Visiting the Stasi Museum Dresden: The complete guide

The Stasi Museum Dresden is one of the best-known of its kind in the former East Germany. It’s a grim prison complex run by the omnipresent Stasi secret police. It’s a shocking introduction to life under Communism, particularly the many who fell foul of the paranoid police state.

In this article, I describe what there is to see at the Stasi Museum in Dresden – officially called the Gedenkstätte Bautzner Strasse. I also explain the connection between the Stasi in Dresden and future Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who worked out of a KGB office a short distance away.

Finally I cover the practicalities of getting to the Dresden Stasi Museum from the city centre. It’s a million miles away from the popular Dresden museums in the centre of the city. But it’s just as important a part of the city’s history, well worth the time.

Why Visit The Stasi Museum Dresden

The Stasi Museum in Dresden is fascinating for anyone with an interest in Cold War history.

It shows you life under the Stasi – the East German secret police – and the totalitarian Soviet-enforced Communist state it was meant to protect.

It’s similar to other Stasi museums in the former GDR (German Democratic Republic), with prison cells, offices and a small exhibition on the Stasi.

Visiting the Stasi Museum Dresden is a full-on immersion into the worst of the Orwellian one-party world that was East Germany. The conditions in which the Stasi’s prisoners lived were brutal, leaving a deep impression on anyone seeing them first-hand.

A visit to the Dresden Stasi Museum – and any other similar museum in the former East Germany – is also an act of remembrance.   Around 250,000 citizens of the GDR were arrested by the Stasi, and subjected to brutal physical and psychological treatment.  Human rights were simply not on the agenda under the Stasi.

The Stasi is the nickname for the secret police that enforced the will of the one-party Communist state of East Germany, the German Democratic Republic.

The Ministerium fur Staatssicherheit  – Ministry for State Security – was responsible for maintaining the one-party Socialist system. It was founded in 1950 with the help of the Soviet equivalent, the KGB, and was closely modelled on it.

The Stasi was headed from 1957 until the end of the GDR in 1990 by Erich Mielke.

Like the KGB, the Stasi was intended to be the shield and sword of the GDR state. It had between 80,000 and 90,000 full-time employees. These were augmented by a network numbering at least 174,000 informants – this could have been as many as 500,000. If occasional informants are also included, it is believed that there was one Stasi contact per 6 East Germans.

The Stasi sought to suppress any dissent. They would use insidious methods including zersetzung – meaning disintegration – of targets. They would cause huge upheavals and disruptions in the lives of people considered to be potential troublemakers.

This could entail job losses or marriage break-ups. They would go to these extraordinary lengths, always unseen, to disintegrate their targets to such an extent that they would be incapable of stirring up any protests against the East German state.

Again, like the KGB, the Stasi combined domestic surveillance with espionage activities abroad. Most Stasi operations concerned the then-West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany). Their activities would have extended to political meddling and disinformation.

After entering the Dresden Stasi Memorial building, the ticket counter is on your right. There is a selection of information leaflets in several languages, including English, Spanish and Czech.

If you don’t speak German to a proficient level make sure you pick up one of these leaflets. It’ll be your only source of written information in the Museum, except a few captions in English at an external exhibit.

At the time of writing, the audioguides are also in German only.

Much of what you see doesn’t really need translation: the grimness tells it all.

A new permanent exhibition is due to open later in 2024, and this will include m,ore information in English and other languages.

The first section of the Museum that I visited was the small section of Soviet underground cells.

These cold, dank miserable cells were used by the NKVD, the forerunner of the KGB and today’s FSB.

There is a small exhibition in German offering introductory information on the NKVD. This includes a section on the Gulag prison and labour camp network which was spread across the Soviet Union. There are also some artworks and sculptures depicting suffering in their prisons.

The conditions in these cells were dire, as they were right across the Gulag network.

There is also a small outdoor ‘garage’ area with a collection of three remarkable vehicles.

One of these is a disguised van, a small grey truck used to transport prisoners. From the outside, it doesn’t look like a prison vehicle – and that was the Stasi’s intention.

The rear of the truck is crammed with five tiny cells and a seat for an armed officer. I don’t know how someone my height (6’3”, or 1.9 metres) could have fitted into one of them. I climbed in and tried. Like the conditions in the Stasi’s prisons, the conditions were appalling.

There is also a homemade single-person aircraft (pictured). This is the one exhibit I found with information in English. It’s the ultimate home improvisation. The front wheels are from a wheelbarrow, and the rear wheel is from a child’s scooter. And it was powered – if that’s the right word – by a Trabant engine.

The only information not on the caption was the purpose of the aircraft.   I assumed it was intended or used for an escape attempt. But the Stasi were also known for their expertise in innovation, particularly when it came to methods of surveillance.

The Stasi remand prison is spread over four floors, and you can walk around these freely.

The cells – behind heavy green doors with multiple locks – were very basic. Most had two beds and a toilet. Most had a sink. All had very small windows and dim lighting.

The corridors on each floor are also caged, preventing anyone from jumping from one of the upper floors.

The first room you see is where the prisoners would arrive. They would be stripped and searched, and have the laces removed from their shoes.

Some of the cells show different aspects of the Stasi’s work.  One cell is the ‘photo room’, where prisoners would be photographed facing the camera, in half-profile and side-on profile.

Some cells were used for the isolation of prisoners. One was empty, except for a single wooden stool and light bulb. There is no window and no toilet. A prisoner would be left in there until he capitulated.

East Germany was a bizarre beige and brown world, with the occasional dash of gaudy patterned wallpaper. You get an insight into this in the Stasi offices and rest quarters next to the prison. If you’ve ever seen the 2006 movie The Lives of Others, you’ll recognize the décor.

The offices aren’t faithful re-creations – rather they are left as they were 35 years ago. All the old analog equipment – plastic dial telephones, typewriters – are there. Details such as the obligatory photograph of Party General Secretary Erich Honecker are also on display.

There is also a sealed jar containing a cloth marked with the scent of a prisoner. This was kept sealed in case the person ever escaped – Stasi search dogs would be introduced to the scent.

There is also a room showing Stasi card indexes and files. After German reunification, people could access the records the Stasi kept on them. And often they were shocked by what they discovered, including unknowingly having had their apartments and telephones bugged for years.

The future Russian president Vladimir Putin spent five years working in Dresden as a KGB operative. He was a Soviet spy, and was one of several staff members in the Dresden office tasked with recruiting more spies.

It was Putin’s first (and only) foreign appointment, and it was the Eastern Bloc’s equivalent of a provincial posting. Perhaps not quite in the sticks, but not exactly the centre of the Socialist universe either.

Putin’s office was at the regional KGB headquarters at Angelikastrasse 4, just across the street from the Stasi offices and remand prison.

The gentleman at the reception desk in the Stasi Museum was at pains to stress that Putin did not work in the Stasi offices. His English was limited, but he was able to use the phrase ‘fake news’ to describe online assertions that he had worked there.

However, we know that Putin would have been a regular visitor to the Stasi offices at Bautzner Strasse. He also attended some functions at the main hall there.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Putin – who had attained the rank of Major – is supposed to have warned a crowd not to force their way into the KGB’s premises. Accounts vary – according to some he warned that troops may open fire.

What we do know is that ‘Moscow was silent’, and that no order came to shoot.

Suddenly the Soviet Empire – accepted as a fait accompli by the Western powers in 1945 – was disintegrating, rapidly and peacefully. 

The KGB and Stasi have been described as brother organisations, but this is only partly true. The Stasi were ultimately subservient to the KGB. They co-operated with each other, and had the same aims, but would sometimes tread on each other’s toes. The KGB almost exposed a long-standing Stasi operation in the 1970s, so it wasn’t all fraternal socialist harmony.

The Stasi Museum Dresden is two miles from Dresden city centre, on the north side of the River Elbe. The address is Bautzner Strasse 112a 01099 Dresden.

It’s just up the hill from the Waldschlösschen Bridge over the Elbe. The construction of this bridge caused the Dresden and Elbe Landscape to be removed by UNESCO from its World Heritage List in 2009.

The Stasi Museum in Dresden is easy to reach. From the city centre, take trams 3, 6, 7 (towards Weixdorf) or 8 across the river to Albertplatz.  From there, turn right onto Bautzner Strasse and catch the EV11 bus (destination Bühlau).

Then you alight at the Angelikastrasse stop. Cross the road and walk towards the grey building on your right, then turn right, walking back to the far end of the building.

There you’ll find a sign (pictured) directing you left and around the corner to the Bautzner Strasse Memorial.

See Also: Prague to Dresden – 5 Easy Ways To Get There

According to the Stasi Museum Dresden website, admission is €8 for adults. I was only charged €7.

The new permanent exhibition will offer more information in English, but if there are several of you, it may be worth contacting the Museum to organise a guided tour in English. I was the only visitor for two hours, a rather unnerving experience at times. And as I was about to leave, I encountered a small English-language tour group being shown around.

There is an online form to complete, which doesn’t translate from German to English. I’d be inclined to contact the Museum by email instead, it’s far simpler!

I’m very glad I had the opportunity to visit the Dresden Stasi Museum. It’s an unremittingly grim place where many people were treated horrendously. All in the name of keeping a repressive cadre of Stalinist old men in their jobs. And, of course, under the thumb of their ultimate masters in Moscow.

The one thing that would make the Museum better is more information in English. I have read up a great deal on the Stasi and the Cold War, and also have a reasonable level of conversational German. However, this wasn’t enough to get a full grasp of the information on the exhibits, or the recorded testimonies. It’s a real pity.

A new permanent exhibition is due to open in spring 2024, a few months after my visit, and from what I’ve read, there will be more information in English and, hopefully, other languages.

Check out my guide to the best places to visit in Eastern Germany. Dresden ranks very highly on this list – take a look at more of my Dresden articles, including the Frauenkirche Dresden, Churches in Dresden, Dresden Landmarks and visiting Dresden Old Masters Gallery. It’s also well worth visiting Loschwitz Dresden, the nearby suburb with the Blue Wonder Bridge and two wonderful turn of the century funicular railways.

If you’re only going to manage a brief visit to Dresden, then take a look at my One Day In Dresden itinerary and guide.

Also take a look at more of my articles on the Saxony region of eastern Germany, including the landmark Bastei Bridge. And check out my guide to the best day trips from Dresden for more ideas on places to visit near Dresden.

If you’re curious about the Cold War, learn more about how it came to an end in my articles on visiting Nikolaikirche Leipzig (where the protests that brought down the GDR began) and the Stasi Museum Leipzig. And check out my article on Bautzen Germany, home to one of the most feared prisons in Communist East Germany.

There are many more brilliant places to visit in Europe covering the Cold War period.  My article on places to visit in Communist Prague is a good starting point. The Cold War Museum Prague is located in a nuclear bunker beneath one of the city’s main squares.

Also in the Czech capital, the Retro Museum Prague does an outstanding job of capturing details of day-to-day life under Socialism. And the Trabant Museum Prague offers a light-hearted look at the spluttering Trabi, the much-coveted spluttering state-produced car.

And take a look at more of our articles on Germany here:

• Best Places To Visit In Germany – 27 Outstanding Places To Visit Across This Amazing Country
• Nuremberg Nazi Sites – the Nazi Party Rally Grounds, Nuremberg Trials venue and more
• Berlin Landmarks – 21 Famous Sights To See In Berlin
• Rhine River Castles – 20 castles on the most picturesque stretch of the River Rhine

David Angel is a British photographer, writer and historian. He is a European travel expert with over 30 years’ experience exploring Europe. He has a degree in History from Manchester University, and his work is regularly featured in global media including the BBC, Condé Nast Traveler, The Guardian, The Times, and The Sunday Times.  David is fluent in French and Welsh, and can also converse in Italian, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Czech and Polish.

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