German town honours scientist who built V-2 rockets fired on Britain in WWII
Last updated at 16:56pm on 5th February 2008
A German town has been accused of encouraging neo-Nazism after naming a school after a scientist who helped build the V-2 rockets launched against Allied targets during World War Two.
Bernstadt auf dem Eigen has renamed a secondary school in honour of Klaus Riedel, who played a central role in the Nazis' development of the V-2 rocket programme, to mark the centenary of his birth.
The Nazis used thousands of slave labourers to build the V-2, which were fired at Antwerp and London near the end of the war, killing thousands.
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V-2 rockets were responsible for the deaths of nearly 30,000, including those who were forced to build them
Klaus Riedel - pictured here suited and surrounded by Nazis - was a rocket pioneer who worked on the V-2 programme
The first V-2 rocket destroyed Staveley Road in Chiswick, West London, in 1944. It weighed 13 tonnes, killed three, injured 17, and reduced the row of houses to rubble.
On November 25, 1944, a V-2 hit the roof of Woolworths in Deptford, South-East London in the middle of the day, killing 168 people and injuring 122.
The rocket was the first ballistic missile - and it was the first of 1,020 such rockets to hit London until the end of the war.
British intelligence had known about the V-2 rockets in advance, but mistakenly believed their launch sites had been destroyed.
Fourteen rockets fell over London between September 8-18, 1944.
Astrid Guenther-Schmidt, a Green party member of Saxony's state parliament in eastern Germany, said naming the school after Riedel was completely inappropriate and an open invitation to the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD).
"If the NPD find out that there's a monument to one of the people behind the V-2 rocket, then I'd be extremely worried they're going to hold rallies all the time there," she said.
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Damage done to Stavelely Road, Chiswick, after the first V-2 rocket was fired in 1944
The NPD, which has been compared with the Nazi party, enjoys significant support in Bernstadt's state of Saxony and won more than 9 per cent of votes in the last regional election.
A slideshow on the school's website - which has been changed following complaints - mentions V-2 rockets were fired on Britain "killing many innocent people".
"They should make clear forced labourers made the V-2 under the most inhuman conditions, that there were mass executions there every week... and publicly attest to knowing this - then explain why they chose the name," said Guenther-Schmidt.
Historians estimate up to 20,000 slave labourers died due to their work on the V-2, which killed around 8,000 military and civilian personnel before the Third Reich collapsed.
Local mayor Gunter Lange said he stood by the school decision. He insisted Riedel was not a Nazi and deserved recognition for his contributions to rocket science.
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The remains of a V-2 engine, after impact
"The name Klaus Riedel has been a fixture in the town for many years. There's been a monument to him here since the 1990s. There's a crater on the moon named after him. And nobody has ever been bothered by it until now."
Johannes Weyer, an expert on sociological technology studies at Dortmund's Technical University, said Riedel, who developed the V-2's mobile launch pads, had been well aware of what the Nazis were planning.
"These people bear a heavy burden of guilt," he said. "You can't develop rockets for the Nazis and simultaneously be against them. Naming a school after someone who had a leading function on this rocket project raises serious moral issues."
Mayor Lange conceded the choice of Riedel, who died in an automobile accident in 1944, was "problematic" and he would discuss it at the next meeting of the town council.
German town honours scientist who built V-2 rockets fired on Britain in WWII | the Daily Mail
German town honours scientist who built V-2 rockets fired on Britain in WWII
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