in detail
Bautzen is the symbol of political of political imprisonment in Germany. There are two prisons here: Bautzen I, popularly known as 'Yellow Misery', and Bautzen II, which became famous as the 'Stasi prison'. In both prisons, people were incarcerated for political reasons under inhuman conditions during the National Socialist regime, the period of the Soviet occupation and the SED dictatorship.
Bautzen I, 'Yellow Misery’:
Saxon State Penitentiary 1904-1933.
The Bautzen State Penitentiary was built in 1904. Designed to accommodate 1,100 inmates, it reflected contemporary ideas of a modern penal institution. It included large halls where prisoners spent the day working together and individual cells where they slept. The prison had landscaped courtyards, large washrooms, toilets, central heating, an infirmary and a kitchen with its own vegetable garden. Bautzen was a juvenile penal facility and a prison for first offenders. Especially in the case of these prisoners, the penal system was intended not merely as punishment but also as assistance.
National Socialist prison 1933-1945
The perception of punishment changed in the National Socialist dictatorship. It was intended to be severe for the person concerned and to act as a deterrent for the rest of society. Crime was viewed as a disease of the otherwise healthy body politic. Life as an inmate typically included military drill, meagre rations and tedious work. National Socialist racism also played a part. More and more special regulations were introduced for repeat offenders, political prisoners, Jews, Sinti and Roma and 'foreign' prisoners in general. Many of them were transferred to concentration camps. In late 1944 the prison held 1,600 inmates, one-third more than its design capacity. Another 700 prisoners were held in the penitentiary's four satellite camps.
The most prominent inmate in Bautzen I in 1943-1944 was Ernst Thälmann, chairman of the German Communist Party. In August 1944 he was transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp, where he was murdered.
Soviet special camp 1945-1950
Directly following the end of the Second World War, the Soviet secret police used “The Yellow Misery” as a special prison camp. Initially, Nazi party functionaries and individuals the Soviets saw as threats were imprisoned there. From 1946 on however, the regime primarily used the prison to intern political opponents. Here they were isolated from the world for years on end, having been sentenced on trumped up charges such as “anti-Soviet propaganda” and “espionage”.
East German penal institution 1950-1990
In early 1950 the Soviet occupying forces returned the state penitentiary to German administration. However, the facility was now placed under the administration of the German People's Police rather than the judiciary. They took over Bautzen I with 6,000 political prisoners. A prison rebellion occurred in 1950, which was brutally suppressed. Appeals smuggled out of the prison reached the west. They coined the phrase 'Yellow Misery', the name by which the prison has come to be known since then.
Overcrowding, poor facilities, few educational opportunities and violence among the prisoners continued to characterise prison life in the German Democratic Republic even after the worst grievances of the 1950s had been alleviated. In October 1989 Bautzen I contained 2,100 inmates, 40% more than its design capacity. The East German penal system never succeeded in achieving its goal of reintegrating prisoners into socialist society through work. From a political standpoint, greater benefit could be derived from the deterrent effect of the severe prison conditions and essentially inhuman treatment of the prisoners. Like all other East German prisons, Bautzen invariably held inmates who had been imprisoned for political reasons.
Bautzen Correctional Institution since 1990
With the creation of the Free State of Saxony in July 1990, Bautzen I was once again placed under the administration of the Saxon Ministry of Justice. Today the Bautzen Correctional Institution is used as a pretrial confinement facility and as a penal institution for male convicts serving long prison sentences.
Bautzen II, the 'Stasi prison’:
Bautzen court jail 1906-1933
Bautzen II was built by the Saxon Ministry of Justice and the district and regional court. The jail was designed to accommodate 203 prisoners in 203 cells. They were used for pretrial confinement and for convicted prisoners serving short terms. It was common practice to sentence minor offenders to a few days in the court jail. The Bautzen court jail was a modern facility but was too large. It was rare for the jail to be fully occupied.
Jail for judicial prisoners and persons in 'protective custody' 1933-1945
Since 1924 the court jail had been part of the Bautzen State Penitentiary and was used as a pretrial confinement facility. Officially nothing changed with the National Socialist dictatorship. In fact, however, Bautzen II was also used by the SA for interrogating persons in 'protective custody'. Prisoners were subjected to abuse. The persons in 'protective custody' were then sent to the Hohnstein concentration camp. The judiciary supported the extrajudicial persecution of dissenters.
Soviet pretrial confinement facility 1945-1949
After the end of the war the Soviet secret police used the vacant court jail for interrogations. The single-occupancy cells were overfilled and health conditions were miserable. There was hardly enough food and water for the many inmates. The NKVD often used torture to extract confessions to charges that often were merely fabricated. A Soviet military tribunal held proceedings in the adjacent court building. Most verdicts were pronounced for political reasons. In this manner the Soviet occupying forces contributed to the establishment of a Communist dictatorship.
Penal institution 1949-1951
In September 1949 the Soviet secret police returned the building to the Saxon judiciary. Under its administration the court jail now became a penal institution as the state penitentiary remained in use as a Soviet special camp. The judiciary also used the former military prison on Paulistrasse as a penal institution.
Branch facility of Bautzen I 1951-1956
In 1951 the East German Ministry of the Interior, which was now responsible for the penal system as a whole, assumed control of the prison. Now designated 'object II', the court jail again became a branch facility of Bautzen I.
Special prison of the Ministry of State Security 1956-1989
In 1956 the East German Ministry of State Security established a special prison in Bautzen II. Bautzen II was expanded and converted to a maximum security tract designed to accommodate 200 special prisoners such as dissidents, prisoners from West Germany, spies or prominent criminals with special status. In 1963 the building was separated from Bautzen I and made an independent penal institution. To conceal its true purpose, it officially remained under the control of the Ministry of the Interior.
In December 1989 all political prisoners were freed at once.
Branch facility of the Bautzen Correctional Institution 1990-1992
After the political prisoners had been released, Bautzen II was nearly empty. In July 1990 it again became a Saxon correctional institution and a branch facility of Bautzen I. The prison was finally closed in January 1992.
History of the Bautzen Memorial:
In 1992 the penal institution Bautzen II was closed because of its special significance as a place of political imprisonment. The memorial has been established especially thanks to the initiative and unrelenting commitment of the former Bautzen prisoners who founded the Bautzen-Komitee e. V. (Bautzen Committee) in 1990.
After visiting the site on July 12th in 1991, the CDU parliamentary group in the Saxon state parliament proposed a resolution for the 'establishment of a memorial to the victims of communism and socialism in the penal institution Bautzen'. The memorial in the former special prison of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) in Bautzen II should function 'as a place of commemoration but also as a museum and meeting place'. On July 16th in 1993 the Saxon state parliament followed a resolution by the Green Party (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) parliamentary group and asked the state government to remain committed to the establishment of a 'memorial for the victims of communist and socialist dictatorship and political justice in the former special institution of the MfS ''Bautzen II'''. Its original condition and character were to be mostly preserved.
After its creation in February 1994 the Saxon Memorial Foundation took over the further establishment and expansion of the Memorial. It prepared a conception which also explicitly counted the commemoration of injustice during the National Socialist dictatorship and its victims as well as the documentation of the history of the prison Bautzen I among its tasks. In April 1997 the committees of the foundation recommended the realisation of this conception. The Bautzen Memorial has thus been given the comprehensive and difficult task of documenting and accounting for the history of two quite different detention centres during three periods of persecution – the National Socialist dictatorship, the period of immediate Soviet occupation and the SED dictatorship – at one single historic site.
