Bautzen I, 'Yellow Misery’

Saxon State Penitentiary 1904-1933.

The Bautzen State Penitentiary was built in 1904. Designed to accommodate 1,100 inmates, it reflected contemporary ideas of a modern penal institution. It included large halls where prisoners spent the day working together and individual cells where they slept. The prison had landscaped courtyards, large washrooms, toilets, central heating, an infirmary and a kitchen with its own vegetable garden. Bautzen was a juvenile penal facility and a prison for first offenders. Especially in the case of these prisoners, the penal system was intended not merely as punishment but also as assistance.

National Socialist prison 1933-1945

The perception of punishment changed in the National Socialist dictatorship. It was intended to be severe for the person concerned and to act as a deterrent for the rest of society. Crime was viewed as a disease of the otherwise healthy body politic. Life as an inmate typically included military drill, meagre rations and tedious work. National Socialist racism also played a part. More and more special regulations were introduced for repeat offenders, political prisoners, Jews, Sinti and Roma and 'foreign' prisoners in general. Many of them were transferred to concentration camps. In late 1944 the prison held 1,600 inmates, one-third more than its design capacity. Another 700 prisoners were held in the penitentiary's four satellite camps.

The most prominent inmate in Bautzen I in 1943-1944 was Ernst Thälmann, chairman of the German Communist Party. In August 1944 he was transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp, where he was murdered.

Soviet special camp 1945-1950

After the victory over the National Socialist dictatorship, the Soviet NKVD established a so-called special camp in the state penitentiary. Originally intended to confine National Socialist felons and war criminals, it rapidly became a detention centre for political prisoners. Although a prison camp was added to expand the facility, it was completely overcrowded with as many as 7,700 prisoners. Several thousand people died as a result of starvation, disease and isolation from the outside world. To date about 3,000 dead have been accounted for by documentary evidence and exploratory digging. However, former inmates assume that as many as 16,000 must have died.

East German penal institution 1950-1990

In early 1950 the Soviet occupying forces returned the state penitentiary to German administration. However, the facility was now placed under the administration of the German People's Police rather than the judiciary. They took over Bautzen I with 6,000 political prisoners. A prison rebellion occurred in 1950, which was brutally suppressed. Appeals smuggled out of the prison reached the west. They coined the phrase 'Yellow Misery', the name by which the prison has come to be known since then.

Overcrowding, poor facilities, few educational opportunities and violence among the prisoners continued to characterise prison life in the German Democratic Republic even after the worst grievances of the 1950s had been alleviated. In October 1989 Bautzen I contained 2,100 inmates, 40% more than its design capacity. The East German penal system never succeeded in achieving its goal of reintegrating prisoners into socialist society through work. From a political standpoint, greater benefit could be derived from the deterrent effect of the severe prison conditions and essentially inhuman treatment of the prisoners. Like all other East German prisons, Bautzen invariably held inmates who had been imprisoned for political reasons.

Bautzen Correctional Institution since 1990