The Moving Elevator Story

"Paternoster" is a German term that you typically WON'T come across in normal situations in Germany.  It is a special elevator which has NO door.  Yeah.....it is a small room-like device which operates like an elevator and can typically hold two or three people (two is max on the norm).  You walk up and there is evidence of the next one coming....you jump into this and then ride to the right floor.  The chief problem or development issue was that once at the top or bottom of a building.....it did a 360-degree turn (upside down) and came down.

Paternoster elevators have been around since 1868 (used originally in the UK), and was built in most German buildings in the 1940s through the 1960s.  By 1974, after a number of serious accidents with people injured....they made a law that you couldn't build or install anymore. In fact, there was a law in place where all paternoster elevators were to be terminated by this summer in Germany.

With only 250 of such elevators left....you'd think it would have been accepted by the public.  Oddly, the pro-paternoster folks got aggressive and fought off the gov't ban.  I noticed in German news that the labor ministry finally agreed last week that if you have signs to warn people.....then you can keep operating the paternoster in your building.

ThyssenKrupp, one of the premier elevator builders in the world, has said that they are now working on a modern paternoster elevator....that would safely turn and come down without the serious risk that now exists.

The selling point of the paternoster?  I rode on one in Frankfurt back in 1978, so I can vouch for the efficient movement of this.  It simply keeps moving.....never stopping.  So two guys would walk up and just jump on one......pass quickly through three floors in a matter of twenty seconds and then jump out.  The speed isn't quick and you can stand there for ten seconds to get your timing right, and just jump off.  The key factor is that you MUST pay attention and get off at the right floor.

It's an elevator that would have been banned easily in the US.....I would say.  But oddly, Germans like the thrill of a continually moving elevator without doors.  Go figure.