Hidden & Vanished

Two prisons in former East Berlin – an exploration

wo places that are barely visible.
A story that continues to resonate today.

 

Two prisons in the heart of the city, where people were imprisoned for various reasons during the socialist GDR era. One remains, hidden within an administrative building. The other has vanished.

 

The remand prison on Keibelstraße and the women’s prison on Barnimstraße tell the story of a system that determined who belonged and who did not, what was permitted and what was punished. It is about deviation and conformity, about control, about decisions that are not free.

 

And about the questions that remain: What is worth remembering? What remains? And what disappears?

 

On Keibelstraße, the structure still stand: cells, corridors, doors – a building from 1951, right in the heart of the city. On Barnimstraße, nothing remains; the prison from 1864 was demolished. An artistic audio tour guides you into the women’s experience: their voices, their thoughts, their decisions.

 

Over the course of around 120 minutes, you move between these two places, between what is hidden and what has vanished, between what was and what remains.

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Next date:

• Date Sunday, 05/July/2026 11:00 bis 13:00
• Venue Lernort Keibelstraße
• Address Bernhard-Weiß-Straße 6, 10178 Berlin-Mitte