Gedenkstätte Museum in der "Runden Ecke"

The Gedenkstätte Museum in der „Runden Ecke“ stands in a former Stasi building on Dittrichring in Leipzig. The grey stone structure was built between 1911 and 1913 as an insurance office and later housed Soviet and East German security forces. From 1950 to 1989 it served as the regional Stasi headquarters for the district. The museum’s permanent exhibition ‘Stasi – Power and Banality’ presents how the Ministry for State Security spied on citizens. About ten running kilometres of files are kept here by the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records. Special displays during the Wave-Gotik-Treffen show how the regime monitored Gothic culture. Visitors walk through offices, interrogation rooms and a secure inner courtyard that was added in the 1980s. Original furniture, typewriters and listening devices illustrate daily operations. The building also hosts archives where researchers examine surveillance records from the DDR era.