My first handcuffs

      Anyone who, by nature, definitely rejected bondage games in childhood and adolescence will view handcuffs with indifference at best, but often with reluctance. As this section is nevertheless clicked on because curiosity probably outweighs disinterest – welcome!

     I was first given one of these in 1955 on Shrove Tuesday. From my school friend Hans-Rainer, who was dressed up as a policeman. "Don't force it!" he warned. "It's shit plastic. Breaks easily."

     Shortly afterwards, the child-friendly Schild department stores' offered a sturdier metal model for games of cops and robbers. My father replaced the open chain links made of sheet metal with strong copper wire soldered together. He sawed off the protruding snapper, marked in red here. A pocket knife or something similarly sharp was then required to open it. These cuffs conveyed the feeling of being trapped while playing. However, really serious hand- and feet restraints still required parcel cords. Or the almost unbreakable nylon washing lines that had become fashionable. Twenty meters was not much of a burden on the pocket money and was enough to tie up all limbs tightly.

     When we were twelve, we bravely ventured one step higher. Chains looped around our wrists and ankles from the hardware store, locked with snap locks, subjected us to what we only gradually realised were the characteristics of police handcuffs. We couldn't free ourselves on our own. Often not even with a key, if the thin chains were so tight that our hands couldn't reach the locks.

     But the fantasy of playing with real police handcuffs remained ever-present. When my father enquired about my birthday wish for my 16th birthday, I boldly mentioned handcuffs. He regarded the constant scuffles and games of handcuffs between Hans-Rainer and me as athletics, which improved my physically weak constitution. He found the supplier Horst Stein in Munich in the industry catalogue Wer liefert was? (Who supplies what?), wrote to him and immediately received the reply We only deliver to authorities.

     Although the private possession of handcuffs in Germany was neither forbidden in the past nor is it today, it was almost impossible to acquire them privately in the 50s and 60s. Unless you were on good terms with members of the Bundeswehr military police, who could be persuaded to "officially" take one out of service if it appeared to be too rusty.

     In my first job abroad in Spain, I learnt that civilians were not allowed to own handcuffs. In the Basque country, with its political and police peculiarities, they apparently didn't take it so seriously. In Irún on the French border in 1970, handcuffs flashed cheekily at me from a shop window like in an Edgar Wallace film. Would I have the courage to let them overpower my wrists? The arms dealer took a cursory glance at my passport, collected 240 pesetas* and slipped me a cardboard box - it was suddenly that easy, despite all the prohibitions. LLAMA was the name of my new friends. The word primarily means flame, fire. But it also includes lovers.

*12,50 DM    

     The shape and size of these handcuffs fit my slim wrists perfectly, 17 cm on the left and 18 cm on the right. The following year I bought a second pair in the same shop. I replaced the swivel and chain links with a hinge. This brings the hands very close together. Regardless of whether the keyholes point towards the hands or elbows, you need a quiet hour with undiminished concentration and absolutely steady fingers to free yourself, unsuccessfully tried in the GIF above.

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