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German Police Takes Odor Samples of G8 Opponents

by Markus Schlegel | May 22, 2007 at 02:46 pm

1486 views | 25 Recommendations | 6 comments

Is Germany doomed to re live the repression of former communist East Germany under the auspices of a conservative Government? The signals, at least, are disturbing.

Hamburg (Germany) newspaper Hamburger Morgenpost reports in its Monday online edition that German authorities have begun to take odor samples of potential opponents of the G8 summit meeting in Heiligendamm, due to take place in two weeks. According to the report, German police obliged at least two persons to give odor samples during a widely criticized raid against activists two weeks ago in Hamburg.

Morgenpost reports that the suspects had to hold a number of metal bars firmly for some minutes. These metal bars are later preserved and due to be used for smell-sampling by specially trained sniff dogs on site in Heiligendamm.

The raids, which have themselves drawn hefty criticism for excessive use of power - as they were officially conducted against "terrorist groups" under paragraph 129a of the German penal code - have gained a new quality as a result of the now revealed facts.

Odor sampling had been a method used against dissidents by the state police (Staatssicherheit, also known as Stasi) of former Communist East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. During that period, thousands of sweat-contaminated rugs from clothing were preserved in jars [-> see picture].

The practise now in use ironically enough is described as "chilling, obscure, and repudiating" in an article on the pages of state sponsored historical museum, Haus der Geschichte, in Bonn (Germany) - referring to the former East German practise apparently, and not taking into account the most recent developments of the united Germany.

The newest revelations come atop earlier questionable actions on behalf of the German government such as

search raids by the German police under the pretext of preventing "terrorist acts" in a scene which has been known as "autonomous" far left activists for years, in the eyes of some experts making excessive use of the new paragraph 129a in the German penal code,
significant limitations to the constitutionally guaranteed right of free assembly as provided by Article 8 of the German Constitution (Grundgesetz),
building a 12 Km security fence around the North German sea spa of Heiligendamm to seal the site of the G8 summit from any contact with the outside world, Berlin-Wall style,
a public clash between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin who answered Merkel's criticism over prohibiting Dissident Gary Kasparov to demonstrate against Russia's government at the Samara EU-Russian summit with reference to similar practises on behalf of the German government.

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Bill Adler

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 14:53 on May 22nd, 2007

Terrific reporting. Time will tell if this appears in the American newspapers, but for the meanwhile, I'm glad you're reporting on this. --Bill

Kaitlin

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 14:53 on May 22nd, 2007

Markus Schlegel, this is unbelievable! The kinds of things that still go on are so interesting to me...it seems very James Bond-y, old fashioned...strange. Great work.

Jordan Yerman

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 15:44 on May 22nd, 2007

This is both funny and scary; the German government, like so many others, just parrotting on about "stopping [the] terrorists" to justify any and all encroachments on civil rights.

Markus Schlegel

at 16:17 on May 22nd, 2007

Indeed, sometimes I feel reminded of Peter Sellers (alias Clouseau) and his Chinese butler Cato, whom he tells to attack him whenever he expects it least. Given that, maybe our intense endeavor of self distruction spares the "real" terrotists a lot of work. Memes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memes) and collective hysteria at work.

mtippett

at 10:47 on May 23rd, 2007

People are really angry about this now:

"
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's justice minister added her
voice on Wednesday to outrage sweeping the country over 'scent
profiling' methods police are using for a looming G8 summit
that recall tricks by East Germany's nefarious Stasi."

source

Markus Schlegel

at 21:30 on May 23rd, 2007

Thanks for adding the source Micheal!

Actually, this has created quite a stir in Germany, and it is the hope of most civil rights groups (explicitly or unspoken) that by defending this course of action, ultra-conservative Minister of the Interior, Wolfgang Schäuble, has edged closer to becoming unacceptable in office.

For the time being, I am really curoious about what next week holds in terms of Job's messages. These, let's call them major political extravaganzas, have been bubbling up on a rate of once a week, and we still have two weeks to go until G8. At G8, I see two options: The police enforced quietness of a graveyard or a major clash between civil rights grassrooters and the police. Both could be catalytic to Germany's future as a democracy as we have known it.

As a doctor I would say the patient's health is in very, very bad shape.