Name: Berlin: A hard look back in a former Stasi prison
Uploaded: 2025-11-10T14:43:05.065Z
Duration: 4 min 16 s
Description: Tens of thousands of people were locked up and even tortured in this former Stasi prison, now a museum. Euromaxx reporter Meggin Leigh went for a visit.

Tens of thousands of people were locked up and even tortured in this former Stasi prison, now a museum. Euromaxx reporter Meggin Leigh went for a visit.

Berlin

The former Stasi prison in Hohenschönhausen, Berlin, now serves as a museum and memorial, offering insight into the experiences of those detained by East Germany's secret police. Mario Ruhlig, a former prisoner, recounts his three-month incarceration in 1987, describing the extreme isolation, psychological manipulation, and long-term effects of his imprisonment.

The prison, which held around 11,000 people between 1951 and 1989, used strict protocols to prevent communication among inmates. Ruhlig now gives tours at the site, emphasizing the importance of confronting the realities of dictatorship and ensuring that the suffering endured by political prisoners is not forgotten.

Berlin: A hard look back in a former Stasi prison

For me, it still feels like being helpless. When I enter such a cell, the loneliness and time seem to stand still. The more that time goes by, the more distance I gain from this place, from the perpetrators, and of course from the loneliness and these negative feelings. I'm here in the former Stasi prison in Hohenschönhausen in Berlin. Now a museum and memorial site, this prison complex was once a key part of East Germany's secret service agency, the Stasi. During the Cold War, the Stasi was notorious for its oppressive control over citizens, holding thousands of political prisoners. If these walls could talk, they would tell you harrowing stories of oppression and isolation. Mario Ruhlig was a prisoner here for three months in 1987. His time here may have been relatively short, but the scars remain until today. On July 3rd, 1987, on a hot summer day, I was pushed into this cell. The first shock was that there wasn't really a window. I couldn't look outside. I was isolated. I never found out where I was. Many years later, when I accessed the files of the East German State Security Service, I learned I was in Hohenschönhausen. Mario tried to flee from East Germany to the former Yugoslavia via Hungary. He was arrested by Hungarian border police and sent back to East Berlin, where his actions were deemed criminal by the state. From 1951 to 1989, this prison held some 11,000 people considered hostile to the communist GDR. And that included West Berliners, even before the Berlin Wall was built. We're walking now among the interrogation rooms. There are dozens of them. What was it like to be interrogated here? The interrogations took place from Monday to Friday, usually lasting five to eight hours. Sometimes I wasn't called at all, sometimes only for an hour. There was one officer who only shouted and insulted, and another who was very friendly, chosen for his psychological skills for the interrogations. He looked like my friend from the West, which made him much worse because I would have gone for a beer with him rather than being interrogated by him. The Stasi prison in Hohenschönhausen employed several methods to keep prisoners separated and isolated. Small soundproof cells and interrogation rooms made it difficult for prisoners to see or communicate with each other. Guards followed strict protocols to ensure prisoners did not interact. For example, prisoners were often moved individually through the building, using red and green lights to indicate when the corridor was free. Mario was released from prison in September of 1987 under a West German program that paid 90,000 Deutschmarks for his freedom. Years later, long after the Berlin Wall fell, he had a bitter encounter with one of his former Stasi officers at a Berlin department store. This experience eventually led him to give tours and speak publicly about his past, highlighting that many former Stasi officers walk freely, showing little regret for their past actions. For young people, the GDR is as distant as the Roman Empire historically, and the longer the GDR is gone, the second German dictatorship, the more positively it is sometimes viewed. But I can show you what a dictatorship does, how it tortures people, and what it leaves behind. No one who was imprisoned here in this prison came out the same person as when they went in. I've been to other prison museums, such as Alcatraz in San Francisco, but I must say that nothing leaves you with a feeling of such oppression and isolation as this Stasi prison.

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