Yuri Gagarin: German astronauts remember first man in space

Cosmonauts, astronauts and taikonauts. More than 500 people from various countries have been to space since Yuri Gagarin's historic first flight on April 12, 1961.  And space flights into Earth's orbit have since become routine since Gagarin's voyage 60 years ago. DW spoke with German astronauts about cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who died in 1968 during a training flight at the age of 34.

In the shadow of Neil Armstrong

"I didn't realize at all that Yuri Gagarin had gone into space," recalls German astronaut Gerhard Thiele.

"That was kept secret. Only when the flight was successfully completed did they go public with the big news." Thiele, who flew to space aboard the US space shuttle Endeavor in 2000, says he only has only vague memories of his parents talking about Gagarin's successful flight.

The German astronaut grew up in West Germany and his interest in space travel began in the mid-1960s, with US space flights. At the time, the US was "much more open" than the Soviet Union, the 67-year old says.

"What happened in the Soviet Union at the time, you always found out about afterward. Information in the [German] Federal Republic was much sparser," he recalls.

At some point, he says, there was a focus on cosmonaut Gagarin — but there was never as much awareness around him as astronaut Neil Armstrong, who became thefirst man to walk on the moon on July 21, 1969.

Reinhold Ewald had a similar experience. When Gagarin made the spectacular flight with the Vostok 1 spacecraft on April 12, 1961, Ewald was still a toddler and has hardly any memories of the historic moment.

What has stuck to his memory, however, is the first spacewalk made by cosmonaut Alexei Leonov in 1965. "That was the moment when I first understood that there were two streams: The Americans, who wanted to get near the moon with the Apollo program; and the successes of Russian spaceflight."

In East Germany, then part of the Soviet bloc, Yuri Gagarin was better known — and many streets in former East German states still commemorate the first man in space.

The same was true of the first East German cosmonaut, Sigmund Jähn, who flew into space in 1978. In the early 1990s, it was Jähn who accompanied astronaut Reinhold Ewald in Russia for his journey toward space. Ewald prepared there for his flight to the Russian space station "Mir," a voyage that took place in 1997 aboard the Soyuz Russian spacecraft. 

'Cosmic and comical'

Ewald, now 64 years old, remembers the mood of the crisis at the time, shortly before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He says employees at the control center had not received any money for weeks and they later hung up a poster: "Our task is cosmic, our payment is comical."

Ewald recalls that it was "very impressive."

For astronaut Gerhard Thiele, it wasn't until 2003 while preparing in Russia for a space flight as a substitute that he saw how Yuri Gagarin's legacy was being looked after.

"In the locker room, I looked directly at Yuri Gagarin's locker," recalls Thiele. There, he says, tennis rackets and sports gear belonging to the first cosmonaut were displayed behind a door made of Plexiglas.

"Whenever I sat down, I looked at Gagarin's locker. That's a special feeling, knowing you're in the same room and walking on the same floor tiles as Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space."

New generation reflects on legacy

Matthias Maurer, one of two active German astronauts, is currently preparing for his first flight into space. If all goes to plan, the 51-year-old will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in autumn aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft.

"Fortunately, when I prepare, I can draw on the experience of the more than 500 people who have been in space before me," Maurer says. "Gagarin couldn't."

The closer Maurer's launch approaches, the more respect he has for Gagarin's achievement. The German astronaut learned about Gagarin's legacy during his Russian lessons, which he took in preparation for his mission on the ISS. 

For German astronauts, Gagarin's fame has not faded after 60 years. "He is absolutely a hero," says Maurer.

'Almost reckless'

"Gagarin made me think of Christopher Columbus," says Thiele. He was "courageous" and "almost reckless," he says. "The technology had been so simple back then, it could have gone wrong."

Take, for example, Gagarin's nail-biting flight back to Earth. "The equipment module did not separate from the landing capsule. The capsule was dragging the module behind it and the balance was not right. It's only when the cables had melted through that the capsule was able to get into the correct position at the most difficult part," Thiele recalls.

"Neil Armstrong and Yuri Gagarin are two greats from spaceflight who will always be present," he says.

At the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, a bust commemorates the first cosmonaut.

"With this, we want to honor this achievement again and again. The first man in space, who was Yuri Gagarin," says Maurer. "That will remain forever." 

This article was translated from German.

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