Germany to convert Berlin's Stasi HQ into a shelter to house refugees

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Germany to convert Berlin's abandoned Stasi HQ into a shelter to house 500 migrants amid refugee crisis
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Former Ministry of State Security for East Germany was empty for 10 years
Used to house dreaded Stasi secret police in the years of communist rule
But it will be converted into shelter for migrants from Africa and Middle East
Red Cross says the rooms will finally be used for something 'meaningful'
See more on Germany's refugee crisis at www.dailymail.co.uk/refugeecrisis

Published: 07:41 EST, 23 November 2015 | Updated: 08:19 EST, 23 November 2015

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Authorities in Berlin have opened up a former HQ of the dreaded Stasi secret police as a shelter for refugees.

Nearly 500 people from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan have been moved into the foreign intelligence wing of the imposing former Ministry of State Security.

The Stasi was the agency of the German Democratic Republic which spied on all the citizens of the former communist land. It turned one in three people into informers and ran feared prisoners for dissidents.

Nearly 500 people from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan have been moved into the foreign intelligence wing of the imposing former Ministry of State Security

The building was used by ail operator Deutsche Bahn in the 1990s but has been vacant for over a decade and can now be converted to house the thousands of migrants looking for home in Germany

The news comes as a cold snap grips Germany, where thousands of the migrants from Africa and the Middle East are now exposed to the freezing cold weather as Germany struggles to find them housing

'The rooms will finally be used for something meaningful,' said a spokesman for the German Red Cross.

The office block was once the domain of legendary spymaster Markus Wolf, dubbed 'The Man Without a Face' at the height of his powers because people knew so little about him.

The rooms where he directed espionage operations with 4,000 spies will now shelter the refugees from terror and war.

The building was used by ail operator Deutsche Bahn in the 1990s but has been vacant for over a decade.

The office block was once the domain of legendary spymaster Markus Wolf, dubbed 'The Man Without a Face' at the height of his powers because people knew so little about him

A further 400 asylum seekers will be moved into the complex which once house 7,000 Stasi workers in the eastern Lichtenberg district of the reunited capital.

It was stormed by protestors when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 to stop loyalists from destroying the files relating to their oppressive work.

The secret police building is the second iconic structure in Berlin to be turned over to refugees.

In October parts of the vast Tempelhof Airport - used by Hitler to barnstorm his way across the country in the days before he established his Nazi dictatorship - was converted to house migrants.

Germany is struggling to find empty spaces for the one million refugees expected to arrive in the country by the end of the year.