a critical vein close to that of Michel Rouzé.