Krause and Koehler helped create an exhibit about their experience in Stollberg's library. But the mayor, Marcel Schmidt, said it drew only 400 visitors a year, mostly local people. To realize his ambition of turning the town into a tourism center requires something more tantalizing.
Critics note that other communist-era prisons, like the notorious one in Bautzen, attract thousands of visitors with exhibits that document their abuses without crossing the line into schadenfreude.
"For me, this is a little macabre," said Anne Kaminsky, the director of a state-supported foundation that researches the East German dictatorship.
She has sent a letter to Freiberger, demanding that he shelve the plan. Human rights groups have protested as well.
The outcry has left Freiberger in a foul mood. The prison weekends, he notes, are only part of an ambitious plan that would turn the 14-acre complex into a center for concerts and cultural events. He is also planning a 200-bed, four-star hotel -- presumably without bars on the doors -- a garage to store vintage cars, and a restaurant serving, of all things, Tex-Mex cuisine.
Freiberger will not say how much he paid for the prison, which he bought from the state of Saxony. Nor will he say how much he plans to invest. But he has hired a historian to document its history and installed a sound system to pipe creepy music into the deserted cells.
"People have to understand: we can publicize the crimes that were committed here," he said, surveying the bleak prison yard. "How could we do more for the victims of Hoheneck? I can't imagine."
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