Official prison in Saalfeld / Saale

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Exterior view

The Saalfeld / Saale official prison is a former prison in the courtyard of the town hall in Saalfeld / Saale . The building is now used as the city ​​archive and is a listed building . It is popularly known as a hat box because of its eye-catching design .

The tower-like rotunda was built as a prison according to the plans of the Meiningen master builder Carl Rudolf Tröger from 1857 to 1859 and cost 14,500 guilders . On November 25, 1859, it was handed over to the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen as an official prison . The last execution took place in May 1917 , but after the surrender of Germany and the occupation of Saalfeld by the Red Army in 1945, shootings were carried out. In April 1945, 22 of the 43 prisoners were given leave of absence due to bombing raids.

After the Red Army , the US Army had replaced and occupied the city center in 1945, the prison went to the Soviet Military Administration in Germany over and served until 1950 as the NKVD - prison and detention center for political prisoners. Many have been arrested for denunciation and false testimony. Not only NSDAP mayors, local groups and Hitler Youth leaders were imprisoned by the NKVD, but also Volkssturm members and many young people under werewolf accusations and politically dissenters. False "confessions" were obtained through torture. The “hat box” was often only a transit station for transfer to Soviet special camps in the Soviet Zone , later GDR, or to the Gulag in the Soviet Union.

From 1951 the prison was used by Department K of the People's Police District Office in Saalfeld. On August 16, 1951, Wismut buddies stormed the prison and freed two of their colleagues. They had rioted while they were drunk and were locked up for sobering up.

In 1973 the city of Saalfeld took over the building and used it as a city ​​archive after the renovation . On April 12, 1994, the Hutschachtel Friends' Circle installed a memorial plaque for the victims of Stalinism from 1945 to 1950 next to the entrance, and in 2000 a memorial cell with display boards documenting the condition of the cell after 1945. Visits are possible on the "Open Museum Day" or after reporting to the town hall.

  • Dome construction

  • Inside of the building with the memorial cell

  • Overview drawing of a cell after 1945

Web links

Commons : Official prison Saalfeld / Saale  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frank Quilitzsch: hat box as a place of suffering . In: Thüringische Landeszeitung from September 10, 2011
  2. ^ Rudolf Butters: Incidents in the Hutschachtel prison in Saalfeld 1945–1950.
  3. ↑ Information according to the leaflet of the press office of the city of Saalfeld on the city's history and buildings.

Coordinates: 50 ° 38 ′ 50.3 "  N , 11 ° 21 ′ 42.1"  E