I just binge-watched Deutschland 83 and I’m pretty sure that some of it was filmed in the Stasi headquarters in Berlin. This is a little blog piece I wrote last year about that particular remnant of the Cold War.
The M13 tram snakes its way from Warschauerstrasse station through the uninspiring suburb of Lichtenberg. There are no signs for the Stasi Museum when you get off at the town hall. We had to ask directions in a bakery, and had almost given up when I spotted the modest sign.
The headquarters of the Stasi secret police – now a museum – is in a dull office block at the back of a medical centre where old folks have their knees and hips fixed.
The interior of the museum seems fixed in time, expect that the spookiness is tempered by the almost apologetic air of the staff – are they volunteers, perhaps? There’s no fancy till or flash tickets. In the café, a kindly lady serves filter coffee and marble cake as if at a church craft market.
In the entrance is a Stasi prison van, a people mover containing tiny…
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Stuart Campbell author 