Access Road into the Stasi Headquarters (House 16 | House 17)
The gateway on Ruschestraße is framed by a concrete building erected in 1979. The new building shielded the grounds from view and was integrated into the access road that had previously existed on Normannenstraße. The Central Workgroup for the Protection of Secrecy and the Office of the Leadership (using here offices for access control) were two of the units that worked in the concrete building to the left of the gateway. On 15 January 1990, tens of thousands of citizens forced their way through this gate. They demonstrated for the permanent dissolution of the GDR secret police and for the safeguarding of Stasi files. In September 1990, shortly before German unification, a vigil was held in front of the gate to demand that the files be opened.
Today, the Robert Havemann Society with its GDR opposition archive shares the building with a medical centre.