The most hard-hitting of all GDR-related museums, the Stasi Prison shows the sheer brutality of this dictatorship. Used by the Soviets and the GDR's secret service to extract confessions in advance of (show) trials, the Hohenschönhausen prison swallowed thousands of people who underwent horrific physical and psychological torture in the chilling 'submarine' cell block and the interrogation rooms. A short film is followed by an excellent 90-minute guided tour, vividly explaining how efficiently the prison system worked, and how nobody ever escaped. Tram M5 from Alexanderplatz to Freienwalder Straße.