Lindenstrasse 54/55 Memorial
Site
From: Potsdam, Germany
ABOVE: A hallway in a "Linden Hotel" cell block.
INSET BELOW: The building's façade on
Lindenstrasse, and a house number near the entrance.
By Durant Imboden
 From
the outside, Lindenstrasse 54/55
looks much like any other 18th Century building in Potsdam's historic
center--until you notice the bars on the windows. The bars were designed to keep
people in, not out, until the Soviet and GDR political prison--nicknamed the
"Linden Hotel" by sardonic locals--was transformed into a memorial and museum
after East Germany's "Peaceful Revolution" in 1989-1990.
A press release from
Brandenburg Tourism gives a
Cliff's Notes version of the building's history:
"The palace was built in 1737 and, in 1809, became the meeting
place for the first freely-elected city Parliament. From 1820 onwards, the city
courts used the building as a venue for trials and as a prison. In 1910, a large
cell wing with almost 100 cells was constructed.
"During
the National Socialist dictatorship (1933-1945), politcal detainees were
incarcerated here. There was also a Sterilization Court for persons sentenced,
among other things, to compulsory sterilization under Nazi race leiglation.
Resistence fighters were sentenced to death at Lindenstrasse 54/55 by the
Potsdam People's Court.
"Between 1945 and 1952, Soviet Intelligence used the building as
a prison. Having been sentenced to long-term prison sentences or even death by
a military tribunal, the political prisoners were accommodated in inhuman
conditions. Between 1952 and 1989, political detainees were incarcerated in this
building by the German Democratic Republic's State Security Service (Stasi)."
Today, the building is maintained in its original condition by
the Potsdam Museum as the Lindenstrasse 54/55 Memorial Site, with help
from an organization--the Fördergemeinschaft Lindenstrasse 54, or Lindenstrasse
54 Support Association--that
"provides a forum for people who have suffered political persecution and
illuminates the shadows of the past."
Visitor information:
 The
Memorial Site is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through
Saturday. The admission fee is nominal. For a slightly higher fee, you can take
a guided tour. An audioguide in English may be
available by the time you read this.
For more information, see the German-language
Stiftung
Gedankstätte Lindenstrasse Web site, which has opening hours, ticket
prices, and a map.
For
captioned photos of the Lindentrasse 54/55 Memorial Site, go to
page 2 of this article.
Next page: More photos
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