Stasi Museum
Photo: Own work — CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Stasi Museum, located in the former headquarters of East Germany’s Ministry for State Security, offers insights into the operations of the Stasi, featuring original surveillance equipment and Erich Mielke’s preserved office.
Planning your visit
The Stasi Museum occupies House 1 of the Ministry for State Security compound in Lichtenberg — the actual headquarters, entered by citizens' committees in January 1990 as the regime collapsed, which is why so much survives.
Erich Mielke's offices are preserved exactly as he left them: the wood panelling, the conference table, the safe, the sparse personal effects of the man who ran the most pervasive surveillance apparatus in the Eastern Bloc for over thirty years. The banality of the rooms is the point.
Displays cover the Stasi's methods: informants, of whom there were hundreds of thousands, the technology of bugging and mail interception, concealed cameras in briefcases and watering cans, and Zersetzung — the systematic psychological destruction of targets through orchestrated small disruptions to their lives.
The scale of the files, kilometres of them, is documented.
The Stasi Records Archive is nearby.
Bookable options include private guided tours with entry. Current availability is shown below.
Before you book
Where is Stasi Museum?
Stasi Museum is in Berlin, Germany. The map on this page marks its exact location.
Do I need to book Stasi Museum in advance?
Private tours are arranged for a set date and time, so they need booking in advance.
