From 1990 to the present: the memorial site

From summer 1990 onwards, the Office for the Protection of Historical Monuments used the front building as its administration offices and the prison building with the cell block for storing exhibits (court evidence). Extensive changes were made to the building. In the mid-1990s, as a decision on the future use of the whole site or even its demolition could no longer be put off, Rudolph Tschäpe, founding member of New Forum, and other liked-minded citizens set up the “Lindenstrasse 54 support association”. The aim of the association was to preserve the former court and prison complex for the general public.

At the initiative of the support association, Potsdam City Council resolved on 4 October 1995 to grant Lindenstrasse 54/55 memorial-site status and to transfer it to Potsdam Museum as governing body. By the end of the 1990s, Potsdam Museum had developed the first information materials on the history of the building, and the site was opened to visitors several days a month.

In 2002, the schools project workshop, financed by the Ministry for Education of the Federal State of Brandenburg, started operations and since then has enabled classes to be taught at this historic site.

In 2005, the Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam (ZZF) presented a memorandum on the development of the memorial site. With the Office for the Protection of Historical Monuments moving out in 2007, new spatial possibilities opened and the whole complex, including the front house and cell block, was now available to the memorial site. Between 2007 and 2013, Potsdam Museum and the Centre for Contemporary History established a permanent exhibition on the history of Lindenstrasse 54/55. The individual exhibition modules illustrate the early history of the site, the three periods of persecution and the Peaceful Revolution.

On 1 January 2012, the memorial site was separated from Potsdam Museum and assigned to the Office of the Lord Mayor in preparation for acquiring the status of a legally recognised foundation. The Foundation was created at the end of 2015 and commenced work as such in summer 2016.