The Stasi Museum is located on the premises of the former Ministry of State Security in the Lichtenberg district. At the time of the division, it was the headquarters of the notorious political police and thus a central location of East German power.
The Stasi Museum is well worth a visit
Since reunification, contemporaries have been questioning the realities of the East German state, and in particular the place of ideology in the daily lives of ordinary people. The main point of contention concerns the existence of Stasiland: did the Stasi exercise absolute power over society?
This debate on the totalitarian nature of the regime unleashes political passions in Germany. This is all the more the case given that reunification was accompanied by a relentless purge of government departments and institutions. Behind the scenes, people deemed to have been compromised by contacts with the political police were removed from their posts and replaced, in most cases by people from the West. This witch-hunt fed the myth of the GDR's annexation by its neighbor, and stirred up a great deal of resentment.
At the same time, documentation centers dedicated to the GDR were opened in Berlin and elsewhere. Their aim was twofold: to make Reunification sacred, and to counter the denial of part of the population of the former East Germany. Did Stasiland really exist? Visit the Stasi Museum to find out.
A Studious and Impressive Immersion
The Stasi Museum is located in the central building of the former restriction zone. The headquarters of the East German political police have remained unchanged: they've simply aged. Covered with dilapidated buildings and with no apparent social areas, the district gives off a dull, gloomy image. In front of the museum, a long outdoor exhibition retraces the key events leading up to Reunification. Visiting conditions are precarious, accentuating the strange atmosphere.
Inside the museum, the exhibits are spread over several floors of the building. Initially, the emphasis is on the nature and missions of the Stasi, but also on its organic and subordinate links to the Soviet political police. The collections focus on the military and the political, with uniforms, medals and period propaganda. A second section of the museum reveals the police stranglehold on all areas of daily life in the GDR: education, health, sport, civil and military administration... Finally, the last section is devoted to the methods of control, espionage and surveillance that were designed to prevent and nip in the bud any collective or individual opposition. The museography succeeds in creating a sense of oppression. However, the abundance of written sources makes for a certain heaviness, despite the beautiful iconography.
The final section of the museum is a visit to the former offices and private apartments of Erich Mielke, Minister of State Security. Walking through the Formica interiors of the 1980s raises questions about the banality and even mediocrity of East German decision-makers. Indeed, it was from these commonplaces that real power was exercised in the GDR. This is certainly the most impressive part of the museum.
An Interesting But Outdated Approach
The Stasi Museum succeeds in conveying the heavy atmosphere of the GDR's political police reign. The police had almost absolute control over all aspects of society. This power was not pragmatic: ideology was an essential component of its operation. If the Stasi was an instrument of the regime, it was also its raison d'être. This is why the GDR can be described as a police state and, above all, a totalitarian state.
Does this mean that Stasiland exists? The museum rejects this equivocation and answers in the affirmative. This totalizing bias can be explained in the context of Reunification. Although morally burdened, the GDR was never condemned in a grand trial for history after 1990. On the contrary, many felt that no reconciliation would be possible without justice, and that it was necessary to erase certain ambiguities from the new national narrative. The Stasi Museum is in line with this view, and assumes the absence of nuance.
This political approach made sense in 1990. Thirty-four years have passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and new generations have no nostalgic feelings. The Stasi Museum has not kept pace with this evolution, and its original concept now seems outdated. If it is to have any claim to political education, the museum needs to change its paradigm, rethinking historical fact and placing it within a new narrative framework. This would necessarily involve modernizing the museum space to make it more didactic and intuitive. In the meantime, a visit to the museum remains advisable for a well-informed public.
Reasons to Visit
A highly immersive setting
Erich Mielke's offices
A meticulous tour in the footsteps of the Stasi
Reasons to Skip
An unintuitive museum maze
Understandable but cumbersome bias
The completeness of the handwritten material
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