TODAY IN BERLIN: SCHÖNEBERG'S PATERNOSTER CIRCLE
March 25
On March 25, 1914 the city of Schöneberg (it became part of Berlin only six years later) celebrated the first meeting of its city council in the new city hall - the now famous (thanks to History and film-making) Rathaus Schöneberg.
The new city hall replaced the old one which by the early twentieth century felt inappropriately small and provincial - although the photo below shows a pretty fine building, it simply was not enough.
After the first design was thrown out of the window after the local councillors had been told the price of the project (30 million euros in today’s money), a competition was to decide the winner. Told to make sure the new city hall looked grand and monumental, two architects from Charlottenburg came up with the perfect idea: next to a long façade, depth of the building and obligatory columns at the entrance, they added a 70-metre tall tower. Not a coincidence, mind you: Peter Jürgensen and Jürgen Bachmann specialised in protestant churches.
When the City Council decided to hold their first convention at the new address, the main Assembly Hall was not ready yet but, not to worry, there was enough room among Jürgensen’s and Bachmann’s generously planned 57,450 m².
One thing that makes the building truly special (next to a thousand smaller features) is the paternoster lift still existing in the building. But before you jump onto the next train to come to Berlin and test them, you should know that in order to use a paternoster, you have to complete a special course and be able to present a certificate proving your newly acquired knowledge of the art of using the lift without using a limb or worse. Same rule applies for all the paternoster lifts in Berlin.
This is not what Kommissar (Detective-Inspector) Gereon Rath and his bright colleague, Charlotte (Lotte) Ritter from the by now legendary Berlin-based TV-series “Babylon Berlin” make it look like, when jumping into one of those ancient elevators. Rathaus Schöneberg was used as a stand-in for the magnificent but gone Polizeipräsidium am Alexanderplatz.
The question remains: did JFK use the paternoster during his 1962 visit to West Berlin? Probably not. He had enough to do in front of the building.
And before we close our Berlin calendar for today, a little fun fact: today also marks the day when in 1993 Berlin’s (until 1990 West Berlin’s) Abgeordnetenhaus, Berlin’s parliament, met in Schönberg’s historic city hall for the very last time. As some say, what goes around, comes around - History likes to move in circles.
Our family had the singularly brilliant experience of using a Paternoster lift in the Grossmarkthalle in Frankfurt am Main during an open day shortly before it was demolished for the construction of the new European Central Bank.
We weren't required to fill anything out (not even a waiver), though they did prevent a woman from getting on with a small child in a stroller/pushchair.