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The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/hawkshaw1024 on 2025-09-27 13:01:55+00:00.
PERRY RHODAN is a long-running German space opera. (You could think of it as our version of Doctor Who.) The story is published in weekly installments. It has at least 5-10 times the combined page-count of the Stephen King bibliography, depending on how you count, and it’s still going. Total sales exceeded a billion-with-a-b in the early 2000s.
However, despite the enormous size of the franchise, there’s a good chance that this is the first time you’re hearing about it. This is partially because of a language barrier, as the main series is not available in English.
But PERRY RHODAN also has a bit of a… reputation. Let’s find out more about that, in today’s installment of: Why the hell is Germany like this?
We need a lot of context for this one, sorry. If you’re not interested in the history, you can skip to section 4.
CONTENT NOTE: Fascism.
(1) Operation Stardust (1949-1961)
After World War 2, Germany was occupied and split. Our story takes place in West Germany, which was the democratic and NATO-aligned part.
The Sputnik shock of 1957 officially started the Space Race, inspiring humanity to look to the stars. The Soviets took an early lead, but the Americans were dead set on getting to the Moon first. The public was watching with great interest. NASA, founded in 1958, even had a certain German-American 🇺🇸 in a prominent role.
Interest in space goes hand-in-hand with interest in science fiction, and this is where the pulp magazines come in. These are little fiction booklets, printed on low-quality paper and containing essentially disposable entertainment. These offered clever publishers a quick and easy way to cash in on cultural fads.
In 1961, a German pulp house called Moewig Publishing decided that this “Space Race” was such a fad. They had been after the sci-fi market for a while now, and decided that this was a good time to enter the market.
They approached Karl-Herbert Scheer (1928-1991) and Walter Ernsting (1920-2005), two up-and-coming writers who had worked with the publisher before. (Ernsting wrote under the pen name “Clark Darlton.” I will be using pen names for all the authors, for consistency.) Moewig wanted four issues, one per week, at 64 pages each, with options for renewal. If the first four sell, we’ll do forty total, then after that we’ll see. How about it?
After a quick brainstorming session, Scheer drafted an outline for the pilot issues. The story was to be heavy on continuity, which was unusual for pulps at the time. He assigned #1 and #3 to himself, while Darlton would write #2 and #4. The first such story, “Operation Stardust,” was released on 8th September 1961. It was a massive success.
(2) What’s PERRY RHODAN like? (1961-1974)
So, uh, the series did not stop after 4 issues, or after 40. Or after 400, for that matter. I cannot possibly summarise it, but some fans have tried. 🇬🇧 There’s also a video 🇬🇧 you can watch. (Going forward, I will be tagging non-Wikipedia sources with a little flag to indicate the language.)
Instead, I’ll try to roughly summarise the first decade. That is to say, up to the mid-1970s of real world time. Quick note: “Perry Rhodan” is the character, all-caps “PERRY RHODAN” (or “PR”) is the franchise.
In the distant future year of 1971, Space Force astronauts Perry Rhodan and Reginald Bull discover an alien spaceship on the Moon. It carries exiles from the crumbling Arkonid Empire, Crest and Thora da Zoltral. The humans befriend them and use their technology to set up a new country. This country, the “Third Power,” quickly grows to rival the superpower blocs.
The Arkonide Empire is dying and colonial rebellions are breaking out across the galaxy. The Third Power establishes a “Mutant Corps,” consisting of psionically gifted supersoldiers, to help protect Earth from space threats. They defeat a few tutorial supervillains and fend off an invasion by the reptilian Topsiders. (Can’t have sci-fi without lizard people.) This convinces the rest of the world to accept Third Power leadership.
By 1994, Earth has united as the “Solar Empire,” ruled by Grand Administrator Rhodan. He has, in addition to this, become the Chosen One of an enigmatic space god. IT takes a special interest in humanity and grants immortality to selected individuals, such as Rhodan and Bull. Rhodan befriends a fellow immortal, who becomes a co-protagonist - the Arkonide Atlan da Gonozal 🇩🇪 . The Mutant Corps expands to include aliens, such as mouse-beaver Gucky 🇩🇪 . Occasionally, the story picks a few characters to make immortal, then skips ahead in time to clear out the B cast.
Later story arcs include the rise and fall of the Robot Regent, an evil supercomputer that seizes control of the Arkonide Empire. (#20-149) The Solar Empire becomes the hegemonic power of the Milky Way (#150-199). It explores neighboring galaxies, together with a revitalised Arkonide Empire under Atlan. They make war with the Andromedan Masters of the Isle (#200-299), the atemporal Time Police (#300-399), and the mind-controlling Cappins. (#400-499) There is an invasion by a swarm of psionic flesh-monsters (#500-569), and a conflict with an evil parallel universe. (#600-649) The Milky Way is temporarily occupied by “democratic” Alliance forces, which are defeated by means of political intrigue and partisan warfare. (#650-699) As time goes on, the scale of the story only goes up and up and up. The machinations of incomprehensible space-gods begin to play an increasingly big role in the story.
Germans were ready to buy as much PERRY RHODAN as Moewig could print. It had just the right mix of action, speculative physics, and cool aliens. One novella per week is a pretty extreme workload, though, so they expanded the team. This included a certain William Voltz (1938-1984), a passionate young man with strong political views and a knack for writing tragic heroes. Keep him in mind.
Outline-writing duties remained with Scheer. The fandom calls this position “Expocrat,” in reference to a type of space god that exists in the setting. He gave the other writers room to experiment, but maintained tight control over the meta-plot.
Despite all the artistic freedom, Scheer did insist on one thing: Big space battles. He was really into military kitsch, martial glory, and weapon design. This earned him nicknames such as “Cannon-Herbert” and “Herbert the Handgrenade.” During this era, Perry Rhodan gradually became less Captain Kirk and more God-Emperor of Mankind. There’s adventures, but every so often we need to stop and have a shoot-out between the Solar Fleet and the Trade Federation 🇩🇪 .
Still, West Germans loved this stuff. Weekly sales soon climbed into the hundreds of thousands. There was a spin-off series centering on Atlan 🇩🇪 ; there was merchandise; there were even talks of a movie franchise and foreign translations. Moewig became a dominant force on the West German sci-fi market, even swallowing some of its smaller competitors. (Like Pabel; thereby forming Pabel-Moewig.)
Disrupting this rise would’ve taken something extreme, like a major cultural shift in West Germany.
(3) A Major Cultural Shift in West Germany (1966-1969)
The 1960s and 1970s were a time of political upheaval in much of the West. Hippies and such. If you’d rather not hear about real-world politics, you can skip ahead. Note again the content warning.
An uncomfortable truth about post-war Germany is that the “middle managers” of the Nazi regime pretty much got away with their crimes. Adenauer, while not a fascist himself, had little interested in justice. Following the amnesty laws of 1949 and 1951, highly questionable people were welcomed back into positions of power. The West German government was soon crammed to the gills 🇬🇧 with nationalists and “former” Nazis.
However, in the 1960s, a new generation was coming of age. Young activists opposed Adenauer’s reactionary social policies, and demanded a proper reckoning with the past. This began with [student protests](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_German_student…
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