Memorial at Lindenstrasse 54/55

Street front of the memorial

The Lindenstrasse 54/55 memorial in Potsdam commemorates the political persecution in both German dictatorships. The house, popularly known as the "Lindenhotel", served as a remand prison for political prisoners during the Nazi era and was taken over by the Russian secret service KGB and later the state security in the same function after the war . After the political change it was used as the House of Democracy and from 2007 as a memorial.

The courthouse

Cell block

patio

Prison yard

From 1733 to 1737 the building was built as the "Great Dutch House" by order of the soldier king. It was a baroque city palace and was inhabited by the commander of the life guards. In addition to the residential building, the 2000 m² area also included stables and utility buildings.

During the Napoleonic occupation it was used as a clothes closet and horse hospital. The Prussian reforms in 1808 led to a complete rededication of the building. One aspect of the reforms was the introduction of local self-government . In 1809 the house became the first meeting place for the first freely elected city council meeting, whereby freely elected must be restricted to the effect that only men were eligible to vote and a census and city citizenship were required.

From 1820 the house was used as a city court and also as a prison. For this purpose, the main house was converted into a courthouse and the outbuildings into prison cells. In the middle of the 19th century, the Potsdam District Court replaced the City Court as a user.

The time of National Socialism

In 1935, the National Socialists set up a “ hereditary health court ” in the building . Its task was to decide in a seemingly judicial manner on the compulsory sterilization of persons according to the law for the prevention of hereditary offspring . The decisions were typically purely a matter of form. The court followed the expert's recommendation in the vast majority of cases.

From 1939 the house was also used as a remand prison for political prisoners . Since the People's Court was also relocated to Potsdam after its seat in Berlin was destroyed, a large number of members of various resistance groups were detained in Potsdam , sentenced and later executed elsewhere.

Torture prison during the Soviet occupation

The Soviet occupying power took over the remand prison in 1945 and continued it as the NKVD's secret service prison . Thousands of unpopular Germans who were critical of the regime in the Soviet occupation zone were sentenced to death or to work in Gulags by a military tribunal of the occupying power . In 1945 people were initially arrested who were accused of membership in National Socialist organizations and complicity in their crimes. In many cases, innocent people were arrested on the basis of denunciations (e.g. on charges of werewolf activity). After a short time, the direction of the arrests changed. Now mainly people who opposed the building of a communist dictatorship and offered resistance were arrested . These allegations were not investigated according to the rule of law . Rather, the aim of pre-trial detention was to obtain confessions through inhumane conditions. For this purpose, the unheated cells were massively overcrowded. The prisoners, weakened by malnutrition , did not receive any medical care. Contacts with the outside world were consistently cut off. Interrogations generally took place at night. Since sleep was prohibited during the day, sleep deprivation was used as a form of torture . Other forms of torture were also used. The conditions of detention resulted in a large number of deaths while in custody. At the end of the pre-trial detention there was a court case, which in the vast majority of cases led to long-term labor camp sentences. Death sentences were also imposed. Acquittals only occurred in rare exceptions.

Stasi remand prison in the GDR

The Ministry of State Security took over the prison in 1953. A Stasi remand prison was set up in each of the 16 districts of the GDR. The "Lindenhotel" served this purpose in the Potsdam district . While the other Stasi remand prisons were on the outskirts of the respective locations, Lindenstrasse is in the center of the city. The NKVD had erected a two-meter-high, secrecy fence that cordoned off the sidewalk in front of the building. It was later replaced by an iron chain that prevented unauthorized access to the building. This should make it impossible for the population to get an idea of the events in the prison.

Even among the new operators, only political prisoners were held in Lindenstrasse. Over time, however, the conditions of detention improved noticeably compared to the years immediately after the war. Until the end of the GDR, however, the arbitrariness to which the prisoners were exposed remained unchanged.

The number of political prisoners in prison reflected the political situation in the GDR. After the popular uprising of June 17, 1953 , the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 and the fall of the Prague Spring in 1968, the number of prisoners rose noticeably.

The turn

After the political change in 1989, the remand prison was closed and the prisoners released. The house was used as the "House of Democracy". In this house, the newly formed political groups such as the New Forum or Democracy Now were given rooms for their political work.

Today the rooms of the former courthouse are used by the monument protection authorities and those of the prison as a memorial.

The memorial

Monument The victim

The building complex was declared a memorial site in 1995 due to a decision by the Potsdam city council. The Potsdam Museum is responsible for the administration of this memorial . The memorial is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday. Prison cells are shown in the furnishings of the respective times, the living conditions of the prisoners and the fate of individual victims.

In April 2011 the memorial area was expanded to include the permanent exhibition “Escape to the West”. It is informed about the different ways in which GDR citizens wanted to leave their country.

The sculpture The Sacrifice is located in the prison yard . The bronze work of art was created by Wieland Förster in 1995 and is dedicated to the victims of violence.

Web links

Commons : Gedenkstätte Lindenstrasse 54/55 - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

literature

Gabriele Schnell (Ed.): The "Lindenhotel". Reports from the Potsdam secret service prison . 3rd expanded edition. Ch. Links, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86153-530-0 .
Gabriele Schnell and Hans-Hermann Hertle : Lindenstrasse Memorial. From the House of Terror to the Potsdam House of Democracy. Ch. Links, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-86153-803-5 .

52.400533333333 13.052294444444Coordinates: 52 ° 24 '1.9 " N , 13 ° 3' 8.3" E