His wife jokingly calls him a "prison warden". Historian and political scientist Hubertus Knabe is the Scientific Director of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial Centre at the former central remand prison of the GDR State Security Service (Stasi). Occasionally, he guides visitor groups into the extensive blocks of the Stasi prison with their dark and standing-only cells.

Born in 1959, the researcher is one of the foremost experts on German-German history and repeatedly attracts attention with his publications. His book "17. Juni 1953 – Ein deutscher Aufstand" (17 June 1953 – A German Uprising) published in 2003 is already considered a standard reference book on the history of the popular uprising in the GDR. That is why Knabe is always a sought-after interview partner for press, radio and television in anniversary years.

He was essentially born into communism research. His parents fled the GDR with him in 1959; later Hubertus Knabe frequently returned to visit relatives and met his later wife there in 1979, overcoming many bureaucratic hurdles to obtain permission for her to leave the country. He read history and German studies at Bremen, and from 1985 to 1987 spent time as a DAAD Scholarship holder at the University of Budapest in Hungary doing research for his thesis. His topic was a comparison of environmental activities in Hungary and the GDR. At the beginning of the 1990s, the DAAD sent him to the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, as a lecturer.

From 1992 to 2000, Knabe worked in the research department of the Federal Commission for Stasi Documents. His highly detailed publications on the GDR intelligence service, which included "Die unterwanderte Republik. Stasi im Westen" (The Infiltrated Republic. The Stasi in the West) published in 1999, made him known beyond the borders of Germany. Political persecution under the SED regime, which he is confronted with every day at Hohenschönhausen, is also the topic of a publication he wrote jointly with Peter Erler: "Der verbotene Stadtteil: Stasi-Sperrbezirk Berlin-Hohenschönhausen" (A District Off Limits: The Restricted Zone Berlin-Hohenschönhausen) was published in 2005. He also attracted considerable attention with later publications, including "Die Täter sind unter uns. Über das Schönreden der SED-Diktatur" (2007) and "Honeckers Erben. Die Wahrheit über die Linke" (2009).