Pissoir at Senefelderplatz Berlin - foto OTA-Berlin Aleksandr Vasilevsky
Pissoir at Senefelderplatz Berlin - foto OTA-Berlin Aleksandr Vasilevsky
Public Toilet design can and does say a lot about a society – in North America and the UK the open air urinal is almost unknown – probably as a result of the false and hypocritical prudery of these cultures.
‘Pissoirs’, the French word for urinal – and sounds better – started its public life in France but up to this day continue to exist throughout the world.
They have fallen out of fashion somewhat in the later 20th century, but now are making a revival of sorts in large European cities – ultra modern pay versions are often to be found in public places in Berlin.
The UK which has the same Anglo-Saxon prudishness as the US recently relaxed its disfavour against open air urinals, mainly because of the problem of afterhours binge drinking and subsequent ‘do-it-anywhere’ stress free urination.
In England some cities have introduced cylindrical pissoirs which are hidden during the day, telescope out of the ground at night, for the relief of beer-drinking drunken hordes of the after-hours.
The city of Berlin seems to have taken the privatization rage quite literally and now provides private ‘pay-as-you-go’ public toilets – however many of the older charming ‘Pissoirs’ remain – and they are used and useful!
These typical Berlin green octagonal shaped – the base form is nearly always the same – have some slight variations however the very distinctive octagonal base form is constant and about 30 still survive today.
The originals date from the late 1800’s and circa 50 existed at the turn of the last century – due to the architectural protection they enjoy under a very enlightened and active Berlin City municipal government they will remain as vestiges of the past as well as being practical public conveniences.
At the street corner above the U-bahn station Senefelder Str. above the U2 [see fotos] is one of the few pissoris which survived even under the former DDR in what was then East Berlin.
For a very detailed and well documented and entertaining review of all the ‘Pissoirs of Berlin’ pls go to:
http://www.surveyor.in-berlin.de/berlin/real/indexe.html
The English translation is horribly awful – rather ‘pissy’ actually if you will excuse the pun -has been made by some stupid auto-mated robot …however you will get the main gist of what is being said and is well worth the visit!
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