The Sun Gun. Nazi Space Based Weapon.

via Wikipedia.

Later during World War II, a group of German scientists at a research centre in Hillersleben began to expand on Oberth’s idea of creating a superweapon that could utilize the sun's energy. This so-called "sun gun" would be part of a space station 5,100 miles above Earth. The scientists calculated that a huge reflector, made of metallic sodium and with an area of 3.5 square miles, could produce enough focused heat to make an ocean boil or burn a city.[1] After being questioned by Allied officers, the Germans claimed that the sun gun could be completed within 50 or 100 years

Absolutely ... weird and wonderful.  An interesting exercise would be to make a fictional world (if it hasn't already been done) where the Nazi's won the second world war and actually developed all these wonder weapons.  I'm curious as to how the world would have turned out...if it survived that is.

More reading on the actual project can be found at the False Steps Blog...you should subscribe.