Stasi-Gefängnis Berlin-Hohenschönhausen

There is former Soviet special camp and remand prison of the Ministry for State Security or (Gedenkstaette Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen) in Berlin. This is where the secret state police known as “Stasi” (abbreviation for Staatssicherheit, which means State Security) kept their prisoners. I visited this memorial and wanted to share some information about the prison with the Urbanagora readers.

During the reign of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), the number of Stasi employees reached 91,000 full-time and 190,000 unofficial collaborators. With the official and unofficial employees combined, there was one Stasi informant for every 60 East German citizens. This is an extremely high proportion of Stasi in comparison their Soviet counterparts; the Soviet Union had one KGB officer for every 595 citizens. So basically, if you were an East German citizen and were even contemplating doing something against the law—you really better have been careful.*

Who went to Stasi prison? Basically anyone who resisted the GDR was a “hostile element” and was sent to prison. Not only were East Germans detained at the prison, but sometimes West Germans who denounced the GDR were kidnapped and brought to East Germany, and then imprisoned or killed. Many prisoners were journalists, authors, actors, and politicians who merely held beliefs against the government and did not necessarily act on those beliefs. In addition to these political opponents was your everyday, average Joe—(and Jane and her adolescent children, too). For example, my tour guide was a former prisoner. He was locked up in the Berlin prison for a year in 1985 for merely attempting to cross the Hungarian border into the West. He did not even get the opportunity to physically attempt to cross the border, as he was confiscated on the train from East Germany to Hungary; his foolishly purchased one-way ticket roused authorities’ suspicions and they apprehended him on the train. My tour guide was 18 years old at that time.

Life at Berlin’s Hohenschoenhausen Stasi Prison was grim. Up until the late 1950’s, all prisoners were locked up in the unheated basement cells of a former Nazi factory building. These cells were known as “U-Boots” (translated: submarines) because they were cold, damp, subterranean, and bunker-like. Cells varied greatly. There were single cells (about 4’ x 7’) with a wooden bed and a bucket for a toilet. There were 8-person cells (which were just a few feet wider than the single cells) equipped with a bigger wooden bed and a bucket. My tour guide said most prison new-comers waited days before they relieved themselves—as they were embarrassed to defecate in front of seven other people standing less than a foot away. In addition to these two cell types, were the water-torture cells. These cells were lined with water-proof rubber and slowly filled. Prisoners were kept in the pitch-black cells for days.

In the late 1950s, a new prison building with plumbing and heat was built around the old building using prisoner-labor. The new building marked the move from physical violence against the prisoners to psychological methods. Interrogation rooms replaced the 4’x 2’ x 1’ “rooms” in the U-Boots where prisoners had to “stand” for hours on end. In the new building, prisoners were isolated and subjected to the mercy of their captors. Expert interrogators would coerce prisoners to incriminate themselves and loved ones. The prisoners were left for years uncharged and awaiting their fate. In terms of the legality of this captivity, the saying at the prison went—“No person, no problem.” These people were erased.

When East and West Germany legally reunited in 1990, the prisons finally were closed. At the former prisoners urging, the site is now a memorial open to the public.

Aside from the terrible violence—both physical and psychological, what struck me the most about this prison was that truly common people were sent there. People were sent there for just believing in something the government did not. People were sent there just for merely wanting to leave. When I read the life-stories about various prisoners and especially the young journalists in their late teens and early twenties, I couldn’t help but to think that what we do right on this Urbanagora.com website would probably have landed us all in that abomination called Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen.

(*As an aside, it is now possible for former East German citizens to retrieve their Stasi files. My professor here in Germany did this and discovered that her best friend was a Stasi informant and had written many files on my professor and her family. Also, if you are looking for a movie that deals with the subject of Stasi surveillance, I highly recommend the movie “The Lives of Others” (Das Leben der Anderen).)