Peenemünde today is an almost ordinary village, situated in the northwest of the former East German peninsula of Usedom. Usedom itself forms the most Eastern part of the German Baltic coast, bordering Poland and covering an area of 445 square kilometers. The the village of Peenemünde had a total of 646 inhabitants in 1983. Most of the visitors come here for the pleasant seaside climate anyway, and they would spend their days at the beaches taking a sunbath or going for a walk. Life in Peenemünde has been dictated by the military for the better part of this century. In August of 1936, work began to build the army testing site in the northern part of the peninsula. In order to keep the secrecy of the location, access to this area was controlled very rigidly. With the end of World War II, the site was taken over by the Soviet Red Army which - in accordance with allied agreements - destroyed whatever they found, provided it wasn't destroyed already. The former army test site, the Heeresversuchsanstalt, is now devided into three parts, covering the most northern part of the peninsula of Usedom. The west now houses a museum which commemorates both Peenemünde's past as a rocket development center as well as its military history during post-war times. Within the compounds of the museum, next to the little harbour basin, lies the test site's own power plant. Towards the middle, a small airport is situated.