From protective masks and snood sweaters

As children, we all looked forward to carnival. We could dress up and do all sorts of nonsense under the masks. The masks protected us from being recognized. That was also the case in crime thrillers and westerns. Edgar Wallace had the 'frog in the mask', and in most westerns, the gangsters wore masks. I can also remember Reymond's operetta "The Mask in Blue". Later in the Bundeswehr, we were all given a gas mask (known as a sniffer rifle in Bundeswehr jargon). This full-face mask was intended to protect us from gas attacks. To test its effectiveness, we had to do strange exercises in a gas chamber with tear gas. After leaving, it was usually a tearful affair because the tear gas was still in our clothes.

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