Lehesten

Lehesten
Coat of arms
Lehesten
Location of Lehesten within Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district
Coordinates: 50°28′32″N 11°26′53″E / 50.47556°N 11.44806°ECoordinates: 50°28′32″N 11°26′53″E / 50.47556°N 11.44806°E
Country	Germany
State	Thuringia
District	Saalfeld-Rudolstadt
Municipal assoc.	Schiefergebirge
Government
• Mayor	Helmut Färber (SPD)
Area
• Total	35.96 km^2 (13.88 sq mi)
Population (2014-12-31)[1]
• Total	1,746
• Density	49/km^2 (130/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	07349
Dialling codes	036653
Vehicle registration	SLF
Website	www.lehesten.de

Lehesten is a town in the Thuringian Forest, 20 km southeast of Saalfeld.

World War II V-2 facility

After an August 1944 explosion at the Redl-Zipf V-2 liquid oxygen plant at Schlier stopped production, the third V-2 liquid oxygen plant (5000 tons/month)^[2] was built at a slate quarry at Lehesten at the Thuringia-Bavarian border^[3] near Nordhausen (acceptance testing of combustion chamber was also performed at the Lehesten plant).^[2] Dr Martin Schilling (the head of testing at Peenemünde)^[4] located the Lehesten site,^[2] and 400 engineers were moved from Peenemünde to Lehesten, which eventually had 16 liquid oxygen production plants.^[5]

References

1. "Bevölkerung der Gemeinden, Gemeinschaftsfreie Gemeinde, erfüllende/beauftragende Gemeinden, Verwaltungsgemeinschaft/Mitgliedsgemeinden in Thüringen". Thüringer Landesamt für Statistik (in German). 8 September 2015.
2. Ordway, Frederick I, III; Sharpe, Mitchell R (1979). The Rocket Team. Apogee Books Space Series 36. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell. p. 99. ISBN 1-894959-00-0.
3. Neufeld, Michael J (1995). The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era. New York: The Free Press. p. 207.
4. McGovern, J (1964). Crossbow and Overcast. New York: W. Morrow. p. 198.
5. Heike, Hasenaur (October 2008). "Space Pioneers" (pdf). United States Army. p. 6. Retrieved 2008-10-22.