12th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art

During the GDR era, the headquarters of the Ministry for State Security (Stasi) in Berlin-Lichtenberg was a huge complex made up of nearly fifty buildings and thousands of offices. It was here that some 7,000 state employees organized the surveillance and persecution of citizens of the German Democratic Republic and conducted the GDR’s foreign espionage operations—both to sustain SED (East German Communist Party) rule. In January 1990, demonstrators forced their way onto the sealed-off grounds, initiating the end of the Stasi and the destruction of its files. Today, this former bastion of the secret police is an educational site about dictatorship and resistance and a learning center for democracy.

Ruschestraße 103, Haus 7 and 22, 10365 Berlin

Wed–Mon 11 am–6 pm, Tue closed

Limited wheelchair access