In 1932, Wernher von Braun began working with the German Army’s rocket program at Kummersdorf, south of Berlin. This shifted his rocket interest from a small enthusiast community into a funded military research effort. It also set the path that later led to a much larger test and development center at Peenemünde.
In December 1932, the Army built a dedicated liquid-propellant rocket test facility at Kummersdorf, known as Experimental Station West. The site supported early engine tests using liquid oxygen and alcohol, helping standardize a repeatable approach to rocket engineering. This infrastructure was a practical foundation for later, larger-scale development.
In December 1934, the team launched two A-2 rockets—nicknamed “Max” and “Moritz”—from the island of Borkum. These were among their first clearly successful liquid-fueled rocket flights, reaching roughly a few kilometers in altitude. The successes strengthened the case for expanding the program beyond the constraints of Kummersdorf.
On April 2, 1936, the Reich Air Ministry paid the town of Wolgast for the northern peninsula of Usedom, enabling construction of major test facilities at Peenemünde. The location offered space, secrecy, and safer downrange areas over the Baltic Sea than Kummersdorf could provide. This step made Peenemünde possible as the program’s main development center.
In 1937, the Peenemünde Army Research Center was founded as a German Army proving ground. Staff and work increasingly shifted from Kummersdorf to the new coastal complex, where larger rockets could be tested more effectively. Peenemünde became the central place where the A-series rockets evolved toward the A-4 (later called the V-2).
Von Braun’s documented Nazi Party membership dates to 1937 (with records indicating a retroactive effective date within that year). This membership became part of the political environment around Peenemünde as rocket work grew into a high-priority weapons program. His later career would be shaped by how closely technical leadership and the regime’s goals were intertwined.
On October 3, 1942, Peenemünde achieved the first successful flight of the A-4 test vehicle known as V-4. This proved that a large liquid-fueled rocket could reach very high altitude and travel long distances on a ballistic path (a trajectory shaped mainly by gravity after engine cutoff). The success triggered major political attention and accelerated pressure to mass-produce the weapon.
On the night of August 17–18, 1943, the Royal Air Force attacked Peenemünde in Operation Hydra. The raid aimed to disrupt German long-range rocket development and caused significant losses, including among forced laborers held near the site. After the attack, German leadership pushed harder to disperse and protect production by moving key work underground.
Within days of the Peenemünde raid, prisoners were brought to the Kohnstein site near Nordhausen, and the Dora labor camp (later Mittelbau-Dora) was established as part of the effort to create an underground factory. The goal was to protect production from bombing, but it relied on brutal forced labor and extremely deadly conditions. This marked a major shift from primarily research-focused work at Peenemünde toward wartime mass production tied to the concentration camp system.
In September 1943, the Mittelwerk company was formed to run underground assembly in the Nordhausen tunnels, bringing industrial-scale management to V-2 production. The organization and control of the program increasingly involved the SS, while the technical workforce and prisoners were forced to meet demanding schedules. The change reduced Peenemünde’s role as a production center and made it more vulnerable to political struggles over control.
By early 1944, tensions grew between Army-led management and SS ambitions to control the rocket program. A widely reported episode is von Braun’s arrest by the Gestapo/SS in this period, reflecting the program’s political risk even for its top engineers. He was later released as the regime prioritized keeping development moving despite internal power conflicts.
On September 8, 1944, the first V-2 rocket struck London, marking the start of operational use of the weapon against civilian targets. The V-2’s high-speed descent meant there was no warning sound before impact, which increased fear even though accuracy was limited. Combat use showed how Peenemünde’s engineering work had shifted from experimental rocketry to strategic bombardment.
By early 1945, Peenemünde’s role in the rocket effort was fading as production and many functions had moved elsewhere and the war situation deteriorated. The last V-2 launches from Peenemünde occurred by February 1945, signaling the end of the site’s peak testing era. The remaining work and personnel increasingly focused on survival, evacuation, and preserving records and hardware.
On May 2, 1945, von Braun surrendered to U.S. forces in Austria as Nazi Germany collapsed. Within days, Soviet troops captured the Peenemünde area, and the wartime rocket center was largely found damaged or dismantled. This closed von Braun’s early-career period at Peenemünde and set up the postwar transfer of people and expertise to new national programs.
Wernher von Braun's Early Career at Peenemünde (1932–1945)