The Paternoster Elevators Edition

On endless loops, historical oddities, and prayer beads.

Mark Slavonia (MJS) is an investor, a pilot, and an avid cyclist. He wrote about tall trees, radio beacons, rowing machines, traveler’s checks, and more. He posts other things that are interesting on his website. 

Mark here. I had a five hour layover in Frankfurt, Germany recently, so I dashed into the city and over to the Flemings Selection Frankfurt-City hotel to see one of the few remaining cyclic elevators open to the public.

Why is this interesting?

A cyclic elevator runs on a continuous loop, with two columns of small, doorless, closet-sized chambers in constant motion, one going up and one going down. A rider steps into a moving chamber to ride the elevator, and steps carefully off when the desired floor is reached. It doesn’t require much more dexterity than riding an escalator, but the consequences of failure are gruesome to imagine. Functioning paternosters today have safety switches to prevent passengers from being crushed. I have no desire to test their efficacy. 

At the top and bottom of the loop, the lift moves horizontally to the other column and continues its unceasing journey. It is sometimes possible for thrill-seekers to ignore the rules of paternoster safety and proceed over the top or around the bottom without disembarking, though this can cause problems for the elevators, which are not designed to bear weight in horizontal motion.

By RokerHRO - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

Cyclic elevators are commonly called “paternoster elevators”, “paternoster lifts” or simply “paternosters”, a name that reflects their resemblance to a string of rosary beads. When praying a rosary, one recites the “Our Father” prayer, or “Paternoster” in Latin.

The development of the paternoster elevator roughly coincided with the conventional elevator in the second half of the 19th century, when taller buildings in growing cities required vertical transportation. Paternosters never became as ubiquitous as conventional elevators, and as the public became more familiar with conventional elevators, many paternosters succumbed to disrepair, disuse, or were converted into normal elevators.

By the late 20th century, new paternosters were not permitted in most countries. Still, public fondness for these quirky lifts kept the existing paternosters from being banned entirely. Safety is often cited as the reason for the paternoster’s declining popularity, and a number of tragic incidents occurred in paternosters, but I suspect that other factors are equally important in their decline. Paternosters are not as practical for moving items (as opposed to people), and are not well suited for use by people with disabilities. They require maintenance that is hard to find, meaning few buildings today rely solely on paternosters. When they eventually need repairs, it’s easier to leave them out of service and rely on conventional elevators that serve a broader range of users.

Alas, during my visit, the paternoster in the Flemings Hotel in Frankfurt was down for maintenance, with no signs of urgency surrounding its repair. I don’t speak German, but I got the point.

If you would like to ride in a paternoster, head to Central Europe. Prague seems to have an especially rich crop still in use, and Germany has more than its share as well. The Wikipedia page has a list of remaining paternosters, though WITI makes no guarantee that any of these are functioning and open to the public.

And if you watch only one video about paternoster elevators, make it this exuberantly-produced student video from the University of Sheffield, which perfectly captures the very tame dread that these odd lifts can induce. Don’t miss the well-framed shot beginning at 2:18. (MJS)

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Thanks for reading,

Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Mark (MJS)

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