'They are like Angela Merkel, they work well': Why Germans are loopy about revolving lifts

As the paternoster cabin in which he was descending into the bowels of Stuttgart's town hall plunged into darkness, Dejan Tuco giggled. "We're not supposed to do the full circuit," he said. "But that's the best way to feel like you're on a ferris wheel or a gondola."

The German-Serb schoolboy was riding the open elevator shaft known as a paternoster, a 19th-century invention that has been given a stay of execution after campaigners persuaded Germany's government to reverse a decision to ban its public use.

That the doorless lift, which consists of two shafts side by side within which a chain of open cabins descend and ascend continuously on a belt, has narrowly escaped becoming a victim of safety regulations, has everything to do with a deep German affection for what many consider an efficient form of transport. In Germany which first adopted the British-made invention in the 1870s, there are an estimated 250 and there was an outcry when they were brought to a standstill this summer while legislation was reviewed.

Officials in Stuttgart were among the loudest protesters against the labour minister Andrea Nahles' new safety regulations, which stated the lifts could only be used by employees trained in paternoster riding.

"It took the heart out of this place when our paternoster was brought to a halt, and it slowed down our work considerably," said Wolfgang Wölfle, Stuttgart's deputy mayor. "I'm too impatient to wait for a conventional lift and the best thing about a paternoster is that you can hop on and off it as you please," he added.

Editor of Berlin-based Neues Deutschland, Tom Strohschneider, said they suit the "German penchant for reliability, efficiency and resistance to change. They are like Angela Merkel. They've been around a long time, they work well and because of that they give us a sense of security."