Memorial and Education Centre Andreasstrasse

The Memorial and Education Centre Andreasstraße stands in Erfurt, a city in central Germany. The site occupies a former prison built in the 19th century near the Cathedral Square and the Petersberg Citadel. From 1952 to 1989 it served as one of the Stasi’s remand prisons, holding over five thousand political prisoners. The museum opened in 2013 to document repression and resistance in the Thuringia region during the GDR dictatorship. Its permanent exhibitions focus on inmates’ experiences, Stasi operations, life under dictatorship and the Peaceful Revolution. The building itself reflects different eras, having first opened as a courthouse and prison ensemble in 1878. The centre is worth visiting for the moment on 4 December 1989, when local citizens stormed the prison and nearby Stasi headquarters. Their action stopped the destruction of Stasi files and marked the first occupation of Stasi premises in the country. It became a key milestone in the Peaceful Revolution that led to German reunification. The prison’s history spans earlier regimes too: it held political detainees under the Nazis and later under Soviet administration. The site also illustrates the Stasi’s growth, from its founding in 1950 to a network of around 270,000 staff and informers by the 1980s. Visitors find a permanent exhibition on the ground floor that reconstructs prison cells and interrogation rooms. The first and second floors display documents and photographs about the Stasi’s activities and the Peaceful Revolution. The building retains its red-brick neo-Gothic exterior and original layout, including shared cells that once held up to 36 women or 162 men. The centre also preserves the Stasi district headquarters next door, where Lieutenant Willi Stettner, a former Buchenwald inmate, directed operations. Outside, the site overlooks the Cathedral Square and the historic Petersberg Citadel, linking past and present in the heart of Erfurt.