Kurt Wahmke (2 March 1904 - 16 July 1934 in Kummersdorf) was a German rocket pioneer. Kurt Wahmke achieved his doctorate in the laboratory of Erich Schumann. The title of his research dissertation was on the outflow of gases through cylindrical nozzles, the work was accepted in 1933 by Schumann and Arthur Whenelt. In 1932, a Wehrmacht operation research group, under the direction of Walter Dornberger, began the development of liquid-propellant rockets of types A1, A2 and A3. In early 1933 Wahmke joined the team of Wernher von Braun, Walter HJ Riedel, Heinrich Grünow and Walter Dornberger at Kummersdorf. There a test site for liquid rockets from the Army Ordnance Office of the Reichswehr had been established. On 16 July 1934, Dr Kurt Wahmke and two assistants were killed and another assistant injured when a fuel tank exploded during a fuel test of a 90% premixed hydrogen peroxide/alcohol propellant.
