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This is What Life was Like in Communist East Germany

Tim Flight December 18, 2019 25 min

Berlin Wall - Checkpoint Charlie — A man peers over the newly-built Berlin Wall in August 1961. The Guardian

5. The Stasi ran a brutal prison called Hohenschönhausen

Hohenschönhausen, near Berlin, as it looks today. Wikimedia Commons

If the Stasi arrested you, you’d end up in their dreaded prison, Hohenschönhausen. Set up in 1951, conditions within the prison were notoriously appalling. Malnourished prisoners had no contact with anyone apart from their interrogators. Prison guards used to check regularly on inmates in order to disrupt their sleep. Accommodation included cells heated to an unbearable temperature, standing cells, freezing cold cells, and some where water torture took place. Most prisoners lived in isolation, but even when you had a cellmate, you couldn’t be certain whether they were informers. It’s no wonder people living in fear of Hohenschönhausen.

Written by

Tim Flight

I am a freelance historical and literary writer based in West Yorkshire, UK. I read for a funded PhD in English at the University of Oxford (Magdalen College) and graduated in 2016. I am a former lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. My publications include peer-reviewed articles in academic publications, and pieces in mainstream magazines such as History Today and Fortean Times. For more information, please see www.drflight.co.uk