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"Pine Needle" toilet soap
Object/Artifact
A small rectangular bar of toilet soap in its original printed paper wrapper, unopened. The front is green with a black-and-brown illustration of a pine/fir branch and cone and the product name "PINE NEEDLE" in pale lettering. The reverse is plain green, printed with the maker's stylized cat's-head emblem in a rounded square and the country of origin in English and French. The wrapper is soiled and worn; the soap is a solid mass within.
2025.1.211
Kept and forgotten in a box in the Arús Caraballo household
Sold in the parallel state market
The Cabrera Arús family collection
2025.1
Soap was found in a box stored in a closet
Konsum Seifenwerk Riesa
Riesa
G.D.R.
Central Europe
Europe
Pine Needle
Maker: Konsum Seifenwerk Riesa (the GDR's consolidated soap works), identified by the cat ("Waschkatze") emblem. "Made in German Democratic Republic / Produit de la République Démocratique Allemande." Date: Likely circa 1968–1990 (tentative). No production date is printed; the cat logo was introduced in 1968 and the GDR (and the firm in this form) lasted until reunification in 1990, which brackets the wrapper to that span.
Paper wrap (front)
Pine Needle
English
Ink
Paper wrap
Made in German Democratic Republic Produit de la Republique Democratique Allemande
English
Ink
Also in French
3 cm
8 cm
5 cm
1
Good
Gertrudis Caraballo Gálvez
user
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
acquisition
Riesa
G.D.R.
Central Europe
Europe
production
The English/French country-of-origin text indicates this was packaged for export markets. Konsum Seifenwerk Riesa was the GDR's centralized soap producer (soap production was concentrated there in 1960), and by the 1980s it was the country's sole producer of Kernseife and exported a substantial share of its output. "Fichtennadel" (pine needle / fir) was an established GDR soap/bath line, here issued under an English-language "Pine Needle" name for export.