Big Question
Starting off from the biggest breakthrough, if one checks their wallet if they are over 18, there is an almost absolute chance that inside is a type of card. Whatever it is. Driver's license, credit card, debit card, Costco membership, they all came the original concept. Helmut Grottrup's concept. As he worked in Giesecke & Devrient, a company well known for its banking and securities printings, he wanted to make the whole thing easier and more efficient to work with. For the community, he set off with the little knowledge that he knew of technology and partnered with Dethloff, who would speed up the process of making the first smart card. It all started in 1968, when the card was first made, though it was only truly patented by Helmut in 1982. But at once it proved useful. In 1983, the mass use of the smart card by the French in the payphone crisis. This was the peak of his notability. Under my definition of notable-an act leading to something bigger, as in this case was the leading on to the mass introduction of future payment and credentials. Here, this was the doorway leading on to membership cards, credit and debit cards, Driver's Licenses and much more. These were all leading on from the design Helmut Grottrup designed with Jurgen Dethloff. He did this after his stay in Russia-which ended with an argument on future goals. This can relate to Steve Jobs with Apple, how he was fired because he saw the company and its goals different to his companion.
The biggest reason he set out to create the smart card was related to the company he was in. Giesecke & Devrient. Giesecke & Devrient was and still is a banking and security company stationed in Munich-Germany. Either of his own interest or the interest of the company, and since Helmut Grottrup was the brightest mind they had, he was set out to create a better way to bank and help in efficiency.
Yet even when he and Jurgen finally succeeded in 1968, the concept was taken and patented for by other people. In 1974, French inventor Roland Moreno patented the memory card concept which Helmut had invented. Then in 1977 Michael Bull, following Helmut and Jurgen, developed the first microprocessor smart card.
Winding backwards, we see him taken to Russia after Germany loses WW2. He was taken and put head of the 170 Germans who travelled to Russia to develop rockets. This was the period in the earliest stages of the space race-when each superpower took home a new number of German scientists. It was here that Helmut tried to remake the weapon which Germany used to bomb England-the V2 rocket. Including this was the first rocket-the V1 series. Then, part of the ultimate plan to win the war, there was the unfinished V3 rockets which would have taken a few more years to build so remained unfinished. All these rocket mechanics and parts, along with tips and structures, were all written down in Werner von Braun's journal or diary. Both of these were burnt in the fires the Americans put up to burn the equipment they could not take along with them so the Russians could not reach the equipment and beat America in whatever was to come. Yet with all the materials destroyed when the Americans came and pillaged Germany, Helmut had to start off with nothing but his memory on his part of the work with Werner von Braun. He would design in the 1-2 years of stay in Russia, the G- series instead of the V- series. These included the G1 all the way to the G4. Though these ideas were never mechanicalized, it did set the much needed foundation of the rocket in the space race. Including the shuttle which launched Sputnik.
There, he met the director of the Germans. A man known widely as Sergei Korolev. Sergei Korolev was the supposed founder of the Russian space program and under his time helped with his number of workers to create Sputnik one, the first satellite, to create the first rocket to softly land on the moon and the rocket which would send the first human-Yuri Gagarin, into space. This would all be under the help of Germans as Helmut Grottrup had not entirely left the Russian space program until the early 1950s.
Sadly, his journey in Russia ended in a dispute between the main overseer of the Germans-Sergei Korolev and himself when discussing the future of the rocket plans. Helmut resigned from his post as director of the German scientists instead of being fired by the head. This dispute was of where the rocket designs would go towards and what was in for the Germans. Yet still, he retaliated relentlessly to make up for his loss and build the concept of the world's first known smart card.
To see his true heritage, we wind the clock back even more to the start of the crescendo to the peak of his achievements. Helmut Grottrup was born to Johann and Therese Grottrup. Helmut acquired his career and passion of engineering from his father-who was a mechanical engineer in the company Bund der technischen Angestellten und Beamten-otherwise known as BUTAB. Helmut Grottrup was born admist WW1 and so had many of the attributes to be a German officer. In WW2, his chance came. He was promoted during his time to officer and worked as an engineer. In the midst of world war 2, Helmut Grottrup worked under the prized engineer Werner von Braun. Who later joined the Americans to send the first American into space and the first Americans to land on the moon. Werner von Braun would design the rockets wanted and sketch each detail down in his notebook. It was here where engineers like Helmut Grottrup would put together the design-asking for changes and tweaking the rocket. The first new rocket made, tested and fired in WW2 was the V2 rocket. In 1942, the rocket was launched off a nearby peninsula and traveled 118 miles. This bomb was also later used in the bombings of London and proved fatal. In June 1944, the V1 rocket was made and was also used for the same purpose. Bombing London. This was merely a week after D-Day.
At the time WWII finished, the V3 project was still underway and had to be destroyed. The Americans came in late 1945 to early 1946. The Americans had launched a worldwide project known as Operation Paperclip. The U.S. pentagon had intel on all types of German scientists, engineers and technicians and they spread out to find all the ones they could. Though they never got their hands on Helmut Grottrup. 1600 Germans were taken to work in America's space industry NASA. Along with them were needed materials, parts and intel. The equipment that was too big to be taken or deemed useless were hidden, destroyed and burnt. The drafts of the V- rockets along with them. When the Russians came, they only found a handful of German scientists compared to NASA, along with no equipment to take. This was the starting point to Helmut's stay in Russia. The passage took a number of days and the 170 Germans including Helmut were taken to Russia by trains. This would take them to a deserted town free of citizens and pedestrians so no information was leaked to the opposition- America.
All the relatives of the 170 scientists coming to Russia would come. These were direct family living in Germany, as no letters could be written. This was different for the Germans going to Russia, as since there were too many of them, the Americans could not afford to take in the families too. In Russia, each family would be assigned to a room near or in the workshop. Most of the Germans would work in one room, with a messenger to discuss with the Russian engineers, technicians and scientists There, it would be much more collaborative. Helmut was put as head and manager of the 170 Germans including himself as he was by far the most successful and brightest thinker the Russians had. At the end of every day or two, Sergei Korolev would come to check in to see how everything was going and discuss changes and better alternatives.
Along his life, he was a man powered by determination and purpose. He wanted to be like his father or even better. His achievements were all from hard work with a tinge of luck inherited from his father's side. The care of his parents imprinted a scar in his heart and so he worked to make up for what they gave for him.
His determination to make up something he lost really inspired me. You only need a spark to start a bonfire. In this case, the spark was a soul idea. A soul thought which he turned into a bonfire by making real. For me, he is a real trailblazer. Just like him, many programming giants also started from just one idea and expanded it into multi-billion dollar companies. This inspires me to know that whatever I do, it only ever takes a small idea compacted with hope and chances to improve on. It doesn't matter what place of the hierarchy one is. He taught me that anything is possible for anyone. No matter small or big.
The first ever big Lego set I got was of a rocket. A model of the Russian rocket which sent Yuri Gagarin space. Rockets have fascinated me in their ways of launch. In the movie Hidden Figures, the complexity of the rockets launch and the math included sparks me to think how this is all possible. This, was all done by hand. And it just made me wonder that if this was possible, what wasn't?
That is why I have hope. In this generation and the next.