Gedenkstätte Bautzen


Left exactly as it was in the late 1980s, the Bautzen II prison is now the Gedenkstätte Bautzen, dedicated to the victims of political oppression. You can see prisoner transport vans, recreated prison cells from the facility's various phases, the isolation wing and historical background exhibits.

Built in 1906 (alongside Bautzen I, which is still in use), Bautzen II became a notorious Stasi prison in the 1950s, controlled by the GDR Ministry of State Security. From 1956 to 1989, more than 2700 regime critics, would-be escapees and those who aided them, purported spies for the West and other political prisoners were incarcerated here.


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