Tegel Prison
{{Short description|Prison in Berlin, Germany}}
{{Infobox prison
| prison_name = Tegel Prison
| image = JVA Tegel Tor 1.JPG
| caption = The main entrance to the prison
| location = Reinickendorf, Berlin, Germany
| coordinates = {{coord|52.573056|13.293333|type:landmark_region:GB_dim:5000|display=inline,title}}
| status = Operational
| classification =
| capacity = 1530 (In 2001)
| population = 867 (in September 2021){{cite web |title=Die JVA Tegel im Überblick Zahlenspiegel der JVA Tegel Stand September 2021|url=https://www.berlin.de/justizvollzug/anstalten/jva-tegel/die-anstalt/zahlen-und-fakten/ |website=Berliner Justizvollzug |publisher=BerlinOnline Stadtportal GmbH & Co. KG betrieben.A |access-date=27 November 2021 |language=German}}
| populationdate =
| opened = 1898
| closed =
| former_name =
| managed_by =
| director = Martin Riemer
| governor =
| warden =
| prisoners =
}}
Tegel Prison is a closed prison in the borough of Reinickendorf in the north of the German state of Berlin. The prison is one of Germany's largest prisons.
Structure and numbers
{{As of|2021}}, Tegel Prison is divided into five sub-prisons, including the facility for the execution of preventive detention. Since 30 January 2021, Tegel Prison has had an open detention area for preventive detention.{{cite web |title=Justizvollzugsanstalt Tegel|url=https://www.berlin.de/justizvollzug/anstalten/jva-tegel/ |website=Berliner Justizvollzug |publisher=BerlinOnline Stadtportal GmbH & Co. KG betrieben.A |access-date=27 November 2021 |language=German}} The grounds of the prison cover 131,805 m2, the outer wall is 1,465 m long and it has 13 watchtowers. As of November 2021, the prison had 630 staff.{{cite web |title=Die Anstalt|url=https://www.berlin.de/justizvollzug/anstalten/jva-tegel/die-anstalt/|website=Berliner Justizvollzug |publisher=BerlinOnline Stadtportal GmbH & Co. KG betrieben.A |access-date=27 November 2021 |language=German}}
In January 2021, Tegel had 867 prison places and about 630 staff. The average occupancy rate in 2020 was 704 inmates, of whom about 46% were foreigners. All sentence durations are represented, from short sentences to life sentences and preventive detention.
History
File:Teilanstalt II und die Anstaltskirche der JVA Tegel.jpg
File:Die Sozialtherapeutische Anstalt in der JVA Tegel.jpg
File:Die Teilanstalt V der JVA Tegel.jpg
File:Die Teilanstalt VI der JVA Tegel.jpg
File:Die Einrichtung zum Vollzug der Sicherungsverwahrung in der JVA Tegel.jpg
On 26 July 1896, construction of the prison began and on 1 October 1898, the first inmates were admitted. At that time, the prison was called the Tegel Royal Penitentiary.{{cite web |title=1894-1931|url=https://www.berlin.de/justizvollzug/anstalten/jva-tegel/die-anstalt/historie/artikel.1090675.php |website=Berliner Justizvollzug |publisher=BerlinOnline Stadtportal GmbH & Co. KG betrieben.A |access-date=27 November 2021 |language=German}} In 1902, all buildings inside the perimeter wall were completed, and in 1906 the buildings outside were completed as well. In 1916, Custody House I became a military prison; the supervisory staff in this wing was provided by the military. In 1918, the prison was renamed Tegel Penitentiary, and in 1931, Custody III was also converted into a military prison.
On 21 April 1945, the prison was dissolved and all inmates were released. The French occupation forces took over the prison in July 1945 and returned it to the German administration in October, which immediately put it back into operation.{{cite web |title=1931-1945|url=https://www.berlin.de/justizvollzug/anstalten/jva-tegel/die-anstalt/historie/artikel.1116698.php|website=Berliner Justizvollzug |publisher=BerlinOnline Stadtportal GmbH & Co. KG betrieben.A |access-date=27 November 2021 |language=German}}
In 1955, the prison was renamed Tegel Penitentiary, and in 1957 five watchtowers were built on the ring-shaped perimeter wall.{{cite web |title=1970-1997 |url=https://www.berlin.de/justizvollzug/anstalten/jva-tegel/die-anstalt/historie/artikel.1119255.php|website=Berliner Justizvollzug |publisher=BerlinOnline Stadtportal GmbH & Co. KG betrieben.A |access-date=27 November 2021 |language=German}}
On 1 April 1977, the name of the prison was changed to Tegel Prison.{{cite web |title=1945-1970|url=https://www.berlin.de/justizvollzug/anstalten/jva-tegel/die-anstalt/historie/artikel.1119613.php|website=Berliner Justizvollzug |publisher=BerlinOnline Stadtportal GmbH & Co. KG betrieben.A |access-date=27 November 2021 |language=German}} In 1979, construction began on Penitentiary V, which was completed in 1982, and in 1984, work began on Penitentiary VI, which was completed in 1988.
In the autumn of 2012, Penitentiary I was emptied except for the drug shield station because the prisoner accommodation was not in conformity with the constitution.{{cite web |title=1997-2012|url=https://www.berlin.de/justizvollzug/anstalten/jva-tegel/die-anstalt/historie/artikel.1122296.php|website=Berliner Justizvollzug |publisher=BerlinOnline Stadtportal GmbH & Co. KG betrieben.A |access-date=27 November 2021 |language=German}} In July 2015, it was decided to completely vacate and demolish Substitutional Facility I; the demolition was completed in July 2018.{{cite web |title=2013- |website=Berliner Justizvollzug |url=https://www.berlin.de/justizvollzug/anstalten/jva-tegel/die-anstalt/historie/artikel.1115346.php |publisher=BerlinOnline Stadtportal GmbH & Co. KG betrieben.A |access-date=27 November 2021 |language=German}}
Well known inmates
The German imposter Wilhelm Voigt better known as Captain von Köpenick, was imprisoned in Tegel{{cite book |last1=Zitzlsperger |first1=Ulrike |title=Historical Dictionary of Berlin |date=21 January 2021 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-5381-2422-2 |page=220 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JioMEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA220 |language=en}} for almost two years after being convicted of fraud. After being pardoned by Kaiser Wilhelm II,{{cite book |last1=Gardner |first1=Paul |title=The Unsung Family Hero: The Death and Life of an Anti-Nazi Resistance Fighter |date=1 March 2020 |publisher=Hybrid Publishers |isbn=978-1-925736-37-3 |page=280 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vVbUDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT280 |language=en}} he was able to leave the prison two years into his four sentence, on 16 August 1908.{{cite book |last1=Domeier |first1=Norman |title=Der Eulenburg-Skandal: Eine politische Kulturgeschichte des Kaiserreichs |date=13 September 2010 |publisher=Campus Verlag |isbn=978-3-593-39275-2 |page=229 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IfjlAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA299 |language=de}}
From 10 May{{cite book |last1=Benz |first1=Wolfgang |last2=Paucker |first2=Arnold |last3=Pulzer |first3=Peter G. J. |title=Jews in the Weimar Republic |date=1998 |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |isbn=978-3-16-146873-5 |page=62 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wRhrQBYIXuoC&pg=PA62 |language=en}} to 22 December 1932, the journalist Carl von Ossietzky, who would later become a Nobel Peace Prize winner, was imprisoned for treason.
The priest, Bernhard Lichtenberg, who was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 23 June 1996, was imprisoned in Tegel from 29 May 1942 to 23 October 1943, for violation of the Pulpit Law and the Treachery Act of 1934.{{cite web |last1=Andrews |first1=Ilse |title=Bernhard Lichtenberg Blessed Priest and Martyr |url=http://www.dioezesanarchiv-berlin.de/lichtenberg/english2/?cookie-state-change=1638052248013 |website=Diözesanarchiv Berlin |publisher=Archdiocese of Berlin |access-date=27 November 2021 |location=Berlin |language=English}}
The theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote moving letters, mostly from Tegel.{{cite book |last1=Bonhoeffer |first1=Dietrich |title=Letters and Papers from Prison |date=25 January 2013 |publisher=SCM Press |location=Croydon, London |isbn=978-0-334-04793-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DWSmDwAAQBAJ |language=en}} He had been imprisoned on 5 April 1943{{cite book |last1=Schlingensiepen |first1=Ferdinand |title=Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1906-1945: Martyr, Thinker, Man of Resistance |date=5 April 2012 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-0-567-49319-4 |pages=313 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jeVGAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA313 |language=en}} as an opponent of the Nazis in what was then a military prison. The letters and notes were published with the book Resistance and Surrender by Gütersloher Verlagshaus.
Austrian conscientious objector Franz Jägerstätter was incarcerated in the prison for refusing to take the Hitler oath and subject to trial in July 1943 when he was sentenced to death.{{cite web | url=https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20071026_jagerstatter_en.html | title=Bl. Franz Jägerstätter (1907-1943) - Biography }}
The founder of the Kreisau Circle, Helmuth James von Moltke, was moved from Ravensbrück concentration camp and imprisoned in the Tegel prison on 29 September 1944, in the Totenhaus wing (house of the dead) where he remained until 23 January 1945, when he was hanged.{{cite book |last1=Plant |first1=Stephen J. |title=Taking Stock of Bonhoeffer: Studies in Biblical Interpretation and Ethics |date=1 April 2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-04702-5 |page=3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W-PeCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA3 |language=en}} The letters he wrote to his wife Freya von Moltke, collected in "Abschiedsbriefe Gefängnis Tegel"{{cite book |last1=Moltke |first1=Helmuth James Graf von |last2=Moltke |first2=Freya von |title=Abschiedsbriefe Gefängnis Tegel: September 1944-Januar 1945 |date=2011 |publisher=C.H.Beck |isbn=978-3-406-61375-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jMkGNi0Md3sC |language=de}} (Farewell Letters from Tegel Prison) were smuggled out by the Protestant chaplain Harald Poelchau.{{cite book |last1=Plant |first1=Stephen J. |title=Taking Stock of Bonhoeffer: Studies in Biblical Interpretation and Ethics |date=1 April 2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-04702-5 |page=15 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W-PeCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA15 |language=en}} They contain, among other things, the detailed description of everyday life in prison.
SS commander Erich Bauer, who served part of his life sentence for his participation in The Holocaust at Tegel Prison, from 1971 until his death in 1980.{{Citation needed|date=October 2023}}
The bohemian Andreas Baader was imprisoned in Tegel Prison{{cite book |last1=Becker-Cantarino |first1=Barbara |title=Berlin in Focus: Cultural Transformations in Germany |date=1996 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-275-95507-6 |page=17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mU1LZ9-jjD4C&pg=PA17 |language=en}} during the period from his arrest on 4 April 1970, until his release on 14 May 1970. He served a three-year prison sentence for causing arson at a department store in Frankfurt on 2 April 1968.{{cite book |last1=Küng |first1=Hans |title=Disputed Truth: Memoirs Volume 2 |date=3 July 2014 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4729-1098-1 |page=59 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gZjWAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA59 |language=en}} After he was released, he became a key figure in the Red Army Faction.
In 1999, the left-wing terrorist Dieter Kunzelmann began his ten-month prison sentence in Tegel by knocking on the front door in a media-effective manner. The photo in Der Spiegel bears the caption "I want to come in here."{{cite news |title=Kunzelmann Polit-Provokateur stellte sich |url=https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/kunzelmann-polit-provokateur-stellte-sich-a-31375.html |access-date=1 December 2021 |agency=Der Spiegel |publisher=Spiegel-Verlag |date=14 July 1999 |language=German}} Before that he had disappeared and had himself declared dead in an obituary. Afterwards he wrote a book and celebrated with a big party at the alternative cultural centre Mehringhof, the night before he was to go to prison.{{cite news |last1=Bruhns |first1=Meike |title=Politclown trat freiwillig seine Haftstrafe in Tegel an: Kunzelmann im Gefängnis: Der Arzt wollte ihn sofort sehen |url=https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politclown-trat-freiwillig-seine-haftstrafe-in-tegel-an-kunzelmann-im-gefaengnis-der-arzt-wollte-ihn-sofort-sehen-li.8520?pid=true |access-date=1 December 2021 |agency=Berliner Zeitung |publisher=Berliner Verlag |date=15 July 1999 |language=German}}{{cite news |last1=Bruhns |first1=Meike |title=Politclown trat freiwillig seine Haftstrafe in Tegel an: Kunzelmann im Gefängnis: Der Arzt wollte ihn sofort sehen |url=https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politprovokateur-dieter-kunzelmann-hat-seine-haftstrafe-bis-zum-letzten-tag-abgesessen-er-wirft-wieder-li.7595?pid=true |access-date=1 December 2021 |agency=Berliner Zeitung |publisher=Berliner Verlag |date=15 May 2000 |language=German}}
The ex-rapper Denis Cuspert, active as a rapper under the name Deso Dogg, was also imprisoned for some time in Tegel.{{cite book |last1=KHOSROKHAVAR |first1=Farhad |title=Le Nouveau Jihad en Occident |date=15 March 2018 |publisher=Groupe Robert Laffont |isbn=978-2-221-21574-6 |page=347 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4UBMDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT347 |language=fr}}
The serial killer Thomas Rung was imprisoned in Tegel Prison around 2000 and committed further offences there,{{cite book |last1=Hall |first1=Susan |title=The World Encyclopedia of Serial Killers: Volume Three, M–S |date=24 November 2020 |publisher=WildBlue Press |isbn=978-1-952225-33-8 |page=332 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JnQyEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT332 |language=en}} so that the prison finally refused to admit him again.
The vocalist of the right-wing rock bands Landser and Die Lunikoff Verschwörung, Michael Regener, also served his remaining sentence there.{{cite web |last1=Egenberger |first1=Christopher |title=Landser|url=https://www.bpb.de/politik/extremismus/rechtsextremismus/41241/landser |access-date=3 December 2021 |website=Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung |date=10 March 2009 |language=German}} On 21 October 2006, there was a concert solidarity rally for him in front of the prison,{{cite news |title=German neo-Nazis rally outside Berlin jail |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-neonazis-idUSL2174729920061021 |access-date=3 December 2021 |work=Reuters |publisher=Thomson Reuters |date=18 January 2007}} organised by the National Democratic Party of Germany.{{cite news |title=Police on alert in Berlin for neo-Nazi rally |url=https://www.smh.com.au/world/police-on-alert-in-berlin-for-neo-nazi-rally-20061022-gdonjq.html |access-date=3 December 2021 |agency=The Sydney Morning Herald |publisher=Nine Entertainment Co. |date=22 October 2006}}
The Russian citizen Vadim Sokolov, charged in the Zelimkhan Khangoshvili murder case{{cite news |last1=Grozev |first1=Christo |last2=Weiss |first2=Michael |title=Exclusive: Berlin Murder Suspect's New Ties to Russian Security Services |url=https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/exclusive-berlin-murder-suspects-new-ties-to-russian-security-services/ |access-date=6 December 2021 |agency=New Lines Magazine |date=6 August 2021}} by the Federal Prosecutor General, was transferred to the Tegel Prison when his life was in danger. The threat was discovered by the Federal Intelligence Service.{{cite news |last1=Losensky |first1=Anne |title=Zeuge im Tiergarten-Mord-Prozess: Opfer lag am Boden in großer Blutlache |url=https://www.bz-berlin.de/tatort/menschen-vor-gericht/zeuge-im-tiergarten-mord-prozess-opfer-lag-am-boden-in-grosser-blutlache |access-date=3 December 2021 |agency=B.Z. |publisher=Ullstein-Verlag |date=8 October 2020 |location=Berlin |language=German}}
Culture
File:Der offene Bereich der Einrichtung zum Vollzug der Sicherungsverwahrung in der JVA Tegel.jpg
File:Wilhelm Voigt verlässt die Strafanstalt Tegel.png
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B0527-0001-861, Carl von Ossietzky vor der Strafanstalt Berlin-Tegel.jpg
The essayist Alfred Döblin placed the beginning of his most famous novel Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929) in his literary treatment in Tegel Penitentiary, where the main character, Franz Biberkopf, was imprisoned for four years for the unintentional manslaughter of his partner.{{cite book |last1=Döblin |first1=Alfred |editor1-last=Döblin |editor1-first=Alfred |editor2-last=Muschg |editor2-first=Walter |title=Ausgewählte Werke in Einzelbänden : in Verbindung mit den Söhnen des Dichters |date=1970 |publisher=Olten |location=Freiburg im Breisgau, Walter |language=German |chapter=Berlin Alexanderplatz. Die Geschichte vom Franz Biberkopf|oclc=43344036}} Tegel prison appears as a setting{{cite book |last1=Barber |first1=Stephen |title=Projected Cities: Cinema and Urban Space |date=3 February 2004 |publisher=Reaktion Books |isbn=978-1-86189-581-3 |page=22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P_5llc7VVs8C&pg=PT22 |language=en}} in the 1931 film adaptation Berlin - Alexanderplatz by film director Piel Jutzi{{cite book |last1=Lu |first1=Andong |title=Urban Cinematics: Understanding Urban Phenomena through the Moving Image |date=1 January 2011 |publisher=Intellect Books |isbn=978-1-84150-579-4 |page=31 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lMCrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA31 |language=en}} and in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's film adaptation{{cite web |title=Das Gefängnistheater aufBruch |url=https://www.gefaengnistheater.de/konzept-gefaengnistheater.html |website=aufBruch - KUNST GEFÄNGNIS STADT |access-date=6 December 2021 |language=German}} of this novel for a television series in December 1980.{{cite book |last1=Watson |first1=Wallace Steadman |title=Understanding Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Film as Private and Public Art |date=1996 |publisher=Univ of South Carolina Press |isbn=978-1-57003-079-6 |page=319 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v0pcc38-Pp0C&pg=PA319 |language=en}}
Prisoners at Tegel Prison have been producing the prison newspaper since 1968.{{cite web |last1=Bach |first1=Andreas |title=Official website |url=https://www.lichtblick-zeitung.org |website=Lichtblick zeitung |publisher=Tegel prison |access-date=6 December 2021}} It is Germany's only uncensored prison newspaper that does not have to be submitted to the prison management before publication and has a circulation of 8,500 copies distributed nationwide.{{cite news |last1=Plarre |first1=Plutonia |title=Die Redaktion hinter Gittern |url=https://taz.de/40-Jahre-Knastzeitung-Lichtblick/!5171151/ |access-date=6 December 2021 |agency=Die Tageszeitung |publisher=taz, die tageszeitung Verlagsgenossenschaft eG |date=12 December 2008 |location=Berlin |language=German}}{{cite news |last1=Wronski |first1=Nicole |title=Der "Lichtblick": die einzige freie Zeitung aus dem Gefängnis |url=http://20zwoelf.de/static,GefangenenzeitungLichtblickReportage_de.htm |access-date=6 December 2021 |agency=Der Lichtblick |publisher=Tegel prison |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315095512/http://20zwoelf.de/static,GefangenenzeitungLichtblickReportage_de.htm |archive-date=15 March 2016 |location=Berlin |language=German}} The prison newspaper is supported by the Förderverein der Lichtblick e. V. The editor-in-chief in 2012/2013 was Dieter Wurm, a well-known former squatter and bank robber in the city.{{cite news |last1=Kiewel |first1=M. |last2=Weingärtner |first2=C. |title=33 Jahre Knast Bus-Entführer Wurm erklärt uns seine Zelle |url=https://www.bild.de/news/inland/haeftling/hier-erklaert-uns-bus-entfuehrer-wurm-seine-zelle-29968284.bild.html#fromWall |access-date=6 December 2021 |agency=Bild |publisher=Axel Springer SE |date=11 April 2013 |language=German}}
Since 1997, the Berlin theatre project Gefängnistheater aufBruch has been organising theatre performances with the inmates. The aim is to make prison, a place excluded from the public sphere, accessible to the public through the medium of art and to give the prisoners a language, a voice and a face through performing craftsmanship that creates the possibility of an unprejudiced encounter between outside and inside. Another aim is to create living theatre at a high artistic level, which is created in the combination of personality and dramatic text and convinces through authenticity and expressiveness.
Another media project of the Tegel prison inmates, was the internet portal Planet Tegel in 1998.{{cite web |title=Planet-Tegel Press Review |url=http://www.planet-tegel.de/portal_dt/htm/pressespiegel/pressespiegel.html |website=Planet Tegel |access-date=6 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120828201123/http://www.planet-tegel.de/portal_dt/htm/pressespiegel/pressespiegel.html |archive-date=28 August 2012}}{{cite news |last1=Rötzer |first1=Florian |title=Website von Insassen der JVA Tegel |url=https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Website-von-Insassen-der-JVA-Tegel-12326.html |access-date=6 December 2021 |agency=Heise.Online |publisher=Heise |date=12 December 1998 |language=German}}
See also
{{Portal|Germany}}
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- {{cite web |title=Das neue Strafgefängnis für Berlin bei Tegel |url=https://digital.zlb.de/viewer/metadata/14688302_1900/1/-/ |website=Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung |access-date=27 November 2021 |pages=28–29 |date=20 January 1900|location=Booklet 5}}
- {{cite book |last1=Dabrowski |first1=Rainer |title=Verknackt, vergittert, vergessen ein Gefängnispfarrer erzählt |date=2015 |publisher=Gütersloher Verlagshaus |location=Gütersloh |isbn=978-3-579-07058-2 |edition=1st}}
- {{cite web |last1=Knigge |first1=Almuth |title=Ein Gefängnispfarrer erzähltVerknackt, vergittert, vergessen |url=https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/ein-gefaengnispfarrer-erzaehlt-verknackt-vergittert-100.html |website=Deutschlandfunk |date=14 March 2016 |publisher=Deutschlandfunk 2021 |access-date=27 November 2021}}
- {{cite news |last1=Kittel |first1=Sören |title=Wie ein Gefängnispfarrer seine dunkle Seite kennenlernte |url=https://www.morgenpost.de/vermischtes/article206658815/Wie-ein-Gefaengnispfarrer-seine-dunkle-Seite-kennenlernte.html |access-date=27 November 2021 |agency=Berliner Morgenpost |publisher=Funke Mediengruppe |date=17 November 2015}}
- {{cite book |last1=Moltke |first1=Helmuth James, Graf von |last2=Moltke |first2=Dorothy von |last3=Moltke |first3=Johannes Von |title=Last letters : the prison correspondence, September 1944-January 1945 |date=2019 |publisher=New York Review Books |location=New York |isbn=9781681373812}}
External links
- [https://www.berlin.de/landesdenkmalamt/denkmale/liste-karte-datenbank/denkmaldatenbank/daobj.php?obj_dok_nr=09012356 Entry in the Berlin State Monument List]
{{Authority control}}