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°E / 50.47556; 11.44806Coordinates: 50°28′32″N 11°26′53″E / 50.47556°N 11.44806°E / 50.47556; 11.44806
Country	Germany
State	Thuringia
District	Saalfeld-Rudolstadt
Municipal assoc.	Schiefergebirge
Government
• Mayor	Helmut Färber (SPD)
Area
• Total	35.96 km2 (13.88 sq mi)
Elevation	640 m (2,100 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	1,723
• Density	48/km2 (120/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.

After an August 1944 [1] explosion at the Redl-Zipf V-2 liquid oxygen plant at Schlier stopped production, the third V-2 liquid oxygen plant (5000 tons/month) was built at a slate quarry at Lehesten at the Thuringia-Bavarian border near Nordhausen (acceptance testing of combustion chamber was also performed at the Lehesten plant). Dr Martin Schilling (the head of testing at Peenemünde) located the Lehesten site, and 400 engineers were moved from Peenemünde to Lehesten, which eventually had 16 liquid oxygen production plants.