Doing Hard Time in Berlin

A wise man once sang Don't do the crime if you can't do the time, a warning simple enough for even me to grasp. This threat of long-term incarceration, a staple of justice and correctional systems for centuries, is still the essential deterrent to criminal behavior. Unfortunately in Berlin, with its twelve years of Nazi dictatorship followed by four more decades of communist authoritarianism, one might end up doing the time -- or worse -- while never having actually "done the crime." Politically and racially motivated confinement, torture, and murder stain the histories of Berlin's prisons, and the process of Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung ("coming to terms with the past") has also involved examining the injustices and atrocities which have occurred within the walls of the big house. While the city now has a normal correctional system for the punishment and rehabilitation of its criminal population, several of Berlin's prisons have been converted into memorials -- remembering those innocents who suffered without cause and warning those who would forget how justice can be perverted by politics.

Ploetzensee Memorial Center
Huettigpfad 1, 13627
Originally built in 1868 to house Berlin's growing criminal population, Ploetzensee was repurposed by the Nazis into a facility for pretrial confinement of political prisoners in 1934. Hitler personally approved the secret installation of a guillotine here in 1937 to expedite the increasing number of death sentences handed down by the Nazi's feared "People's Court." Ninety members of Count Claus von Stauffenberg's July 20th conspiracy to assassinate Hitler were executed here within just a few days. Since 1952, Ploetzensee has been a place of silent remembrance commemorating all the victims of the National Socialist dictatorship.

Topography of Terror
Niederkirchnerstrasse 8, 10963
Due to its central location, the Topography of Terror is one of the more visited sites of Nazi "justice." Originally an 18th-century palace, it was the city residence of various royalty and later became an imperial guest house. In 1934, the Nazi's moved in, setting up SS Security Offices upstairs and using the cellar as the house jail of the dreaded Gestapo Geheime Staatspolizei (the Nazi State's secret police). It was here that the SS planned many of its atrocities, including preparations for the Wannsee Conference, at which the "Final Solution" of the "Jewish Question" was decided. The building was heavily damaged by Allied bombing and later demolished. Its rubble-strewn lot then stood adjacent to the Berlin Wall -- of which a small section still stands. Excavations in 1987 revealed remains of the cellar, and a decision was made to create a documentation center detailing the crimes committed on the site. The planned building has been redesigned twice and is currently still on the drawing boards. However, the outdoor exhibition -- an exhaustive documentation of state terror and atrocity -- is well worth a visit.

Haeftling
Rosa Luxemburg Strasse 25, 10178
Just got out of prison and missing those simple, workman-like duds? Have no fear, you can pick up your baggy pants and shirts as well as dozens of other prisoner-made goods, including housewares and foodstuffs, at this trendy Mitte shop. Named after the German word for prisoner, Haeftling uses the proceeds from sales to support prisoners' rights and rehabilitation projects as well as campaigns against the death penalty, which is still being used in such barbarous nations as China and the US.

Moabit Prison Memorial Park
Lehrter Strasse 5, 110557
Across from Berlin's new main train station, this park marks the location of the notorious Moabit prison. Completed in 1849, the prison "featured" an innovative star shaped ground plan and isolation cells, allowing for constant surveillance of the prisoners while denying them all human contact (this strict isolation afforded them the opportunity to better contemplate their misdeeds). After their seizure of power, the Nazis imprisoned political opponents here, including Albrecht Haushofer, who wrote his Moabit Sonnets here on smuggled bits of paper. After Moabit was damaged by Allied bombing, many of its prisoners, including Haushofer, were freed in the final days of the war, only to be murdered by roving SS death squads. The park was completed last year, and its pleasant green expanse is the perfect spot to wait for your train and contemplate the charnel house of history.

Moabit Criminal Court
Turmstrasse 91, 10559
Constructed in 1906, this courthouse / jail complex was Europe's largest at the time and was called "an imperial punch in the face of the proletariat" because of its location in the workers' district of Moabit. Famous guests included the Captain from Koepenick and members of the Rote Armee Fraktion. The building is still used as a jail for prisoners awaiting court action, and one can often spy inmates waving to the street from its high windows. A gargantuan example of Wilhelminian institutional architecture, the sleek stairways in the entrance are worth a peek -- just don't get busted!

Hohenschoenhausen Memorial
Genslerstrasse 66, 13055
Nazis had no monopoly on unjust imprisonment and torture. Originally a large canteen for the Nazi's "People's Welfare" Organization, the building was taken over in May 1945 by the Soviet occupying forces and turned into a prison camp, known as "Special Camp No.3." From here, more than 20,000 prisoners were taken to other Soviet camps, including the former Nazi concentration camp at Sachsenhausen. The Soviet secret police soon constructed torture and isolation cells in the cellar, and in 1951, the East German Stasi took over the prison, using it to imprison, interrogate, and torture its political prisoners until the regime's collapse in 1990. The memorial site now hosts events and exhibitions detailing the site's history. There are also tours conducted by former prisoners, who gladly share their own dreadful experiences of life behind bars.

JVA Tegel
Seidelstrasse 39, 13507
When it was completed in 1896, Tegel Royal Prison, as it was then called, was one of Germany's most modern correctional facilities, establishing a tradition of innovation which continues until today. It was from behind Tegel's brick walls that Franz Biberkopf -- the hero of Doeblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz -- would be released to find his way through the rapidly modernizing city. Later used as a military prison and heavily damaged during the war, the prison had the good fortune to end up in the French Occupation Zone and was rebuilt, opening again in 1955. In 1968, prisoners published their first newspaper, and thirty years later they established Germany's first prison internet presence -- Planet Tegel. The innovation continues today, as the prisoners make goods for sale at the Haeftling shop in Mitte and online.