March 2025 - bruckfamilyblog.com

POST 175: LITFAßSÄULEN ADVERTISING COLUMNS

Note: In this post, I discuss so-called Litfaßsäulen, German advertising columns, that were once ubiquitous in cityscapes across the country but are rapidly being removed.

This post is a spinoff of the previous one where I discussed “Annoncen-Expedition und Reklame-Büro,” advertising expedition or agency. My great uncle Rudolf Löwenstein was the local General Agent for the largest German advertising expedition, Rudolf Mosse & Co., in Danzig [today: Gdańsk, Poland] from around 1905 until his untimely death in 1930. Other than being inspired by my great uncle’s involvement in advertising, this post has nothing to do with my family’s history.

This article is about plaster-postered pillars invented in Berlin in 1854. In German, the advertising columns are known in the plural as Litfaßsäulen. Though I have no reason to believe that my great uncle was involved in the placement of advertisements and posters on these columns on behalf of his clients, it stands to reason he might have been, particularly as a provider of a full-service advertising campaign.

The columns have a colorful history and have even entered the realm of pop culture; more on this below. Though quickly being removed and disappearing from the German cityscape, a low-key, grassroots movement has arisen to save them from removal; it has sparked a fad of writing messages, poems, and heartfelt tributes on the columns, and having two or three people group hug a Litfaßsäule to highlight a reluctance to let them go. I remember having come across these advertising columns during multiple European trips and imaginatively being captured by their quirky, bulky shape. For this reason alone, I’ve decided to make them the subject of this post and explore a little of their history.

A Litfaßsäule is a tall cylindrical advertising column, roughly 3 meters high (i.e., ~ 9 feet), usually placed on sidewalks. (Figure 1) Although several European cities use this type of structure for advertising, they were invented in Germany. The word Litfaßsäule is uniquely German. It comes from the words Litfaß (pronounced Lit-fass) and Säule. The word Säule means “column” or “pillar.” Litfaß is not actually a German word, but instead the surname of the man who ostensibly invented this type of column, the German printer Ernst Litfaß (1816-1874) in 1854. Litfaß was not only a printer but also an actor, poet, impresario, and events manager. He made most of his fortune as the “Reklamekönig,” or advertising king, during the industrial revolution of the mid-19th century.

Figure 1. A “Litfaßsäule,” or advertising pillar, photographed in 1932

The Litfaßsäule and the concept of public advertising behind it was inspired by a trip Litfaß took to Paris in 1843. He was completely taken by the advertising he witnessed there, the unlikely inspiration being a circular pissoir bedecked with advertisements. Litfaß saw an opportunity where others saw only a public toilet. Another purported source of inspiration was supposedly advertisement columns in England that were lit with a lantern from the inside and drawn around the city on a wagon. So, while Litfaß did not per se invent advertising columns, he promoted the idea of permanent, cylindrical pillars.

In mid-19th century Berlin, advertisements, signs, notices, and political announcements were randomly affixed to trees, building facades, and what have you. Things looked completely disorganized. Appalled by these excessive and random postings, Litfaß suggested to the chief of police of Berlin that columns be erected all over the city on which people could hang their posters. Perhaps he deemed that these columns would fulfill or contribute to Germany’s stereotypical orderliness?

After years of negotiations, Litfaß received the first permit for his “advertising columns” on December 5, 1854. He received a monopoly from the city of Berlin for the erection of his columns that was valid until 1865. In 1855, the first 100 advertising columns were erected in Berlin and named Litfaßsäulen in his honor; another 50 columns were erected in 1865. In exchange for the monopoly, the contract also called for the installation of up to 30 public urinals in exchange for the monopoly, though none were ever built.

Initially, Litfaßsäulen were used to advertise cultural events. To ensure that no inappropriate ads were posted and that the posters were hung in an orderly fashion, an inspector was responsible for examining the columns daily.

The authorities and advertisers quickly recognized the advantages of the new advertising medium. The state could censor the content beforehand, while advertisers who purchased space were assured their advertisements would remain uncovered and visible for the entire rented period without being pasted over.

Created in Germany, the advertising medium quickly spread to neighboring European countries and eventually to the rest of the world. Paris got its own version of the ad pillars in 1868, where they are called “colonnes Morris,” Morris columns. They were named after the printer Gabriel Morris who implemented an idea like his German counterpart’s.

The columns took on a new purpose in 1870 when the Franco-German war broke out. Litfaß convinced city leadership that these columns, typically located in central locations and busy plazas, would be an ideal place to disseminate crucial information about happenings on the Front. It’s not entirely clear to me whether this condition that the latest news be published on the columns originated from the outset of the 1854 monopolistic arrangement or evolved over time. Regardless, an advantage is that people could gather around these columns and catch up on ongoing wartime developments much quicker than from newspapers, which took longer to print. Interestingly, Litfaß was also given the monopoly by the Prussian Emperor to print so-called Kriegsdepeschen, telegrams from the Front, and post them on his pillars.

After the two world wars, the columns were used to post notices by people looking for missing loved ones, as well as help-wanted ads for rubble clean up, as well as other public advertisements. Modern Litfaßsäulen publicize concerts, performances, and other cultural events from around the city.

Until 2019, there were slightly more than 2,500 columns remaining in Berlin. However, since then, many more have been removed. Historically, Berlin’s Litfaßsäulen were spread throughout the city from the busiest plazas to the most remote suburbs. The city plans to preserve 50 of the classic columns as historic monuments. Part of the justification for their removal is they require constant upkeep, for example dealing with erosion caused by dogs urinating against them. An upkeeper’s nightmare but an archaeologist’s dream is that periodically the columns need to be scraped after an average of 150 layers of posters have been pasted on them! Suffice it to say, archaeologists have a way of individually separating and reading those layers and, so inclined, could learn a lot from their study.

Ironically, while the traditional columns will effectively be removed, a new company from Stuttgart has acquired the advertising rights for 15 years to build 1,500 new columns of a newer type that will be larger and have lighting.

Germany’s most famous Litfaßsäule is in the Berlin district of Wilmersdorf. It was featured on the cover of a 1929 German children’s book, entitled “Emil and the Detectives” by Erich Kästner. (Figure 2)

Figure 2. Cover of Erich Kästner’s 1929 children’s book, “Emil and the Detectives,” with Emil hiding behind a Litfaßsäule

In Vienna, Austria, numerous advertising pillars in the vicinity of the Vienna River cover the stone spiral staircases leading to the surface from the depths; they protect unauthorized entry into the understructure. The advertising columns are equipped with a door that can be opened from the outside with a key and from inside without one. In a 1949 Orson Welles film, entitled “The Third Man,” the protagonist Henry Lime escapes into the Viennese sewers through an advertising column. (Figure 3)

Figure 3. Orson Welles in the 1949 film, “The Third Man,” standing by the entrance to a Litfaßsäule in Vienna, Austria

Another use of the advertising columns has been practiced in Nuremberg, Germany since 2015. Public toilets have been installed inside which can be used for a small fee. In Görlitz, Germany, on the border with Poland, the mayor has tried to stem their demise by looking into their possible use as 5G signal masts. Since 2021, in Düsseldorf, Germany, the historic advertising pillars are already being used for this purpose. They have a barely recognizable door that provides access to the technology, and an aluminum-colored radio mast “hood,” reminiscent of a woman’s hat from former times. These 5G signal masts improve reception and provide higher network stability within a radius of 400 meters (i.e., ~1,300 feet).

A 1979 German stamp (Figure 4) and 2016 20 Euro German coin (Figure 5) have been issued to commemorate Litfaßsäulen.

Figure 4. A 1979 German stamp commemorating 125 years of Litfaßsäulen

Figure 5. A 2016 German 2016 20 Euro coin commemorating 200 since the birth of Ernst Litfaß

As I end this post, I’m reminded of the words in Joni Mitchell’s 1970 song “Big Yellow Taxi”:

“. . .Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot”

As Litfaßsäulen disappear from Europe’s cityscapes, there’s a nostalgia and a perceptible sense of loss that reminds people of an earlier time.

RESOURCES

Connolly, Kate. “Last stand for Berlin’s ageing concrete advertising pillars.” The Guardian, 31 March 2019.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/29/last-stand-berlin-ageing-litfasaule-concrete-advertising-pillars

Hucal, Sarah. “Berlin’s classic ad columns to disappear.” Deutsche Welle, 29 January 2019.

https://www.dw.com/en/berlins-classic-ad-columns-to-disappear/a-47282094

Litfaßsäule. Wikipedia.de, 26 March 2025.

https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Litfaßsäule&action=history

One of the First Advertising Columns Designed by Ernst Litfaß in Berlin (c. 1860), published in: German History in Documents and Images, 11 February 2015.
One of the First Advertising Columns Designed by Ernst Litfaß in Berlin (c. 1860) | German History in Documents and Images

Rieper, Anika. “The Litfaßsäule—Advertising Pillar Named After its Inventor, Ernst Litfaß. More than Beer and Schnitzel, 11 February 2023.
https://morethanbeerandschnitzel/author/anikarieper

The German Embassy In Washington, D.C. “Word of the Week: Litfaßsäule.” 26 January 2018.

https://www.tumblr.com/germanyinusa/170160262932/word-of-the-week-litfa%C3%9Fs%C3%A4ule

POST 174: MY GREAT-UNCLE RUDOLF LÖWENSTEIN, DANZIG REPRESENTATIVE OF THE RUDOLF MOSS ADVERTISING AGENCY

Note: In this post, I discuss my great-uncle Rudolf Löwenstein and the Rudolf Mosse “Annoncen-Expedition-Reklame-Büro,” advertising expedition or agency, for which he worked.

In an imagined account that may have taken place in my father’s life almost 95 years ago, in Post 71 I pictured the day he learned that his uncle, Rudolf Löwenstein, had died in a plane crash. (Figure 1) The date was the 22nd of August 1930, when his uncle was returning to Danzig [today: Gdańsk, Poland] in the Free City of Danzig from visiting family in then-Czechoslovakia. At the time, I’m certain my father was living with his uncle and his paternal aunt, Rudolf (1872-1930) and Hedwig Löwenstein, née Bruck (1870-1949), and likely two of their three children, while apprenticing as a dentist. My father would eventually open his own dental practice in April 1932 in a town 40km (i.e., ca. 25 miles) to the east of Danzig in Tiegenhof [today: Nowy Dwór Gdański, Poland], also located in the Free City of Danzig.

Figure 1. “Volksstimme” article from Monday the 25th of August 1930 discussing Rudolf Löwenstein’s death

As mentioned, Rudolf and Hedwig Löwenstein had three children, the eldest, Fedor Löwenstein (1901-1946), who died in 1946 before I was born. Hedwig passed away in 1949, also before I was born. However, as a child I met Rudolf and Hedwig’s two youngest offspring, Jeanne Goff, née Löwenstein (1902-1986) and Heinz Löwenstein (1905-1979), in Nice, France. (Figure 2) If the Löwenstein surname sounds familiar to regular readers, it’s because I’ve written multiple posts about Fedor Löwenstein and his brother Heinz Löwenstein.

Figure 2. My great-aunt Hedwig Löwenstein, née Bruck with her three children, Fedor (seated), Jeanne, and Heinz in Nice, France in March 1946

As a reminder, Fedor Löwenstein was an accomplished artist, 25 of whose artworks were intercepted and confiscated by the Nazis at the Port of Bordeaux in December 1940 as they were being shipped to New York: Long time readers know I’ve been engaged in a more than 10-yearlong battle with the French Ministry of Culture to recover the three surviving paintings. Heinz Löwenstein, by contrast, fought as a member of England’s Royal Pioneer Corps and was captured in the Battle of Greece in 1941, and incarcerated and escaped from German stalags no fewer than five times. His story is truly movie-worthy.

In any case, based on what I know, Jeanne and Heinz Löwenstein were the two cousins my father was closest to. (Figures 3-4) He lived with them in Danzig, then later near Jeanne and her mother in Nice, France. The fact that these are my father’s only cousins whom I met growing up supports the notion they were close. Another of my father’s first cousins lived in New York City, where I grew up. Because my father didn’t bother to tell her about my birth, she never again spoke to him. Suffice it to say, I never met her. With rare exceptions my father was not into family, a phenomenon I don’t fully comprehend.

Figure 3. My father Dr. Otto Bruck with his cousin Jeanne Goff, née Löwenstein on March 2, 1947, in Fayence, France

Figure 4. In 1973, my parents Otto and Paulette Brook in Haifa, Israel with Heinz Löwenstein (middle), by then known as Hanoch Avneri(y)

A brief digression. I have an ancestral tree on ancestry.com with around 1,200 names. I use it to orient myself to the people I write about on my blog. Where available, I attach images or pictures of family members, though for long-ago ancestors sometimes the best I can do is find a painted rendering of them. In the case of Rudolf Löwenstein, I’ve not yet uncovered a picture of him though I remain optimistic one or more survive. The difficulty is that none of Rudolf and Hedwig’s children had children of their own so tracking down who may have inherited Löwenstein family photos and personal papers and where they may have wound up, assuming they’ve survived, is challenging.

My paternal grandfather Felix Bruck (1864-1927) and his seven siblings including Hedwig Bruck were all born in Ratibor [today: Racibórz, Poland], the same place as my father. Hedwig and Rudolf Löwenstein were married there in 1899. For reasons that are unclear to me their first child Fedor Löwenstein was born in 1901 in Munich, Germany. Their two younger children, however, were born in Danzig, respectively, in 1902 and 1905.

It’s safe to assume that no later than 1902, Rudolf and Hedwig Löwenstein had relocated to Danzig, presumably from Munich. However, contemporary Danzig address books first list Rudolf Löwenstein in the 1905 directory. (Figure 5) His occupation at the time was “Generalvertreter fur Rudolf Mosse und Paul Stabernack & Co., Berlin,” or General Agent for Rudolf Mosse & Co. The 1905 address book identifies this as the “Zentral-Bureau fur jederlei Reklame,” or the Central office for all kinds of advertising. Above the bolded ad Rudolf Löwenstein is identified as a “Kfm. (=Kaufman), Vertreter d.(=der) Annoncen-Expedition,” or translated literally as “merchant or businessman, agent for advertisement expedition.” Curious as to what precisely an advertisement expedition is, I investigated.

Figure 5. Page from 1905 Danzig Address Book showing Rudolf Löwenstein was a general representative of the advertising expedition Rudolf Mosse and Paul Stabernick, Heilige Gastgaße—Weidengaße 48

In German Wikipedia, I learned about Rudolf Mosse & Co., the company for who Rudolf Löwenstein was an agent. Rudolf Mosse (1843-1920) was a German-Jewish publisher, company founder, and businessman. He founded Rudolf Mosse Zeitungs-Annoncen-Expedition on the 1st of January 1867 in Berlin. He started by advertising his own business in advertisements but quickly went from being a mere intermediary to being a provider of advertising space, which he sold to advertisers. As one of the first publishers, he accomplished this by leasing entire advertising pages from several newspapers. This was a highly successful business model, so much so that five years after he founded his company it had 250 branches in Germany and abroad. Obviously, one of these branches was in Danzig and Rudolf Löwenstein was its local General Agent.

Let me say a little more, generally, about “Annoncen-Expedition,” but more specifically about Rudolf Mosse & Co. This is also drawn from German Wikipedia (i.e., U.S. Wikipedia does not include mention of these advertising expeditions). In the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, advertising expeditions mediated the placement of advertisements between newspapers and advertisers. This was only possible after the abolition in Prussia of the so-called “insertion obligation” on the 1st of January 1847. Prior to this date, advertisements were only allowed to be published in intelligence magazines. After the abolition of the insertion obligation, advertisements could also be placed in daily newspapers.

While Rudolf Mosse was a major player in the German advertising landscape during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his company was not the first advertising expedition in Germany. In 1855, the first advertising expedition was founded in Altona by the Haasenstein advertising agency. Similar companies had already emerged earlier in the Anglo-American world, as well as in France. Haasenstein collected advertisements from advertising customers, sold them to newspapers and collected a commission.

In Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, and in many other cities, advertising expeditions were also founded as pure intermediaries of advertising space. Soon newspapers financed more than 50 percent of their operations by advertising, which made them attractive capital investments.

At first, the advertisements differed only slightly from the rest of the paper, forcing advertisers to find a suitable publication environment for their ads. In the decades after the founding of the German Empire in 1871, however, and amid industrialization and mass production, advertisements began to stand out and be distinctive. The advertising expeditions, above all Rudolf Mosse as mentioned above, leased the entire advertising space of some newspapers and thus went from simply being an intermediary to being a provider of advertising space. In addition, the advertising expeditions now also advised their customers on the design and placement of the advertisements.

In 1872, Rudolf Mosse founded the “Berliner Tageblatt,” followed in 1889 by the founding of the “Berliner Morgenzeitung.” Mosse purchased printers and expanded his expedition to become a newspaper publisher, thus competing with other publishers. Effectively, the advertising expeditions had grown into large media companies and were accused of favoring (their own) newspapers and influencing the content of the other publications in which ads were placed.

Between 1918 and 1929, there were fierce price wars between the advertising expeditions. Some became the objects of speculation for investors. By the mid-1920s, branches of American advertising agencies first opened in Germany, all of which operated as full-service companies. By 1932, Rudolf Mosse & Co., which had grown into the largest advertising expedition at the time, ran into financial difficulties and was acquired by a German GmbH (i.e., “Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung,” a “limited liability company (LLC)” which offers limited liability to its owners and is comparable to an American LLC).

On the 12th of September 1933, the Nazis passed the Gesetz über Wirtschaftswerbung, the “1933 Commercial Advertising Act.” This created the legal basis for the establishment of an “Advertising Council of the German Economy.” This Council served to synchronize the advertising industry in the Nazi state. The advertising expeditions were de facto brought into line and were now under the control of the Ministeriums für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda, the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.

Following Rudolf Löwenstein’s untimely death in 1930, his son Heinz took over the business although the business was still listed under his father’s name. (Figure 6) The 1933 Danzig address book list introduces a slightly different business term, namely, “Reklame-Büro,” which translates literally as “advertising agency.” As opposed to an advertising expedition, I think this was a company that created and managed advertising campaigns for other businesses, developing marketing strategies to promote products or services across media channels. In other words this was a full-service company versus one that merely helped facilitate the placement of advertisements in newspapers and elsewhere.

Figure 6. Page from the 1933 Danzig Address Book showing that Heinz Löwenstein owned the “Reklame-Büro. Annoncen-Expedit.” following his father’s death, and that he was a “propagandist,” meaning a sales promoter

While Heinz Löwenstein appears to still have been the General Agent for Rudolf Mosse advertising expedition in 1933, I strongly suspect it was probably the last year he was in business. The 1933 Commercial Advertising Act would have severely limited his ability as a Jew to freely run his advertising agency. Based on an unclear reference on one of his military papers, I have reason to believe that he and his wife immigrated to Palestine ca. 1935, whereupon he joined Britain’s Royal Pioneer Corps.

There is one final thing I want to discuss regarding Heinz Löwenstein’s occupation as indicated in the 1934 Danzig address book, namely, the use of the German term “propagandist.” Like me, given the years in which Heinz operated the “Reklame-Büro. Annoncen-Expedit.” after Hitler came to power, readers might erroneously assume he was a mouthpiece for the Nazi government. “Propagandist,” in the English sense is defined as “someone who creates and spreads propaganda, which is communication used to influence or persuade an audience, often with a specific agenda or viewpoint, and may not be objective.” I can’t emphasize strongly enough how implausible it would have been for Heinz to parrot Nazi ideology, given his life history. Heinz clearly saw the handwriting on the wall and, in my opinion, departed for Palestine as soon as he was able to after Hitler came to power.

Given what I believe to be true about Heinz, I turned to German Wikipedia to understand the use of the term “propagandist” in German. A German synonym for propagandist is Verkaufsfördererung. Expectedly, the term means something very different in German, a sales promoter, who is involved “in sales promotions, namely, all temporary activities with a promotional character [that] are combined within the marketing communication policy, which serve to activate the market participants (sales bodies, dealers, customers) to increase sales results, and support other marketing measures.” Use of this term in the context of running an advertising agency makes much more sense to describe the work that Heinz Löwenstein was involved in.

This suggests one final thought. Growing up my German-born father would occasionally use a German aphorism or saying to make a point. Asked to explain, he would tell me there was no comparable saying in English. While the difference between use of “propagandist” in English versus German is not quite the same thing, it is worth bearing in mind that online translators may occasionally give you inaccurate translations so further investigation may be required.

RESOURCES

Annoncen-Expedition. Wikipedia.de, 14 May 2023.
„Annoncen-Expedition“ – Versionsgeschichte – Wikipedia

Rudolf Mosse. Wikipedia.de, 15 Mar. 2024.
Rudolf Mosse – Wikipedia

Verkaufsfördererung. Wikipedia.de, 25 Jul. 2023.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verkaufsf%C3%B6rderung