Operation Osoaviakhim was a secret Soviet operation under which more than 2,500 former
Nazi German specialists (Специалисты; i.e. scientists, engineers and technicians who worked in specialist areas) from companies and institutions relevant to military and economic policy in the
Soviet occupation zone of Germany (SBZ) and
Berlin, as well as around 4,000 more family members, totalling more than 6,000 people, were transported from former
Nazi Germany as
war reparations to the
Soviet Union. It took place in the early morning hours of October 22, 1946 when
MVD (previously
NKVD) and Soviet Army units under the direction of the
Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD), headed by
Ivan Serov, rounded up German scientists and transported them by rail to the USSR.[1][2][3]
Much related equipment was also moved, the aim being to literally transplant research and production research centers such as the
V-2 rocket center of
Mittelwerk, from Germany to the Soviet Union, and collect as much material as possible from test centers such as the Luftwaffe's central military aviation test center at Erprobungstelle Rechlin, taken by the Red Army on 2 May 1945.
In the night of 21 October 1946, the day following the
1946 Soviet occupation zone state elections as well as the
1946 Berlin state election until 22. October 1946, soviet officers accompanied by a translator as well as an armed soldier stopped by the homes of German specialists, ordering them to pack their belongings. Trucks and trains had been prepared and were standing ready for the immediate transport of around 6,500 people against their will.
1,385 of these specialists had worked in the Ministry of Aviation developing planes as well as jet engines and Surface-to-air missiles,
515 in the Ministry of Armaments, primary concerned with development of liquid rocket engines,
358 in the Ministry of Telecommunications Industry (Radar and Telemetry),
81 in the Ministry of Chemical Industry,
62 in the Ministry of Shipbuilding (gyro and navigation systems),
27 in the Ministry of Agricultural Machinery (solid rocket engines),
14 in the Ministry of Cinema and Photographic Industry,
3 in the Ministry of Petroleum Industry and
107 in establishments of the Ministry of Light Industry.[1]
Key recruits by Operation Osoaviakhim (incomplete list)
Hugo Schmeisser - arms designer, developed the first successful assault rifle,
StG 44.
Werner Gruner - arms designer, known for designing the
MG 42, one of Nazi Germany's main general-purpose machine guns. Became an emeritus professor at
TU Dresden in East Germany.
Helmut Gröttrup - engineer and rocket scientist, worked in the V-2 rocket program. Invented the
smart card in 1967.
Brunolf Baade - aeronautical engineer and former Nazi party member, led the development of the East German
Baade 152, the first jet airliner to be developed in Germany.
Siegfried Günter - aircraft designer responsible for the world's first rocket-powered and turbojet airframes, father of the "thrust modulation theory".
^Simone Trieder (2018), Unsere russischen Jahre. Die verschleppten Spezialistenfamilien (in German), Halle (Saale): Mitteldeutscher Verlag, p. 68,
ISBN978-3-96311-023-8
^Albring, Werner (2016-12-07) [1991 in Germany as Gorodomlia, Deutsche Raketenforscher in Russland]. Gorodomlya Island. German Rocket Scientists in Russia. Translated by Kuhlmann-Walter, Ursula. Books on Demand.
ISBN978-3-74121823-1.
^
abMick, Christoph (2000). Forschen für Stalin. Deutsche Fachleute in der sowjetischen Rüstungsindustrie 1945-1958 [Research for Stalin. German Specialists in the Soviet Armaments Industry.] (in German). Munich:
Deutsches Museum.
ISBN3-486-29003-7.
^Brancke, Käte (1989). Im goldenen Käfig. Unfreiwillig in Russland 1946 - 1952 [In the golden cage. Involuntarily in Russia] (in German). R. G. Fischer Verlag.
ISBN3-89406-064-6.
^Gröttrup, Irmgard (1959) [1958 in Germany as "Die Besessenen und die Mächtigen. Im Schatten der roten Rakete"]. Rocket Wive. Translated by Hughes, Susan. Andre Deutsch.
^Magnus, Kurt (1993). Raketensklaven. Deutsche Forscher hinter rotem Stacheldraht [Rocketry slaves. German scientist behind red barwire] (in German). Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt.
ISBN3-933395-61-5.
^"Deportation aus Berlin", Der Tagesspiegel (in German), Berlin: gemäß
DANA, p. 2, 1946-10-24
^
abAlbold, Bärbel (2007), Sömmerdaer Industriegeschichte 1816 bis 2006 (in German), Erfurt: Sutton,
ISBN978-3-86680-157-8
^Rainer Karlsch (2004), Allein bezahlt? Die Reparationsleistungen der SBZ/DDR 1945–1953. (in German), Berlin: Elbe-Dnjepr-Verlag, Klitzschen, p. 161,
ISBN3-933395-51-8