Hoheneck (prison)

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Former women's prison Hoheneck

The Hoheneck women's prison and the Hoheneck women's prison - during the GDR era: Prison facility (StVE) Stollberg (Hoheneck) ; when it was founded in 1862, the Royal Saxon Women's Breeding Institute - was a prison at Hoheneck Castle in Stollberg / Erzgeb from 1862 to 2001 . in the Saxon Erzgebirgskreis .

The name "Hoheneckerinnen" became a synonym for women imprisoned for political reasons in the GDR. According to scientific projections, around 25,000 women were imprisoned in Hoheneck, around 8,000 of whom were political prisoners. There were cells for solitary confinement and dark confinement .

prehistory

The building stands on the foundation walls of a hunting lodge from the 16th century, which in turn was built on the ruins of a medieval border fortress, the "Staleburg", which gave the place Stollberg its name. In the 17th century the castle was used as a remand prison, for the purpose of which a new keep (today's clock tower) was built in the Hohe Eck , from which the new name of the castle and the later settlement of Hoheneck was derived.

history

Until 1945

In 1862 the prison was first mentioned as the Saxon women's penitentiary , later it was temporarily used as a prison for men and a reserve hospital during the First World War.

The National Socialists briefly used the prison in 1933 for men in political protective custody . After that it was still used as a penitentiary for regularly convicted "criminals", including anti-fascist resistance fighters.

1945-1989

Immediately after the end of the Second World War, members of the Volkssturm and the werewolf were initially imprisoned in what was later to become the Central Women's Prison of the GDR , but also those apprehended by the Soviet military administration, who often came to Hoheneck without due process for minor offenses. The supply of prisoners was catastrophic at that time, epidemics and hunger decimated the number of inmates (especially in the winter of 1945/46) or led to early release due to incapacity to die at home.

In 1950 the Soviet military tribunals relocated 1,119 women from special camps No. 4 Bautzen and No. 7 Sachsenhausen to Hoheneck. The prison, designed for a maximum of 600 prisoners, was overcrowded for the first time. Hoheneck became a prison for women imprisoned for political reasons. There were also around 30 infants born in the camps in the prison area. A few weeks after the birth, they were separated from their mothers and distributed as "children of the state government" to children's homes in the GDR. At least 27 children were born in Hoheneck up to 1952, but not all of them survived imprisonment. After a few weeks, these children also came to children's homes in the GDR.

In 1953, imprisoned women went on hunger strike to seek better conditions and a review of their convictions. This also partially succeeded and from 1954 to 1956 some women were made redundant. However, they were forced to keep silent about the time of imprisonment under threats of punishment. The women in prison had to work in a three-shift system, for example in bed linen and stocking production for Western exports.

In the 1970s, up to 1,600 women were temporarily locked up in Hoheneck, a thousand more than anticipated. Some had to sleep on the floor. Military drill, beatings and harassment against inmates were common. The punishments in Hoheneck were draconian, there was arrest in the dark cell for the slightest offense. The amalgamation of political prisoners (multiple applications to leave the country , attempted “ illegal border crossing ”) with violent criminals, including murderers , made the penalties worse. The merging of the "political" with violent women had a system. They should be deliberately intimidated. In the course of efforts to gain international recognition for the GDR, the prison conditions were fundamentally changed in 1983 after inspections by UN commissions in the GDR prisons. Up until about mid-1989, 400 women were held annually, around 30 percent of them political prisoners. Until then, all the were ransom provided women over Hoheneck led what a prison's own branch of the Ministry of State Security made necessary.

In November 1989, after the fall of the Berlin Wall , there was an amnesty for the last political prisoners in the GDR. After a prisoner revolt in December 1989, some of the criminal offenders were also given amnesty. The exact number of women imprisoned during the GDR era is not known.

Since 1990

In 1990 Hoheneck was continued as the only women's prison in Saxony. Mid-90s were in the west wing of the prison also housed male prisoners (short sentences). Was fully Attracted criminal detention for female and male as well as custody and juvenile detention for female convicts. In late April 2001, the prison was closed and the last of the prisoners were transferred to other prisons.

Memorial stone in front of the former women's prison of the GDR in Hoheneck

In 2002 the Free State of Saxony sold the former women's prison to the Saarland businessman Bernhard Freiberger. The planned conversion of the area into a leisure and recreation complex failed due to economic difficulties and the resistance of the victims' associations , who saw the character of the memorial site endangered. A working group of political prisoners is now involved in an advisory capacity.

In 2014, the city of Stollberg bought the complex back and has been planning a small memorial site for political imprisonment in the west wing of the cell in addition to a sports facility and the Burattino children's theater since 2019. The opening is not planned until spring 2022 due to new excavations.

Known inmates

In the GDR period:

such as:

  • Paul Lange , trade unionist, publicist and politician, from 1905 to 1906
  • Franz Boldt , trade unionist, communist local politician and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime, in 1933 by the Nazi regime

and

literature

Radio

Web links

Commons : Hoheneck Women's Prison  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1] Dissertation Dr. Sebastian Lindner in Lausitzer Rundschau, April 15, 2013
  2. ↑ [2] Seb. Lindner, BStU: Wer was Wer in Hoheneck, accessed on September 10, 2019
  3. ↑ bundesstiftung-aufteilung.de: The Hoheneck women's prison
  4. ↑ a b Alex Latotzky: Childhood behind barbed wire . Forum Verlag, Leipzig 2001, ISBN 3-931801-26-8 , p. 34.
  5. ^ [3] Exhibition by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in the Brandenburg State Parliament in 2016
  6. ↑ [4] Freie Presse Chemnitz, Stollberg edition from December 28, 2018
  7. ↑ mdr.de: Hoheneck prison, a place of horror 1950 | MDR Figaro. Archived from the original on May 14, 2019 ; accessed on July 5, 2019 .
  8. ↑ mdr.de: Frauenzuchthaus Hoheneck - "Humiliation, arbitrariness, betrayal" | MDR.DE. Retrieved May 14, 2019 .

Coordinates: 50 ° 42 ′ 17 ″  N , 12 ° 47 ′ 3 ″  E