Over the coming years, the Research and Collection Department will examine the historic prison, the former restricted military zone, and the surrounding district of Berlin-Hohenschönhausen from a range of spatial perspectives. This work will consider both the built environment in its architectural form and the social spaces shaped by structures of power and everyday experience. The aim is to explore the prison site in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen in its spatial dimension and in its relationship with its surroundings, and to make these connections visible and accessible through a variety of formats.
An initial priority is the systematic documentation and digitisation of key sources and datasets relating to these spatial dimensions.
As part of the development of the memorial's digital infrastructure, this subproject is dedicated to documenting the former prison through a digital "Raumbuch” in which room-related information on the prison complex is systematically recorded and consolidated. The register is designed to improve understanding of the historic buildings in terms of their construction and material fabric and to trace their development and use over time.
Today, the memorial site comprises around 700 rooms covering a total area of approximately 22,000 m². These include the basement prison ("U-Boot"), the new prison building completed in 1960, and the prison hospital. Since 1990, extensive conservation and heritage documentation has been produced, including photographic documentation, building archaeological investigations, paint analyses, and documentation of inscriptions scratched into cell walls.
The project will digitise, catalogue and integrate these materials within a single spatially referenced system. The digital "Raumbuch” serves the long-term preservation of knowledge relating to the listed heritage site and provides an essential resource for future research, conservation and educational projects.
As part of Berlin's Cultural Heritage Digitisation Programme, coordinated by the Research and Competence Centre Digitalisation Berlin (digiS), this project will digitise and catalogue 100 selected architectural drawings of the Ministry for State Security (Stasi) prison in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen dating from 1954 to 1987.
These plans document the development of the prison complex over several decades and make structural and spatial changes comprehensible. They are therefore a key source for understanding prison architecture in general and, more specifically, the detention regime of the Stasi, which is also reflected in the spatial organisation of the buildings.
By making these materials available online, the project will provide access for researchers, educators and the wider public. It will provide a basis for further studies on the history of prison architecture.
