This was the headquarters of the Ministry for State Security — the Stasi — East Germany's secret police. The building, known as Haus 1, was the office of Erich Mielke, who ran the Stasi for 32 years. His office is preserved exactly as he left it: brown wood panelling, heavy curtains, rotary phones, a portrait of Lenin. It's eerily mundane — the banality of surveillance.
The Stasi employed about 91,000 full-time staff and recruited an estimated 189,000 civilian informers — or 'unofficial collaborators' — which meant roughly one in every 63 East Germans was reporting on their neighbours, colleagues, friends, or family. No other intelligence service in history achieved this density of domestic surveillance.
The museum displays the tools of the trade: hidden cameras in watering cans, microphones in neckties, a device for opening and resealing letters without leaving traces. Most disturbing are the smell samples — sealed jars containing cloths that had been rubbed on suspects' chairs to capture their scent, stored so dogs could track them later.
On January 15, 1990 — two months after the Wall fell — citizens stormed this building to prevent the Stasi from destroying its files. They were partially successful. Shredded documents are still being reassembled today, some by computer algorithms. The Stasi Records Archive, now open to the public, contains 111 kilometres of shelved files.
Verified Facts
The Stasi employed approximately 91,000 full-time staff and 189,000 civilian informers
Erich Mielke headed the Stasi for 32 years, and his preserved office can be visited in the museum
Citizens stormed the Stasi headquarters on January 15, 1990, to prevent destruction of files
The Stasi Records Archive contains 111 kilometres of shelved files
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Ruschestraße 103, 10365 Berlin
