WITHBetween the brown and white apothecary bottles lay-on vibrators in the shape of a rubber duck, Japanese braided cock rings and the first version of the “Womanizer” are lined up. The name L’apotheque and the antique wooden furniture suggest that medicines were sold in the 35 square meter room just a few years ago. Today the windows are adorned with teal tinsel and pink curtains. The remaining bottles are empty and only there for decoration – and the former cult pharmacy in St. Pauli has become Germany’s first museum for historical and unusual sex toys.
It is run by Anna Genger. She was born in 1978 and grew up in St. Pauli – just a few streets away from the Reeperbahn, in her mother’s pharmacy. Immediately after graduating from high school, she went to London to study. As an artist, she lived in New York, Paris, Scotland and finally in Berlin – and actually had no intention of ever moving back to Hamburg.
Until a phone call in September 2018 upset their plans. “An employee from the pharmacy called me crying and said Muddi couldn’t do it anymore, I had to come here.” The 83-year-old pharmacist had to have an operation on her hip. At first Genger wanted to sell the shop, but then it became clear that she could take over the care of her mother and not return to Berlin – and kept the business.
Today, in addition to apothecary bottles, there are sex toys of all kinds on the shelves.
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Image: Lucas Wahl
It was clear from the outset that the pharmacy in Genger’s hands would have very little to do with pharmacy. “Actually, a collective studio was to be created here, and the sales room of the pharmacy was to serve as an exhibition room.” To the rear there are other rooms, but they are in need of renovation. The building dates from 1799 and is now a listed building. Only the almost 35 square meters in front can really be used as an exhibition. “In December 2019 I was standing here with my current business partner, one thing led to another and the idea was clear: a museum for historical and unusual sex toys.”
The artist has already dealt with the themes of physicality, intimacy and sexuality in her works. “That’s why the focus for me in this place is more on this aspect of identity,” says Genger. “The historical sex toy is the carrier of the whole, as if you need something tangible to talk about something bigger.”
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A proper opening has not yet been able to take place due to the pandemic. In general, the museum should be based primarily on events, the shop is too far away from the Reeperbahn for walk-in customers. Contemporary art will be on display in the back rooms, another room could serve as a conference room, but Genger could also imagine keeping some space for a tattoo artist. “We are in the middle of setting it up and according to the current concept, the sex toy is shown in a relatively minimalist way.”
The lender for the exhibits is Nadine Beck. She wrote her doctoral thesis on the cultural history of the vibrator and has accumulated more than 300 sex toys in around 10 years – at least she stopped counting the number last year. “My first impulse was of course that I wanted everyone here,” says Genger. But that is reduced simply because of the historical evidence – and the topic is exhausted without the history and the context behind it.”
Beck explains that the oldest exhibits date back to around 1900, when they were still pure massage devices, which were then converted. “It’s difficult to buy old sex toys. They are undervalued and too taboo. Sometimes I get the latest devices sent to me as a sex toy tester.” Beck wants to break the taboo on the subject, even in science sex toys are neglected.
Exhibits in the sex toy museum “L’apotheque”
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Image: Lucas Wahl
The fact that the toy is now in an old pharmacy is a good fit for her: “Health and sexuality are closely related, because the toys reach into many different areas of our lives: starting as erotically second-hand health devices to the orgasm debates of the sexual revolution to this day, where they are seen as objects of female empowerment and lifestyle.” Because of this relevance alone, they would deserve to be shown in a museum.