The Peenemünde Historical Technical Museum

From 1936 to 1945, the research stations in Peenemünde formed the largest armaments centre in Europe. Over an area of 25km², up to 12,000 people worked simultaneously on guided weapons, most famously the world’s first cruise missiles and the first ever functioning large-scale rockets. Both were designed as a weapon of terror against the civil population, made mostly by forced labourers and from 1944 they began to be used in the Second World War as “Vergeltungswaffen” (V-weapons).

The Peenemünde Historical Technical Museum reconstructs the history of the creation and use of these weapons. The exhibitions document who worked in Peenemünde, how the people lived and why the enormously elaborate weaponry projects were carried out.