Peenemünde (, ) is a municipality on the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

island of Usedom in the

Vorpommern-Greifswald Vorpommern-Greifswald is a district in the east of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) the districts of Mecklenburgische Seenplatte and Vorpommern-Rügen, the Baltic Sea, Poland (West Pomeranian Voiv ...

district in

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; ), also known by its Anglicisation, anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a Federated state, state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's States of Germany, sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpom ...

in north-eastern Germany. It is part of the '' Amt'' (collective municipality) of

Usedom-Nord Amt Usedom-Nord is a ''Amt (country subdivision), collective municipality'' in the district of Vorpommern-Greifswald, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The seat of the ''Amt'' is in Zinnowitz. The ''Amt'' Usedom-Nord consists of the following m ...

. The community is known for the Peenemünde Army Research Center, where the world's first functional large-scale

liquid-propellant rocket A liquid-propellant rocket or liquid rocket uses a rocket engine burning liquid rocket propellant, liquid propellants. (Alternate approaches use gaseous or Solid-propellant rocket , solid propellants.) Liquids are desirable propellants because th ...

, the V-2, was developed.

Geography

The village with its seaport is located on the westernmost extremity of a long sand-spit, where the Peene empties into the Baltic Sea, in the northwestern part of Usedom Island. To the southeast it borders on the sea resort of Karlshagen. Peenemünde harbour can be reached by ferry boat across the Peene from Kröslin, liners also run along the Baltic coast to Rügen Island. The local railway station is the northern terminus of the ''

Usedomer Bäderbahn The Usedomer Bäderbahn (UBB) with its head office in Heringsdorf, northeastern Germany, is a 100 percent-owned subsidiary of the German national railway, Deutsche Bahn and the owner and operator of the railway network on the island of Usedom as w ...

'' line to Zinnowitz. Air service for the village is available at the Peenemünde Airfield.

History

Early history

During the 10th and 11th centuries, Peenemünde was part of the region of Circipania, an area settled by the Circipanes, a West Slavic tribe constituent of the Lutici federation. Circipania was incorporated into the Billung March of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

in 936, but the Empire's influence in the region decayed by the end of that century after a successful Slavic uprising. During the late 12th century, in the aftermath of the Wendish Crusade, the region fell under the rule of the

Duchy of Pomerania The Duchy of Pomerania (; ; Latin: ''Ducatus Pomeraniae'') was a duchy in Pomerania on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, ruled by dukes of the House of Pomerania (''Griffins''). The country existed in the Middle Ages between years 1121–11 ...

. After the Treaty of Kremmen in 1236, most of Circipania was transferred to the

Margraviate of Brandenburg The Margraviate of Brandenburg () was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 to 1806 that, having electoral status although being quite poor, grew rapidly in importance after inheriting the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 and then came ...

. The settlement was first mentioned in 1282 under Bogislaw IV, Duke of Pomerania. The settlement was captured by

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

in 1630, confirmed by the

Peace of Westphalia The Peace of Westphalia (, ) is the collective name for two peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster. They ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and brought peace to the Holy Roman Empire ...

in 1648. In 1720, it passed to

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

. It was besieged by Sweden during the Pomeranian War in 1757.

World War II

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the area was highly involved in the development and production of the V-1 and V-2 rockets, until the production's relocation to Nordhausen. The village's docks were used for the ships which recovered V-2 wreckage from test launches over the

. German scientists such as Wernher von Braun, who worked at the V-2 facility, were known as "Peenemünders". The resistance group around the priest Heinrich Maier passed on plans for the V-1,

V-2 rocket The V2 (), with the technical name ''Aggregat (rocket family), Aggregat-4'' (A4), was the world's first long-range missile guidance, guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the S ...

s, and the Peenemünde research station to the Allies. The resistance group, later discovered by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

, was in contact with Allen Dulles, the head of the US secret service OSS in Switzerland. The allied bombers were able to carry out precise air attacks with the sketches of the production facilities. The information was important for

Operation Crossbow ''Crossbow'' was the code name in World War II for Anglo-American operations against the German V-weapons, long range reprisal weapons (V-weapons) programme. The primary V-weapons were the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket, which were launched agai ...

and Operation Hydra, both pre-missions for

Operation Overlord Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allies of World War II, Allied operation that launched the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Front (World War II), Western Europe during World War II. The ope ...

. During Operation Hydra, the research facility was badly hit by the attack by the RAF bomber command on Peenemünde on the night of August 17–18, 1943. The attack was carried out by a total of 596 bombers (324

Avro Lancaster The Avro Lancaster, commonly known as the Lancaster Bomber, is a British World War II, Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to ...

, 218 Handley Page Halifax, 54 Short Stirling). There was extensive destruction and the rocket launch of the prototype V-2 was delayed by about two months. 123 people died, including the scientist Walter Thiel. Wernher von Braun was able to save himself in a bunker. The entire island was captured by the

Soviet Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of Peop ...

on 5 May 1945. The gas plant for the production of

liquid oxygen Liquid oxygen, sometimes abbreviated as LOX or LOXygen, is a clear cyan liquid form of dioxygen . It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an application which is ongoing. Physical ...

still lies in ruins at the entrance to Peenemünde.

Post-war period

The

post-war A post-war or postwar period is the interval immediately following the end of a war. The term usually refers to a varying period of time after World War II, which ended in 1945. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum, ...

port was a Soviet naval base until turned over to the armed forces of

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

in 1952. The seaport facilities were used at first by the East German ''Seepolizei'' (sea police) after new facilities for police

motorboat A motorboat or powerboat is a boat that is exclusively powered by an engine; faster examples may be called "speedboats". Some motorboats are fitted with inboard engines, others have an outboard motor installed on the rear, containing the inter ...

s had been built. On 1 December 1956 the headquarters of the First Flotilla ( :de:Erste Flottille (Volksmarine)) of the East German People's Navy was established at Peenemünde. The Peenemünde Historical Technical Museum, a

museum on the European Route of Industrial Heritage opened in 1992 in the power station of the former Army Testing Site and the area of the World War II

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

(now part of the village). Exhibits include a V-1 and a V-2.

References

External links

Official website of Peenemünde and the Historical Technical Museum (English)

V2 Rocket site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peenemunde Vorpommern-Greifswald Populated coastal places in Germany (Baltic Sea) Port cities and towns in Germany Seaside resorts in Germany Peenemünde Army Research Center and Airfield Military facilities of the Soviet Union in Germany Installations of the Soviet Navy Volksmarine V-2 missile launch sites