I know I already mentioned my brief tour of the former Stasi Prison at Hohenschonhausen, but I wanted to go into better detail because I decided to go back there again. I took my first time at the prison as a sort of teaser--since the museum is only accessible by tour guide, it's impossible to linger anywhere. It sorta put a damper on my last visit when I was told I couldn't stay behind and sketch for security and liability reasons. Not entirely sure why I can freely roam a place like the Sachsenhausen concentration camp without a problem in contrast to this place, though. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the museum is still quite new--the prison was in service until 1994, after all.
I was told that I could get in touch with the prison's press association to see if I could get permission to come back and explore the museum without being corralled around with a tour group. I emailed them and was surprised that I had gotten permission. I could choose when I wanted to return, notify the front desk, and get a press pass.
So, I knew I was going to go to the gloomy area of Berlin called Hohenschonhausen a third time. Each of those times, they've been on cloudy, just-about-to-rain days, so that the Soviet-era block buildings blend into the sky, with their odd-shaped little windows looking like peepholes in a ceiling of cement. I have to keep reminding myself that this was the environment and atmosphere where East Germans contended with suspicions that they were being watched by family and friends working for the Stasi (there are places in Germany such as Rostock where it is believed that informants may have made up approximately one fifth of total population, including people who were bribed or threatened into doing it).
I was told that I could get in touch with the prison's press association to see if I could get permission to come back and explore the museum without being corralled around with a tour group. I emailed them and was surprised that I had gotten permission. I could choose when I wanted to return, notify the front desk, and get a press pass.
So, I knew I was going to go to the gloomy area of Berlin called Hohenschonhausen a third time. Each of those times, they've been on cloudy, just-about-to-rain days, so that the Soviet-era block buildings blend into the sky, with their odd-shaped little windows looking like peepholes in a ceiling of cement. I have to keep reminding myself that this was the environment and atmosphere where East Germans contended with suspicions that they were being watched by family and friends working for the Stasi (there are places in Germany such as Rostock where it is believed that informants may have made up approximately one fifth of total population, including people who were bribed or threatened into doing it).
Hohenschonhausen and other special prisons like it were an early indicator of Soviet plans of keeping Germany under its thumb following the second world war. Suspected former Nazis and fascists were the first people to be rounded up in these prisons, which were initially managed by the Russian KGB. Later the spectrum of political 'subversives' who could land in these prisons kept broadening and broadening to include people who merely expressed dislike for East German policy. A prisoner would be essentially plucked off the street as if they were victims of a mafia-style kidnapping instead of a government-sanctioned arrest. This even happened to people outside of East Germany. Some West Germans who had been agitating against East German policies would be either tricked into visiting East Germany (where they'd be arrested), or violently stuffed into the backs of windowless vans that would speed into GDR territory where the East Germans could prosecute the person with virtual immunity.
A few days before I went back to the prison, I decided to visit the government centre from which the Stasi operated. From there, Stasi chief Erich Mielke (one of the biggest figures of East German oppression, essentially carrying out a role similar to Himmler) operated the secret police, signing arrest warrants, interrogation warrants, etc. Surveillance and spy operations were carried out from here, prisoners were arranged to be sold to West Germany (East Germany made a lot of money by extorting ransom money for arrested political dissidents), and other insanely creepy things were done from here. A small part of the former Stasi HQ is a museum, which is still saying a lot considering that the complex of the HQ takes up more than a city block. Reminds me of Hermann Goering's Airforce HQ, actually.
I got lost going there. Just like with the Stasi Prison, the neighborhood was full of those emotionless buildings with their judgmental windows. Took me an extra hour of walking around to realize one of the huge buildings I'd passed before which looked condemned, was actually part of the former HQ complex. I was thrown off because that part of it was now a medical centre. The museum portion was not visible from the street. That complicated things a bit. When I actually got to the museum, I only had an hour until the tour began, but I was allowed to walk around. After the building was taken, it had been preserved pretty much as it had been found, sans documents. Those documents were sorted and organized in the building next door, which anyone can go and look at. That's right--after the Wall, people could go and check their personal Stasi file, and uncover who, if anyone, had been keeping track of them. Stories of families, loved ones and children ratting people out surfaced because of this, but I think it's really great that the government fallowing the GDR's collapse made the files available. I'm half-tempted to apply to look through some files myself, just for pure morbid historical curiosity (I've checked, and this is allowed, as long as I give some sort of evidence that I'm interested for purely academic purposes). Of course, the files are probably almost 100% in German, and the files that aren't are probably in Russian, unless there are telephone transcripts from American diplomats or something. What struck me about the place was how kitsch it was. Mielke didn't want the interior decor updated since the 60s, and the technology inside only makes it feel even more like walking into a time machine. The image of the oppressive Stasi in my head went from machevellian demons wondering how best to subjugate their population, to an image of businessmen discussing progress with champagne and three-course dinners, in suits and ties and briefcases.
I got lost going there. Just like with the Stasi Prison, the neighborhood was full of those emotionless buildings with their judgmental windows. Took me an extra hour of walking around to realize one of the huge buildings I'd passed before which looked condemned, was actually part of the former HQ complex. I was thrown off because that part of it was now a medical centre. The museum portion was not visible from the street. That complicated things a bit. When I actually got to the museum, I only had an hour until the tour began, but I was allowed to walk around. After the building was taken, it had been preserved pretty much as it had been found, sans documents. Those documents were sorted and organized in the building next door, which anyone can go and look at. That's right--after the Wall, people could go and check their personal Stasi file, and uncover who, if anyone, had been keeping track of them. Stories of families, loved ones and children ratting people out surfaced because of this, but I think it's really great that the government fallowing the GDR's collapse made the files available. I'm half-tempted to apply to look through some files myself, just for pure morbid historical curiosity (I've checked, and this is allowed, as long as I give some sort of evidence that I'm interested for purely academic purposes). Of course, the files are probably almost 100% in German, and the files that aren't are probably in Russian, unless there are telephone transcripts from American diplomats or something. What struck me about the place was how kitsch it was. Mielke didn't want the interior decor updated since the 60s, and the technology inside only makes it feel even more like walking into a time machine. The image of the oppressive Stasi in my head went from machevellian demons wondering how best to subjugate their population, to an image of businessmen discussing progress with champagne and three-course dinners, in suits and ties and briefcases.
Conference room. There's a button that will play a recording of a conference where a Stasi official gripes about not having enough employees to meet the large goals of the secret police. The painting in the background ominously depicts the construction of the Berlin Wall, as if it wasn't something to be ashamed of. I find it so odd that these Stasi officials would carry out conferences with this muddy, grimy painting hanging over them.
Secretarial station, oddly symmetrical. Like a scene out of The Shining.
Anyway, the Stasi HQ was stormed after the wall came down, with protesters flooding into the place and recovering Stasi files before they could be destroyed by Stasi. Considering the complex was armed to the teeth, it's a wonder that there were no lunatics among the Stasi employees who grabbed a gun and started firing. I found the story of this grassroots movement to expose the apparatus of cruelty that the Stasi had been operating very inspiring, even more so because of the fact that my tour guide had been one of the protesters, had in fact negotiated with the Stasi's replacement head after Erich Mielke was arrested. One of the videos playing in the museum actually showed him bringing camera crews through the HQ office after it had been sacked. Very interesting, but unfortunately the tour was so overcrowded that some people were unable to fit into the rooms that the tour covered. I almost wish I'd skipped the tour because of this. I could have spent a lot more time photographing and drawing the place. As it was, I had only about an hour before the tour and an hour after the tour to do this.
Anyway, the Stasi HQ was stormed after the wall came down, with protesters flooding into the place and recovering Stasi files before they could be destroyed by Stasi. Considering the complex was armed to the teeth, it's a wonder that there were no lunatics among the Stasi employees who grabbed a gun and started firing. I found the story of this grassroots movement to expose the apparatus of cruelty that the Stasi had been operating very inspiring, even more so because of the fact that my tour guide had been one of the protesters, had in fact negotiated with the Stasi's replacement head after Erich Mielke was arrested. One of the videos playing in the museum actually showed him bringing camera crews through the HQ office after it had been sacked. Very interesting, but unfortunately the tour was so overcrowded that some people were unable to fit into the rooms that the tour covered. I almost wish I'd skipped the tour because of this. I could have spent a lot more time photographing and drawing the place. As it was, I had only about an hour before the tour and an hour after the tour to do this.
A portrait of Erich Honnecker, who was the head of the SED (Socialist Unity Party, responsible for the oppression in East Germany), an dby extension, the leader of the GDR until he was ousted in 1989 by his own party. Unfortunately the building with this portrait was locked so I never went in.
Okay, so back to the prison. I went in at around 11:00, which gave me about 7 hours to work. I had a chocolate bar that my AirBNB host had given me the night before for food. I met the guy who was to give me my press pass. He was actually really young, with a hipster haircut and ear piercing. I wanted to be "super humble artist guy," so I emphasized that I'd be all polite and respectful to the museum and whatnot, as he told me what I could and couldn't do. Basically, I couldn't sit on the floors without use of a chair, and I had to not interrupt tour groups. I got a folding chair from a storage room which I believe used to be a prison informer's office and drew the hallways and various types of rooms of the Prison. There are three basic types of cells still left intact from the East German days. There are the unforgiving underground cells for prisoners who proved hard to interrogate, the standard cells with sinks and toilets which were more common and even allowed for multiple cell occupants (though the second cell inmates were usually prisoners who had been promised rewards to spy on their fellow inmates). Then there are the padded and pitch-black cells, also underground. Those last cells are basically impossible to properly photograph or sketch, so I left them out. There used to be water cells and standing cells (cells which forced prisoners to be immersed in water up to the shoulders or force them to stay standing due to how narrow they were), but those fell into disuse and were eventually gotten rid of entirely.
Okay, so back to the prison. I went in at around 11:00, which gave me about 7 hours to work. I had a chocolate bar that my AirBNB host had given me the night before for food. I met the guy who was to give me my press pass. He was actually really young, with a hipster haircut and ear piercing. I wanted to be "super humble artist guy," so I emphasized that I'd be all polite and respectful to the museum and whatnot, as he told me what I could and couldn't do. Basically, I couldn't sit on the floors without use of a chair, and I had to not interrupt tour groups. I got a folding chair from a storage room which I believe used to be a prison informer's office and drew the hallways and various types of rooms of the Prison. There are three basic types of cells still left intact from the East German days. There are the unforgiving underground cells for prisoners who proved hard to interrogate, the standard cells with sinks and toilets which were more common and even allowed for multiple cell occupants (though the second cell inmates were usually prisoners who had been promised rewards to spy on their fellow inmates). Then there are the padded and pitch-black cells, also underground. Those last cells are basically impossible to properly photograph or sketch, so I left them out. There used to be water cells and standing cells (cells which forced prisoners to be immersed in water up to the shoulders or force them to stay standing due to how narrow they were), but those fell into disuse and were eventually gotten rid of entirely.
Inner walls of the padded dark cells, covered in fingernail gougings that I assume were done by the prisoners. Apparently some prisoners were driven into paranoid frenzy while in these cells and burrowed through the 10-inch padding with the assumption that listening devices had been planted inside.
The museum was buzzing with school kids when I got there. I was thinking about what it would be like to go on a field trip like this as a kid. When I was in eighth grade we went on an apple-picking field trip. I think this is would have been a lot better. I was drawing a hallway full of prison cells when one kid asked me something about what I was drawing in German. I asked if he could speak English and was surprised to find he spoke the language better than any other German I'd encountered. From there, other people took interest in me doing my drawing. As the day went on the groups got older, but they kept coming fairly steadily until maybe two in the afternoon. At first I covered sketching the places I'd already seen: underground cells, regular cells, interrogation rooms... after that, I went for a walk around the place, and that's when the scale of the place hit me. My initial tour had barely scratched the surface. We would be taken to a single room of each type and explained its purpose. Of course I saw endless hallways around every corner, but only when I could walk around on my own did I realize that they went on for three floors, each of which had two hallways running parallel to each other. I also saw other rooms that I hadn't been before. Mostly, confessional rooms, documentation rooms, and rooms where prison snitches typed up their reports.
There were times when I would be left without seeing anyone for a long time, especially since I was going to spots in the museum where tour groups didn't necessarily go. As I said, there were hallways and hallways of rooms of each variety, and the tour guides only needed one of each room to explain them, so I could easily stay out of their way. At these times, given the architecture of the buildings, I could hear the sound of echoing voices and footsteps coming to me from a floor above or below. I actually made recordings of these ominous echoes, though I have no idea what I'll use them for, if I use them at all. At these times I really melted into the environment of the prison, and the loneliness of the place really hit me. I'll say it again--the only way to really appreciate places like this is by spending time alone in them. During all the sketching, I never got bored. I was invigorated by the eeriness of the place. The odd information board describing the psychological methods that interrogators used to wring confessions from their victims emphasized this. Before coming on this trip, I watched the great but very bleak movie from 1970 called The Confession, which I got for Christmas. It's also known by its French title, L'aveu. Most of it takes place in a prison that looks almost exactly like the one at Hohenschonhausen, from its various cells to its interrogation rooms. I knew from this, and books like The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police, that Stasi interrogations existed to get confessions, whether or not they were true. This was clear when it dawned on me, while I was passing hundreds of interrogation rooms: the ratio of prison cells and interrogation rooms is roughly 1:1, and it was conceivable that each and every one of the prison's inmates could be interrogated at once. It was extortion right down to the roots. Often the crimes confessed to were imaginary--one story recounted in the highly-recommended book Stasiland (which is on YouTube as an audiobook) tells of a 16-year old girl who casually tried to escape East Germany on a whim was arrested and, through sleep deprivation torture, was forced to confess that she in fact belonged to a secret insurgent operation to foment revolution against the East German dicatorship, rather than just being a kid who was acting alone.
I rounded the main building multiple times, looking for unique things to draw. There were a lot of weird little things I came across. For example, some rooms were hung with tacky photographic prints, yellowed with age. These were mostly in the interrogation rooms. Most rooms were wallpapered as well, in decor that would have been vomit-inducing even forty years ago. Such kitsch in a place where psychological torture was routine gave the place an otherworldly vibe in the prison. I'd love to find some way of making use of these motifs in my art, but I really don't know how yet. I'm almost overwhelmed thinking of the possibilities, whether to just make fairly realistic pieces based on the drawings, or if I should creatively alter them into something else.
In total, I made 8 decent sketches.I think I got a good amount, but I could see myself going back for more. I think my second time in the prison was one of the highlights of my time in Germany. I'm so thankful to the museum staff for letting me go back unescorted with minimal red tape.
Some of the work that's coming from these times in the Stasi prison/HQ are in my last blog post, if interested. I'll be sure to post more work that comes from my sketches as it comes along.
I rounded the main building multiple times, looking for unique things to draw. There were a lot of weird little things I came across. For example, some rooms were hung with tacky photographic prints, yellowed with age. These were mostly in the interrogation rooms. Most rooms were wallpapered as well, in decor that would have been vomit-inducing even forty years ago. Such kitsch in a place where psychological torture was routine gave the place an otherworldly vibe in the prison. I'd love to find some way of making use of these motifs in my art, but I really don't know how yet. I'm almost overwhelmed thinking of the possibilities, whether to just make fairly realistic pieces based on the drawings, or if I should creatively alter them into something else.
In total, I made 8 decent sketches.I think I got a good amount, but I could see myself going back for more. I think my second time in the prison was one of the highlights of my time in Germany. I'm so thankful to the museum staff for letting me go back unescorted with minimal red tape.
Some of the work that's coming from these times in the Stasi prison/HQ are in my last blog post, if interested. I'll be sure to post more work that comes from my sketches as it comes along.