[PEENEMUNDE ARMY RESEARCH CENTER]. An archive of photographs of Wernher von Braun and the Peenemünde facility.

Various sizes and formats, mostly 8 x 10 in., gelatin silver prints, inkjet prints and color photographs, housed in a binder. Provenance: Acquired Bonhams New York, 13 April 2010, Sale 17778, Lot 1025.

Comprising some 200 photographs depicting machinery at the Mittelwerk factory, Wernher von Braun immediately following his surrender to the Allies and later photographs during his career at NASA and showing him with General Eisenhower, President Kennedy, and President Johnson. Also with several modern photographs showing the museum at Peenemünde as it appears today.

The Peenemünde Army Research Center was founded in 1937 as one of five military proving grounds for weapons developed by the Third Reich, the most infamous of which being the V-2 rocket, developed under the supervision of Wernher von Braun. With the defeat of the Third Reich inevitable von Braun along with many other scientists involved in the rocket's development opted to surrender to the Allied forces, as they feared being shot by fleeing Nazis or being forced into slave labor camps by advancing Soviets. The research carried out at Peenemünde and at the Mittelwerk factory proved to be instrumental in the development of the respective space programs of the United States and Soviet Union.