How did I end up at the former headquarters of the notorious East German secret police, the Stasi? It all started with a German drama film titled The Lives of Others by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. The main plot line follows a Stasi agent tasked with tracking the every move of a playwright conspiring to leak information to West Germany. Operating from the attic above his apartment, the agent slowly has a change of heart despite his commitment to the Stasi. Some scenes from the movie were shot in the building I photographed which still stands frozen in time today. Most of my time in Germany was spent in overcast conditions, but the weather was spectacularly clear for this shoot.
The Stasi, or Ministry for State Security, was established to be the sword and shield of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. Orchestrating kidnappings, reading personal correspondence for incriminating evidence, and wiretapping telephone lines were all in a days work for the agency. They would even go so far as to wire entire houses with microphones in the hopes of catching those suspected of inappropriate behavior. The Stasi focused on psychological harassment rather than physical punishment at a time when your own husband or wife could be spying on you for the agency.
The architecture of the building itself is what I like to call Soviet drab, consisting of prefabricated concrete structures not unlike you’d find in a frigid Siberian prison. Despite the sunny weather I couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread wash over me as I passed through a narrow alley into the square complex. The grounds haven’t aged well, though someone is clearly trying to keep up with them. The museum itself has many great exhibits covering Stasi surveillance technology, techniques, and the history of the GDR. Some would hope that this piece of East German history might be forgotten, but I for one am glad that the offices of the Stasi were preserved. Walking through the offices of Erich Mielke, Col. Heinz Volpert, and the other upper management of the Stasi is like taking a step back in time, or maybe a step into The Lives of Others. I’m glad I got the chance to photograph and experience the headquarters of the most widespread state security operations in history.
