Operation Osoaviakhim

Operation Osoaviakhim was a secret Soviet operation under which more than 2,500 former Nazi German specialists (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 in 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.
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.
The codename Osoaviakhim is the acronym of the then large Soviet organization OSOAVIAKhIM, which recruited civilians for the Red Army during World War II (and later renamed to DOSAAF) which was mistakenly used as "Aktion Ossawakim" for the first time on October 23, 1946, by the broadcaster (DENA) of the US occupying power and adapted by the Central Intelligence Group (CIG), a predecessor of the CIA, as Operation Ossavakim. Another predecessor organization of the CIA, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) used the term Operation Ossavakim for the first time on January 13, 1947. The usage of the codename was not identified in Soviet archives.
The Osoaviakhim campaign served to secure the transfer of know-how and is described in Russia as "Foreign Specialists in the USSR". In some cases, the families of those affected and their furniture were also relocated. In most cases the years in the Soviet Union passed without employment contracts and legitimization through personal documents.
Although much larger in scale, it had some parallels with earlier Allied operations such as Alsos Mission, Operation Paperclip and Russian Alsos, which forcibly moved military specialists between German occupation zones or abducted them to the United Kingdom, USA or the Soviet Union.
Background history
At the end of World War II the Soviet Union had been devastated by Nazi Germany, with 27 million people killed, 1,700 cities destroyed and agriculture production reduced to famine proportions. At the Yalta Conference Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin agreed that war reparations were payable by Nazi Germany in the form of equipment, goods and German labour, with Roosevelt and Stalin agreeing to an amount of $20 Billion, with 50% ($10 Billion) going to the Soviet Union. The Soviets, United States and to a lesser extent British and France all seized "intellectual" repatriations from Germany. The dismantling of German industry also ensured the complete disarmanent of its war potential, as agreed at the Potsdam Conference.
A race between the Allies developed to acquire as many scientists and engineers as possible, particularly nuclear physicists needed for the development of nuclear weapons, followed by Rocket Technology, such as the V2 Missile ('Retaliation Weapon 2') and the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet. Expertise in Gyroscopic instrumentation for inertial guidance and modern advances in airplane construction, such as Turbojet-engines or Swept wings were also sought. Other fields of remarkable interest were, including but not limited to, miscellaneous electronic devices, color film products, chemical weapons and optics. Hiring or abduction of these skilled workers was one of the objectives of the so-called 'Trophy commissions'.
Immediately following the German Instrument of Surrender, skilled workers, documents, laboratories and material were shipped abroad in the western zones of occupation. Among these, the "abduction of German nuclear physicists to Farm Hall" as a part of Operation Epsilon became particularly well known. The Soviet atomic bomb project secured a group of nearly 100 German specialists as Russian Alsos, including Gustav Hertz, Nikolaus Riehl, Peter Adolf Thiessen, and Manfred von Ardenne, and brought them to the Soviet Union "not entirely voluntarily, but without physical pressure".
In the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, the Soviet Union initially set up a large number of design offices, e.g. the Institut Nordhausen in the vicinity of Bleicherode and the Institut Berlin for the reconstruction of German guided missiles. By May 1946 the Soviets founded the Zentralwerke to include both institutes as well as manufacturing and test sites from the earlier Mittelwerk underground factory in the Nordhausen, Thuringia area with more than 6,000 German employees. It was directed by Helmut Gröttrup who had profound knowledge of the V2 intricacies from his work for the V2 development in the Peenemünde Army Research Center.
The operation formally known as Operation Osoaviakhim was decreed on 13 May 1946 under resolution No. 1017-419 by the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union with the objective to accomplish "Transfer of the construction bureaus as well as 2 000 German specialists til end of 1946".
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs commissioned Ivan Serov, Head of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany with the secret preparations. The Soviet Union wanted to ensure full access to German technologies both through the transfer of expert knowledge and the dismantling of the production facilities and their reconstruction in the Soviet Union. In addition, according to the Potsdam Agreement of August 2, 1945, developing and manufacturing weapons in Germany was banned. With the decree of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union No. 1539-686 of July 9, 1946, Stalin laid October 22, 1946 as the start of the dismantling operations.
Operation Ossawakim was unprecedented in its dimensions: in a concerted, secret operation on October 22, 1946, employees of facilities within the entire Soviet zone of occupation were drafted within half a day and 92 freight trains were made available for transport. In detail, for example,
it was presented as follows: Days beforehand, Kurt Magnus noticed unusual bustle of the Soviet military and the arrival of freight trains at the station in Bleicherode. A specialist from Dessau managed to escape hours beforehand. He could not manage to warn his colleagues by telephone; as the telephone network had been shut down. Public transport in Dessau had been suspended as well. – A designer at Zeiss suffered a fatal heart attack when he was informed that he would be transported away.
In the first mention of Operation Ossawakim, a number of companies and facilities were named which were confirmed and supplemented in the follow-up secret orders which are mentioned below. However, so far, the known documents do not entirely match with reality.
The remainder of this article differentiates between:
Facilities of the engine and aviation industry
Optical technologies and glass industry (Jena)
Other institutions (electrical industry, chemical industry, film chemistry, shipping, etc.)
Different institutions were responsible for the handling of respective sectors in Operation Osoaviakhim:
The Ministry of Aviation Industry of the USSR was responsible for the former: These operations affected facilities throughout the Soviet Zone, and those affected commented on their stay in the USSR (see also: biographies section). The Ministry of Armaments of the USSR was responsible for the operations concentrating on Jena, all of those affected remained silent later.
Course and consequences of the transportation
In the night of 21st of 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 those affected and their families to a destination unknown to them.
Altogether it is assumed that around 6,500 people were brought to the Soviet Union, the majority of them
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.
On October 22, the Berlin branch of the Social Democratic Party of Germany protested against the deportation.
On October 24, the Allied Control Council received a complaint from the British representative of the Allied Kommandatura,
along with the consent of the American and French Representatives, condemining the transfer of 400 Berlin specialists,
including residents of the British sector of Berlin, to the Soviet Union as a violation of valid labor laws
as well as violations of human rights. A discussion of the Allied Control Council about
this deportation was adjourned by its coordination committee on October 29 because of
"strong differences about the voluntary or involuntary character of the transports" between the Soviet and
the American and British representatives.
Inside the Soviet occupation zone of Germany and East Berlin all protests were silenced quickly
following a short uproar of the Free German Trade Union Federation.
Both the German and Soviet factory management were surprised by this action.
Despite this, the affected specialists and their families were doing well compared to citizens of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Zone, apart from the suffering of deportation and isolation. The specialists earned more than their Soviet counterparts. The scientists, technicians and skilled workers were assigned to individual projects and working groups, primarily in the areas of Aeronautics and rocket technology, nuclear research, Chemistry and Optics. The stay was given for about five years.
In the following years, equipment from numerous high-tech companies, including those from Carl Zeiss (Jena), Junkers (Dessau) and the Siebel works (Halle), were dismantled and shipped to the Soviet Union.
This was part of the reparations payments agreed upon in the Potsdam Agreement.
The above-mentioned deportation secured the specialists needed for operation and continuation for the
Soviet Union in advance. Their goals were to advance the expansion of the armaments industry, as well as developing nuclear and rocket technology.
For strategic reasons, they also did not want to leave military research and development
in the SBZ, especially since the Potsdam Agreement provided for the demilitarization of Germany.
Historian Daniel Bohse describes it as follows:
Under threat of reprisals, specialists and their relatives were forbidden from handing over, sending or taking written documents back home, such as construction documents and diaries. Nevertheless, some specialists, including Baade and his colleagues did just that, as literature of the development of the first German passenger jet aircraft, the Baade 152 shows.
After this period of intellectual quarantine had passed, the specialists returned to Germany between 1950 and 1958, with the majority of them until 1954. Before leaving, they were taught to keep their years in the Soviet Union secret. Some specialists received chairs in GDR universities (e.g., Werner Albring, Waldemar Wolff), became an East German party official like Erich Apel. Otherwise the GDR had difficulties to offer adequated jobs because the industry was mostly down. Brunolf Baade was given responsibility for developing and producing a passenger jet. A portion of about 10% made it to West Germany, Austria or the USA, among them Fritz Karl Preikschat, Helmut Gröttrup and Kurt Magnus.
The industrial sectors affected by the operation are discussed in detail below.
Jet engine and aviation industry
Initially, so-called experimental design offices (OKBs) were set up in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, which were under Soviet-German management. By the middle of 1946, some of these had developed into extensive development companies, such as the central works (Zentralwerke) in Bleicherode which had several thousand employees. In this respect, the Control Council regulations on the restriction of German research were
handled extremely laxly by the SMAD up to the fall of 1946. Such institutions were transformed into Soviet joint-stock companies (SAGs).
The military strategic importance of these institutions led to conflicts with the Allied treaties which had been agreed upon in the Soviet Zone, which is why certain Soviet leadership considered transferring these institutions to their motherland. This decision was in turn rejected by an opposition in Soviet leadership on the grounds that competitors should not be brought into one's own country. Following these complications, Stalin decided to move specialist personnel and material to the Soviet Union on April 2, 1946.
Rocket designer Sergei Korolev was a technical adviser on the part of the Soviet Union with the rank of colonel, which had been seconded to the Zentralwerke in Bleicherode and involved in this campaign.
On April 19, 1946, secret order No. 228ss was issued by the USSR Ministry of Aviation Industry under Mikhail Khrunichev concerning the details of relocating the German engine and aircraft industry, particularly the relocation of people and material.
Affected facilities
Arado Flugzeugwerke, Branch Brandenburg-Briest
Askania Werke AG, Berlin-Friedenau
BMW, Unseburg bei Staßfurt
DVL, Berlin-Adlershof
Junkers, Dessau
Heinkel-Werke Oranienburg, Oranienburg
Heinkel-Werke, Rostock
Zentralwerke Bleicherode (Merger of Institut Rabe and Institut Nordhausen, and Montania AG, Nordhausen)
Siebel Flugzeugwerke, Halle
Siemens & Halske, Berlin
Airplane-OKB from Halle
Instrumentation-OKB from Berlin
OKB for Engines from Dessau
OKB for Engines from Unseburg
OKB for Diesel from Dessau
Locations of stay in the USSR
Babuschkin near Moscow
Yubileyny,
Khimki, OKB-456
Dserschinsk
Gorodomlya Island – Island located on Lake Seliger, today Solnetschny, also referred to as Gorodomlya Branch of NII-88.
Ilyinsky near Moscow
Liskhimstroi, today Sievierodonetsk and the neighboring town of Rubizhne located in modern day Ukraine
Dubna, today Dubna 3, part of Dubna
Podlipki, today Korolyov, sometimes referred to as Podlipki Branch of NII-88 Dokument CIA-RDP82-00457R007200170003-8
Orekhovo-Zuyevo at the Klyazma River located in Moscow Oblast
Sawjolowo, today part of Kimry located in Tver Oblast
Tushino, north of Moscow
Uprawlentschesk, today part of Samara short called Upra.
Walentinowka
Podberesje
Affected specialists (selection)
In the following List, duration of stay in the USSR is stated, if known.
Dr. , University of Hanover, Hannover (Aerodynamics Expert) (until June 1952)
Erich Apel, Linke-Hofmann-Werke, Breslau (until June 1952)
Friedrich Asinger, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (until 1954)
Brunolf Baade, Junkers, Dessau (from October 1946 to 1954)
Georg Backhaus, Junkers, Dessau
Werner Baum, Peenemünde Army Research Center, Karlshagen
Josef Blass, Arado Flugzeugwerke, Branch Brandenburg an der Havel
, Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt, Berlin-Adlershof (until 1954)
Hans Ulrich Brancke, Junkers, Dessau (until June 1952)
Helmut Breuninger, Askania Werke AG, Berlin-Friedenau (until February 1958)
Werner Buschbeck (1900–1974), Telefunken (Head of Transmitter development), Berlin
Rudolf Coermann, Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt, Berlin-Adlershof (Telemetry Specialist) (until June 1952)
Gerhard Cordes, Junkers, Dessau
, Radarspezialist, Institut Berlin (until 1958)
Norbert Elsner, TH Dresden, Dresden (until June 1952)
, AEG-Kabelwerk Oberspree, Berlin-Oberschöneweide (until 1951)
, Ernst-Orlich Institut, Danzig (until 1956)
Hellmut Frieser, TH Dresden, Dresden (until June 1952)
Karl-Hermann Geib, Leunawerke, Leuna
Siegfried Günter, Heinkel-Werke Oranienburg, Oranienburg (until 1954)
Helmut Gröttrup, Peenemünde Army Research Center, Karlshagen (until November 1953)
Heinz Hartlepp, Askania Werke AG, Berlin
, TH Dresden, Dresden, und Junkers, Dessau (until June 1954)
Paul Herold, Leunawerke, Leuna
Dr. Johannes (Hans) Hoch, University of Göttingen, Göttingen (Chief Designer - Guidance and Control) (Died 1955 in the USSR)
Heinz Jaffke (Construction of Testing Facilities) (until June 1952)
Alois Jasper, Mittelwerk GmbH (Final assembly) (until November 1953)
, Telefunken and Askania Werke AG, Berlin (until February 1953)
Prof. , Versuchsstelle des Heereswaffenamts für Raketenversuche, Gottow (until June 1952)
Kurt Kracheel, Ingenieurschule Gauß, Berlin
Peter Lertes, Askania Werke AG, Berlin
Kurt Magnus, University of Göttingen (until November 1953)
, TH Dresden, Dresden (until June 1952)
Fritz Preikschat, Gesellschaft für elektroakustische und mechanische Apparate (GEMA), Berlin-Köpenick (until June 1952)
Karl Prestel, BMW, Unseburg bei Staßfurt
Heinz Rössing, Siebel, Halle
Alfred Scheibe, Junkers, Dessau
Rudolf Scheinost, BMW, Staßfurt
Prof. , University of Greifswald, Greifswald (Guidance) (until November 1953)
, Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke, Rostock (until 1954)
Werner Schulz, Peenemünde Army Research Center, Karlshagen (until June 1952)
, Junkers, Dessau (until 1954)
Willi Schwarz, Peenemünde Army Research Center, Karlshagen
Heinrich Singer
Karl Viktor Stahl (Specialist for starting procedures)
Konrad Toebe, Arado Flugzeugwerke (Structural design of rockets, Statics)(until June 1952)
Dr. Karl-Joachim Umpfenbach, Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt, Berlin (Chief Designer - Propulsion) (until November 1953)
Fritz Viebach, Peenemünde Army Research Center, Karlshagen (until November 1953)
, DeTeWe Deutsche Telephonwerke und Kabelindustrie AG, Berlin (until June 1952)
, Junkers, Dessau
Kurt Wohlfahrt (until November 1953)
Dr. Waldemar Wolff, Krupp, Essen (Chief Designer) (until June 1952)
Optical and glass industry
While extensive literature regarding the aforementioned specialists exists,
this is not the case for the optics and glass specialists from Jena.
The corresponding Soviet Order in dealing with the Carl-Zeiss-Works and the
Jenaer Glaswerk Schott & Gen. in Jena was dealt was secret order No. 186 of the
USSR Ministry of Armaments of July 16, 1946.
While research and development in the engine and aircraft industries were the focus
of Soviet interest, in Jena's optical and glass industries both R&D
and the construction of adequate production lines were also of importance to Soviet interest.
In addition to the deportation of development personnel, this also resulted in the deportation
of production personnel to train Soviet specialists and the extensive deportation of production equipment.
This in turn meant that Jena was no longer able to pay the reparations demanded by the Soviet
side with the remaining means of production, which led to differences between the SMA of the
SBZ and Moscow. Ustinow originally intended to liquidate the Zeiss works,
which the Soviet side (paying reparations for) and the willingness of the Zeiss workforce to
rebuild did not allow for.
Even so, the Zeiss works were hit very hard by this action, as that they were looted by US troops in
the months after the end of the Second World War as part of the so-called Carl Zeiss works
mission and even more important parts of the works had been transferred to the American occupation zone.
Affected facilities
Carl Zeiss AG, Jena
Jenaer Glaswerk Schott & Gen., Jena
Locations of stay in the USSR
Izium
Leningrad, NII-380
Lytkarino
Moscow
Novosibirsk
Kyiv
Krasnogorsk
Kolomna
Zagorsk, today Sergiyev Posad
Affected specialists (selection)
Horst Anschütz
Oskar Bihlmeier
Paul Gänswein
Dr. , TH Dresden und Zeiss Ikon, Dresden (until 1952)
Karl Gundlach
Georg Günzerodt
Prof. (until 1952)
(until 1953)
, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Jena (until 1953)
Alfred Krohs
Dr. Konrad Kühne
Karl Linnemann
Franz Peter
Artur Pulz
Willy Röger, Carl Zeiss Jena
Herbet Schorch
Wilhelm Friedrich Gottfried Schütz, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Harald Straubel
Walter Süss
Robert Tiedecken
Hermann Weber (DKW Engineer) who died in captivity on 23 February 1948)
Fritz Winter
Karl Papello, Carl Zeiss Jena (until 1952)
Other affected facilities (incomplete)
Details as mentioned above are not known in this section.
AEG-Kabelwerk Oberspree
Hentschel, Staßfurt
Filmfabrik Wolfen
Farbfilmkopierwerk Sovexportfilm Berlin
Telefunken, Berlin
Wirkwarenfabrik Kötschen, Apolda
Rheinmetall, Sömmerda
Heavy Industry located in Chemnitz
GEMA (Gesellschaft für elektroakustische und mechanische Apparate), Berlin-Köpenick
Werke der IG Farbenindustrie AG: Leuna-Werke in Leuna, Buna-Werke in Schkopau, Farbenfabrik Wolfen, Elektrochemisches Kombinat Bitterfeld in Bitterfeld, Werke Ammendorf in Ammendorf, Werk Böhlen in Böhlen
Locations of stay in the USSR (selection)
Svema in Shostka, Ukrainian SSR, Filmfabrik Wolfen#After World War II
Gorki
Zheleznodorozhnaya
Affected specialists (selection)
, AEG-Kabelwerk Oberspree
Paul Kotowski, Telefunken, AEG-Kabelwerk Oberspree
, AEG-Kabelwerk Oberspree (until 1952)
, Labor, Konstruktionsbüro und Versuchswerk Oberspree (LKVO) (until 1952)
Alfred Rieche, I.G. Farben, Wolfen (until 1951)
, Farbfilmkopierwerk Sovexportfilm Berlin (until 1950)
, Technisches Projektbüro Berlin, Berlin-Schöneweide (until 1952)
Collection of contemporary press articles
Key recruits by Operation Osoaviakhim (incomplete list)
Hugo Schmeisser - arms designer, developed the first successful assault rifle, StG 44.
Karl-Hermann Geib - physical chemist who, in 1943, developed the Girdler sulfide process which is regarded as the most cost-effective process for producing heavy water.
Erich Apel - former rocket engineer at the Peenemünde Army Research Center, worked in the V-2 rocket program with Wernher von Braun.
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.
Ferdinand Brandner - aerospace designer and former SS Standartenführer (colonel), played a major role in the development of the Kuznetsov NK-12 turboprop engine used on Tupolev Tu-95 bombers.
Hans Wocke - airplane designer, former chief developer at Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works.
Siegfried Günter - aircraft designer responsible for the world's first rocket-powered and turbojet airframes, father of the "thrust modulation theory".
Friedrich Asinger - chemist and former Nazi party member well known for his development of a multi-component reaction, the Asinger reaction for the synthesis of 3-thiazolines.
Alfred Rieche - chemist who discovered the Rieche formylation, a type of formylation reaction.
Fritz Karl Preikschat - electrical and telecommunications engineer, invented an improved dot matrix printing teletypewriter.
See also
Allied plans for German industry after World War II
German influence on the Soviet space program
Neo-fascism
Neo-Nazism
Operation Paperclip, USA operation on German specialists
Other literature
References
Germany–Soviet Union relations
Brain drain
Science and technology in the Soviet Union