Gedenkstätte Zuchthaus Cottbus

Description

The Zuchthaus Cottbus memorial focuses on the history of a former penal institution in Cottbus and combines commemorative work with educational and research programmes.

The Cottbuser Zentralgefängnis opened in 1860 after a three‑year construction period. During the Nazi era the complex was used as a youth detention centre and a women’s penitentiary; it was damaged in the air raids of 15 February 1945. Repairs took place between 1949 and 1951. During the popular uprising of 17 June 1953 there was a prisoner revolt. In the GDR the institution was assigned to the penal system of the Ministerium des Innern; politically motivated proceedings were mostly conducted by the Staatssicherheit before the Cottbuser Amtsgericht. The Zuchthaus was regarded as a central prison for political detainees and for those wishing to emigrate from across the GDR. On 19 October 1978 the young GDR escapee Werner Greifendorf took his own life in the prison yard. In 1983 there were 446 political and 94 criminal prisoners; in total 540 inmates were overseen by 208 guards and 30 unofficial collaborators, including 340 people wishing to emigrate. Common reasons for detention included passport offences, "anti‑state agitation" and contacts with human rights organisations as well as with broadcasters such as ARD and ZDF. After reunification the penal system continued under changed conditions; in 2002 the institution closed and the inmates were transferred to the new JVA Cottbus‑Dissenchen. In 2007 the site was auctioned.

The conversion to a memorial began with the transfer of an outbuilding to the Menschenrechtszentrum on 1 February 2008; in 2011 the centre acquired the entire 22,000 m² site. On Human Rights Day 2013 the permanent exhibition "Karierte Wolken – politische Haft im Zuchthaus Cottbus" opened. Since then the memorial has offered educational programmes, workshops with female and male contemporary witnesses as well as public events and artistic uses. Research projects, among them on political imprisonment during the Nazi period and on pretrial detention by the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit in Cottbus, complement the work; since early 2019 the institution has been part of the research network "Landschaften der Verfolgung". Supplementary exhibitions honour the biographies of prisoners, for example the racing cyclist Wolfgang Lötzsch. At the end of 2018 a second outdoor exhibition, "Vergangen, nicht vergessen – Das Zuchthaus Cottbus im Spiegel der Zeiten", featuring stelae and object cubes was opened; in July 2024 a redesigned exhibition on the Nazi period followed. The memorial receives project and restoration funding but may still rely on donations for part of its annual operating costs.