On December 4, 1989, Andreasstrasse transformed from a site of oppression to a site of liberation.
On this day courageous Erfurt residents occupied these Stasi headquarters as part of the Peaceful Revolution. It was the first occupation of a Stasi headquarters in the GDR. Soon thereafter, Stasi headquarters in other German cities were also occupied.
1. Occupation of a Stasi District Office in the GDR
The occupiers call in the military prosecutor, they hope he will enforce their demand for admission to the Stasi district administration office; Thüringer Allgemeine Newspaper, photo: Sascha Fromm
Military prosecutor (right, in uniform) in conversation with a representative of the State Security (left, in a suit); Gesellschaft für Zeitgeschichte e.V.
many file folders were found empty; Gesellschaft für Zeitgeschichte e.V., photo: Wolfgang Haase
Search for files in the Stasi district administration office; Thüringer Allgemeine Newspaper, photo: Sascha Fromm
Torn files seized during the occupation; Gesellschaft für Zeitgeschichte e.V., photo: Wolfgang Haase
The occupiers found the remains of burned files in the boiler room; Thüringer Allgemeine Newspaper, photo: Sascha Fromm
The first occupation of a Stasi district administration office took place on December 4, 1989, in Erfurt; photo: Andreas Giessler
Occupation of the Stasi district administration office with a detention centre in Andreasstrasse; Gesellschaft für Zeitgeschichte e.V., photo: Wolfgang Haase
Major General Josef Schwarz, head of the Stasi detention facility, must answer to the occupiers; Thüringer Allgemeine Newspaper, photo: Sascha Fromm
Blockade of the rear entrance by a vehicle of the city administration, photo: Andreas Giessler
Excerpt from the cube of the Peaceful Revolution, the drawings are based on these historical photos; drawing: Simon Schwartz
Stasi employees were in the process of destroying evidence of their human rights violations. But the occupiers saved what they could and stored the seized Stasi files in the empty prison cells. This was a milestone of the Peaceful Revolution and the beginning of the reappraisal of the SED dictatorship in Thuringia. It is also why, today, this story has a particular place at Andreasstrasse: on the cube of the Peaceful Revolution, the symbol of our Memorial and Educational Centre. To complete the artwork, historical images were compiled into a collage by the Potsdam agency freybeuter. The artist Simon Schwartz (Hamburg) was responsible for the artistic anonymization of the collage.
