The Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial (Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen) is found at a site that is associated like no other with the 44-year history of political persecution in the Soviet occupied zone and the GDR. A special Soviet camp was set up here at the end of WWII, and in 1946 it became the central Soviet prison in Germany. In 1951, the Ministry for State Security (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit or "Stasi") took over the prison, expanded it and used it until 1989 as a central detention centre. Thousands of political prisoners were locked up here, including almost all of the most famous GDR opponents.
The memorial was erected in 1994. Seeing as large parts of the building and its equipment have been preserved, it conveys an authentic image of the prison regime in the GDR. On guided tours, it's usually former prisoners themselves who take visitors through the prison and report on the conditions and interrogation methods of the GDR state security service.

Since the fall of 2013, a permanent exhibition using items, historical photographs and media stations informs about Hohenschönhausen prison and the system of political persecution in the GDR.