|
|
|
|
Secret Restricted Area
|
Freienwalder Strasse entrance to restricted area.
Photo taken around the end of the 1980s.
The Ministry of State Security (MfS) remand prison in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen was located in a large restricted military area, only open to authorized persons. For those outside, the only indications of the restricted area were the closed metal gates, the watchtowers, surveillance cameras, and armed security personnel. The latter belonged to the Ministry of State Security (MfS) guard regiment that monitored the entire area, including parts of the Genslerstrasse, Freienwalder und Lichtenauer Strasse stations. The restricted area was never shown on GDR street maps but simply left blank.
The Soviet Secret Service had first established a restricted area as early as 1945. It appropriated a large part of the surrounding industrial zone, including the traditional site of the Richard Heike meat processing plant, which was demolished. The area was then fenced in, creating the second largest Soviet restricted zone in the former German capital after the "Soviet military ghetto" in Berlin's Karlshorst district. Before 1946, the cordoned off area in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen contained 'Special Camp No. 3', a Soviet detainment and transit camp, which was converted into a Soviet prison and labour camp used up to 1948/49. The Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs' Special Camp Department was located in the restricted area. In addition, the Soviet State Security Central Investigation Department was housed here from 1947 to 1951, using the cellar of this former canteen and food store as its main remand prison.
The GDR State Security Services took over the restricted area in 1951. Apart from the main remand prison, labour camp "X" and the two departments responsible for instituting criminal proceedings, the area was also used by a number of other sections under Ministry of State Security (MfS) control: Operative Technical Sector (OTS), whose responsibilities included manufacturing bugging systems, hidden cameras and false passports; the Armaments Department/Chemical Services Department (BCD), which looked after the weapons used by MfS personnel and coordinated preparatory measures in case of war; parts of the administrative offices for the Behind the Lines Services (VRD), responsible for MfS construction projects, vehicles and guest houses; and, finally, a canteen and a part of the Espionage Data Processing Centre (HVA), which organised electronic espionage on the West. After the main Normannenstrasse complex housing Erich Mielke, Minster of State Security, the Hohenschönhausen restricted area was the second largest MfS deployment in Berlin.
|
|
|
|
|
|
