ORIGINS

From Kitchen to Soviet Prison

Special Camp No. 3

The brick complex at Genslerstrasse had housed a large kitchen for the National Socialist People’s Welfare organisation since 1939. Soviet forces seized the site in May 1945 and established Special Camp No. 3, using buildings and barracks to hold prisoners and organise transfers to other camps.

Detainees included people arrested for alleged Nazi involvement, suspected opponents of Soviet occupation and others caught through denunciations. Severe overcrowding, inadequate food and poor medical care caused many deaths. The camp was dissolved in November 1946.

Building the Basement Cells

Prisoners were then made to construct cells beneath the former kitchen. From 1947, Soviet security authorities used this windowless basement as a central remand prison. Its bunker-like character gave rise to the nickname “submarine”, or U-Boot.

Wooden sleeping platforms, buckets and continuously burning lights defined the early cells. Survivors described night interrogations, threats, physical violence and sleep deprivation. These accounts explain why the basement belongs to a distinct phase of the site’s history.

INSIDE THE STASI PRISON

Isolation Before the Trial

Detention as an Investigative Tool

A remand prison held people while cases were being investigated, before trial. Hohenschönhausen became the Stasi’s most important such institution. Its detainees included political opponents, dissidents and officials who had fallen out of favour; archival research also records investigations involving Nazi crimes and offences committed by Stasi personnel.

The prisoners’ situations therefore differed, but the investigating authority exercised enormous control over detention. For political detainees, confinement could become part of the effort to produce incriminating statements. The rooms were working components of an investigative system, rather than simply places where people waited for a court appearance.

Pressure Behind Ordinary Doors

From the 1960s, psychological coercion became central to the Stasi’s methods. Prisoners were isolated from one another and kept uncertain about their location. Repeated interrogation and dependence on the authorities could be used to undermine resistance without leaving the same visible injuries as a beating.

This makes the later prison important to examine carefully. A room with a desk and chairs can reveal little on its own. Testimony about how questioning worked explains the coercion behind the apparently ordinary furnishings, and why improved-looking accommodation did not mean protection from abuse.

ACROSS CENTURIES

From Closed Institution to Memorial

The End of the Prison

The peaceful revolution of autumn 1989 brought the Stasi’s power to an end. The prison finally closed with German reunification on 3 October 1990. After decades in which the institution had concealed what happened inside, former prisoners pressed for its preservation as a place of remembrance.

A memorial opened in 1994. Former detainees became central to the work of explaining the site, bringing experiences that official rooms and administrative records could not communicate unaided.

Preservation and Interpretation

Large parts of the prison complex survive, including cells and interrogation rooms. Other elements require explanation: the memorial identifies reconstructed cell fittings in its account of the Soviet basement. A visitor should distinguish surviving fabric from a display created to explain an earlier condition.

The exhibitions combine objects, documents and recorded testimony. Reading these together helps avoid two mistakes: assuming every preserved surface tells the whole story, or treating an individual account as if every prisoner necessarily experienced exactly the same sequence of events.

INTERESTING FACTS

Four Stories Beyond the Cells

A Blank on City Maps

From the early 1970s, East Berlin city maps showed the restricted site as an empty area. Behind its perimeter, the prison was only one of several Stasi facilities. Other departments developed surveillance equipment, hidden cameras and forged passports. The blank space concealed an administrative and technical district as well as a place of imprisonment.

Punished for Recording Punk Voices

Gilbert Furian interviewed East Berlin punks and shared the resulting material privately with friends in the West. Arrested in March 1985, he was taken to Hohenschönhausen and later sentenced to imprisonment. His biography provides a concrete example of how documenting unofficial culture could become the basis of prosecution, rather than leaving political persecution as an abstract phrase.

Women Who Kept It Running

The remand prison relied on prisoner labour for cooking, cleaning, sewing and laundry. The exhibition “Involuntary Community” examines the women assigned to these tasks. Their experiences included hard work, surveillance and informing, but also solidarity and friendship. This history broadens the visit beyond interrogation, showing the labour required to maintain the institution and the relationships formed within it.

Medicine Within State Security

The complex also contained the Stasi’s central prison hospital, treating detainees from across its prison network. Doctors and nursing staff were Stasi employees, and medical confidentiality did not apply. The memorial describes making prisoners fit for trial as the hospital’s primary task. Healthcare therefore operated within the same security institution that controlled detention and investigation.

WHAT TO SEE & DO

Four Parts of the Visit

Examine the Soviet Basement

On the guided prison tour, use the basement to understand the earlier Soviet institution. Notice the absence of windows and ask which cell arrangements survive and which have been reconstructed. The distinction helps connect the physical space with the testimony used to interpret it.

Avoid judging this area only by its nickname. The guide’s chronology explains who controlled it, how it was used and why it should be distinguished from the later Stasi building.

Compare the Later Prison

Continue with your guide into the newer prison’s cells and interrogation rooms, following the route offered on your visit. Compare these spaces with the basement, but listen for explanations of procedures as carefully as for descriptions of architecture. Isolation depended on institutional routines, not solely on cell dimensions or uncomfortable furniture.

Ask how prisoners’ movements and contacts were controlled. This connects the different rooms into a working system, rather than turning the visit into a collection of disconnected interiors.

Listen to Former Prisoners

Set aside time for “Imprisoned at Hohenschönhausen”, the main permanent exhibition. Recorded audio and video accounts give former detainees space to describe imprisonment in their own terms. Historical documents and Stasi training materials add evidence about the institution’s methods and its staff’s view of prisoners.

Choose several accounts to follow closely. Paying attention to a person’s arrest, detention and later life is more revealing than trying to absorb every recording during a hurried circuit.

Explore the Prison Labour Exhibition

Visit “Involuntary Community” independently to examine the former kitchen wing and the lives of women in the prison labour details. The exhibition uses digital interpretation, including interviews and documents, to explain work and accommodation areas that were previously inaccessible to visitors.

This is a separate exhibition experience rather than a guaranteed component of every standard prison tour. Check its access arrangements and allow additional time; the kitchen wing is not wheelchair-accessible.

WHY VISIT?

Understanding the Machinery of Detention

Hohenschönhausen rewards visitors who want to understand how political repression worked after an arrest. The combination of prison buildings, recorded experiences and institutional documents makes it possible to examine detention as a process, with particular rules, spaces and responsibilities. The strongest impression comes from connecting those kinds of evidence.

It complements a visit to the Berlin Wall Memorial: the border explains restrictions on movement, while the prison explains another means of controlling people. Plan a quieter schedule afterwards if you prefer time to reflect. This is a place for sustained attention to individual lives, rather than a brief architectural stop.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Planning Your Memorial Visit

Location and Getting There

The memorial is at Genslerstrasse 66, 13055 Berlin, away from the main sights in Mitte. The official directions suggest tram M5 to Freienwalder Strasse or M6 to Genslerstrasse, followed by a walk. Check your journey before departure; S-Bahn station Hohenschönhausen is not the recommended destination for this visit.

Tours, Tickets and Time

The former prison is accessible only on a guided tour. Book through the official ticket page, selecting the required language; English tours are offered. Guides include former political prisoners and historians, so a survivor-led tour is not guaranteed. Consult the current programme for times and prices.

Allow around two hours for the tour and introductory film, and roughly three hours overall with an exhibition. The latter is an editorial estimate. Exhibitions are free to enter and can be visited independently; check their individual hours and holiday closures.

Accessibility and Visitor Guidance

Lifts serve the basement and newer prison building, but have wheelchair-size limitations; contact visitor services beforehand. The main permanent exhibition is accessible via a lift, while the prison labour exhibition is not wheelchair-accessible. Read the official accessibility guidance for details.

The memorial recommends visits for ages fourteen and above. Follow your guide’s instructions and approach the rooms and testimony respectfully. Check the visitor information before travelling for changes affecting your planned tour or exhibition visit.