Contemporary witnesses
Contemporary witnesses play an important role at Hohenschönhausen. It is thanks to their commitment in the early 1990s that it has been possible to establish a memorial at the former Stasi prison. Many of them are still active today and tell visitors about their experiences in prison.
Michael Bradler
Tour guide since 1998
“This place does not show the GDR, but it does give a definitive picture of what played a role in the GDR if you did not conform to what the system thought was right.”
Read his biography
Michael Brack
Tour guide since 2016
“In our existing democracy, which I consider to be very valuable, it is important to draw attention to a dictatorship that also existed in Germany.“
Gilbert Furian
Tour guide since 1994
“My work at the memorial is intended to give visitors a sense of how valuable the freedom is that they now enjoy every day without realising it.“
Sigrid Grünewald
Tour guide since 2012
“My parents had to endure and suffer a lot under the Nazis. They were in the resistance, my father was in a concentration camp. Unfortunately, they never talked about this difficult time; I only found out about it through the German Resistance Memorial Centre. After my imprisonment, I decided to write about it so that the time under the Stasi would not be forgotten.“
Lutz Hildebrandt
Tour guide since 2009
“Contemporary witnesses are authentic, reflect the past and provide orientation for the future. The memorial is the best place for this. I would like to continue my work here in the future.”
Ret Langmeier
Tour guide since 2010
“Unfortunately, the most important significance of our memorial for me lies in its presence. Prisons like our so-called submarine still exist all over the world today. The associated problem of torture also remains an issue of the present. Coming to terms with the past means coming to terms with the present.“
Henry Leuschner
Tour guide since 2013
“I don't regret being imprisoned here, I just don't want to repeat it. Today I give guided tours to explain to young people what happened here. The world was not a just place in the past and in many parts it still isn't today. But everyone should endeavour to do their best to change that.“
Christian König
Tour guide since 2022
„It is important to me to convey the importance of freedom and democracy to the younger generation in particular - as well as to educate them about the SED dictatorship. Everyone has the right to freedom and self-determination, but also the duty to defend this by all means. Freedom is life!”
Holger Krug
Tour guide since 2017
„As long as the contemporary witnesses are still alive, you can learn the story from them personally. It makes an extreme difference whether you have experienced something personally or have to read about it.“
Andreas Mehlstäubl
Tour guide since 2010
„I tell my experiences on behalf of those who cannot. Who to this day, severely traumatised, cannot put the misery they experienced into words. I was very lucky.”
Read his biography
Thomas Raufeisen
Tour guide since 2003
„The power of the SED was based on lies, hatred, intolerance, persecution and violence. In recent times, more and more people seem to think that this is normal behaviour, even those in positions of responsibility. Places like the Hohenschönhausen memorial centre are a good place to show where this can lead.“
Hartmut Richter
Tour guide since 1999
“There are always people who offer simple solutions, whether it's from the left or the right. And I believe that a young person who has visited a place like this is no longer so receptive to simple solutions.“
Karl-Heinz Richter
Tour guide since 2008
“I want to explain to young people that there is actually no alternative to democracy. I want to explain that clearly to the people who come here.“
Mario Röllig
Tour guide since 1999
“One day I will close the gate of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen memorial behind me forever. But not until every history book says that the GDR was an inhuman dictatorship.“
Torsten Rupnow
Tour guide since 2014
„Today, the former Stasi prison is a special personal and historical place for me. Sometimes, when I lead groups of visitors through the memorial site, I cannot believe I'm telling them about myself and my story. It is always fascinating to see how visitors and especially schoolchildren react to this.“
Harry Santos
Tour guide since 2006
"The trauma has receded, the memory remains.
We all have to be vigilant."
Hans-Jochen Scheidler
Tour guide since 2009
“If you sleep in a democracy, you wake up in a dictatorship.“
Monika Schneider
Tour guide since 2011
„I am glad that I decided to do guided tours here. It helps me to come to terms with what I experienced back then and to overcome it.“
Edda Schönherz
Tour guide since 2003
„It has become my task to convey to the younger generation in particular what happened here. If we want to push away our past, then we will make the same mistake again and again in the future.“
Hansjürg Schößler
Tour guide since 2000
“The past is (...) not only an object of knowledge", which people can "file away, but is also linked to the present and the future by ties of experience, memories, feelings and questions of identity.” [Aleida Assmann]
Lothar Schulz
Tour guide since 2015
„It is particularly important to me to explain the injustice that took place in the GDR dictatorship without hatred and bitterness and thus, as a contrast, to make people aware of freedom and opportunities as high values in democracy.“
