Knemeyer attended the Technische Hochschule Berlin, from which he graduated in 1933 with a dual major of theoretical experimental physics and aeronautical engineering.

[2] After serving as Field Marshal Walter von Brauchitsch's pilot during the brief Invasion of Poland, Knemeyer was assigned to the Rowehl Reconnaissance Group.

In this capacity he established a program focused on capturing and re-fitting enemy aircraft, as a means to gain a tactical advantage and assist the Luftwaffe's internal research efforts.

[4] In 1943, alarmed that Allied advances in aviation technology threatened to tip the balance of the war against Germany, Hermann Göring convened a conference at Carinhall among his senior leadership.

[8][9] Knemeyer was included on a Special Committee of top-ranking Luftwaffe administrators in November 1943 for the purpose of advocating broad adoption of and investment in the Me 262.

[10] Aviation book authors J. Richard Smith and Eddie Creek credit Knemeyer and General Adolf Galland as the men responsible for Germany's finally putting the Me 262A-1a jet fighter into mass production.

[11] In 1944, the German hierarchy placed a renewed call for creative plans to reverse the now-inevitable defeat descending on Nazi Germany.

Familiar with the newest technologies, Knemeyer conceived a plan to develop a long-range bomber that would drop a radioactive "dirty bomb" on New York City, in hopes of intimidating the United States out of the war.