Kummersdorf
Of course Berlin and its surrounding countryside were also magnets for the military.
There was a ring of military training areas and artillery ranges around Berlin already at the emperor time. But only as of 1933 the erection of a proving ground and a command head office began, this time bigger than the wildest dreams of the Reichswehr (army in the Weimar republic).
But it should start much earlier. The young history of the municipality of Kummersdorf-Gut started shortly after foundation of the German empire. In 1871 during the German French war, the Prussian War Office still took the decision to transfer the shooting range of the artillery board of inspectors located in Berlin-Tegel. The industrial revolution and the progress in military technology made a larger safe distance necessary. Above all a dead-end railway line for purely militarily use was built from Schöneberg via Sperenberg to the "Range Cummersdorf". Even a precursor of the"Autobahn" (motorway) was included as a test track. The test track is a part of the connection to Luckenwalde today.
Increasingly oversized guns like the "Dicke Berta"(fat Berta) , a 42 cm mortars or the 23,2 cm long-range gun were tested in Kummersdorf. The first bombs were also taken technically under the magnifying glass in 1913. However, the "Dicke Berta" proved quite fast to be too good. The range of fire lay considerably over the dimension of the artillery range Kummersdorf anyway. At first country and people were "overshot" to hit a target on the Jüterbog range. Then the huge shells had to be dug from 12 m of depth to examine them. The "Dicke Berta" was then transferred for further proof testing to Markendorf.
After the First World War the location was extended to the probably most varied military technology proving ground of the world. Here the Kraftfahrversuchsstelle (vehicle test place) -Verskraft - was established to advance the military motorization. The submachine gun MP 38 developed by engineer Schmeisser was tested secretly here. In 1932 the German Panzer (tanks) forces were born when a little tractor, the forerunner of the Panzer I, was tested. Besides armed forces technology in the narrower meaning like railway technology, nuclear technology and rocket technology were researched and tested. The place is therefore also connected with Wernher von Braun. In the 1930s von Braun worked as an assistant of the rocket pioneer Gustav Nebel. Nebel wanted to present his rocket to members of the Heereswaffenamt (army weapon office) on the artillery test range Kummersdorf to get further funding. But the test failed with barely 900 metres so that the office refused further payments. The only positive side-effect of the disastrous demonstration was the request of chauffeur and theorist Werner of Braun as a liaison man to the army weapon office. Von Braun is put under the command of Captain Walter Dornberger and set up a testing stand for liquid rockets in Kummersdorf-West. Within four years this group increased to 77 employees. Amongst them were the certified engineer Walter „Papa" Riedel, Heinrich Grünow and Arthur Rudolph. Rudolph,, a party member since 1931, developed a fully automatic liquid rocket engine with the remarkable thrust performance of 300 kg..
Already at the end of 1932 an important next step had been carried out. Rudolph buildt an engine called "oven", based on a memorandum of Brauns about thermodynamics of the beam drive. This "oven" was tested successfully in Kummersdorf for the first time in January 1933. The way to really powerful engines was paved now. The aggregate A 1 which, however, showed weaknesses in balance was constructed in 1933. The further development A 2 was started successfully at the end of 1934 on the island of Borkum. The next step was the A 3. This rocket already had a take-off weight of fivefold of that of the A 1 and developed a thrust of 1 500 kg. Kummersdorf got too narrow for further tests with that. A free, wide field of firering range was needed. Such an area was found at at Peenemünde. (Also see V weapons journey).
The final activities of the war were the use of all captured enemy tanks at the Seelower Ridge as well as the lonely use of one single prototype of the tank "Mouse". Designed by Professor Porsche this type was the heaviest and biggest tank of history. This monster weighed 188 tons. The turret alone was 50 tons heavy. But battle experience remained spared for the mouse. It broke down with mechanical failure on the way to the Oder Front and was blown up.
