In 1942, the head of the rocket development facility, Dr. Wernher von Braun, was looking for qualified staff with above-average knowledge of structural engineering to set up a structural analysis department ¹. In the spring of that year, several hundred engineers, technicians, and skilled workers were drafted from the armed forces and detached to Peenemünde and assigned to Versuchskommando Nord (VKN) to work on the rocket program. The VKN barracks accommodated in both living quarters and offices.
Barracks
Versuchskommando Nord, abbreviated VKN, was located North of Karlshagen and West of the former railway line to Peenemünde Army Research Center during World War Two. The camp consisted of 12 U-shaped wooden barracks aligned along the U-shaped camp grounds.
Main building
On the southwestern side of the camp was a main building with offices and personnel facilities and an observation tower.
Post war
After World War Two the buildings were used by the Soviet army, then by the NVA and even briefly by the Bundeswehr until it was abandoned in the late 1990s.
The site today
The camp was demolished somewhere between 2024 and 2025. When we were there much of the site had fallen into decay as you can see on the pictures. Especially the brickwork of the large observation tower of the main building that was on the verge of collapsing made it very dangerous to visit. So it is understandable that it was taken down.
Still, a valuable historic site has been lost. A site where many prominent engineers and technicians served the Third Reich and later grew to become important figures in their field of work.
The site was not mentioned on the information displays of the Peenemünde Historical Technical Museum.
¹ Klaus Stiglat, Bauingenieure und ihr Werk – Friedrich Wilhelm Bornscheuer p. 91 (ISBN 3433016658, 9783433016657, John Wiley & Sons, 2004)
