The Potsdam Lindenstraße memorial is a special place of political persecution: in the middle of the baroque city center, thousands of people were imprisoned during the National Socialist period, during the Soviet occupation and during the GDR era.
Potsdam - The Potsdam Lindenstraße memorial can now also be experienced on the Internet: With a digital tour of the former courthouse and the prison, people from workshops for the disabled should be addressed in particular, who previously had little access to the memorial due to physical and social barriers, explained the education officer Michael Siems on Wednesday.
Thousands of people were imprisoned in the 2,500-square-meter detention complex in downtown Potsdam during the Nazi era, the Soviet occupation and the GDR, particularly for political reasons.
At the same time, the memorial can now be visited digitally from anywhere in the world, said Siems.
The digital tour leads through interrogation rooms of the Stasi and cells with original or reconstructed equipment - but also to places that are otherwise inaccessible: For example in the roof truss of the "Great Dutch House" from the 18th century, which is particularly interesting from an architectural point of view - and into the interior of the prisoner vans, which are otherwise only visible to visitors with a glass pane and a distance.
As a place of imprisonment and persecution under different political systems, there are two special anniversaries this year: the 90th anniversary of the "Day of Potsdam" on March 21, 1933, when the Reichstag was opened in the garrison church under Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler, and the 70th th anniversary of the workers' uprising in the GDR on June 17, 1953.
With an exhibition on the Weimar Republic from May 17 to August 11, the memorial also commemorates the crisis year 1923 100 years ago.
On the "Day of Potsdam" there is a book presentation about the life of Potsdamer Ludwig Levy and an exhibition entitled "Disenfranchised" about the fate of other lawyers from the city who were forced out of their offices and persecuted after the National Socialists took power.
There will be a panel discussion and a commemoration of the workers' uprising: Thousands of people were imprisoned in Lindenstrasse after the uprising.
A total of around 7,000 people were imprisoned there from 1952 to 1989, often because they were fleeing the Republic or only after applications to leave the country.
Head of the memorial Maria Schultz hopes that the virtual tour will inspire many interested people to visit the memorial in person.
Schultz emphasized that this new, inclusive approach is particularly important for people with disabilities.
The hereditary health court of the National Socialists also met in Lindenstraße and ordered forced sterilizations.
According to Schultz, the memorial had around 15,000 visitors in the pre-Corona year 2019, and this number was almost reached again last year.
About a third of the visitors are schoolchildren.
dpa