Stasi Museum

The Stasi Museum, officially the Research and Memorial Centre Normannenstrasse, occupies House 1 of the former headquarters of the East German Ministry for State Security in Berlin-Lichtenberg. From 1960 Stasi minister Erich Mielke had his offices here, preserved largely unchanged after East Berlin citizens stormed the complex on 15 January 1990. Today the building is a memorial and research institution run by the ASTAK association. Visitors walk through Mielke's original office with its desk, wall map and personal telephone, the conference room where major operations were planned, and floors of exhibits on surveillance, decomposition tactics and dissent. The unrenovated 1960s interiors speak more powerfully than any staged display. The complex is a protected monument.