• Steinwache Memorial
Between 1933 and 1945, the Gestapo incarcerated, tortured and murdered political opponents, people under racial persecution and thousands of non-German forced labourers in Dortmund's Steinwache police prison. Today, the Steinwache Memorial honours the fates of the victims.
Image: Dortmund, 1907, Steinwache police headquarters, Stadtarchiv Dortmund
Dortmund, 1907, Steinwache police headquarters, Stadtarchiv Dortmund

Image: Dortmund, 2007, Exterior view of the Steinwache Memorial, Stadtarchiv Dortmund
Dortmund, 2007, Exterior view of the Steinwache Memorial, Stadtarchiv Dortmund
In 1906, police headquarters were set up in Dortmund's Steinstraße. In reference to the street name, the locals soon began calling it the »Steinwache«. In the mid-1920s, the Dortmund police built a whole complex around the initial headquarters: a five-storey prison and an administrative building were erected. After the National Socialists had come to power, the Gestapo began using part of the cell block as a prison, and set up several rooms on the ground floor in which people were interrogated and tortured. In the following years, the Steinwache prison became an infamous site of torture. The Gestapo at first mostly arrested political opponents, soon however they increasingly incarcerated people on racial grounds. During the »Kristallnacht« in November 1938, members of the Gestapo arrested about three quarters of all Jewish males of age residing in Dortmund and held them captive in the Steinwache prison. From there, many of the Jewish men were deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. During the Second World War, the Gestapo incarcerated thousands of East European forced labourers at the Dortmund police prison. For many of the detainees, the Steinwache was a transit point before being deported to a concentration camp.
Image: Dortmund, 1907, Steinwache police headquarters, Stadtarchiv Dortmund
Dortmund, 1907, Steinwache police headquarters, Stadtarchiv Dortmund

Image: Dortmund, 2007, Exterior view of the Steinwache Memorial, Stadtarchiv Dortmund
Dortmund, 2007, Exterior view of the Steinwache Memorial, Stadtarchiv Dortmund
It is estimated that 65,000 people were incarcerated at the Steinwache prison between 1933 and 1945; of those, about half were there for political reasons. Numerous activists of political parties and trade unions, church representatives, Jews, Sinti and Roma as well as non-German forced labourers were interrogated and abused at the prison.
The exact number of those who perished is unknown due to the fact that the Gestapo listed deaths only until 1936. By then, 17 people had died in prison. The Gestapo shot several Soviet and Polish forced labourers after a short period in prison. Shortly before the end of the war, the Gestapo shot most of those who were currently incarcerated at Steinwache prison at various sites in Dortmund.
Image: Dortmund, 1946, The almost completely unharmed Steinwache building shortly after the war, Stadtarchiv Dortmund
Dortmund, 1946, The almost completely unharmed Steinwache building shortly after the war, Stadtarchiv Dortmund

Image: Dortmund, 2005, Interior view of a cell, Stadtarchiv Dortmund
Dortmund, 2005, Interior view of a cell, Stadtarchiv Dortmund
The Steinwache was one of the few important buildings in Dortmund's city centre to not have been badly damaged during air raids. Until 1976, it continued to be used as police headquarters. In 1984, North Rhine-Westphalia handed over the building to the city of Dortmund. A few years later, the city made the establishment of a memorial in the prison block of the historic building possible. In 1992, the Steinwache Memorial was opened. The exhibition on display, »Resistance and Persecution in Dortmund 1933-1945«, was already assembled in the 1980s. It has since been redesigned and modernised by staff members of the municipal archive.
Image: Dortmund, 2005, View from one of the cells, Stadtarchiv Dortmund
Dortmund, 2005, View from one of the cells, Stadtarchiv Dortmund

Name
Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Steinwache
Address
Steinstraße 50
44147 Dortmund
Phone
+49 (0)231 502 500 2
Fax
+49 (0)231 502 601 1
Web
http://steinwache.dortmund.de
E-Mail
stadtarchiv-dortmund@stadtdo.de
Open
Tuesday to Sunday: 10.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.
Possibilities
Guided tours, events, readings, meetings with eyewitnesses