Institute Rabe
Institute RABE was a Soviet missile research group created to recreate the A-4 flight control system with the help of German rocket specialists. It was created in July 1945 in Bleicherode when the Red Army took over Thuringia as part of the Soviet occupation zone. It originally consisted of 12 Germans under Major Boris Chertok and Lieutenant Colonel Aleksey Mikhaylovich Isayev. The Institute RABE was also created with the purpose of recruiting German rocket specialists to aid in current and future Soviet rocket development. This mission had to be kept secret, as the American-occupied territory of Hesse and Bavaria was not far away away from Lehesten, the testing site for rocket engines.
By the end of August 1945, the institute had settled into their headquarters. In August 1945, the institute successfully completed their most important covert operation when they retrieved Helmut Gröttrup from American territory along with his family. In February 1946 the Institute RABE was absorbed into the larger Institute Nordhausen, which had the goal of recreating the entire German A-4 rocket. In October 1946, during Operation Osoaviakhim, the Institute RABE and many other sites for the development of weapons and aircraft in East Germany were closed and more than 2,200 German specialists removed at gunpoint.
