Dresden/Chemnitz (dpa/sn) – The former GDR prison Kaßberg in Chemnitz is to receive further funding from the Free State. The Ministry of Culture announced on Wednesday in Dresden that today’s learning and memorial site will receive a total of 100,000 euros from funds from the party and mass organizations of the former GDR, the so-called PMO funds. The aim is to expand the prison’s historic rotunda into an event and special exhibition space. Among other things, artistic workshops, book presentations or film presentations are to take place there.
“For more than ten years, the association has been working with great commitment to set up a learning and memorial site on the site of the former MfS detention center in Kaßberg,” said Minister of State for Culture Barabra Klepsch. The former prison had already received funding of 3.6 million euros in October last year. With the help of the money, a memorial is to be built in the former wing B of the detention center by autumn 2023.
The part of the prison used by the Ministry for State Security (MfS) in 1989 had 163 cells in which 329 prisoners could be accommodated. From there, almost 30,000 prisoners were bought out in exchange for foreign currency and deported. The memorial was established in 2011.
