A Day in Bautzen

Dr Anne and Lois headed for the Stadt Museum in Bautzen to find out details of the local history.  As Dr Anne gets emotionally involved in Lois' roots the history of the area becomes important.  Here in Bautzen, there have been settlements on and off from the Palaeolithic times, the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and continuous settlements since Otto1 in 965AD.  Since then have been wars and rumours of wars over the centuries - 30 years war, 7 years war, Napoleonic war, WW1, WW2, Soviet Occupation.

After lunch they set off for Bautzen Prison.  This was the key prison in East Germany where the Stasi kept the dissidents from 1945 - 1990.  It was a grim reminder of the Cold War period and how difficult it was for any free speaker.  Dr Anne just wanted to run away from this most recent chapter in the history of Europe. Scary...

The prison.

The boarded windows.

The garages where the dissidents arrived.

This prison van had four cells.

Three floors of cells. 

Very often the prisoners were in solitary confinement. The sanitory conditions were foul.  The food was atrocious.  There was no heating.  The prisoners had to lie with their head and arms outside the blanket at night.  Many people died of disease and malnutrition.  

From 1956 - 1989 the Stasi incarcerated 2700 persons in this prison with more than 80% of them political prisoners.