Stasi-Zentrale. Campus für Demokratie

With around 50 buildings and thousands of offices, the headquarters of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) in Berlin-Lichtenberg was a huge complex in which up to 7,000 full-time Stasi employees worked during the GDR era. In order to secure the power of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), they organized the surveillance and repression of the GDR population as well as the GDR's foreign espionage from here.

In January 1990, citizens forced their way onto the sealed-off site and helped to stop the Stasi's activities and the destruction of files. Today, the former bastion of the secret police is a place of education about dictatorship and resistance, a place of learning for democracy.

Civil society institutions, including the Robert Havemann Society with the Archive of the GDR Opposition and the ASTAK association with the Stasi Museum, use this place for their work. The Federal Archive - Stasi Records Archive is also located here. Individual visitors and groups can take guided tours of the grounds, archives and exhibitions and attend events.

More information:Stasi Headquarters. Campus for Democracy