Editing Herman Potočnik (section)

== Education and military service ==

In Maribor, Potočnik attended primary school. Afterward he attended the military secondary schools in [[Bad Fischau-Brunn|Fischau]] and [[Hranice (Přerov District)|Hranice]] in [[Moravia]].  His uncle Heinrich was a major-general in the army, and probably enabled his study at Austrian military schools. From 1910 to 1913 he studied at the [[Imperial and Royal Technical Military Academy]] in [[Mödling]] in Lower Austria (''Niederösterreich'') near [[Vienna]] and graduated as an engineer second lieutenant. His specialization was building of railways and bridges.

During [[World War I]] he served in [[Galicia (Central Europe)|Galicia]], [[Serbia]] and [[Bosnia and Herzegovina|Bosnia]] and in 1915 he was promoted to the rank of [[First Lieutenant]] (''Oberleutnant''). He was assigned to the southwestern front of the [[Soca River|Soča]] battlefield and there he experienced a breakthrough of the Austrian army to the river Piava and its retreat. In 1919 he was pensioned from the Austrian military with the rank of captain because of [[tuberculosis]] that he contracted during the war.  He started to study [[electrical engineering]] in the [[mechanical engineering]] department of the [[Vienna University of Technology|University of Technology in Vienna]], Austria, and was awarded a doctorate in engineering. From 1925 onward, he devoted himself entirely to the problems of rocket science and [[space technology]].  Owing to chronic illness, he did not find a job or marry, but lived with his brother Adolf in Vienna, Austria.