Bundestag President Klöckner rejects DDR comparisons as absurd and visits Hohenschönhausen Memorial

Visit to the former Stasi prison

Together with members of the Bundestag Presidium, Klöckner visited the Hohenschönhausen Memorial, a former detention facility of the GDR's State Security in Berlin. During a tour, she also had personal accounts shared by contemporary witnesses and thanked them for sharing their experiences of Stasi detention.

During the visit it was noted that more than 11,000 people had been imprisoned at the facility between 1950 and 1989. Klöckner emphasized: "Deutschland darf nie wieder ein Ort von staatlicher Willkür und Gewaltherrschaft werden." At the same time, she pointed out that the experiences from the GDR must today serve both as a warning and as an obligation.

Annual report of the SED Victims' Commissioner

At a first press stop it was said that physical violence had been used against detainees, later it was primarily psychological torment. To this day, many of those affected suffer health consequences from imprisonment and repression, both physical and psychological.

During the appointment, the Presidium also received the annual report from the SED Victims' Commissioner Evelyn Zupke. Zupke praised the nationwide hardship fund, which began its work on November 9, 2025, and from which 300 people have already received benefits. The hardship fund provides individual assistance for former politically persecuted persons, including travel cost subsidies, the purchase of e-bikes, and age-appropriate bathroom conversions.

At the same time, Zupke criticized that not all affected groups were yet being adequately supported. "Die 2025 beschlossenen Gesetze über eine höhere Opferrente und einen Härtefallfonds seien Erfolge. Aber noch nicht alle Gruppen erhalten heute ausreichend Unterstützung", she explained. She called for legal provisions that give those affected access to social compensation law.

Interim balance of the hardship fund

In her new annual report, Zupke devotes extensive attention to state-organized forced doping in the GDR. From 1974 to 1989, between 10,000 and 15,000 young people were regularly doped, mostly with anabolic steroids, without their knowledge or without being informed. The basis for this was the so-called "Staatsplan 14.25," with which the SED leadership wanted to "demonstrate the supposed superiority of socialism".

"Die Menschen wurden dort gnadenlos verzweckt für den Medaillenhunger des Systems", Zupke said. Thousands still suffer the physical and psychological consequences to this day. "Das DDR-Sportsystem hat nicht nur Medaillen und Weltmeister produziert. Das staatliche Zwangsdoping ist verantwortlich für Tausende Menschen, die bis heute an körperlichen und seelischen Folgen leiden."

State-organized forced doping as a second pillar of coming to terms with the past

Zupke therefore advocated regular financial assistance for victims of forced doping. "Unsere Demokratie lässt die Opfer der SED-Diktatur nicht allein", she affirmed. "Unser wiedervereinigtes Land ist auf dem richtigen Weg, die Opfer der SED-Diktatur bestmöglich zu unterstützen und zu würdigen".

The visit to Hohenschönhausen took place a few days before the 65th anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961. Klöckner underscored the symbolic significance of the date and linked it to the responsibility of democracy to keep the memory of the victims alive and to defend the liberal order.