SKIRMISHER

Stasi, the East German secret police, collected Geruchsproben (or smell samples) from the people they interrogated. Shown here are the jars of smelly fabric on which people sat. According to the Stasi’s brilliant system, the smell samples were for the smell hounds for later “retrieval.” Sometimes, the Stasi broke into people’s houses and stole dirty, really smelly underwear — which was “legal.”

The 2007 Academy Award-winning German film The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) shows a glimpse of the Stasi’s smell-collecting business.

Stumble it!