Pencil sketch of a Nazi By Dr K Prabhakar Rao

FRITZ KARL PREIKSCHAT

 He (September 11, 1910 – September 2, 1994) was a German, later American, electrical and telecommunications engineer and inventor.  He had more than three German patents and more than 23 U.S. patents, including a dot matrix teletypewriter (Germany, 1957), a blind-landing system for airports (1965), a phased array system for satellite communications (1971), a hybrid car system (1982), and a scanning laser diode microscope for particle analysis (1989).

Early Career

In 1934, he graduated from Hindenburg Polytechnic in Oldenburg, Germany with a degree in "Elektrotechnik" (electrical engineering). He then served in a minesweeper unit of Kriegsmarine (German Navy).

From 1940–1945 (during WW2), he worked as an engineer at GEMA (de), mostly in the radar group (see Radar in World War II). At the end of WW2, his family fled to Dresden and survived (except for one relative) the Bombing of Dresden in World War II. His family then resettled as refugees in the Bavarian town of Amberg.

Contributor to Russia's rocket and satellite programs (1946–1952)[edit]

In 1946, he was one of the more than two thousand German specialists forcibly (at gunpoint) brought to Russia under Operation Osoaviakhim. He was then one of the more than 170 German specialists – headed by Helmut Gröttrup - brought to Branch 1 of NII-88 on Gorodomlya Island in Lake Seliger. From 1946–1952, he was an engineer and manager of a radar electronics lab, working on the hardware for a new radar guidance system for the early Soviet rocket program. He also worked on a design for a 6-dish (array) deep-space tracking station for the early Soviet space program. In 1960, Russia implemented the full 8-dish (with 60-foot diameter dishes) deep-space tracking station called Pluton in the Crimea.

In 1990–1991 (almost forty years after his 1952 release from Russia), he corresponded with several former Russian colleagues.

Debriefing by U.S. Air Force (1952–1954)[edit]

In June 1952, he was released from Russia and returned to East Germany. The Berlin Wall had not yet been constructed, so he was able to cross the border via the Berlin U-Bahn from East Berlin, East Germany, to West Berlin (Western Zone). He quickly met an American MP, who put him in a safe house where he spent two months getting debriefed by the U.S. Air Force on Russia's rocket program. He was also interviewed by Reinhard Gehlen. Later, he published a 114-page report (in German; he finalized the report in April 1954) for the U.S. Air Force on Russia's "Microwave-based Control System for Long-Distance Rockets". In September 1952, he was flown by the U.S. Air Force from West Berlin (Western Zone) to Frankfurt, West Germany, where he was reunited with his family (his wife, daughter and son), finally ending a difficult, six-year separation

Emigration to America (1957)[edit]

In July 1957, he emigrated to the United States via a U.S. Air Force contract with General Mills. The contract was cancelled shortly afterwards, so he hired on as principal scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, where he worked on satellite transponder communications. He became a U.S. citizen in 1962.

From 1959–1970, he mostly worked as lead engineer in the Space Division of Boeing (near Seattle). He also had a stint in the Military Products Group at Honeywell (in Seattle).^[2]