This website draws on the following sources from the family archive and historical literature. The source material is in German and is quoted in the original.
Biography and family archive
- Karsten Eggers: Ein Grandseigneur der Deutschen Luft- & Raumfahrt. Erinnerungen an meinen Vater Prof. Gerhard Eggers. Private print, Bremen 2013 (approx. 200 pages, with extensive photographic material).
- Erinnerungen eines Luft- und Raumfahrtpioniers – autobiographical notes (chapter overview with appendix: CV, patent list, publications).
- Chronological outline – Prof. Gerhard Eggers (family archive).
Historical sources
- In geheimer Mission. In: DER SPIEGEL 32/1977, 1 August 1977, p. 76 – on the power struggle at VFW-Fokker and Eggers’ departure from the board.
- Oral History of Europe in Space: Interview with Hans E. W. Hoffmann, conducted by Prof. Dr. Helmuth Trischler (Deutsches Museum, Munich), Bremen, 24 May 2011 – on the founding of ERNO and the Spacelab contract.
- Documentation “50 Jahre REUSS – Jahrbuch der Luft- und Raumfahrt” – among other things on the Commission for Space Technology (KfR), the founding of VFW in 1963 and the Spacelab contract of 5 June 1974.
- ILR-Mitteilung 55, Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, TU Berlin – contains Eggers’ tribute to Heinrich Hertel from the obituary.
- Membership register of the German Aerospace Society Lilienthal-Oberth (DGLR) – Eggers as honorary member.
Official documents
- Internal circular of ERNO Raumfahrttechnik GmbH on the 60th birthday of Prof. Gerhard Eggers, 6 July 1972.
Technical reports and further sources
- Peter Kuckuk (ed.): Ein Jahrhundert Luft- und Raumfahrt in Bremen. Bremen 2018 (contribution on Gerhard Eggers by Karsten Eggers). In German.
- European Space Agency (ESA): Spacelab Programme – Phase A and Phase B Reports (1973–1974).
- H. Tolle: The Modular Space Lab – Results of a European Phase A Study. ERNO Raumfahrttechnik GmbH, Bremen 1973 – 10th Space Congress Proceedings.
- Beetle Mania – The Story of the SNECMA Coléoptère. Key.Aero, 2020 – on the Coléoptère project and the German engineering group under Oestrich and Eggers – key.aero/article/beetle-mania.
- Ulrich Albrecht: Rüstungsfragen im deutsch-französischen Verhältnis (Beihefte der Francia, vol. 42, 1997), p. 303 – covers the Oestrich group at SNECMA and explicitly mentions Gerhard Eggers – PDF at perspectivia.net.
External links
- History of space travel in Bremen – WFB Bremen
- Spacelab-1: Twenty years on – ESA
- Spacelab mission D-2 – DLR
- Raumfahrthistorisches Archiv Bremen (space history archive)
- Entwicklungsring Nord – Wikipedia
- VFW-Fokker – Wikipedia
- Gerhard Eggers in the Lower Saxony biographical database
- NASA Technical Reports Server (search “Spacelab ERNO”)
Further archives and research sources
- Archives of Safran Aircraft Engines (formerly SNECMA) – in particular records on the Oestrich group and the German engineers after 1945.
- Publications by Gérard Bossuat on Franco-German cooperation 1945–1963.
- German Aerospace Center (DLR) – historical archive and publications; technical reports of the former Bundesanstalt für Luftfahrtforschung.
- ESA Archives (ESA Publications).
- German National Library – company chronicles of ERNO, VFW and SNECMA.
Note
The contents of this website were compiled from the documents listed above. Additions and corrections from family and colleagues are welcome.