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Birth of the Institute RABE
From the author’s archives.
The former Villa Franka, where Wernher von Braun stayed after evacuating Peenemünde, and home
to Major B. Ye. Chertok for eighteen months.
“Oh, for that you need to go down into the basement and heat up the boiler.”
Isayev could not restrain himself.“Come on, let’s go light it now.”
In the basement there was a large bunker filled with coal. We heated up the
boiler and each of us luxuriated in a separate bathroom. Next, wrapped up in fluffy
bathrobes (where did they get this stuff?!), we went down into the library and celebrated
our new digs over an improvised lunch.
For almost a year,Villa Franka in Bleicherode was converted into an officer’s
club and headquarters where we summed things up, developed plans of action,
broke bread together, and celebrated holidays. It is difficult to remember who
came up with the idea of calling our breakaway group—which for the time
being consisted of twelve Germans under the command of Lieutenant Colonel
Isayev and Major Chertok—an institute.The Germans were delighted with this
idea and announced that they could quickly put together specialists and an entire
staff. But what should we call this new invention? After a brief “Soviet-German”
discussion, we came up with a name: the Institute RABE.The precise translation
of the German word Rabe is “raven.” Our acronym stood for Raketenbau und
Entwicklung Bleicherode (missile construction and development in Bleicherode).
Our “cover” had emerged—we became a place where German specialists scattered
by the war could take refuge.
This was clearly a guerrilla operation on our part that could lead to diplomatic
complications with the Allies, especially since the border was only six kilometers
away, and immediately beyond the border was a town where, according to our
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