Confiscated goods
June 23, 2009
The German Customs Museum in Hamburg is full of curious finds: things that smugglers had hoped to carry over the border, but were found and confiscated by a customs officer instead.
Dieter Schmidt worked as a customs officer on the inner German border until East and West Germany were reunified in 1990. Now he shows visitors around the museum.
Schmidt pointed to a prosthetic leg on display, explaining that it used to belong to a veteran after the Second World War. At a time when the old German currency - the Reichmark - wasn't worth anything, and American cigarettes were traded instead of money, the vet was able to smuggle two or three packs of cigarettes in the hollow space he had carved into his artificial leg.
One US cigarette cost eight to 10 Reichsmark, said Schmidt.
"If you think that a skilled laborer earned one Reichmark per hour at that time, it was a worthwhile business," added the former customs officer. Schmidt then pointed out a motorcycle tank that was used to smuggle coffee.
European integration changes face of smuggling
The cat-and-mouse game between customs official and smuggler, detective and criminal mind, isn't just a thing of the wartime past. These days, however, it plays out in a different setting.
As sales tax slowly but surely evens out across Europe, it's no longer worth smuggling just a pack or two of cigarettes at a time. Only mass deliveries of alcohol or tobacco can make any real money. That means average tourists are less interesting for customs officials than they used to be, said German government spokesman Arne Petrick.
People are allowed to bring 430 euros (nearly $600) worth of goods into a country without paying tax, explained Petrick. Plus, up to 200 cigarettes and "a good amount of alcohol" can be brought over borders without having to pay.
"Normal travelers should be happy about that," he said.
But trying to stem the loss of tax revenues is only one job of a customs officer. Other things aren't allowed to cross borders, like weapons and certain types of animals and plants. A major customs issue is the breach of International accords on species protections.
"This wolf was poisoned," explained Schmidt, showing off a stuffed specimen. "Someone threw him poisoned chunks of meat from a helicopter, that's why there is no damage to the fur from a gunshot wound. It was supposed to be displayed in the window of a gun shop - but now it’s on display in our museum."
Counterfeiters hijack brand names
Other displays show tennis shoes, luxury watches and leather motorcycle jackets - all counterfeit.
In the 1980s, the markets for counterfeit goods were in sporting goods and watches. Today, many more things are copied - or at least brand names are often misused. This applies to everything from knives marked "Solingen" to cuckoo clocks supposedly from the "Black Forest," to items allegedly "made in Switzerland."
"Customers associate a certain quality standard with all these brand names. Plagiarists like to take these terms and use them to make their own products look or seem better," Petrick explained.
In 2008, trade in fake goods traveling through the Port of Hamburg reached new dimensions, with the value of confiscated goods rising from 200 to nearly 235 million euros.
And as long as the criminal minds continue creating counterfeit objects or finding new ways to smuggle, the detectives will keep chasing them. And the exhibit at the Customs Museum in Hamburg will continue to amaze non-criminal minds.
Author: Ute Hempelmann (jen)
Editor: Kate Bowen