The end of Germany's phone booths

The telephone booth has a long history: The first "telephone kiosk" was set up in Berlin in 1881. This picture shows one from 1927 in front of the Jerusalem Church in Berlin-Mitte. Demand was huge, and telephone booths became a familiar sight. From 1946, they were standardized in yellow throughout the territory of what later became the Federal Republic of Germany, also known as West Germany.

Until the 1990s, phone boxes were a familiar sight: There were more than 160,000 of these boxes all over Germany, equipped with thick phone books hanging in a rotating device. The boxes were initially operated by the Bundespost, and later by Deutsche Telekom. At peak times, long queues often formed.

In the former East Germany, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) or DDR in German, phone booths were also mostly yellow. This picture shows two boxes after reunification in 1991. Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, phone boxes were essential for many households as they often did not have their own landlines.

Since November 2022 it's no longer been possible to use coins, and at the end of January 2023 Deutsche Telekom will also discontinue the option of paying by phone card. What would probably have led to outraged protests a few years ago has been met with indifference in the age of mobile communication.

"When almost everyone has a mobile phone in their pocket, there's little point in maintaining an expensive public infrastructure," said a spokesperson from the German Association of Towns and Municipalities. And he seems to be right: According to Deutsche Telekom, a large number of the devices, such as here in the Bergisches Land region, are deserted most of the time.

Some boxes have been refashioned as book booths, like this one in Lauter-Bernsbach. It was the wish of Mayor Thomas Kunzmann to preserve the last phone booth in the town, and it's been well-received.

Other telephone boxes weren't so lucky — like this more "modern" one in Telekom's signature magenta color. Almost one in three public telephones did not generate a single euro in revenue last year. Added to this are the high operating costs due to vandalism and the high energy requirements of the partly outdated technology.

Deutsche Telekom was initially not allowed to dismantle the booths because public telephones were part of its statutory basic service obligations. That changed at the end of 2021, and now countless boxes end up in telephone booth graveyards like this one in Michendorf in the eastern state of Brandenburg. It shows the pink boxes that followed the older, yellow design.

According to Deutsche Telekom, the traditional telephone booths have largely been gone since 2018, leaving around 12,000 telephone pillars or kiosks. They are set to be dismantled by 2025. Deutsche Telekom then wants to use the space for so-called "small cells," little aerials that amplify mobile signals and improve reception.