The story of this place
On the northern tip of Usedom island, Wernher von Braun's team developed the world's first large liquid-fuelled rocket, the A-4, deployed as the V-2 'vengeance weapon'. On 3 October 1942 a V-2 launched here became the first man-made object to cross the boundary of space. As a weapon it killed some 9,000 people in London, Antwerp and elsewhere — but far more died building it: over 12,000 prisoners perished in the Mittelbau-Dora tunnels producing the rockets. The RAF bombed Peenemünde in August 1943. Von Braun surrendered to the Americans and went on to lead NASA's Apollo programme. The power station now houses a museum wrestling with the site's dual legacy of genius and atrocity.