Institute Rabe

Institute RABE (Missile Construction and Development in Bleichenrode) 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 and 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 border with American-controlled territory was only 6 km away from the institute. By the end of August, the institute had settled into their headquarters (the former mansion of Wernher von Braun). Late in the fall of 1945 the institute successfully completed their most important covert operation when they retrieved Helmut Gröttrup (the deputy for the electrical system and missile control) 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.