The last days of the Third Reich saw a burst of "Wunderwaffen" conceived to turn the certain fate of the perishing regime. Operation "Colubrid", Unternehmen "Natter", was one of the very few that actually were turned into reality: The Bachem Ba 349, an armed manned rocket, was intended to intercept bomber fleets. Some test flights were completed, and some launch pads were built in March 1945, but the further course of the war made the weapon obsolete. The project was the first to implement basic principles of manned rocket-driven space flight.
Two of formerly three existing launch pads at the site, arranged in the shape of a triangle, were recently destroyed by rail line construction works.