Berlin’s 2,500 outdoor advertising columns, called Litfass Saeulen after their inventor, are slated for the “Litfass Saeulen cemetery” by the end of June 2019. Berliners mourn a long tradition. Just like the city’s old street lights and water pumps, these old-time publicizing columns are a part of Berlin history. They have promoted movies, plays, concerts and other events. Only 50 of Berlin’s current Litfass Saeulen will remain because they are protected under Germany’s cultural preservation law.
Outdoor Advertising Column (Litfass Saeule) in Berlin. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015. www.walled-in-berlin.com
History of Berlin’s Advertising Columns
In the mid-1800s, Berliners routinely hung notices on walls, doors, fences and trees, making the city look untidy. The Berlin printer and publisher Ernst Theodor Amandus Litfass had a solution: Why not erect columns throughout the city to which residents can attach their notices and messages? He approached the police president with his idea and eventually received permission to erect the first 100 outdoor advertising columns. That was in 1854. His columns were a huge success and Litfass added many more over the course of the centuries, becoming a rich man in the process.
Why Berlin’s Advertising Columns Must Now Go
Recently, the city of Berlin modified its method of allocating marketing and advertising rights for public spaces. For many years, Wall GmbH held those rights, and in return, operated Berlin’s public toilets and fountains. As of this year, the city is selling the advertising rights for public spaces and will finance public toilets and fountains from the advertising revenues.
ILG Aussenwerbung GmbH wins the bidding process
In the recent bidding process for outdoor advertising on Litfass Saeulen, Wall GmbH drew the short straw. ILG-Aussenwerbung GmbH won the lottery. https://www.morgenpost.de/berlin/article216787283/In-Berlin-beginnt-jetzt-der-grosse-Abriss-der-Litfasssaeulen.htmln Berlin beginnt jetzt der große Abriss der Litfaßsäulen Because the two companies could not agree on how many existing advertising columns could or should be maintained, all of them will be scrapped (save the 50 protected ones). The new operator expects to install up 1,500 new columns this year and to add an additional 1,000 over the course of the next three to five years. Removal, by the way, will run several million Euros because some of the existing pillars contain asbestos.
Good-Bye to Berlin’s Advertising Columns
Advertising on the existing advertising columns ceased already several weeks ago. While Wall GmbH is busy ripping them out like dead tree stumps, the temporarily remaining pillars await their fate dressed only in plain red, blue or yellow paper. They look like headstones in a cemetery because mourning Berliners have scribbled their good-byes on the bright paper.
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Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.
