Welcome to the Qingdao German Prison Site Museum.
The castle-style complex you see before you is one of the earliest existing colonial prison sites in China and a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit .
The history of this museum dates back to 1900, during the German concession period. Initially, only one building, named the "Ren" (Benevolence) Cell Block, was constructed in a European castle style. It was used to imprison foreign offenders, hence it was also known as the "European Prison" . Over the following century, this complex underwent a complex transformation: in 1914, when Japan replaced Germany in occupying Qingdao, it became a detention center for the Japanese garrison; after the Chinese government reclaimed Qingdao in 1922, it successively served as a detention house for the local procuratorate and court . It was not until 1995 that it ceased to function as a prison and finally opened to the public as a museum in 2007 .
欢迎来到青岛德国监狱旧址博物馆。
我们现在所在的位置是青岛市市南区常州路23号。大家眼前这座融合了古堡风格与厚重历史感的建筑群，就是全国现存最早的殖民监狱旧址之一，也是全国重点文物保护单位。
这座博物馆的历史可以追溯到1900年，也就是德国占领青岛时期。最初，这里只有一栋名为“仁”字监房的欧洲古堡式建筑，专门用于关押外籍犯人，因此也被称为“欧人监狱”。在随后的百年间，这座建筑群经历了复杂的历史变迁：1914年日本取代德国占领青岛后，它成为日本守备军的囚禁场；1922年中国政府收回青岛后，又先后成为地方检察厅和法院的看守所。直到1995年，它才正式停止作为监狱使用，并于2007年作为博物馆向公众开放。
这座建筑群的核心是由“仁、义、礼、智、信”五座监房和一座工场组成的。其中最古老、最具标志性的就是这座“仁”字监房。它建于1900年，是典型的德国古堡式建筑，据说在德国本土都很难见到保存如此完好的同类建筑了。整座建筑采用了厚重的石墙与红砖，内部设有螺旋楼梯，环绕楼梯的墙面上错落有致地开设着条形窗口，不仅满足了采光需求，也构成了独特的建筑美学。