Germany · Berlin · seat Berlin

Berlin prisons: Tegel, Moabit and how Land Auskunft works

Berlin is a city-state, so the prison system is the city. Tegel, Moabit and Plötzensee are the names families already use. The Berliner Justizvollzug handles Auskunft. There is no public list of people in custody, and a phone call to the gate is not how you locate someone.

Berlin: how this area actually works

Moabit is the remand machine beside the criminal courts, on the streets west of Hauptbahnhof, not a synonym for every Berlin jail. JVA Tegel, in Reinickendorf, is the large closed men's house on Seidelstraße that still dominates family bus routes. It is not the old Tegel airport, which has closed and was never the prison. Plötzensee carries the weight of a memorial and is also a working part of the city's custody map. People mix those three into one 'Berlin prison' and then stand at the wrong wall. Youth custody and open places sit on their own rules again, often toward the edge of the city.

JVA Heidering at Großbeeren is the classic confusion. The ground is in Brandenburg, outside the city boundary, yet families meet it while chasing a Berlin case. Confirm which administration holds the file before you write to Potsdam instead of Berlin, or the other way around. Berlin's Zentrale Auskunftsstelle is the city route for Berlin establishments. Brandenburg's Justiz answers Brandenburg houses such as Görden. Untersuchungshaft at Moabit can be tighter on visits than a later sentence at Tegel. The court, not a relative, sets many of those limits. Reinickendorf and Moabit are different borough journeys.

This page groups prisons recorded as Berlin. It does not list prisoners at Tegel, Moabit or Plötzensee. A population note on an official page is about the building. Transfers into Brandenburg, or the other way, are administrative decisions. Read the establishment's own Besuch rules on berlin.de. Do not copy a visiting length from Hamburg, Bavaria or a news article about a different house. Tegel, Moabit and Plötzensee each publish their own Besuch rules. A Großbeeren day for Heidering is a Brandenburg road even when the case feels like Berlin. Confirm which desk holds the file.

Finding someone held in Berlin

Berlin does not publish who is in Tegel, Moabit or Plötzensee. Use the Berliner Justizvollzug Auskunft route, not a web form that claims to search Germany. The lawyer at the Landgericht Berlin usually knows the first night before the family does. Police custody in a section is not the JVA. Do not ask the gate on Seidelstraße or in Moabit to run a name. If the person is at Heidering, you may be dealing with a Großbeeren address even though the case is a Berlin one. Confirm that before you travel.

Letters need the prisoner number and the correct Anstalt. Tegel is not Moabit. Plötzensee is not either of them. A move from remand at Moabit to a sentenced place at Tegel, or out to Brandenburg, makes the old address stale. Social media from outside the Kriminalgericht is not a location. When the file leaves the city for Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt or elsewhere, start with that Land's desk. Moabit remand and a later Tegel sentence are two addresses, not one phone call.

Visits and family practicalities

The prisoner and the Anstalt drive Berlin visits, and remand can add a court permission. Tegel's routine is not Moabit's, and neither is a Heidering day in Großbeeren. This guide does not copy session lengths. Read the current berlin.de notice for that house on the day you go.

Bring the Ausweis the house requires. Phones stay outside. A Moabit approval will not get you into Tegel if the person moved. Re-check the site before you buy a BVG day ticket or a regional train to Großbeeren.

Getting around Berlin

BER airport, Hauptbahnhof and the Ringbahn are the usual entries. Moabit is a walk from Turmstraße or Birkenstraße, close to the courts and easy to underestimate at changeover. Tegel JVA is a north-west bus trip in Reinickendorf, not a memory of the airport terminal. Plötzensee has its own approach. Allow time for lockers and identity checks.

Heidering means leaving the city for Großbeeren in Brandenburg, a regional connection rather than a U-Bahn. Parking inside the Ring is a bad plan. Use the official street address. Do not let a rideshare pin drop you at the memorial when the visit is at a different gate, or at the old airport when you need Seidelstraße.

Prison guides in Berlin

Facility articles for houses we have sourced in this Land. Empty coverage here is this site’s map, not proof that nobody is held in Berlin.

Berlin · Remand and local (men)JVA Berlin-MoabitMoabit is the courthouse jail — Alt-Moabit 12a, walking distance from the Criminal Justice Centre — where Untersuchungshaft and sentenced men share a famous wall but not the same visit paperwork.Read the guide →Berlin · Closed (men)JVA Berlin-TegelTegel is the Berlin name families say when someone lands in pre-trial or sentenced custody in the capital — a huge closed men’s JVA on Seidelstraße in Reinickendorf where visits are short, prisoner-led, and never confirmed by a casual phone call to the gate.Read the guide →

Questions families actually ask

Is there a public list of people in Berlin prisons?
No. Tegel, Moabit and Plötzensee are not on a public roll. The Berliner Justizvollzug handles Auskunft. A national German inmate search does not exist.
Is Tegel prison the old Tegel airport?
No. JVA Tegel is a prison in Reinickendorf. The airport has closed and was a different site. Use the prison address on the official Berlin page, not an airport pin.
Is Heidering in Berlin or Brandenburg?
The buildings are at Großbeeren in Brandenburg, and families chasing a Berlin case often end up there. Confirm which administration holds the file before you write or travel.

Other Länder (federal states) in Germany

land · StuttgartBaden-WürttembergBaden-WürttembergBaden-Württemberg runs its own prisons from Stuttgart, not from Berlin and not from Munich. Stammheim, Bruchsal, Freiburg and the houses toward Konstanz and the Rhine are Land establishments. There is no national inmate search. A family asks this Land's Justizvollzug, and a Berlin office will not answer for a Stuttgart file.Open this area →land · MunichBavariaBayernBavaria is Germany's largest Land by area, with its own Justizvollzug based on Munich rather than on a federal jail service. Stadelheim, Straubing and the smaller houses are Bavarian answers, not Prussian ones. Nobody can Google a list of people in custody. Auskunft is a Land matter.Open this area →land · PotsdamBrandenburgBrandenburgBrandenburg wraps Berlin. Potsdam is the capital, and the prisons families actually hunt are in Brandenburg an der Havel, Cottbus and the smaller towns, not on Unter den Linden. The Land answers its own Auskunft. There is no public inmate list, and Berlin's city desk is the wrong door for a Brandenburg file.Open this area →land · BremenBremenFreie Hansestadt BremenBremen is a two-city Land: the city of Bremen and the port of Bremerhaven, with Lower Saxony in between on the map. JVA Bremen at Oslebshausen is the house. Auskunft is Bremen's, not Hamburg's. There is no public list of people in custody.Open this area →land · HamburgHamburgFreie und Hansestadt HamburgHamburg is a city-state whose prison names are Fuhlsbüttel, Billwerder and Hahnöfersand, not the port terminal and not Schleswig-Holstein. The city runs its own Justizvollzug. There is no public inmate list. Auskunft is a Hamburg request, and a Kiel or Hanover office will not invent an answer.Open this area →land · WiesbadenHesseHessenHesse sits in the middle of Germany, with Wiesbaden as capital and Frankfurt as the city everyone actually flies into. Preungesheim, Weiterstadt, Butzbach and Kassel are different gates. The Land runs Justizvollzug. There is no public inmate list, and a Rhine-Main rumour is not an address.Open this area →land · HanoverLower SaxonyNiedersachsenLower Saxony stretches from the North Sea coast to the Harz, with Hanover as capital. Celle, Rosdorf, Oldenburg and the city houses are one Land system. Auskunft is Lower Saxon. There is no public inmate list, and Hamburg or Bremen will not answer a file that is still here.Open this area →land · SchwerinMecklenburg-VorpommernMecklenburg-VorpommernMecklenburg-Vorpommern is the thinly populated north-east, from Schwerin and Rostock to the Polish border and the Baltic islands. Bützow is the historic prison town. The Land's Justizvollzug is small. There is no public inmate list, and Hamburg or Berlin will not answer a file that still sits here.Open this area →land · DüsseldorfNorth Rhine-WestphaliaNordrhein-WestfalenNorth Rhine-Westphalia is Germany's most populous Land. Düsseldorf is the capital, but Cologne, the Ruhr, Aachen, Münster and Bielefeld all feed a dense JVA map. Auskunft is this Land's. There is no public inmate list, and a Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn map is not a roster.Open this area →land · MainzRhineland-PalatinateRheinland-PfalzRhineland-Palatinate runs from Mainz and Koblenz down the wine valleys to Trier and the French border. Diez, Wittlich and Zweibrücken are the prison towns families hunt. Auskunft belongs to this Land, not to Hesse and not to Saarland. There is no public inmate list.Open this area →land · SaarbrückenSaarlandSaarlandSaarland is Germany's smallest territorial Land, pressed against France and Luxembourg, with Saarbrücken as capital. JVA Saarbrücken is the house families mean. Auskunft is Saarland's. There is no public inmate list, and a French permis de visite will not locate or admit you.Open this area →land · DresdenSaxonySachsenSaxony is Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz, plus the Czech border. It is not Saxony-Anhalt. Bautzen and Waldheim carry heavy history and are working Land prisons today. Auskunft is Saxon. There is no public inmate list.Open this area →

All of Germany →

Source

Confirm location, visits and hours on the official service. This site does not list who is in custody.

Official locatorBerliner Justizvollzug — Zentrale AuskunftsstelleOpen official site →