Dokumentations- und Gedenkstätte des BStU in der ehemaligen U-Haft der Stasi in Rostock

Description

In Rostock the Documentation and Memorial Site (DuG) in the former pre-trial detention facility of the district administration of the Stasi commemorates the methods and victims of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the GDR. The institution is part of the Documentation Centre of the State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern for the Victims of the Dictatorships in Germany and preserves one of the best-preserved pre-trial detention facilities of the MfS.

The DuG is located at Grüner Weg 5 (until 2021 Hermannstraße 34b) near the city centre on the former site of the Rostock district administration. Parts of this area are now used by the Rostock Regional Court and a supermarket.

After the territorial reform of 1952, state security initially had its district headquarters in the Rostocker Hof on Kröpeliner Straße; a remand prison was then located on the site behind Schwaansche Straße and was operated jointly by the Stasi and the People’s Police until the late 1950s. At the end of the 1950s a new district administration with a pre-trial detention facility was built nearby; constructed between 1958 and 1960, it offered around 110 places in approximately 50 cells. From 1960 to 1989 more than 4,800 people were held here, predominantly political prisoners, many for attempting to flee the GDR. On 4 December 1989 civil rights activists occupied the administrative building, halted the destruction of files and found the remand prison almost empty, as the amnesty of October 1989 had released many detainees. After reunification the prison continued briefly to serve as a pre-trial detention facility; alterations from that period, such as the demolition of partitions between cells, were partially reversed or reconstructed during the renovation completed by 2021.

Since 1998 the pre-trial detention facility has been part of the statewide Documentation Centre, which also includes the former remand prison at Demmlerplatz in Schwerin. From October 1999 to August 2017 the DuG was operated by the Rostock branch of the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records (BStU) in cooperation with the University of Rostock. After a closure for renovation between 2017 and 2021, the State Centre for Political Education Mecklenburg-Vorpommern took over sponsorship; on 2 July 2021 the memorial was reopened with a new exhibition.

The exhibition documents the working methods of the MfS, makes the conditions of detention visible and places the remembrance of those affected at its centre.