In the first episode of Babylon Berlin, which takes place partly in the police headquarters of the City of Berlin during 1929, the elevators seem quite unsafe. They don't seem to halt between floors, don't have doors, and people just have to quickly jump off at what would be their stop.
Is this simply the makers taking an artistic liberty or did at lest some elevators actually at one time work like this? If so, is this contextually-accurate?
I'll give it another go: The elevators you refer to are called Paternoster. This is the Latin name for the Lord's prayer. As the cabins are connected by a chain and in a loop, they were considered to resemble a rosary with which this prayer would be spoken.
The first lift of this kind was installed by Peter Ellis in Liverpool ,UK, which at first was only used for materials. Peter Hart later obtained a patent and the first paternoster designed for people was installed in a commercial building in Dartford, England in 1884.
In 1886 the then state-of-the-art Dovenhof in Hamburg, Germany, was built and this new technology installed. It was popular as it could transport more people than the first closed lifts that were also available at the time.
As it happens, around the same time (1888) Hamburg city was included into the customs Union, giving the harbour an immense boost, it became one of the most important harbours in continental Europe in a time where the speed and capacity of maritim transport increased [dramatically] (https://marketing.hamburg.de/hintergrundinformationen.html). As trade increased, a whole new part of the city 'Speicherstadt' was developed close to the harbour and with it a large number of Kontor buildings. Many of these followed the lead of the Dovenhof and installed paternosters.
The Dovenhof was demolished in the late [1960's] (https://www.abendblatt.de/hamburg/article205343067/Wer-Paternoster-faehrt-braucht-bald-einen-Fuehrerschein.html) but many of the other historic buildings still exist and in some the paternoster are still in active use.
More than half of the paternoster that were installed in Germany were located in Hamburg. In Western Germany no new paternoster were allowed to be installed after the 1970's. As This regulation did not apply to Eastern Germany, the technology was still being installed in the 80's, however with reunification the ban applied throughout Germany. Austria had already stopped further installations in the late 1960's.
While there were plans to terminate the permits of existing paternoster in the early 2000s, active [protest] (http://m.augsburger-allgemeine.de/panorama/Bundesregierung-kippt-Paternoster-Verbot-nach-heftigem-Protest-id34530682.html) ensured that those that exist are allowed to continue being used. Some are located in office buildings but also administrative buildings, and therefore they are available to the public.
Hi, everyone! This is just a friendly reminder from your mods that we require answers to be in-depth and comprehensive. In this case, that means that you can't just drop a link to a Wikipedia page, or state the name of this type of elevator and where one might be found today. We're looking for you to write a few paragraphs about their development, the period and/or region in which they were most used, perhaps some explanation of how they fit into the modern safety elevator's timeline, etc. Thank you!