Template:Did you know nominations/Oscar Holderer

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Miyagawa (talk) 09:59, 24 May 2015 (UTC)

Oscar Holderer edit

5x expanded by ThaddeusB (talk). Self-nominated at 21:10, 17 May 2015 (UTC).

General: Article is new enough and long enough
Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation

Image eligibility:

QPQ: Done.

Overall: Very easy pass; well written and fair to the sources. Mkdwtalk 04:34, 20 May 2015 (UTC)

  • Hi, I came by to promote this but do not see the hook facts stated in the article. The sourced sentences in the article says he worked for the "German military", not "Nazi Germany", and that in America he worked on the Saturn V, not "the Apollo space program". Yoninah (talk) 22:45, 20 May 2015 (UTC)
@Yoninah: I do not think the separations you are making reflect the academic consensus on the matter as being separate and one "not" being the other. For starters, the German military after 1935, formerly known as the Reichswehr was replaced with the Wehrmacht which is "Nazi Germany's military". Further, the term Nazi Germany is an extremely encompassing term. Anything relating to the government, including the military (which was under direct control of Adolf Hilter who was the head of the Nazi Party), between 1939 to 1945 is synonymous with term Nazi Germany. Lastly, as the source states, he was part of Operation Paperclip which is defined largely as being "Nazi scientists" that were patriated to the United States following the collapse of Nazi Germany. NY Times There is a wide range of academic material on the matter but the subject is very broad so in the interests of time and need, I'm fairly confident a number of opinions on whether the German military (in 1945 and the years immediately prior) is "not Nazi Germany" can be found by the participants at WP:MILHIST. As for the Saturn V rocket, it was used on Apollo 11. It's apart of it and could not be separated as a distinctly exclusive of the Apollo space program. The NASA website on the Saturn V states, "The Saturn V was used in the Apollo program in the 1960s and 1970s". Further, NASA has entire sections about the Saturn V rocket in their materials called "What was the Apollo Program". Mkdwtalk 03:32, 21 May 2015 (UTC)
Yoninah, I'm assuming that you're doing your "due diligence" on wanting the source to say exactly what is in the hook, but if we're going to pick at words, you haven't really said that. You've stated the facts for the hook are not stated in the article and they are -- very clearly so -- and you've stated things like working on "Saturn V is not the Apollo space program" -- a statement not factually correct. So could you clarify if you're suggesting false statements are being made, or simply, you do not think the hook meets the criteria that it needs to match word-for-word what the source states? On both I disagree but it would help point this conversation in the right direction. Thanks, Mkdwtalk 04:19, 21 May 2015 (UTC)
Thanks, my thought match those of Mkdw. --ThaddeusB (talk) 14:06, 21 May 2015 (UTC)
  • OK, OK, I defer to both of your knowledge of the subject. May I suggest another hook, though? As little as I know of the Apollo space program, I do know about Operation Paperclip, so I don't find the hook so hooky. How about:
  • ALT1: ... that Oscar Holderer, an engineer for Nazi Germany who later worked on the Apollo space program, brought America's first rocket wind tunnel from Germany?
  • ALT2: ... that Oscar Holderer was the last surviving member of Operation Paperclip? Yoninah (talk) 19:20, 21 May 2015 (UTC)
I don't have strong opinions on either but I do think his great contribution is to the Apollo space program and the most interesting aspect about the man is that he was formerly a Nazi scientist. In terms of Operation Paperclip, aside from being the last surviving member, there were more notable members of the team, and so therefore I'm not sure being the last one is necessarily as interesting as the other. Since ThaddeusB started this DYK and I don't see any technical issues with the first one, I'll let him weigh in. Regards, Mkdwtalk 04:29, 22 May 2015 (UTC)
ALT1 is fine by me. --ThaddeusB (talk) 14:34, 22 May 2015 (UTC)
ALT1 meets all the criteria. Mkdwtalk 03:33, 23 May 2015 (UTC)