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Germany Potsdam Brandenburg Museum

Memorial and Encounter Site Leistikowstraße Potsdam

Memorial and Encounter Site Leistikowstraße Potsdam
About

The Memorial and Encounter Site Leistikowstraße in Potsdam offers a sobering insight into Cold War history, housed in a former Soviet prison that operated from 1945 to the early 1990s. Originally built in 1916 as a parsonage for the Evangelical Church Relief Association, the building was repurposed by Soviet military counterintelligence as a remand and transit prison. Known as “Military Town No. 7,” it became a central site for interrogations and detentions, holding Soviet citizens, Germans, and others under suspicion. Today, the museum preserves the oppressive atmosphere of the site with original prison cells, solitary confinement rooms, barred windows, and etched messages left by inmates. The permanent exhibition, opened in 2012, documents the fate of those imprisoned and the broader context of Soviet intelligence operations in East Germany. Visitors can explore a 2.5 km historical path and engage with multimedia stations that reflect on repression, resistance, and remembrance. The site stands as a powerful reminder of the human cost of political surveillance and the resilience of memory.

Potsdam Germany
Location

The Memorial and Encounter Site Leistikowstraße is located at Leistikowstraße 1 in Potsdam, within the Nauener Vorstadt district. Originally built in 1916 by the Evangelical Church Aid Association, the building was converted after World War II into the central remand prison for the Soviet military counterintelligence service, known as the KGB prison. It stands today as a historic memorial site preserving the original prison cells, solitary confinement rooms, and related facilities, offering a powerful insight into the repression and human rights abuses during the Cold War era. Nearby, visitors find themselves in a historically significant part of Potsdam's suburb, close to locations that once formed part of the Soviet-controlled “Military Town No. 7.” The memorial lies near the border of the New Garden area and is accessible via local tram and bus routes, with the nearest car park about an eight-minute walk away at Cecilienhof Palace. This site provides a somber, authentic testimony to Potsdam’s complex 20th-century history.​

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