Stasimuseum

The Stasi Museum is located in House 1 of the former Stasi headquarters on Normannenstraße in Lichtenberg, where up to 7,000 people worked at times. Minister Erich Mielke's offices have been preserved in their original condition, along with hidden cameras, microphones, and disguised IDs. Anyone who wants to experience the GDR up close will find themselves in the workroom of the State Security here.

Stasi Museum on Normannenstraße: The Headquarters of State Security

The Stasi Museum is located in Lichtenberg, embedded in an extensive block of buildings between Normannenstraße and Ruschestraße, which from the outside looks like a typical administrative district of the sixties. This was precisely the intention, as behind the facades lay the headquarters of the Ministry for State Security, where up to 7,000 people worked at times. House 1 was built in 1960 and 1961 as the official residence of Erich Mielke, who led the ministry from 1957 to November 1989 and used his office here from 1962 to 1989. On January 15, 1990, thousands of demonstrators occupied the sealed-off premises to stop the destruction of files. This civil movement led to the founding of the sponsoring association, which opened the research and memorial site on November 7, 1990. Additionally, an outdoor exhibition in the courtyard has been providing information about the historic site since June 2016. Until the dissolution of the ministry in January 1990, all threads of the apparatus converged here.

Mielke’s Office and Surveillance Technology

Inside, the exhibition is spread over three floors. The real sensation is on the Minister’s floor, where Mielke’s offices have been preserved in their original condition: the study with dark wood paneling and a desk set, the conference room with a long row of tables, and the small canteen. None of it is reconstructed; the furniture stands as it was left in 1989. The other floors show the methods by which the State Security monitored its own population: cameras in watering cans, briefcases, and tree stumps, hidden microphones, scent samples, disguised IDs, weapons, as well as medals and busts from the cult surrounding the apparatus’s founding figures. The permanent exhibition on State Security in the SED dictatorship has been on display in this form since January 2015 and can be explored with an audio guide in seven languages. After a renovation, the building was reopened in 2012. Witness talks can also be booked, and depending on interest, the tour lasts one to two hours. The Stasi Museum also includes a museum shop and a small café on the ground floor.