Greifswalder Oie is a small island in the Baltic Sea

Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...

, located east of Rügen

Rügen

Rügen is Germany's largest island. Located in the Baltic Sea, it is part of the Vorpommern-Rügen district of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.- Geography :Rügen is located off the north-eastern coast of Germany in the Baltic Sea...

 on the German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 coast. The island covers an area of about 54 hectare

Hectare

The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...

s.

History

Around 1929 Johannas Winkler experimented with small LOX methane rockets off the Island of Greifawalder. (ref. "Reaching for the Stars", Erik Bergaust, Doubleday). The island was a restricted military space from 1936 to 1991, first under control of Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 and then the German Democratic Republic

German Democratic Republic

The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...

 (East Germany). Between 1937 and 1945 numerous rockets were launched from Greifswalder Oie. In an operation designated Lighthouse

Operation Lighthouse (1937)

Operation Lighthouse was the name given to the failed experimental launch of four Aggregate 3 liquid-fuel rockets by Wernher von Braun and Walter Dornberger on the German island of Greifswalder Oie in December 1937.-Background and preparation:...

, Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun

Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun was a German rocket scientist, aerospace engineer, space architect, and one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany during World War II and in the United States after that.A former member of the Nazi party,...

 oversaw attempts to launch A3 rockets in December 1937, each of which failed. Between 1938 and 1942 the island was the scene for the nearly successful launches of the A5 rockets. Also twenty-eight A4/V2 rockets were launched vertically from Greifswalder Oie between 1943 and 1945. These launches were made in order to observe the reentrance of the rockets into the atmosphere. A successful launch of an A4 on October 3rd 1942 penetrated earth's atmosphere and became the first man made object to go into space. The island was known as Peenemunde during WWII and after.

Current condition

As of the 2000s, the islet is an uninhabited sea bird reserve, save for a single man who works the light house, manages the small emergency yacht harbor (depth ca. 1.6m / 6 ft), and creates outdoor art objects that he scatters along a path that circles the island. There is an infrequent ferry service from Peenemünde

Peenemünde

The Peenemünde Army Research Center was founded in 1937 as one of five military proving grounds under the Army Weapons Office ....

 and Karlshagen

Karlshagen

Karlshagen is a Baltic Sea resort in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in the north of the island Usedom. Karlshagen has 3400 inhabitants and lies between Zinnowitz and Peenemuende....

.