The V-2 Museum in Peenemuende

[Evan M Corcoran]

There is a museum dedicated to the V-2 in Peenemuende,
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.  The town styles itself 'the Birthplace
of Space Travel' because it was from the rocket base here that a man-made
object first travelled beyond the earth's atmosphere.  

When you get off the train in Peenemuende turn left and and go straight -
the museum is only a few dozen meters away.  Admission is DM6 ($4).  The
souvenir stand ou front sells some great stuff, including rocket
postcards, plastic model kits, and boxes of matches and ashtrays with
images of the rocket on them.  Best of all there is a machine next to the
stand which for DM1 will flatten your two- or five-pfennig piece  and
stamp it with a silhouette of Usedom and the rocket.  

On the grounds outside the museum building stand a few old Eastern Bloc
jets, a rusty V-1 and a well-preserved V-2 towering over them all.
Between the fins of this rocket, near the exhaust, there is a depiction of
a girl, nude save for black stockings, astride a crescent moon, and a V-2
behind the girl and moon.  Geli?  

Past the snack bar housed in an old DDR army truck you come to the
entrance of the museum proper.  Officially called a 'Historical-Technical
Information Center', the museum is housed in a WW2-era building and
contains more rocket-related information than you can shake a swagger
stick at.  There are diagrams, maps, photos, dioramas (don't miss the good
one of Prufstande VII inside the little film room), personal effects of
scientists, actual rocket parts, a film...it's excellent.  Did you know:
there was an operating rocket mail service in the 30's in an Austrian
valley?  Neither did I.  There are also sections dealing with other Nazi
secret weapons and with the power plant that powered the whole base during
the war.  In this latter section there is a diagram of 'die Gluehlampe'
(the lightbulb) hanging on the wall.  The eight main components of the
bulb are labelled but there is no explanatory text.  Is this a subtle
reference?  There is no explicit mention of GR or TRP in the whole
building.

Leaving the museum and heading towards the old power plant building, you
pass a few more commie jets and arrive at the large film hall, featuring a
space travel documentary, and the museum shop, which sells more rocket
stuff: books, videos, photos and some paper models, along with regular
souvenirs such as those damn little spoons.  What the hell is the deal
with those things anyway?  One of the books on sale is 'Insel ohne
Leuchtfeuer' by Ruth Kraft, which, according to the jacket copy, is about
wartime Peenemuende and V-weapons.  There are no English editions of it
though.  In fact the whole museum is in German, no concession at all is
made to 'einsprachige Auslaender'.  So be warned.

There is also a 'Raumfahrt-Zentrum' (Space Travel Center) a short distance
 outside of Peenemuende but I didn't have enough
time to look for it.  The former Luftwaffe base is now an normal
non-military airfield (though I think the DDR had some jets stationed
there) but unfortunately the actual rocket launch sites are fenced off
with big scary fences and signs warning of the danger of unexploded
munitions.

Near the museum there is a stone commemorating the invasion of 16?? when
the Swedes landed at Peenemuende and proceeded to ravage much of northern
Europe.

Completely unconnected to the above is the following:  In the short story
'My Double, And How He Undid Me' by Edward Everett Hale (Boston 1822-1909)
this sentence occurs: 'We had applied to Judge Pynchon, then the probate
judge at Springfield, to change the name of Dennis Shea to Frederic
Ingham.'  The story is pretty funny despite the mild anti-Celtism.

 -EMC 
(personal replies to cme at m-net.arbornet.org - I can't read this list)