\n<\/p>\n
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is set to inaugurate a new memorial site on Thursday commemorating those incarcerated in the notorious Hoheneck women’s prison in the former communist East Germany.<\/p>\n
Many of the inmates of the former women’s prison in Stollberg, some 80 kilometres south-west of Dresden, were political prisoners.<\/p>\n
Joined by eyewitnesses of that era, Steinmeier will visit the historic cell block and a newly established permanent exhibition. He is scheduled to deliver a speech afterwards.<\/p>\n
The former castle grounds were used as a prison from 1864. In 1950, the facility was turned into the largest women’s prison in East Germany.<\/p>\n
Around 24,000 women, including 8,000 political prisoners, were held at the jail until 1989, when the fall of the Berlin Wall ushered in the end of communist rule.<\/p>\n
According to the memorial site’s website, daily life in the prison was characterized by hatred among inmates and harsh punishments from guards.<\/p>\n
Prisoners were forced to mass-produce tights and bed linen sold at department stores in West Germany – to the point of exhaustion, the website said.<\/p>\n
Men were also imprisoned at Hoheneck at times.<\/p>\n
Following German reunification in 1990, the facility continued to be used as a prison until 2001.<\/p>\n
Efforts have been under way since 2019 to turn the grounds into a memorial site and set up a permanent exhibition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n