The existence of Berlin’s former Nazi Prison Papestrasse is not well known, yet it is the only surviving historical site of early Nazi terror in the city. The former prison is located in General-Pape-Strasse in the Tempelhof district of the city. Between March 1933 and December 1933, shortly after Hitler had come to power, 100 such prisons were established throughout Germany. They were known as detention centers and were forerunners of the heinous Nazi concentration camps that followed.
Former Nazi Prison Papestrasse in Berlin – now a Memorial. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015. www.walled-in-berlin.com
In the Nazi Prison Papestrasse, the Field Police division of the Nazi Sturm Abteilung (Storm Troopers) – the paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party – interrogated and tortured political opponents, Jews and other groups persecuted by the Nazi regime. Over the course of the nine months that the center was in operation, over 2000 people were imprisoned in its cellars. At least 30 lost their lives.
Following World War II, the role the building had played during the war fell into oblivion. It was not until 1981 that area residents began to recall its function during contemporary eyewitness interviews. Following much research, the building, which had largely been spared from the destruction of the war, became a Memorial site in 2003 and opened to the public in 2011.
Conditions in the Nazi Prison Papestrasse
The Field Police utilized the building’s gloomy basement rooms as prison cells and the upper floors as offices and interrogation rooms. Sanitary conditions in the prison were poor. The supply of food and water was inadequate and irregular. The cells were unheated. The floor was partly covered with straw. Prisoners either had to stand or sit on the floor because cots were reserved for seriously injured prisoners. Brutal interrogations were a regular part of detention. Detainees were beaten, tortured and raped. Detentions lasted anywhere from a few days to several weeks or months.
Prison cell in the former Nazi Prison Papestrasse, Berlin. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015. www.walled-in-berlin.com
Use of the building prior to becoming the Nazi Prison Papestrasse
In the year 1841, the railway line between Berlin and Jueterbog, a small town south of Berlin, had opened. After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 to 1871, railways became important to Prussian Railway Regiments because they could transport soldiers and supplies much faster and more efficiently. That prompted the Prussian military to build two new complexes of barracks along General-Pape-Strasse to be used as utility buildings. But because of Germany’s defeat in World War I and the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, the regiments were soon dissolved. Although the buildings remained in state hands, public and private tenants moved in. Then, in 1933, about 180 Field Police moved into one of the former barracks to transform the building into the Nazi Prison Papestrasse.
Papestrasse Memorial
The Papestrasse Memorial is open to the public free of charge. For the most part, the prison cells are still in their original condition. Panels on the walls of the Nazi Prison Papestrasse document the history of the Nazi party. Wall graffiti created by the prisoners is still visible today.
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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.
