Posts Tagged ‘Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen prison’

Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen Prison – Part 2

Monday, November 16th, 2015

 

Last week I wrote about the history of the dreaded Stasi prison Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen http://walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/berlin-hohenschoenhausen-prison-part-1 Today I will share my personal impressions after touring the former prison buildings.

My impressions of Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to take one of these guided tours of the Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen Memorial. Our guide was a West German woman who had been incarcerated here because of a romantic involvement with an East German man. Her account of the psychological intimidation methods employed by the Stasi was truly chilling. We were told that the overall goal of the Stasi was to destabilize prisoners and to make them feel powerless. To that end, prisoners were completely sealed off from the outside world and never even told where they were being held. They were strictly isolated from their fellow prisoners, and interrogations and manipulation to extract information were harsh. They involved isolation, sleep deprivation, water torture and threats to friends and family members.

Typical Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen prison interrogation room, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

Typical Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen prison interrogation room, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

Walking through the prison, we came to realize that the cells had no windows. The only air exchange occurred through a few small holes in the bottom of the cell doors. These doors had a small, latched openings through which the guards observed the prisoners. Even the cell toilets could be viewed through these openings. We also visited a padded room that had neither windows nor corners. Its purpose was to play havoc with the prisoners’ sense of orientation.

Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen observation window into prison cell, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen observation window into prison cell, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

The average prison stay at Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen was six months, although some prisoners were held captive without trial for years. Interrogators were trained psychologists who had been briefed on the prisoners and their families and used sophisticated methods to break down defenses. Their methods were so successful that a third of all Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen prisoners were informants by the 1980s.

From personal recollections our guide added that lights were turned on and off at regular intervals throughout the night and that the guards awakened prisoners who did not maintain the “approved” sleep position. All prisoners were expected to sleep on their backs with their hands on top of the blanket. The Stasi did not allow any kind of contact between inmates. If a prisoner was lead through the corridor to an interrogation room and his path crossed that of another inmate, both were required to turn to the wall so that they could not get even a brief glimpse of each other. To reduce the chance of such encounters in the first place, a red and green signal on the ceiling indicated whether a prisoner was allowed to walk on or not.

Signal light at Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen prison indicating whether or not a prisoner was allowed to walk, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

Signal light at Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen prison indicating whether not a prisoner was allowed to walk, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

The closing of Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen

Unlike many other government and military institutions in East Germany, demonstrators did not storm the Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen prison after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In fact, prison authorities had time to destroy numerous pieces of evidence of the prison’s history. Therefore, today’s understanding of the methods employed at Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen comes mainly from eyewitness accounts and documents maintained by other East German institutions. It is estimated that more than 91,000 full-time Stasi employees and 189,000 unofficial collaborators maintained close, repressive surveillance over the East German populace until the Berlin Wall fell.

http://www.wired.com/2010/10/phillip-lohoefener/

 

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic and current events, people, places and food.

Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.

Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen Prison- Part 1

Monday, November 9th, 2015

Between 1951 and 1989 East Germany’s deeply feared State Security, the Stasi, operated a notorious political prison in Hohenschoenhausen. Located in Berlin’s northeastern district of Lichtenberg, some 40,000 political prisoners passed through the sprawling compound’s gates during its 38-year operation. Few people actually knew of the prison’s existence because the prison was located within a large, restricted military area and hermetically sealed-off from the outside world. It never even appeared on any East Berlin map. http://www.visitberlin.de/en/spot/gedenkstaette-berlin-hohenschoenhausen

History of Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen

In 1939, the Hohenschoenhausen compound was built as a canteen. In June 1945, at the conclusion of World War II, the Soviet Secret Police took over the area, transformed it into a detainment camp and called it Special Camp No. 3. During the winter of 1946-1947, the Soviets turned the camp into a prison and converted the cafeteria into an underground prison area.

Original Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen prison building, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

Original Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen prison building, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

In 1951, the Ministry of State Security (Mfs) – better known as the Stasi – reopened the prison. In the late 50s, using prisoner labor, they added an additional building. It included 200 prison cells and interrogation rooms. The Stasi also converted the existing cafeteria. It became known as the “U-Boot” (submarine) among inmates because the Stasi applied water torture in some of its cells. Employing predominantly psychological torture to break the prisoners’ resistance and will, Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen functioned as a prison until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Most of the prisoners had tried to flee or emigrate from East Germany or had been persecuted due to their political views. The compound officially closed on October 3, 1990, the day of German reunification.

Expanded Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen prison building, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

Expanded Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen prison building, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen Memorial

In 1995, the Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen Memorial (Gedenkstaette Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen) opened on the site of the former East German political prison. On the initiative of its former Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen inmates, the compound has become a registered memorial site. To help us comprehend the extent and methods of political persecution in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany), former prisoners conduct guided tours. In 2013, a museum opened as well. It displays close to 500 objects that tell the stories of those who were imprisoned here. The Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen Memorial is open year-round.

Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen Memorial from the outside, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen Memorial from the outside, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

Read about my impressions of to Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen in next week’s blog. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/berlin-hohenschoenhausen-prison-part-2

 

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic and current events, people, places and food.

Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.