Dresden confirms my fear of opera houses and, additionally, Stasi prisons

Travel is a way to grow as a person and discover new facets of our personalities. Having already spent 46 Euros to confirm I am afraid of bad seats in steep opera houses, I decided to invest 24 additional Euros to gauge my thoughts about underground spaces. We spent our final hours in Dresden heading out to see the Bautzner Street Memorial, which is dedicated to the victims of political persecution under the East German regime before 1989.

The Memorial building used to house the Ministry for State Security and a detention center. It’s a funny place for a Stasi prison, though, because it sits in a lovely neighborhood of mansions along the Elbe river.

Here’s a picture from our stroll over:

And here’s a big mansion across the street:

And even more nice houses across the other street:

They all look over at the Bautzner Memorial, which doesn’t look at all intimidating from the outside, but I wonder how much the wealthy neighbors knew about what went on in there. The prison had about 10,000 inmates over the years.

Our personal problems with the prison, arose, though, once we entered. In my typical way, I had pre-purchased entry to this site and I guess I’m to blame for expecting the ticket to be accepted by the clerk. The Bautzner Memorial was liberated on December 5th, 1989 and frozen in time right there. Nothing has changed…and I think, in retrospect, that the clerk was the same man from 1989, still on duty, still trying to terrorize people.

He certainly scared me. He spoke almost no English but we had a l-o-n-g conversation that made it clear our ticket was suspicious and unlikely to be accepted. He made numerous telephone calls to other…prisons?memorials? He even demanded my telephone and went and got a digital camera and took pictures of my purchase emails.

He took us into custody…well, okay, he confiscated our printed ticket…and then he said a whole bunch of stuff to us and…I think…indicated we could enter the prison.

And I felt momentarily victorious! I won! We got to…enter an East German prison, after making a guard/clerk really unhappy with us.

We started with the prison block and an interrogation room, which were all creepy, but interesting. They give you an audio guide called “Hello, You’re Under Arrest”…seriously…but it’s only in German so we didn’t get to hear it.

Then, we were directed into a basement. I found it to be unbelievably scary down there. There’s a warren of hallways, blocked doors, stairwells, and cells that fan out through the building, under the nearby streets, and up into other buildings. There were cells everywhere! I lasted less than two minutes before I had to get back outside. It’s disorienting to be down there – one of the goals, I know, but I kept thinking of that pissed off guard/clerk upstairs…imagining him getting the last laugh. Sure, he let us in the prison with those suspect tickets, but we never made it out…etc. etc. etc.

Here’s some pics from the scary area:

It’s my understanding that, had we made it further into the basement side of the exhibit, we would have made it up to a visit to the commander’s office, but once I was down in there, I just needed to be out. (Note similarity to Opera House visit: got myself in there but rational thought processes gone and all I can think about is the exit.)

I should add that Ron was unfazed by the prison basement. I really feel this prison comfort level flows directly from his inability to know where we are at any given time while traveling Europe, and so the prison was just another place to wander. (It is Ron’s adamant belief that, when we are not sure where we are, the solution is always to cross the street. It is extremely important that you remember this in case you ever find yourself traveling with Ron.)

Free of the prison, we wandered off for a final stroll through Dresden. I’ll leave you with these last few pictures and talk with you in a day or two from Berlin: