Culver City,
California
x
Person Description
Maker: Unknown
Date Made: n.d.
Country: German Democratic Republic
Materials: paper
Measurements: 30 cm x 21 cm; 11 13/16 in x 8 1/4 in
Language: German
Genre/Form: document
This double-sided, hole-punched questionnaire primarily exams facial characteristics and includes 19 questions with multiple options. The questions cover: gender, age, body shape, head shape, face color, forehead, nose, eye color, eyelids, eyeballs, eyebrow, ear shape, mouth, lips, teeth, chin, and hair. The characteristics of each category are numerous: for the nose are included nostril level, nose tip, and nose projection. Ear shape options are small, medium, large, round, oval, triangular, rectangular, tall and narrow, short and wide, bent, sticking out, flat, and very hairy. Teeth can be conspicuously white, yellow, stained black, rotten, complete, with gaps, conspicuously large, wide, protruding, gold or silver crowns, crooked, dentures above/below and a gap between two front teeth. This questionnaire has not been filled out, yet answers would be provided by checking the appropriate circle. Border guards in the GDR were trained in noting these kinds of facial characteristics in order to improve their identity recognition skills. It is likely that the vocabulary used in this questionnaire was standardized and thus recognizable by border guards at any GDR checkpoint.
Collection/Series: Peter Bochmann Border Guard Collection
Accession Number: 2017.015.039