Gedenkstätte Bautzner Straße Dresden, Former State Security detention center in Dresden, Germany

Gedenkstätte Bautzner Straße Dresden occupies the former Stasi district administration at Bautzner Straße 112a in the Radeberger Vorstadt, part of Dresden's Neustadt. The site preserves the only original, visitor-accessible Stasi remand prison in Saxony, including a U-shaped detention building, a multipurpose hall with offices, and the Soviet cellar prison known as the 'Fuchsbau'. A pale four-storey building with tall, evenly spaced windows and a blue 'P' sign stands at the entrance; inside, a grey corridor lined with heavy metal cell doors and a mesh-enclosed gallery leads to the cells.

Soviet intelligence used the cellars of two villas on the site from 1949; the Heidehof, an 1882 paper factory on Bautzner Straße, served as an early detention prison. In October 1953 the Stasi took over the grounds and built the U-shaped detention house with its multipurpose hall, the first new Stasi prison in the GDR. On 5 December 1989, four weeks after the Wall fell, demonstrators occupied the complex non-violently and stopped the destruction of files. The memorial association was founded later.

The memorial presents how the regime monitored and persecuted those who opposed it through personal accounts of those affected. The rooms and documents reveal the fear and surveillance that shaped daily life for many.

Plan to spend enough time here, as the exhibits can be emotionally challenging and there is considerable text to read throughout. Tours in multiple languages and audio guides with survivor testimonies provide helpful context for understanding what happened in these rooms.

The basement holds the original cells of the 'Fuchsbau', where Soviet intelligence conducted interrogations during the 1950s. These little-known spaces offer rare evidence of Soviet occupation methods in East Germany during that period.