Surveillance Monitor. Citizens as a source of danger
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| 10 EUR per person |
| Duration: 60 min |
| 16 years and older |
| German |
| Ground Floor, Hall 2 |
| max. 25 persons |
| Part of: One Object, Many Questions |
In terms of object security and surveillance, there was a special constellation in the Palace of the Republic: as a “House of the People”, the Palace was freely accessible to the public. At the same time, it was the seat of the GDR People’s Chamber, so the Ministry for State Security (Stasi) treated it as an object of special attention. Controls were supposed to ensure security of the building and prevent “actions critical of the state”: Employees were screened, visitors kept under surveillance, telephones tapped and central areas observed with cameras. Equipment such as the RFT FB 2011 were used to monitor the interior and exterior areas.
Curator Uta Kornmeier and Dagmar Hovestädt, head of outreach and research of the Stasi Records Archives in the Federal Archives, discuss the question of what went beyond the “normal” level of object security and thus turned into the persecution of unpopular persons. What role did the Stasi play in the Palace of the Republic? How did it define “critical actions”, and how far did it go to intervene?
Participants
Dagmar Hovestädt was the spokeswoman for the Federal Comissioner for the Stasi Records from 2011 to 2021. She is now heads the Department Outreach and Research at the Federal Archives, Stasi Records Archive. Previously she was as a journalist in Berlin and Los Angeles. Her academic interests are at the intersection of archives, dealing with the past and human rights.
Uta Kornmeier studied art history and museum studies and curated several exhibitions at the Berlin Museum of Medical History. Since 2020, she has been curator for academic events and programmes at the Humboldt Forum.