The Academy of State and Law

Marxist-Leninist theories played a central role in the Academy’s curriculum. The construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 sealed off the Academy’s premises; parts of Babelsberg Park were border areas, and the buildings on Lake Griebnitzsee were closed off by a “death strip” against the southern West Berlin enclave of Steinstücken. The station on the Berlin-Potsdam railway line was strictly guarded as a border station and separated from the Academy by a wall. Only employees and registered guests were allowed to enter the premises. The world public was only once granted an insight, when scenes of the film ”Mephisto“, starring Klaus Maria Brandauer and Rolf Hoppe, were filmed in the rooms of the former GRC headquarters in 1981. By the end of 1988, over 34,000 students had completed their studies at this institution, which was renamed as the “Academy of Legal Studies and Political Science of the GDR” after the death of Walter Ulbricht in 1973. It was liquidated at the end of 1990 under the name “University of Law and Administration.” Only two departments were merged into the Department of Legal Studies at the Brandenburg State University in 1991 (formerly “Karl Liebknecht” College of Education).