German president seeks soul-searching as GDR jail memorial opens

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called on Thursday for more information on forced labour in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) and for holding former profiteers in the West accountable.

Steinmeier, speaking at the opening of a memorial in the former Hoheneck women's prison, spoke of a dark chapter in inner-German history.

Prisoners had been forced to do piecework and their labour was exploited for foreign currency, Steinmeier said in his speech in Stollberg near Chemnitz. In addition to the former East German state, West German companies that received cheap goods also profited from this.

"I would like companies that imported products manufactured in the former East Germany to help with this investigation and seek dialogue with the former political prisoners," Steinmeier said in an address that was attended by some former inmates.

"That would be at least a necessity, but also a good gesture of respect."

Many of the inmates of the former women's prison in Stollberg, some 80 kilometres south-west of Dresden, were political prisoners.

The former castle grounds were used as a prison from 1864. In 1950, the facility was turned into the largest women's prison in East Germany.

Around 24,000 women, including 8,000 political prisoners, were held at the jail until 1989, when the fall of the Berlin Wall ushered in the end of communist rule.

According to the memorial site's website, daily life in the prison was characterized by hard shift work, sometimes to the point of exhaustion. They manufactured items including bed linen and stockings.

Following German reunification in 1990, the facility continued to be used as a prison until 2001.

Efforts have been under way since 2019 to turn the grounds into a memorial site and set up a permanent exhibition.