Peenemünde

Marina near Peenemünde

Last edited 27.02.2023 at 11:24 by NV Charts Team

Latitude

54° 8’ 1.3” N

Longitude

13° 46’ 10.4” E

Description

Sport boat harbour of the MRV Peenemünde directly next to the main harbour and the landing stage for passenger shipping.  

NV Cruising Guide

Navigation

The approach to the unlit harbour is from buoy 16 of the main fairway in the Peene River at 50° to the passage marked red/green between the dolphins near the harbour pier.

Berths

Guest yachts are moored in places (about 20) with green markings on the south-west pier on water depths between 2 - 2.7m.

The fishing club's jetty is reserved for locals.

Surroundings

The harbour offers power connections on the pier. Limited shopping facilities can be found in the nearby town of Peenemünde.

Submarine and rocket museum in the immediate vicinity of the harbour.

NV Land Guide

Chapel in Peenemünde

It is less known that Peenemünde was a concentration camp during the Nazi era, whose inmates were exploited as workers in the construction and expansion of the rocket testing facility. Under the heading "Sightseeing" of the harbour description of Karlshagen there is some information about it which is definitely worth reading and which shows the dark side of Peenemünde's history. For the most part, Peenemünde is exclusively associated with the outstanding, epoch-making technical progress in aerospace technology, which was brought about by the rocket testing facilities of the army and the air force of the Wehrmacht. The A 4 rocket developed at Peenemünde is regarded as the forerunner of all civilian space rockets. The military use of this technology as a weapon of destruction was, of course, the actual research goal at the time. The V 1 and V 2 - rockets built in Peenemünde, which were propagandistically hyped up to "wonder weapons", were then actually used against England.

In 1936 - that is already three years before the beginning of the Second World War an unimaginable building activity started around Peenemünde and Karlshagen: Storage bunkers, construction offices, housing estates, harbour facilities, an airfield, new roads, factory halls, laboratories, a combined heat and power plant, a high-speed rail link to Berlin, rocket launching pads were all torn out of the ground to produce rockets that would later become the "wonder weapons".

For this goal, no expense was too high and no scientist too expensive. In underground far-branching facilities, 40,000 people, mainly prisoners from the concentration camp "Dora"" are said to have worked under the worst conditions. The old fishing village of Karlshagen also had to make way for the new facilities.

Only a few managed to escape "from hell". For example, the aviator Mikhail Petrovich Dewyatev and a few comrades-in-arms managed to "capture" a Heinkel "He111" aircraft under dramatic circumstances." Although they were hit by a Soviet anti-aircraft shell behind the lines, they managed to make a belly landing. Dewyatev was unable to pinpoint the locations of the mass graves many years later because the facilities at Peenemünde had been blown up almost to nothing, and today the forest has spread where the graves lie.

10,000 specialists, including nearly 2,000 scientists alone, were involved in the V-weapons project under the strictest secrecy. Among them was the renowned Professor Wernher von Braun, who helped discover Peenemünde as a testing ground. Peenemünde's inhabitants were evacuated, the forest was bought and parts of Karlshagen were confiscated. Bit by bit the northwest of Usedom was converted into a fortress. Parts of the northern tip of Peenemünde could even be flooded in order to fool the attackers from the air with a different view of the island.

But the elaborate operation turned out to be more time-consuming than the "Führer" had imagined. The first reports of success came only when the tide began to turn in favor of the Allies in 1942. Adolf Hitler ordered the mass production of the rockets, whose material often could not withstand the heat generated when penetrating the layers of the atmosphere. Every third or fourth rocket exploded before reaching its target. The Allies' most massive counterattack on the night of August 17 and 18, 1943, turned into an inferno, killing over 2,000 people alone, including hundreds of forced laborers (including women and children). 700 bombers and night fighters unloaded their entire bomb load over Peenemünde and Karlshagen in only half an hour. Many buildings including the beach colony and Karlshagen were reduced to rubble. The phosphorus bombs left people burning like torches. Survivors report of cruel scenes. Afterwards, Peenemünde was "cleaned up" and rocket production was moved to central Germany. Nevertheless, further bombing raids claimed even more victims. A major attack hit the communities of Peenemünde and Karlshagen hard in July 1944. Thousands of people also died in England as a result of the rockets. Of the 12,000 V2 rockets ordered by Hitler, more than 1100 reached their targets there.

The "Historisch-Technisches Museum Peenemünde" has become a "open-air museum" highly worth seeing, in which these connections are presented. On a large exhibition area, documents, original parts, interviews with contemporary witnesses, documentary films and models are used to show the path of the rocket pioneers via civilian space travel to the systematic development of the first large military rocket in Peenemünde, as well as its series production and wartime use in a historical context. The power station of the former Peenemünde experimental facilities, which can be individually entered, is part of the exhibition and, as the largest technical monument in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, complements the sights. A signposted circular route to authentic sites on the large area of the former testing facilities allows a more comprehensive insight and grasp of the context.

Peenemünde harbour to the north of the sports boat harbour is partly part of the exhibition area and offers visitors museum-like insights into various warships of the "Cold War" period, including a Russian submarine. The harbour is also partly used by leisure boats and passenger shipping.

Impressive remains of the old high-speed rail link to Berlin can still be found in the forest north of Peenemünde. Although the rails of the four-lane line are missing, underpasses and platforms still exist. There are also huge cisterns that were used to regulate the groundwater level. Even a miniature Brandenburg Gate was built in Peenemünde. It was blown up after the war, as were the huge production halls, whose tiles still lie undamaged under the rubble. By looking at the various tree cover, it is possible to gauge the gigantic dimensions of the four halls.

In this sense, Peenemünde is a "sight to see"" that can be reached by island train.

You can also walk from Karlshagen to Peenemünde along the embankment on the Peenestrom River, unless you prefer to ride bicycles there on the road. An information board near the Karlshagen fire station provides further information about the seaside resort, which itself has no sights. We also recommend a walk along the embankment from Karlshagen harbour to the southern part of Zercherin. The reward for the walk is the beautiful landscape of the Trassenmoor on the left and the view of the Peenestrom on the right.

Marina Information

Contact

Phone +49 38371 20566

Surroundings

Electricity

Water

Toilet

Shower

Grocery

Ramp

Garbage

Comments

Michal, Jemmy Button
I was lucky to get a place only for one night otherwise all is occupied longterm
17.08.2022 08:55

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Places nearby

Related Regions

This location is included in the following regions of the BoatView harbour guide: