Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen

Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen review

A sprawling former remand prison run by the Stasi, the building has a dirty history. Originally the site of a canteen for the Nazi social welfare organ, it was turned into 'Special Encampment No.3' by the Soviets and later expanded by the MfS (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit; Stasi).

Excellent and highly personal guided tours by ex-prisoners take 90 minutes. The inmates were all political prisoners, from the leaders of the 1953 workers' uprising to critical students. The experience is gut-wrenchingly bleak, but a potent insight into how the Stasi operated. On one interrogator's office wall hangs a painting of a fairytale castle, underneath which prisoners underwent horrifying psychological interrogation.