1856–1934, born in East Prussia, Germany
An eccentric inventor, Ganswindt in 1891 proposed a space vehicle propelled by exploding charges. He understood Newton’s third law but did not equate his propulsion system with a rocket. He was perhaps the earliest person to propose a feasible means of spaceflight in print, but he was largely forgotten until German rocket enthusiasts rediscovered him in the 1920s.
