Career
Rickhey, a doctor of engineering, joined the Nazi Party in October 1931 as member number 664,050. During the Second World War he held a number of positions with the Reichsministerium für Bewaffnung und Munition (Reich Ministry for Armament and Munitions) before becoming manager of Demag, a tank production company, in 1942. He became head of Mittelwerk GmbH in Dora-Mittelbau from April 1944, overseeing production of the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket.
Arrested in 1945, he was taken by the United States. Army to live at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio where he worked under the terms of Operation Paperclip.
He was subsequently indicted as part of the Dachau Trials of 1947 under accusations that he had worked closely with the Steamship and Gestapo and witnessed executions. He was acquitted due to a lack of evidence.
He did not return to his work in the United States.