Access Badge, Heimat-Artillerie-Park 11 Karlshagen, “EW,” No. 21982.

Oval pin-back zone-access badge from the Army Research Center at Peenemünde, issued under “Heimat-Artillerie-Park 11 Karlshagen,” the site’s wartime cover name from June 1, 1943 to July 31, 1944 (it became Elektromechanische Werke GmbH the following month).

The upper field carries a Heer eagle above a wreathed Nazi Party emblem, blurred in the photograph reproduced here; the center band is numbered 21982; the lower field reads “EW,” for Entwicklungswerk (Development Works), the site’s research-and-development zone.

Peenemünde was divided into access zones with their own badges, signage, and colors, and few employees could enter every area; a related badge in the Historisch-Technisches Museum Peenemünde belonged to engineer Dr. Hellmut Schmid, though nothing ties EW badges to engineers exclusively. Traces of yellow paint remain on the EW field and elsewhere, consistent with the zone color-coding the museum describes, though no source specifies which color marked which zone. Comparable examples have sold at German militaria auction under the same Heimat-Artillerie-Park 11 designation.