Amthord passage memorial
The Amthord passage memorial in Gera is a place of remembrance for the victims of both German dictatorships and an important point of contact for communication, information and documentation.
The memorial is located in a building that was part of a prison that was built in 1874 and served as a pre-trial detention center until 1989 . The actual cell wing was demolished in 1999. The memorial is located in the former administrative wing of the prison. The memorial and meeting place in the gatehouse of the political prison from 1933 to 1945 and 1945 to 1989 has been open since November 18, 2005.
history
1876-1933
The first evidence of the establishment of a prison on the Amthordübergang can be found in the Gera city chronicle from 1876. A citizen of the city complained that a prison was being built right in the city center. The prison was subordinate to the Princely District Court of Gera, the Principality of Reuss Younger Line . There were 25 cells in the prison in 1879 and it was a kind of family business. The three prison guards stayed in the prison and their wives did the laundry and prepared meals. In 1896 there was a structural expansion. The number of cells was doubled by adding another floor. The adjoining regional court building was also built during this period. The prison served as a pre-trial and judicial prison, detaining criminals of all kinds and executing some death sentences .
1933-1945
The National Socialist dictatorship was a change from a right-wing to a police state . The prison served the Gestapo as a pre-trial detention center. The Gestapo, which collected information about political resistance against the Nazi regime and fought against it, was able to persecute, imprison, torture and murder people without charge or evidence.
1945–1952
On April 14, 1945 around noon, the 1,200 soldiers at the Gera site surrendered. The city was occupied by troops of the 80th Division of the 3rd US Army . After the change of occupation power in Saxony and Thuringia, the Red Army of the Soviet Union marched into Gera on July 2, 1945 . In the course of the extensive denazification of the German population, the Amthordurchgang prison was immediately taken over by the Soviet military police and the Soviet secret service ( NKVD ). Here people were detained for political reasons, tortured and sentenced to long prison terms in special camps for. B. the special camp No. 2 Buchenwald and also sentenced to death. After 1947, many people were imprisoned as so-called “economic criminals” in order to be able to carry out expropriations. After 1950 there were increasing prison sentences for " boycotting ".
1952-1989
Gera became the district capital of the GDR and received a district administration from the Ministry for State Security (MfS). Any form of criticism of the system or the politics of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany was severely punished by the MfS. In Gera, too, people were repeatedly arrested who planned to flee the GDR, tried to do so or were classified as confidants. Every individual critical behavior and participation e.g. B. in the peace and environmental movement , was persecuted and usually ended with imprisonment. In the period from 1952 to 1989 were in this detention center people imprisoned for political reasons by the state security over 2,800.
Since 1989
After the Peaceful Revolution and the fall of 1989, the detention center was closed. After some structural changes, the building was used by the Free State of Thuringia from 1991 to 1999 .
society
The Amthordurchgang Gera eV memorial association was founded in 1997. The purpose of the association is to process and publish the political persecution and resistance under the two German dictatorships. The city of Gera with the former seat of a district administration and pre-trial detention center of the Ministry for State Security is involved in a special way in the historical coming to terms with the past.
In the summer of 1999 it became known that the detention center was to be demolished. The association was committed to the establishment of a memorial and meeting place at the authentic location. Despite massive protests and an occupation, the demolition of the detention building could not be prevented. With the help of numerous supporters, the gatehouse, the entrance and administration wing could be preserved. For the design of a memorial and meeting place, funds from the Fund of the Federal Republic of Germany “Income from the sale of former wall plots” were only available in 2003 and 2004 .
Memorial and meeting place
Due to the long vacancy and the poor structural condition, a complete renovation had to be carried out. Authentic objects were secured from the cell wing and integrated into the exhibition rooms using artistic means. In the memorial there is a permanent exhibition on the history and use of the prison as well as on the historical context of the two German dictatorships on two floors, the basement and outside area. There, the lives of contemporary witnesses are documented and stored in a suitable form for the public. Historical material in written and audio-visual form as well as publications and documentaries are created and shown.
In addition to the opening times, the Amthordurchgang Gera eV memorial association offers special tours, mainly for school classes. Research enables the publication of publications and the creation of video documentation. Readings, lectures and discussions are held regularly at the memorial. An important concern is the care and advice of those affected and the documentation of the experience. The association organizes and realizes various special projects. A fundraising campaign for commemoration in public spaces began back in 1998. This project was implemented in three steps. The design of the stairwell in the memorial was taken over by the artists Tilmann Stachat and Martin Neubert and completed in November 2005. A memorial plaque in memory of the popular uprising on June 17, 1953 was installed in June 2006 together with the city of Gera on the corner of Rudolf-Diener-Strasse and Amthorstrasse. The monument to the victims of political tyranny by Matthias von Hintzenstern was erected together with the city of Gera on Rudolf-Diener-Strasse in April 2007. The monument is designed in such a way that passers-by have the illusion that the silhouette is moving. The result is an interaction between passers-by and the work of art, which is intended to encourage encounters and discussion of the past, present and future.
Web links
literature
- Jürgen Fuchs : Interrogation protocols. Rowohlt, Berlin 1978, ISBN 3-499-12726-1 .
- Karl Wilhelm Fricke : file inspection. Reconstruction of a political persecution. With a foreword by Joachim Gauck . Berlin 1995.
- Hubertus Knabe : The perpetrators are among us. About the glossing over of the SED dictatorship. Berlin 2009 (3rd edition)
- Sergej Mironenko et al. (Ed.): Soviet Special Camps in Germany 1945–1950. Vol. 1, Akademie Verlag 1998, ISBN 3-05-002531-X .
- Hans-Eberhard Zahn : Conditions of detention and production of confessions in the detention centers of the MfS . Series of publications by the Berlin State Commissioner for the Stasi Records Volume 5, Berlin 1997, ISBN 978-3-934085-01-5 .
Coordinates: 50 ° 52 ′ 43.1 ″ N , 12 ° 4 ′ 55 ″ E