During the SED dictatorship, the State Security compound on Bautzner Straße in Dresden was the centre of an extensive repressive apparatus responsible for political persecution, imprisonment and psychological torture. This surveillance and detention complex grew in the middle of Dresden's Elbhang neighbourhood, which until then had stood for upscale living with a view of the city and its river. The security apparatuses of the Soviet occupying power and the GDR established their headquarters here for the state of Saxony and later for the district of Dresden. The undestroyed buildings near the barracks complex in the north of Dresden, where the Soviet occupation troops were housed, were henceforth used for the work of the secret services. In the following decades, the security complex grew with the number of its employees and informers. The memorial is an impressive testimony to the lack of freedom in the GDR. A tour of the site shows how the repressive apparatus tried to eliminate its opponents.

The former remand centre has been a listed building since 1994. When it was reopened to the public for the first time in the same year, several thousand visitors came in two days. However, the vacancy of the prison building led to frost damage and vandalism in the following years. In 1997, the association "Erkenntnis durch Erinnerung e. V." was founded, which took over the sponsorship of the future memorial site.

PROGRAMME

10:00 to 16:00
Short guided tours every hour on the hour

10:00-18:00
"Good afternoon! You are under arrest! A walk-in radio play".
Participants seem to get caught up in the turmoil of pre-trial detention. Prison inmates talk about their everyday lives, humiliations, anger and resignation. But the perpetrators also have a voice, be it a fanatical warden or the lieutenant colonel during interrogation.

10:00-18:00
"From the Soviet cellar prison to the camp. Contemporary witnesses talk about their personal fate"
In the audio guide, contemporary witnesses guide visitors through the cellar rooms and describe their personal experiences during imprisonment. In addition to the personal accounts, visitors are introduced to the historical context of the early occupation period.

10:00-18:00
Family programme Search for clues
The exciting search for solutions leads to interesting places within the building.

10:00-18:00
Citizens' counselling and application acceptance with the Stasi Unterlagen Archiv Dresden

10:00-18:00 Drinks and snacks in the cafeteria

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