Gedenkstätte Berlin Hohenschönhausen

Memorial Hohenschönhausen – © Stiftung Gedenkstaette Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen

The Soviets took over a former canteen block in the north-east of Berlin at the end of the Second World War and turned it into a special detainment camp. After the camp was closed in October 1946, the cellar was converted into the main Soviet Secret Police prison for detention and interrogation in East Germany. In 1951 the East German Ministry of State Security (Stasi) took over the prison, added a new prison building in 1961 and, until 1989, used the site as its main remand centre. Thousands of political prisoners passed through this jail, including nearly all the prominent figures opposing the GDR regime. The site formed a kind of headquarters of communist repression in East Germany.
The remand prison was located within a restricted military area hermetically sealed off from the outside world. This area never appeared on any maps of East Berlin.
Today, it would be hard to find another site in Germany so intricately linked with the history of political persecution in the Soviet Occupation Zone and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) as the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial. The memorial can only be viewed as part of an organised guided tour; these are usually led by former inmates.

Infos for school classes

Visiting the former Stasi (East German Secret Police) prison is only possible in the form of a conducted tour. The two-hour tour, usually conducted by former inmates, is a good illustrative way for school pupils to come to grips with the East German dictatorship. Tours for groups of up to 25 pupils cost 25 Euros. The memorial also offers seminars and project days.