Riding the 'Babylon Berlin Elevator of Death'...Taking a spin on a rare functional Paternoster Lift
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- Опубліковано 30 лис 2021
- Anyone who has seen the German hit show 'Babylon Berlin' that takes place in Weimar Era Germany has no doubt noticed the weird elevator in the police precinct. Also seen in Fritz Lang's classic 'Metropolis' and, more recently, in the Benedict Cumberbatch movie 'The Courier'. This is a Paternoster Lift which is actually a series of open boxes moving on a continuous circuit allowing passengers to hop on an off. Although an ingenious system, almost all of these are gone due to safety concerns and only a few remain. I had the very good luck that my cousin's son knew of a functional one located in the wonderful Flemings Selection Hotel in Frankfurt. The concierge was kind enough to turn it on so we could take a rare ride on a piece of living architectural Art Deco history with a steampunk/dieselpunk feel!
You're right, this would never make it in the USA. It was fun to watch from behind the screen, not sure if I'd want to try this for real. Thanks for sharing.
Why would it never make it in the US ?? There’s one in Sheffield, England, in a university & it works just fine. Or it did, not sure about now.
Thank you Tom for keeping the memories alive ⚘
Here in Berlin we still have a few paternosters.
By the way - when I moved to Berlin in the 90s, my workplace was in a historic building and I used the paternoster every day 😀
Keep posting and always have a good trip👣😊 I'm curious
Thank you for the kind word! My next trip to Germany will have me hunting for more paternosters...by the way, if you like old mechanical contraptions, I just did a video on the last wooden escalator in New York...check it out ua-cam.com/video/3jFTzIsdgIA/v-deo.html
There are Paternoster lifts in the 20 storey Arts Tower at Sheffield University. I remember them well. They are brilliant. You never need to wait for a lift, although it is a bit slow getting to the top floor!
I think that is the tallest one in all of Europe
Think Tom Scott did a video at that one.
@@Finallybianca He did, yes...a really good one!
this must be why they have elevator music, to keep you from hearing all the suspicious noises the elevators make when they are moving.
That's funny! Yes, the creaking was a little unsettling...
It's to stifle the sound of screaming.
Exactly, also the fan noise. My building has one where you can turn off the fan noise and just hear plain elevator. If gives you a weird feeling as if you can't tell if it's working or not.
We just watched "The Courier" (starring Benedict Cumberbatch), in which they show one of these being used in 1960s Moscow.
I'm going to take a look...thank you for the tip...next time I'm in Europe I'm going to look for more of these!
Babylon Berlin is the best...can't believe these things still run!
I love the show...that is when I first saw one of these elevators and I knew that I had to try one first chance I got
There is also one also still in public use in the Danish parlament in Copenhagen.
Thank you for letting me know!
Also one in the hospital in Randers.
@@azkehmm That is awesome...you are lucky to still have these!
That was exciting.
The getting off was the scary part!
@@travelswithtom9921 The Escalator' was scary when I was a kid, so I bet this would scare me as an adult. Can you imagine if you have to carry your own luggage and get off and on!? 🤣
A good sense of timing would be key !
I remember as scene from The Omen (1976) where Gregory Peck is in a hospital and a nurse just walks onto one of these. Even as a kid, I thought, "WTF? What if she misses her last stop, is it going to flip over?" :-D I think I found that scarier than the movie.
Yes, the original Omen has a paternoster...also Metropolis (1927) and, more recently, The Courior
Same with me I'm watching the omen now and got confused after seeing her disappear
Dangerous!
A little bit, yes...but really fun to go on!
Paternoster starts at 1:35.
Thank you for watching and, if you like the content, I sure would love another subscriber!
The last time I looked there was one (two?) of these working in Aston University in Birmingham, UK.
Mind you, the last time I looked was in 1974 !!!! 🤣🤣🤣
There's a few in the UK that are still functional that I read about
they pulled that down 2 years ago
@@llofffy That's too bad!
CIGNA has (or had) one in their Bloomfield building. I rode on it.
Bloomfield Ct?
Well, I guess they can get a discount on the liability insurance!
I can see how the paternoster would be an astronomical liability. That is a lot of exposed moving parts, no doors, and places where limbs can get stuck. The paternoster is a giant astronomical liability. Great idea on paper but way too much liability attached to them.
From what I understand, the paternoster was most widely used in Germany. They stopped making new ones starting in 1974 and most were phased out. There is a movement to preserve the remaining ones as culturally significant. You're correct concerning safety and this hotel does not use this paternoster on a regular basis and you can see in the video across the hall to the conventional elevators that are used every day. Thank you for watching and, if you like this content, I sure would love another subscriber!
Why was the paternoster invented in the first place? If the paternoster is so dangerous, then why did they invent it for in the first place?
@@chadrowland5234 The first ones were built in the second half of the 19th century so safety sensibilities were somewhat different then
What I think happened was that the paternoster was used at first. So, the paternoster was the only lift there was. Then, the elevator was invented. At first, the paternoster stuck around for a while and then, as the elevator was improved in the 1880's, the paternoster went away. And, down the road, there will be something else that will be invented and the elevator might someday be banned. But...that won't be for another 80 years, 100 years.
Eisha Otis invented the safety elevator in 1853 and demonstrated it in New York City with a dramatic show in 1854 in which he cut the cable in front of onlookers while he was on it to prove that it was safe. The Otis elevator company still exists today. The Otis design is basically what we would recognize today as a standard elevator. The Paternoster appears in the late 1860s which is later than the Otis and is an English invention. The advantage of the Paternoster is that it requires no buttons, no doors, and can transport many more people quickly to their destination. The tradeoff, of course, is safety but, again, safety sensibilities have also evolved since then.
Well that's something you don't see every day :)
I didn't even know these existed until I saw the Babylon Berlin series
@@travelswithtom9921 never seen the show, but I'll check it out. I'm assuming it has Germans, hanging gardens, and Iraqis in it?
It's a crime drama set in Berlin, Germany during the last days of Weimar Germany
@@travelswithtom9921 WHOA, well I'll DEFINITELY check that out. Crime, p0rn, morphine - woo hoo :) Thx.
I have one at work, use it everyday :)
Lawyers of today would have a field day
I think that's why you won't find one in the United States...Could you image the personal injury cases!
There are a couple paternoster scenes in the 1954 film Night People with Gregory Peck. One at 54:40 and a good one exactly 1:00:00 in the film. ua-cam.com/video/oSex574J2xM/v-deo.html
i used one of them when i was a kid it's just common sense
Only issue is if you happen to miss your floor, you have to go halfway around again to get to it
Actually just jump out on the next floor and go to the opposite shaft and jump into the box going the other direction!
@@travelswithtom9921 brilliant. Id probably not figure that out for a bit haha
That's the thing with these...they're so different from conventional elevators that they require a whole different perspective! I classify this as a 'mechanical fossil' -- a apparatus from another time that somehow managed to avoid extinction and still perform its purpose in spite of the world moving on...I'm utterly fascinated by these things and am working on a video about a regular functioning trolley service in a major North American city with cars made in the 1940s...Be sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell so when it's uploaded you'll get a heads up!
Ni madres viajaría en este el elevador aquí si me muero aplastado
solo tienes que ser rápido en tus pies!
There's nothing wrong with the design, there's just "become" something wrong with modern riders.
You're probably right...I think that if we had them here in the United States the personal injury lawyers will feel like they died and went to heaven!
.... with the functional designe it self not, but looking at it from a cost Efficiency perspektiv - and how Strongly we have to assume it would be regulated to day for building one, I would assume that this designe might be quit more expensive compared to a regular one.
As you bassicly need 2 cabines for each level - and what ever is in between each cabine and that scales up quite fast. And lets be real especially in germany you would need to include so many sensors, timers and other stuff just in case anything might happen.
From a designe perspektiv it's quite sad that we won't see any more build, but I can understand it.
I heard that some are being preserved in Germany as historically significant
The reason elevators are emphasized in modern buildings is because disabled people need them. Paternoster Lifts are unusable for that purpose, so there's no reason to build them.
@@katherinespezia4609 I have to agree...they're also not ideal for the very young or the very old...that being said, they are cool throwback to another time
What year was this built?
My guess is late 20s/early 30s...I noticed some graffiti on the inside when going over the top where someone carved in USA 47...Frankfurt was heavily occupied by American troops right after the war so I'm guessing the hotel was used to quarter them for a time
1:27 is Frankfurt Main Hotel No Berlin It is Frankfurt
You are correct. In fact, I give credit to the hotel at the end of the video. The reference to Berlin is actually a reference to the TV show Babylon Berlin. Sorry for the confusion but thank you for watching!
@@travelswithtom9921 The credits at the end are covered by the video links, but you can read the main parts.
I wonder: is Babylon Berlin subtitled or has it been dubbed for the US?
@@meisterleise sorry about that, yes, the video links do cover the credits... This is one of my earlier videos and I'm still learning how to edit... As to your Babylon Berlin question it's dubbed in English on Netflix... You just have to change the settings... Thank you for watching and, if you like the content I sure would love another subscriber!
Where is this exactly?
Flemings Selection Hotel in Frankfurt...Downtown by the Eschenheimer Tor (old tower)
How can some old people or disabled use them?
That is one of the reasons why they're almost extinct. As I understand it, Germany banned any new paternosters in 1974 and most have been decommissioned since. At this hotel, they have standard elevators for daily use. Thank you for watching and if you like this content, I sure would love another subscriber!
@@travelswithtom9921 thank you very much :)
HEY IS NO BERLIN is FRANKFURT AM MAIN Hotel Selection
Yes, I'm aware...The Berlin part refers to the series Babylon Berlin so that fans of the show make the connection with the elevator...we don't have these in the US so our only knowledge of them is through that show and a fleeting glance of one in the more The Courier...think of it as 'Artistic License"
No thanks, I'll take the stairs, even lifts with doors are terrifying, so this contraption without doors is a firm HELL NO.
It is a little nerve wracking getting on an off, yes. They stopped building them in the 1970s and very few still exist. Thank you for watching!
you can place celery sticks in the middle and scream to scare people good times
Add some ketchup too! 🤣
For this to work safely, No Women, No Children, No Elderly, No Handicapped, Nothing with wheels, limit to number and size of packages being carried. Essentially everyone who would be allowed to board a plane first, not allowed to ride this elevator. Just able-bodied men who travel lightly, move quickly, and stay out of the way.
I think any building that has one of these probably has a 'safe' elevator as well so people with varying challenges are accommodated
What do you mean 'No women'? ' A lot of children would love it, but you''d have to have an age limit.
@@l353a1 probably means dresses getting caught, which I am not sure would be a problem
@@benharder7816 No way in hell would I feel safe getting on one of these things in a skirt and heels. I probably *could* do it if I was careful but I'd be too nervous to try.
No handicapped ?? You mean no-one in a wheelchair right ? Coz I’m ‘handicapped’ & but I could use this lift, no problem.
Used to use these regularly. There was never an issue or an injury. People are such a bunch of cry babies these days. Hop on, use common sense, hop off.
“Common sense is not so common.”
― Voltaire
Actually, there are recorded incidents of injuries and deaths associated with these. And I'm guessing there were plenty of issues for people in wheelchairs.
@@jogill3261 They are not meant for disabled persons or wheelchair use. They specificlly say that on the lifts.
There would actually have to be death occurring for it to be an "elevator of death". Unnecessarily dramatic much?
@@TheGregoryGardner Deaths have occurred with escalators and elevators, especially when firs introduced, but it hasn't stopped their use. Computer controlled and new safety features (as with escalators and elevators) have evolved. If it's an "elevator of death" then why in the heck is it still operating?
Think of it as poetic license 😀