The Peenemünde Historical Technical Museum (german: Historisch-Technisches Museum Peenemünde or HTM), former "Peenemünde Information Centre for History and Technology" (german: Historisch-Technisches Informationszentrum Peenemünde or HTI) is a museum, founded in 1991, in the observation bunker and site of the former power station in

Peenemünde Peenemünde (, en, "Peene iverMouth") is a municipality on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is part of the ''Amt'' (collective municipality) of Usedom-Nord. The communi ...

on the island of

Usedom Usedom (german: Usedom , pl, Uznam ) is a Baltic Sea island in Pomerania, divided between Germany and Poland. It is the second largest Pomeranian island after Rügen, and the most populous island in the Baltic Sea. It is north of the Szczecin ...

in eastern

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in po ...

in Germany. The museum is dedicated to the history of the

Peenemünde Army Research Centre Peenemünde (, en, "Peene iverMouth") is a municipality on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is part of the ''Amt'' (collective municipality) of Usedom-Nord. The communi ...

and the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

test site of " Peenemünde-West", especially the

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

s and missiles developed there between 1936 and 1945. Since January 2007 the information centre has become an anchor point on the

European Route of Industrial Heritage The European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH) is a tourist route of the most important industrial heritage sites in Europe. This is a tourism industry information initiative to present a network of industrial heritage sites across Europe. The a ...

(ERIH), a Europe-wide network of industrial monuments, and a part of the ERIH themed routes for ''Energy'' and ''Transport & Communication''. In 2008 the museum had around 222,000 visitors including many school classes. Around €6.5 M were invested in the museum's renovation and expansion; a further investment of €3.9 M is planned. In 2002 the HTM was given the Coventry Cross of Nails and in 2013 the ''European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Award''.

Exhibition

The main purpose of the exhibition in the power station is to be a memorial site where visitors can learn from exhibits, documents and films about the fateful pact made by the rocket engineers around

Wernher von Braun Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...

with former powers in order to develop the aerospace industry. In the mid-1960s, building on his technical experience from Peenemünde, Wernher von Braun led the design team which developed the

Saturn V Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, with multistage rocket, three stages, and powered with liquid-propellant r ...

rocket for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

that was used to fly to the

moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

. The role of the former rocket engineer in Peenemünde, however, was to develop weapons of war. Films show visitors how

V-1 flying bomb The V-1 flying bomb (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Ministry of Aviation (Nazi Germany), Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buz ...

s worked. These experiences formed the basis for the development of nuclear missiles by the Allies after the war. According to documents in the exhibition even Peenemünde experts took part, including in Great Britain and France, where they helped to develop the

Force de Frappe The ''Force de frappe'' (French language, French: "strike force"), or ''Force de dissuasion'' ("deterrent force") after 1961,Gunston, Bill. Bombers of the West. New York: Charles Scribner's and Sons; 1973. p104 is the designation of what used to ...

. As part of a detailed chronicle about the test site, the living and working conditions of the forced labourers and prisoners of war in Peenemünde is illustrated. In addition, there is extensive information on

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

prisoners, who assembled the V1-flying bombs in Bavaria and Austria under inhuman conditions. There is a chapel near the site which commemorates all the victims.

Open air displays

Amongst the showpieces on display in the open-air part of the site are a replica

(''Fieseler Fi 103'') and the A4 rocket. Exhibits in the Peenemünde Historical Technical Museum include: File:Peenem Museum V1 Modell.jpg, The

File:Peenemünde 2001 -NEWA 5W 57- by-RaBoe 01.jpg,

Anti-aircraft missile Anti-aircraft missiles are guided missiles designed to destroy or damage aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dy ...

s File:Peenemünder Triebwagen.JPG, Former Peenemünde railbus in the open air site File:MiG-23ML 332.jpg, MiG-23ML of JG-9 squadron, displayed since 30 April 2010 at the Rechline Aerotechnology Museum. File:Launching pad for V1.JPG, Launching pad for V1 File:Peenemünde 2001 -Hans Beimler (ship, 1986)- by-RaBoe 01.jpg, The ''Hans Beimler'', a former Soviet-built, missile

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...

of the

Tarantul class The Soviet designation Project 1241 ''Molniya'' (russian: Молния, , Lightning) are a class of Russian missile corvettes (large missile cutters in Soviet classification). They have the NATO reporting name Tarantul (not to be confused with ...

operated by the

Volksmarine The ''Volksmarine'' (VM, ; en, People's Navy) was the naval force of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1956 to 1990. The ''Volksmarine'' was one of the service branches of the National People's Army and primarily performed a coastal d ...

File:Fusée V2.jpg,

V-2 rocket The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed ...

replica

Information boards on the Peenemünder Haken

There is a large number of information boards at historic locations, connected with the Army Research Centre and Luftwaffe test site, spread over the whole ''Peenemünder Haken'' ("Peenemünde Hook") and managed by the HTI. The sites include Oxygen Factory II (''Sauerstoffwerk II''), two former forced labour camps and a halt on the old Peenemünde industrial railway. The displayed objects and terrain are generally freely accessible and often inconspicuous. Several were laid out with the help of youth volunteers.

References

Literature

*Bernd Kuhlmann: ''Peenemünde - Das Raketenzentrum und seine Werkbahn'', GVE-Verlag, Berlin, 2. Auflage 2003, *Johannes Erichsen und Bernhard M. Hoppe (Hg.): ''Peenemünde - Mythos und Geschichte der Rakete 1923 - 1989 ; Katalog des Museums Peenemünde'', Nicolai-Verlag, Berlin, 2004 *Volkhard Bode und Christian Thiel: ''Raketenspuren - Peenemünde 1936 - 2004 ; eine historische Reportage (Mit aktuellen Fotos von Christian Thiel''), Links-Verlag, Berlin, 5. Auflage 2004,

External links