Federal President Steinmeier visits Hohenschönhausen Memorial

Among other things, Steinmeier viewed two blocks with prison cells, including the "U-Boot" (submarine) with windowless cells in a basement, which was used until the 1960s. During his visit, he also laid a wreath at a monument for the victims of communist tyranny.

Place of Remembrance and Admonition

The Ministry for State Security of the GDR operated its central remand prison in the complex from 1951 to 1989. In total, the Stasi imprisoned around 11,000 remand prisoners in Hohenschönhausen.

Among the Federal President's conversation partners was Renate Werwigk-Schneider. In 1963 and 1967, she had twice attempted to flee the GDR in vain and was subsequently held in remand custody in Hohenschönhausen each time.

Fates of Individual Inmates

Werwigk-Schneider described the prison conditions to the Federal President. "The system was isolation and intimidation," she said. The glass bricks in the cell windows, through which one could not see outside, were particularly distressing for her: "The worst were the glass bricks in the cell window, through which one could not see outside."

After the visit, Steinmeier emphasized that thousands of inmates had suffered terrible injustice in the prison. He stated that it is important to tell young people about this and, at the same time, to give them a warning.

Admonition for the Present

Looking at the present day, the Federal President warned: "Do everything to ensure that conditions (...) of loose arbitrariness instead of the rule of law never return to this country." With this, he linked the historical experience of the SED dictatorship with an urgent political admonition.

The Hohenschönhausen Memorial in Berlin is today one of the central places of remembrance for processing the communist rule in the GDR. The originally preserved cells and interrogation rooms offer visitors a direct insight into the prison conditions of that time.