History Stasi Smell Museum
posted by on July 3 at 11:04 AM
The inevitable conclusion of the totalitarian police state:
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, many astounding revelations came to light about the Stasi, the East German secret police. One of the more bizarre activities the Stasi was found to have engaged in was the collection of Geruchsproben — smell samples — for the benefit of the East German smell hounds. The odors, collected during interrogations using a perforated metal “smell sample chair” or by breaking into people’s homes and stealing their dirty underwear, were stored in small glass jars. Many of the remaining East German smell jars are on display at the Stasi Museum in Berlin. They are also described in Stasiland by Anna Funder.
Via BoingBoing.
I was just in the stasi mueum. It's pretty fucked. Also they weren't only collected during interrogations, they also figured out how to pick it up off the floor of your house or your car seat, although the interrogation collection was what they showed in the movie Das Leben der Anderen (the lives of others).
And then I talked to an American, also having lived in Berlin for a month. And she asked me where I'd been. And I said the Stasi Museum.
stares blankly.
Oh I mean Stasi Archives/hq. Minesterium für Staatsicherheit.
stares blankly.
Ameeeericans make me sad sometimes.
Am I right to infer that the "smell sample chair" is essentially some kind of lawn-furniture/cheese-grater hybrid?
What a bunch of pervs.
smell my hat!
I was recently in Berlin, and went to the Stasi archives, led by a tour guide, who incidentally is from Seattle (Robin, at Brewer's Tours--highly recommended). I also read the book by Anna Funder, and it must have been incredibly unsettling to live in East Germany. The smell-cloths looked like chamois dusting cloths and were kept in glass jars like my grandma uses to store dry goods, with a typed label on. They could use a scent not only to locate a person, but to track where they'd been and whom they'd possibly seen. I thought that was the creepiest aspect of the smell-cloths. I guess the F-Bush-stasI has GPS and Satellites to locate people, eh?
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