Living Testimonies: An Encounter with Stasi Prison’s Survivors and its Haunting Past

The memorial at Berlin-Hohenschoenhausen occupies the former remand prison of the Ministry for State Security, and it is preserved as it was left. Interrogation rooms, cells and exhibits document the methods of a surveillance state in the place where they were used. What makes a visit here different from any other museum in Berlin is that the tours are given by people who were held in these cells.

What the visit involves

Guests walk the corridors and see the rooms in which detainees were questioned, sometimes for months, by officers trained to work on the mind rather than the body. The atmosphere is grim and deliberately unimproved. The guided tour explains how the ministry recruited informers, how many citizens were watched, and how the system sustained itself for four decades. It is a sombre visit, and an educational one; guests consistently describe it as the part of a Berlin itinerary they think about afterwards.

Meeting the survivors

For parties who want more than a tour, we arrange an encounter with former political prisoners. These meetings usually take place at the memorial or a comparable venue, and the former inmates give a first-hand account of arrest, interrogation and imprisonment under the East German regime. Your clients hear about the conditions, about the psychological pressure applied and about the resilience that got people through it. There is time to ask questions – which is the point. The exchange is direct, unrehearsed and often the most memorable ninety minutes of an entire trip to Germany. We brief every party in advance on what to expect, because arriving unprepared serves nobody.

Handling it responsibly

• Best suited to adults and to older teenagers; we advise against it for younger children
• Emotionally demanding material – do not schedule anything celebratory immediately afterwards
• Interpretation available where a party does not work comfortably in English or German
• Survivor availability is limited and personal, so this element needs advance notice rather than a same-week request
• Photography is restricted in parts of the site, and guests are briefed on what is and is not appropriate before entering

Why advisors book it, and where it sits

This is the element that turns a Berlin itinerary from sightseeing into something a client will talk about at home. It connects the past to the present without lecturing, and it makes an argument for democracy and human rights that no monument makes as well. It follows naturally from a first-day overview such as the private Berlin city tour, and pairs precisely with the Leipzig peaceful revolution walking tour, which shows how the same regime ended. It is available year-round. The capital programme is on the Berlin destination page and related products in our East Germany portfolio.