The Runde Ecke — the Round Corner — was the Leipzig headquarters of the Stasi, East Germany's feared secret police, until demonstrators seized it on 4 December 1989. It has been preserved and opened as a museum, run by volunteers, and the effect is genuinely unsettling: offices left almost exactly as they were, displays of listening devices, wigs and disguises used by agents, and the surveillance apparatus of a state that monitored its citizens with extraordinary thoroughness.
The exhibition documents the scale of the Stasi's operations — one agent for every 63 citizens in the GDR — and shows how surveillance was woven into everyday life, with informants recruited from workplaces, schools, and even families. The basement holds the original prison cells. Entry is free, though donations are welcome. English audio guides available.