• Memorial Site SA Prison Papestraße
Since March 2013 a permanent exhibition at the memorial site SA Prison Papestraße remembers the approximately 2,000 people who were abducted to the prison and who were imprisoned, interrogated and tortured there from March to December 1933.
Image: Berlin, 1933, SA deployed as auxiliary police during arms inspection, Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-02974A
Berlin, 1933, SA deployed as auxiliary police during arms inspection, Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-02974A

Image: Berlin, 2011, Exterior view of memorial site, Gedenkort Papestraße, Johannes Kramer
Berlin, 2011, Exterior view of memorial site, Gedenkort Papestraße, Johannes Kramer
In Papestraße in the Berlin borough of Schöneberg barracks for railway workers were constructed near the railway line in 1874/75. The railway regiments' role was to organise the ordnance by train in times of war as well as transporting material to military exercises. After World War I. the building was used in various ways. When the National Socialists came to power in January 1933 they started to take brutal action against their opponents, especially the SA spread terror in the streets. In the state of Prussia about 50,000 SA men were appointed auxiliary policemen in February 1933 by the Prussian minister of the interior, Hermann Göring. After the Reichstag building burned down on the night of February 27/28, 1939 after an arson attack, the Reich government abrogated the Weimar constitution and replaced it by the so-called »Reichstag Fire Decree«: Everywhere in the Reich the SA persecuted communists, social democrats, trade unionists and Jews. Members of the SA interrogated and tortured their victims in improvised prisons and torture chambers. Such a prison was established in a former outbuilding on the site of the railway barracks in Papestraße by the SA in March 1933. During its short existence up to 2,000 people were imprisoned there. Detention was characterized by brutal interrogations and violence, the prisoners were poorly provisioned and lived under insufficient hygienic conditions. In December 1933 the prison was dissolved and fell into oblivion.
Image: Berlin, 1933, SA deployed as auxiliary police during arms inspection, Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-02974A
Berlin, 1933, SA deployed as auxiliary police during arms inspection, Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-02974A

Image: Berlin, 2011, Exterior view of memorial site, Gedenkort Papestraße, Johannes Kramer
Berlin, 2011, Exterior view of memorial site, Gedenkort Papestraße, Johannes Kramer
The names of 500 of the approximately 2,000 prisoners who were detained in the SA prison in Papestraße between March and December 1933 could be ascertained. Most of them were communists and social democrats but also trade unionist and Jews. At least 30 detainees died in prison of the effects of torture.
Image: Berlin, undated, Kurt Michaelis had the marks of torture photographed, Landesarchiv Berlin
Berlin, undated, Kurt Michaelis had the marks of torture photographed, Landesarchiv Berlin

Image: Berlin, 2013, Light installation with prisoners' names, Gedenkort Papestraße, Harry Weber
Berlin, 2013, Light installation with prisoners' names, Gedenkort Papestraße, Harry Weber
After the war the SA prison fell into oblivion. The building in Papestraße was used in 1947/48 as a borough's reading room and warm-up shelter. A memorial plaque remembering the »Victims of the Early Nazi Terror« was mounted in 1981, but not at the right building. In 1991 the »Geschichtsswerkstatt Papestraße« (History Workshop Papestraße) was founded by sociologist Sylvia Walleczek, sculptor Rolf Scholz and historian Kurt Schilde. One year later they detected the former prison at today's memorial site. In contrast to similar sites of early Nazi terror, many traces of the prison survived, graffiti and sketches on the basement walls amongst other things. Ever since, the History Workshop campaigned to establish a memorial site in the former prison. This proposal attracted the support of the city district council of Tempelhof-Schöneberg. After the decision to establish a memorial site in the former barracks, the rooms were officially dedicated in 2011. In addition a permanent exhibition was opened in March 2013.
Image: Berlin, 2013, Cellar corridor at the former prison, Gedenkort Papestraße, Harry Weber
Berlin, 2013, Cellar corridor at the former prison, Gedenkort Papestraße, Harry Weber

Image: Berlin, 2013, View of the exhibition, Gedenkort Papestraße, Harry Weber
Berlin, 2013, View of the exhibition, Gedenkort Papestraße, Harry Weber
Name
Gedenkort SA-Gefängnis Papestraße
Address
Werner-Voß-Damm 54 a
12101 Berlin
Phone
+49(0)30 902 77–6163
Web
http://www.gedenkort-papestrasse.de
E-Mail
mail@gedenkort-papestrasse.de
Open
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday: 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.; Monday to Friday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
group visits, appointment by phone.
Possibilities
Every Sunday 2 p.m. free guided tours