eiffel tower

The Eiffel Tower ( French Tour Eiffel , [ tuʁ‿ɛˈfɛl ] ) is a 324-metre-tall iron -frame tower in Paris . It stands in the 7th arrondissement at the north-west end of the Champ de Mars (Field of Mars), near the banks of the Seine . The building, constructed between 1887 and 1889, was erected as a monumental entrance portal and lookout tower for the universal exhibition commemorating the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution . The tower, named after the builder Gustave Eiffel and still 312 meters high at the time of construction, was the tallest building in the world from its construction until the completion of the Chrysler Building in New York in 1930 . With the broadcast of the first public radio program in Europe in 1921 and the first French television program in 1935, the building contributed to the history of radio and television as a transmission tower . The television tower is the main broadcasting facility in the greater Paris area and, as the tower restaurant , houses the Michelin-starred Le Jules Verne restaurant .

As the tallest building in Paris, it still shapes the cityscape today and, with around seven million paying visitors a year, is one of the most visited landmarks in the world. The tower is one of the most recognizable icons of architecture and engineering. The Eiffel Tower is the model for many imitation buildings and is often taken up in art and culture in connection with Paris and France. It is considered the national symbol of the French and has become a global icon of modernism . The Eiffel Tower has been listed as a monument historique since 1964 , and in 1986 the American Society of Civil Engineers included the building in the list of historic milestones in engineering architecture .

story

background

Drawing of the Centennial Tower in comparison to other buildings

With the technical possibilities of industrialization , ideas came up to erect tall buildings. Tower structures in particular reflected the zeitgeist of the time.

As early as 1833, the Englishman Richard Trevithick proposed building a 1000 foot (304.80 meter) high cast iron column supported by 1000 supports with a diameter of 30 meters at the base and 3.60 meters at the top. However, Trevithick died shortly after his plans were published. The American engineers Thomas Curtis Clarke (1827-1901) and David Reeves took up the idea and wanted to build such a tower (Centennial Tower) for the 1876 World's Fair in Philadelphia . The construction envisaged a cylindrical iron tube with a diameter of 9 meters as the core, which was to be braced with steel cables. The project was not realized. According to current knowledge, this structure would have fallen victim to the wind oscillations.

In 1881, the French engineer Amédée Sébillot returned from a trip to America with the idea of illuminating the entire metropolitan area of Paris with a beacon on a "tower of the sun". After the French government had announced the plans for the 1889 Universal Exhibition in May 1884, he drew up plans together with the builder of the Palais du Trocadéro , Jules Bourdais . The design, reminiscent of a romanticized reconstruction of the legendary Pharos lighthouse with many ornaments, met with great reservations and was publicly discussed until the official planning competition in May 1886. Due to a lack of technical feasibility, both the American Centennial Tower and the Sun Tower remained unrealized.

project phase

Design by Koechlin and Nouguier (1884) with height comparison of other important buildings (left), Stephen Sauvestre's revised preliminary design from 1887 (right) submitted to the competition

In June 1884, the two engineers Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier , both from Gustave Eiffel's office, presented a design for a 300 meter high metal mast to rest on four feet. The steel framework construction was developed in such a way that the angle of inclination of the struts offered the least possible resistance to side winds. The shape of the tower supports resembled the line of moments of a vertical cantilever under wind load. In this way, the cross winds should be deflected downwards as much as possible, which should give the high structure an extremely high level of stability. Eiffel and his office had already gained basic experience in bridge construction in the years before. The largest railway bridges of the time came from Eiffel, such as the Garabit Viaduct , which spans the Truyère Valley at a height of 122 metres. The pylons from the bridge construction were the inspiration for the tower project. On September 18, 1884, Eiffel patented the design.

However, the technically mature design did not correspond aesthetically to Eiffel's ideas. The pylon -like structure was too reminiscent of an oversized overhead power line pylon - the work's designation indicated this with pylone de 300 mètres de hauteur . Realizing that the overly technical design did not compare favorably with the ornate structures at the World's Fair, Eiffel commissioned architect Stephen Sauvestre in the spring of 1886 to revise the shape of the tower to increase acceptability. One of the most striking changes made by Sauvestre is the monumental arch with the first floor , which is not necessary for the load-bearing capacity . It did much better justice to the claim of serving as the entrance portal for the world exhibition and made the tower appear less sober. Sauvestre provided the building with masonry bases, brought the upward striving pillars together earlier, changed the division of the floors and added a number of decorations. The architect changed the originally intended pyramid-shaped top into an onion-shaped lantern .

The agreement signed on January 8, 1887 between Minister Édouard Lockroy, Minister of Trade and Industry, Prefect Eugene Poubelle and Gustave Eiffel, which regulates the conditions for the construction and operation of the 300-meter tower

It was this design that convinced Eiffel so much that he acquired the rights to use the "300-meter tower". Eiffel praised the concept in front of the exhibition commissariat not only as an exhibition building, but also emphasized the scientific importance for meteorology , astronomy and aerodynamics . Eiffel did not particularly emphasize Koechlin's name. As a result, the tower was already associated with the engineer Eiffel during the project phase and was given the name Eiffel Tower even before it was built; Eiffel himself had never called him that. In the spring of 1885, the construction costs were estimated at 3,155,000 francs and the tower mass was projected at 4,810 tons. In the end, the all-steel structure of the Eiffel Tower weighed 7,300 tons and the construction costs increased more than two and a half times.

On May 1, 1886, the Minister of Commerce Édouard Lockroy announced the ideas competition for the buildings of the Paris World Exhibition, which was aimed at French architects and engineers. Around 100 applicants took part, many of whom took up the idea of a tower structure. Three templates remained after the first selection, including the designs of Ferdinand Dutert and Jean Camille Formigé , in addition to Eiffel's contribution . Eiffel had Sauvestre's heavily decorated version reworked again, doing without some decorative elements, and won the competition with this compromise proposal. He signed a contract with the city on January 8, 1887, which provided a subsidy of 1.5 million gold francs, and construction began on January 26. Since Eiffel had to bear the remaining construction costs of over seven million Swiss francs himself, the 18-section contract guaranteed him a twenty-year usage concession. Eiffel signed the contract personally, not on behalf of his construction company. The remaining costs were financed by a joint-stock company with a share capital of five million francs, of which he took over half; the other half was provided by two major Parisian banks as loans. The holders of Eiffel Tower shares, which paid out the highest returns in French stock market history, were allowed to use the tower once a year free of charge.

Even if Eiffel praised the tower as a complete project from his own hand and thus adopted someone else's idea as his own, it is historically certain that without Eiffel's personal and entrepreneurial commitment the construction would never have come about in this form.

Construction work from January 1887 to March 1889

Illustration of the caisson during foundation work

With lively public interest, construction work began on January 28, 1887, with excavation work for the foundations . A total of 30,973 cubic meters of earth were excavated for this purpose . Since the foundations are below the level of the Seine river bed , compressed air was blown into the watertight metal casing to allow the work to be carried out below the water level. Gustave Eiffel had already tested this method, which goes back to the mining engineer Jules Triger , in 1857 when building the 500 meter long railway bridge from Bordeaux , and applied it to the two pillar foundations facing the Seine.

Eiffel used puddled wrought iron as the building material , which contributed to its durability. Since the iron connection with a low carbon content could not be welded but only riveted , Eiffel had the necessary individual parts pre-produced at his company headquarters in Levallois-Perret using the modular principle and assembled on site in Paris. The parts were precisely calculated, cut and provided with the holes for later riveting. From pre-production to construction, Eiffel had a fixed schedule. Defective parts were sent back to the factory and not adjusted on site. A staff of around 40 technical draftsmen, architects and engineers created 700 overall views and 3,600 working drawings of the entire building, which consists of 18,038 individual parts.

Construction progress of the Eiffel Tower

Foundation work on Pillar No. 4 (West Pillar) on April 13, 1887

July 18, 1887: Attachment of metal rails to Pillar #4 (West Pillar)

December 7, 1887: erection of a temporary wooden scaffolding at the base of the tower

March 20, 1888: Installation of the horizontal support beams

May 15, 1888: Erection of the pillars above the first floor

August 21, 1888: Assembly of the second floor

December 26, 1888: Completion of the upper section

March 15, 1889: Construction of the lantern

Eiffel Tower after completion

On July 1, 1887, construction of the four tower bases began. The rafters , which were initially installed as cantilevers , were supported by 30 meter high provisional scaffolding . On December 7, 1887, the assembly of the first floor took place, at the height of which a 45 meter high scaffolding was used to support the horizontal beams. Above the floor, the buttresses supported themselves. All the workpieces were positioned by steam-powered cranes on the guide rails, which were later to be used by the lower elevators. One of the trickiest sections was connecting the four horizontal girders on the first floor. For their exact alignment, Eiffel used so-called sandboxes , with which the beams could be oscillated with millimeter precision. In two pillars there were hydraulically adjustable lifting spindles that could be operated manually with hand pumps and were used to bring the rafters into position. This enabled very precise adjustment of the beams. After the supporting pillars were firmly connected, the lifting spindles were replaced by anchored steel wedges. Careful planning and execution meant that the rivet holes only had to be adjusted from a height of 57 meters. The high level of precision was probably achieved by assembling the parts in the workshop and then reaming the rivet holes. Eiffel himself explained:

“[…] in our method, all the holes were pre-drilled with great accuracy, assembly regulated by the holes themselves, and by stapling, i. H. the assembly was brought about by forcibly driving a large number of steel spikes into the holes.”

Construction progress after completion of the first level 1888

On August 14, 1888, the second floor was erected and the part above was self-supporting. At the same time, the platforms were equipped. The individual parts, pre-drilled in the factory, were brought into their final position on site with conical mandrels under the influence of impact. A total of 2.5 million rivets hold the components together in the Eiffel Tower. Four men carried out the riveting. The first worker had the rivet hot-headed and used a small forge to make it glow . As a second step, another worker guided the rivet to the drilled hole. A third banged the lockhead into shape. In a final step, the bolt was upset.

Contemporary graphic by Charles Paul Renouard of two workers at the Eiffel Tower

Up to 250 people were involved in the construction work, with around 150 of them riveting the components on site. In addition to carpenters, there were also chimney sweeps among the construction workers, as they were used to working at great heights. The work shifts lasted nine hours in the winter months and twelve hours in the summer months. In September 1888 the workers went on strike; three months later they stopped work again and demanded more wages. Gustave Eiffel negotiated with them and set up a canteen for them in the first completed platform. There was only one fatal accident during the entire work. An Italian worker had an accident while installing the elevators after the official opening.

Simultaneously with the cantilever assembly of the top floors from December 1888, the platforms were equipped. After the lantern had been erected on the top of the tower on March 15, the work was completed a few days later, on March 31, 1889, just a few weeks before the opening of the world exhibition as planned.

Protests and resistance to construction

Caricature by Le Temps in the zeitgeist of the time with an oversized head on February 14, 1887

Even before construction began, intellectuals and artists opposed the construction of the Eiffel Tower. The art and cultural historian Jacob Burckhardt saw the building as an advertisement for the thoughtless idlers throughout Europe and America. Numerous personalities, including Charles Gounod , Alexandre Dumas , Charles Garnier , William Adolphe Bouguereau and also Guy de Maupassant as one of the strongest critics, published a protest by the artists on February 14, 1887, a few days after the start of construction, in the then renowned newspaper Le Temps :

“We writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate lovers of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, in the name of unrecognized French taste, protest with all our might against the erection of the unnecessary and monstrous Eiffel Tower in the heart of our capital, often inspired by common sense and a sense of justice mockery of the people's soul has already baptized the Tower of Babel. […] To understand what we see coming, one must imagine for a moment a dizzying, ridiculous tower towering over Paris like a vast, somber factory chimney, one must imagine all our monuments being humiliated, all our buildings diminished, until they disappear into this nightmare. [...]"

The letter of protest was not an isolated case; others accompanied the construction work. Léon Bloy described the Eiffel Tower as a “truly tragic street lamp”, Paul Verlaine as “the skeleton of a bell tower” and François Coppée as “a rigidly rigged iron mast, imperfect, confused and misshapen”. On the one hand, the strong rejection was directed at the immense height for the time, on the other hand, the openly displayed construction made of iron with no facade was felt to be downright scandalous.

Another point of criticism from the opponents was the fact that the tower was not to be dismantled like the other festive architecture after the exhibition, but was to remain standing permanently. The protest, which was mainly recruited from the academic-elitist environment, could not be calmed by Eiffel's cunning concession to dismantle the tower into individual parts for a fraction of the construction costs and to rebuild it elsewhere. Every practical aspect that was subject to the necessities of everyday life could not satisfy the traditionalists' sublime concept of art - in their eyes, industry and art had to remain strictly separate. However, the protests of many artists should not hide the fact that the building was extremely popular with the general public right from the start and that the construction site was well frequented.

However, fears and resistance were not limited to polemical writings. Even many engineers feared that the tower's foundations would not be able to withstand the iron framework. A mathematician predicted that the steel structure would collapse as soon as it exceeded a height of 228 meters. A resident of the Champ de Mars even filed a lawsuit against the state and the city for fear that the Eiffel Tower could collapse and destroy his house. The court only allowed further construction on the condition that Gustave Eiffel was liable for any damage.

Opening and Reactions

Gustave Eiffel (below left) on top of the Eiffel Tower in 1889

On the opening day, March 31, 1889, Gustave Eiffel climbed the tower with a delegation at around 1:30 p.m., as the elevator was not yet finished, and hoisted a French tricolor at the top , which was 7 meters long and 4.40 meters wide was.

The protest against the Eiffel Tower, which was openly expressed in the press, almost completely fell silent after its opening and sometimes even turned into enthusiasm and pride. A press release said:

"Before the fait accompli - and what a fact! – we must bow. I too, like many others, have said and believed that the Eiffel Tower is madness, but it is grand and proud madness. Certainly, this immense mass overwhelms the rest of the exhibition, and when you step out onto the Field of Mars again, the huge domes and galleries seem tiny. But what do you want? The Eiffel Tower appeals to the imagination, it is something unexpected, something fantastic that flatters our smallness. When it was scarcely tackled, the most famous artists and writers, from Meissonier to Zola , signed an ardent protest against the tower as a terrible crime against art. Would you sign it today? No, of course not, and they would prefer that document of wrath not to exist. And as for the people, as for the good citizens, their feelings can be summed up in a phrase that I heard from a good man after he had stood gaping in front of the tower for five minutes: "Enfoncé l' Europe!” [Europe can pack up!]”

Poster for the 1889 World's Fair

In a letter to Rudolf Virchow on May 24, 1889, Heinrich Schliemann , who had been given the opportunity to climb the Eiffel Tower before its official opening, praised the structure as a marvel of engineering ability, without which the fourth part of the exhibition – Schliemann meant the fourth World Exhibition in Paris – would have no appeal. Despite the euphoria that praised him as a successful national self-portrayal and demonstration of technical progress, implacable criticism remained. In any case, according to the French philosopher, writer and literary critic Roland Barthes , he greatly aroused the spirits of the time and exerted an enormous attraction on people .

The tower has only been accessible to the general public since the opening day of the World Exhibition, May 15, 1889. The entrance fee in 1889 was two francs for the first floor, three for the second, and five francs for the third. Admission to the world exhibition cost one franc. A total of 1,896,987 people climbed the Eiffel Tower during the 1889 World's Fair. This means that three quarters of his construction costs have already been amortized. Numerous prominent personalities of contemporary history also paid a visit to the tallest building in the world. On the opening day, a special edition of the daily newspaper Le Figaro was published directly from the Eiffel Tower. The editors had set up their workrooms on the second viewing platform for this occasion. Visitors who bought the newspaper directly from the editorial office on that day received a signed copy as a "certificate" for their ascent to the tower. At the time of the opening and closing of each day of the fair, a shot from a salute cannon was fired from the top of the tower.

The tallest structures in the world 1889

The first entry in the Eiffel Tower guest book was that of the British Crown Prince, later King Edward VII , who climbed the tower on June 10, 1889 with five family members and guided the Eiffel personally. On August 1, 1889, the then Shah of Persia Naser ad-Din Shah visited the new building. There are also the signatures of Prince George of Greece , the later King of Belgium Albert I , the Russian Tsar Nicholas II , Sarah Bernhardt and the Japanese emperor's son Yoshihito . Inventor Thomas Edison presented Gustave Eiffel with a dedication on September 10, 1889 for the "construction of the gigantic and original example of modern architecture" and recorded Eiffel's voice during his visit. In the third platform below the top of the tower, this event is recreated with wax figures in the former office of Eiffel. Mahatma Gandhi , who was studying in London at the time, also climbed the Eiffel Tower during the World Exhibition.

When the Eiffel Tower opened, it was the tallest structure in the world at a total height of 312 meters at the time, beating the 169.3-meter Washington Monument , a white marble obelisk in the United States , as the record holder. The tallest accessible building of the time was the 167.5 meter high Mole Antonelliana Synagogue in Turin , completed in 1888.

The first 20 years

Advertisement for the Eiffel Tower radio station. This is the first advertisement in France promoting a channel; she was switched for a manufacturer of radio equipment in the weekly newspaper La Rampe .

The Eiffel Tower's success and continued existence beyond its twenty-year concession was uncertain. Eiffel repeatedly tried to demonstrate the benefits of the building by involving scholars and doing his own research.

On November 5, 1898, Eugène Ducretet and Ernest Roger were able to establish a wireless telegraph connection between the Eiffel Tower and the Panthéon four kilometers away . The electromagnetic transmission of information was initially reserved for purely military purposes. In the same year, a weather observatory was set up on the Eiffel Tower. The enormous difference in altitude of 300 meters made it possible to carry out a wide range of physical experiments. For example, an oversized manometer was installed to calibrate air pressure gauges, spectroscopic measurements were carried out, a Foucault pendulum was set up and wind speed and atmospheric temperature were measured. Even experiments on the healing effects of mountain air were carried out. Eiffel set up his own office on the third platform for his astronomical and physiological observations. Eiffel's measurements on aerodynamics are particularly well known . He began a first series of experiments in 1903: he stretched a cable between the second platform and the ground, on which he let various profiles slide down. In 1904, time signals with a wavelength of 2000 meters could be received with different devices. In 1909 he expanded his studies by opening a wind tunnel at the base of the tower and a larger facility on Rue Boileau in 1912.

For the 1900 World 's Fair , which was to be held in Paris for the fifth time, Eiffel considered various remodeling plans. The general perception of the tower's aesthetics had changed so much in the few years of its existence that its appearance seemed outdated due to its modernity and radicalism. More voluptuous forms were in demand, as was common in the Belle Époque . Overall, the exhibition was characterized by a retrospective orientation and was thus more of a closing celebration of the 19th than an opening celebration of the 20th century.

For this reason, organizers and architects tried to hide the Eiffel Tower behind a stylish cover. Suggestions for this ranged from relatively moderate changes, such as adding flourishes, pennants, balconies and garlands, to massive conversion plans that envisaged a complete redesign of the tower. Guillemonats' design, for example, called for the tower to be demolished down to the first platform and a huge globe to be erected on it. The most massive conversion proposal with the project name "la Tour Eifel (sic!) dans le mont Samson" is that of a certain Samson, who intended the tower as a support structure for an artificial mountain and would thus have the Eiffel Tower completely behind a mountain backdrop with villages, streets and vegetation make it disappear. Apart from the fact that Samson didn't know how to spell the Eiffel Tower correctly, the unprofessional sketch of the plan also showed a lack of seriousness. Gautier's conversion proposal wanted to use the Eiffel Tower as a support structure for a gigantic pagoda-like gate. Both a demolition and the planned conversion proposals failed because of Eiffel's ownership rights.

Illumination of the Eiffel Tower during the 1900 World's Fair

On December 28, 1897, it was finally agreed to integrate the Eiffel Tower largely unchanged into the world exhibition. Its technical appearance was only attempted to be overplayed by a new light installation that emphasized the contours of the building. Eiffel settled on repainting the top of the structure in a shaded orange-red color and giving the platforms a new exterior look. In addition to a new elevator system, he also made his salon on the third platform available to the public. But at the world exhibition, the tower attracted only half as many visitors with around one million; the number continued to fall in the years that followed and leveled off at around 180,000 a year by the start of the First World War . From a purely economic point of view, it played a subordinate role, because the construction costs for the Eiffel Tower were amortized after just one and a half years. Thanks to his sole marketing rights and his prosperous company, Eiffel had already become a multiple millionaire and, in addition to a city palace in Paris, was able to afford other houses in Sèvres , Beaulieu-sur-Mer on the Côte d'Azur and in Vevey on Lake Geneva .

In addition to scientific use, the tower's military value also grew. On December 15, 1893, Eiffel allowed Auguste Mercier , Secretary of War, to mount antennas on the tower and even paid for their cost. On January 21, 1904, he assisted Captain Gustave-Auguste Ferrié , an officer in the Engineer Troops, to advance wireless telegraphy for military use. Ferrié set up the military network and became the second most important man next to Eiffel. After a wireless connection had already been established in 1898, further radio connections were established in 1903 between the Eiffel Tower and some military installations in Paris and a year later the connection was extended to the east of France. In 1906 a radio station was set up on the tower. The concession, which expired after 20 years, was extended by another 70 years on January 1, 1910. With its increased strategic importance, the continued existence of the Eiffel Tower was also secured; it was even decisive for the continuation of the concession, because the scientific benefit remained rather modest in real terms.

Scientific, telecommunications and military use

Use of the tower for wireless telegraphy ( French: télégraphie sans fil TSF) 1914

Transmitter and scientific use

From May 23, 1910, the Eiffel Tower regularly served the French Navy as a time signal transmitter . The signal could be received up to a distance of 5200 kilometers at night and up to about half of this distance during the day. Captain Ferrié made it possible to set an international standard in timekeeping.

In the same year the first radio connections with airships and one year later with airplanes could be established.

The scientific use and measurements at the Eiffel Tower went far beyond the transmission and transmission technology. In 1910, the Jesuit brother and physicist Theodor Wulf (1868–1946) measured the radiation energy at the top and bottom of the tower for four days and found a significant difference, which ultimately enabled him to prove cosmic rays . During the First World War, the French physicist and later Nobel Prize winner Louis de Broglie was forced to interrupt his studies and did his military service until 1919 at the radiotelegraphic station in the Eiffel Tower.

First World War

With the start of World War I , the Eiffel Tower was closed to the public. It had established itself as a telecommunications center for the military, which intercepted encrypted enemy radio messages whose message content could be deciphered . The most important cases include a radio message disguised as a radio program, which led to the arrest of the spy Mata Hari , and the Radiogramme de la Victoire ( in English "radio message of victory" ).

radio station and studio

Inauguration of the radio station by Sacha Guitry (left), Yvonne Printemps and General Gustave-Auguste Ferrié

Successful tests for the wireless transmission of telegraph signals took place before the First World War. On December 24, 1921, the transmission of sound signals began . Lucien and Sacha Guitry first broadcast their radio program (Radio Tour Eiffel) from the Eiffel Tower. In doing so, they wrote radio history, because the broadcast was the first public radio broadcast in Europe. A year later, on February 6, 1922, a temporary studio was set up in the north pillar, from which Guitry, Yvonne Printemps and director Ferrié broadcast.

In May 1925, impersonating the deputy general manager of the Postal Department, fraudster Victor Lustig forged a bid listing the Eiffel Tower for sale. Lustig managed to sell him to André Poisson, who hoped that he would gain access to the Parisian business world. To allay Poisson's initial doubts, Lustig mocked an admission that he was a corrupt official trying to make extra money for his expensive lifestyle. After the deal was concluded, merry went into hiding and fled to Vienna . When the scam was discovered, Poisson, out of shame, chose not to report the scam to the police. After a month, Lustig tried to repeat the scam. However, the buyer became suspicious and went to the police, whereupon Lustig fled.

Weather and TV stations

In 1925, Édouard Belin broadcast the first television signal from the tower. This made the Eiffel Tower the first telecommunications and television tower and, as mentioned below, remained the tallest tower of its kind in the world until 1953.

In 1929, the Eiffel Tower broadcast data from 350 weather stations, enabling exchanges between Europe, North Africa and the islands of the Atlantic Ocean including Iceland and the Cape Verde Islands .

With the inauguration of the 319-meter Chrysler Building in New York City in 1930, the Parisian landmark lost the title of the world's tallest building, which it had held for almost 41 years. It remained the tallest television tower until the completion of Tokyo Tower in 1953 .

The first official television broadcast from the Eiffel Tower on April 26, 1935 at 8:15 p.m. marked the birth of television in France. As with the programs by Édouard Belin, the technology of so-called “ mechanical ” and partly “electronic” television was used . In addition, a 500 - watt transmitter radiated at a wavelength of 175 meters, which, however, was soon replaced by a 10-kilowatt transmitter. The program was broadcast in a semi-electronic 60-line standard at 25 frames per second, which was replaced by a 180-line standard in December.

development into a major tourist attraction

1937 to 1979

During the 1937 World Exhibition , which was already marked by the competing world powers and the threatening conflict with the " Third Reich ", a huge chandelier designed by the architect André Grasset was hung below the first platform of the Eiffel Tower. In addition, the tower was bathed in a white light with blue and red flashes using 30 projectors. The event was the last of the six world exhibitions in Paris. The Eiffel Tower had been an integral part of the exhibition architecture since 1889, but each time it attracted fewer visitors.

During the state visit of the British King George VI. in 1938 the Union Jack was hoisted on the side of the tower in honor of him. The flag, weighing 120 kilograms, was 30 meters wide and 40 meters long.

June 1940: Adolf Hitler after visiting the Eiffel Tower accompanied by Karl Wolff , Hermann Giesler , Albert Speer and Arno Breker (1st row from left to right)

With the occupation of Paris in 1940, the elevator cables were severed. A repair was practically impossible due to the lack of goods supply during the Second World War . For the German troops and Adolf Hitler , this meant that they could only climb the Eiffel Tower via the stairs. German soldiers were ordered to climb to the top to hoist a swastika flag at the top of the tower. Because it was too big, it was blown away after just a few hours and replaced a little later by a smaller one. The Wehrmacht also had a banner with the inscription “Germany wins on all fronts” hung on the first viewing platform. When Hitler visited Paris himself on June 24, 1940, he preferred not to climb the Eiffel Tower. It was said that Hitler had conquered France but not the Eiffel Tower. The swastika flag was also replaced by the French tricolor in a secret action by a Frenchman during the occupation period. Against the odds, the Germans staged the Eiffel Tower for propaganda purposes. Hitler had himself photographed in various poses in front of the Eiffel Tower together with other well-known figures of his regime, such as Albert Speer and Arno Breker , in order to demonstrate the victory over the French to the local population.

As during the First World War, the tower remained closed to the public during the Second World War. US troops liberated Paris on August 25, 1944 and installed their transmitters on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower in order to be able to communicate with the armed forces in the English Channel . After it was reopened to the public in June 1946, over 600,000 visitors climbed the tower over the next six months. With increasing tourism , the number of visitors rose steadily to over a million a year and increased continuously in the following decades.

The 1950s were characterized by the dominant medium of television. In April 1952, a live broadcast from Paris to London was broadcast for the first time. The technical difficulty was bridging the different transmission standards between France and Great Britain. With the show, the Eiffel Tower once again wrote television history. The show was hosted by French television's Georges de Caunes and Jacqueline Joubert and the BBC 's Miss Reeves . The next milestone followed a year later with the establishment of the Eurovision network. This meant that the coronation of Elizabeth II could be broadcast to all Eurovision participating countries on June 2nd ; in France, the ceremony was broadcast nationally from the Eiffel Tower. In 1956 a fire broke out in the transmission room and destroyed the top of the tower and the transmission equipment. A year later, new antenna platforms were built and new antennas were installed. After the reconstruction, the tower broadcast radio and three television programs. His new antenna raised the landmark to a total of 320.75 meters.

View of the Eiffel Tower, 1968

To mark the 75th anniversary of the Eiffel Tower in 1964, the operating company invited a total of 75 Parisians born around the year the tower was erected in 1889 to a festive gala. Among the most famous guests was Maurice Chevalier .

Over the years, special events have not only been held at the Eiffel Tower for anniversaries. The status of the building continued to rise as a result of the increased number of filming permits issued for cinema films. In addition to unusual, mostly sporting events, the Eiffel Tower was also increasingly anchored in the everyday life of Parisians, for example through the opening of an ice rink on the first floor in winter.

Due to the traditional understanding of art in France, which is based on academic-classical ideals, the Eiffel Tower still had difficulties with its recognition as a cultural monument in the late 20th century. It was not until June 24, 1964 that the building was entered in the Inventaire des monuments historiques .

Since 1980: UNESCO cultural heritage and renovation work

After the concession granted to Eiffel and now passed to his heirs expired on January 1, 1980, the Société nouvelle d'exploitation de la tour Eiffel (SNTE), a wholly owned subsidiary of the City of Paris, took over the operation of the landmark. Since then she has taken care of the preservation and marketing of the building. On September 9, 1983, the one hundred millionth visitor to the Eiffel Tower was greeted with a gift. Singer Mireille Mathieu presented the woman with the keys to a Citroën BX .

Eiffel Tower from the north, 2010

Since 1991, the banks of the Seine, with its structures between the Pont de Sully and the Pont d'Iéna at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site .

In 2000, the broadcasting company TDF took over the assembly of UHF antennas and increased its overall height from 318.7 meters to its current height of 324 meters. In 2005, the Eiffel Tower broadcast digital television for the first time. On January 1, 2006, the SNTE was transferred to the Société d'exploitation de la tour Eiffel (SETE) for an initial period of ten years. From February 2012 to 2013, extensive renovations and transformations were carried out in the first platform, which was avoided by about half of the visitors at the time. Among other things, based on the original glass halls, three covered, box-shaped, dark red pavilions - some with a glass floor - were constructed of steel and glass, which run on the side walls between the pillars and parallel to them. During the renovation work, which cost 25 million euros, visitor operations were maintained. Elevators for the disabled and a conference hall were also installed.

In the fall of 2017, work began on the construction of an enclosure around the Eiffel Tower. Two clear glass walls - facing the Seine and facing the Field of Mars - are 3 m high and 6.5 cm thick and serve as protection against bullets. On the other two sides, 3.24 m high metal fences were erected, the pillars of which are slanted to reflect the conical shape of the tower. The construction - it was presented on June 14, 2018 by the operating company Sete - cost 35 million euros and should be completed by mid-September 2018. The glass wall was planned by the Paris-based and Graz-born architect Dietmar Feichtinger with the intention of "making the fencing as discreet as possible". Previously, visitors had to go through security checkpoints before climbing the tower.

description

location and surroundings

Eiffel Tower seen from the Tour Montparnasse with the Champ de Mars to the southeast and the École Militaire

The Eiffel Tower is located west of the 7th arrondissement of central Paris, at the north-west end of the Champ de Mars . It is 33 meters above sea level, not far from the banks of the Seine , where there are also docks for pleasure boats. Not far from there, south-west of the Eiffel Tower, is the long Île aux Cygnes (Swan Island) in the Seine. The École Militaire is in the direct visual axis of the building to the south-east and to the north-west on the opposite bank of the river above the Pont d'Iéna, which was widened to 35 meters in 1937, is the Palais de Chaillot . Southeast of the École Militaire is the headquarters of UNESCO in a 1958 Y- plan building . Around three kilometers as the crow flies to the south-east is the 210 meter high office tower Tour Montparnasse , a little to the north of the exact line of sight . To the northeast, near the Eiffel Tower, is the Musée du quai Branly , an ethnological museum .

The following streets open to vehicle traffic touch the tower area: to the southwest is Avenue Gustave Eiffel, to the northeast is Avenue de la Bourdonnais, to the northwest is the busy Quai Branly , from which the Pont d'Iéna branches off across the Seine, and to the southeast is Avenue de drunk The four streets delimit a wooded, park-like rectangular lot with the Eiffel Tower in the middle. Motorized traffic is not permitted to drive through.

The Paris Métro stops closest to the Eiffel Tower are Bir-Hakeim (Tour Eiffel) on line 6 and École Militaire on line 8 . Line C of the Paris suburban railway RER stops southwest of the tower at Champ de Mars - Tour Eiffel station . Various bus lines stop in the immediate vicinity of the Eiffel Tower .

architecture

detail views

Detail of the arch construction

buttress and staircase

Interior view of the North Pillar

Looking up from the center

Upper part from the second floor

Looking straight down from the third floor

As Gustave Eiffel explained in a lecture to the Société des Ingénieurs civils on March 30, 1885, the tower's architecture was about

“to do without the large bars of the vertical surfaces, which should resist the wind. Therefore, the pillar has to be given a shape that is designed in such a way that all forces for which the wind is responsible are concentrated on the inside of the support stand. […] The tangents at points of the same height on these supports must always meet at the point of passage of the resultant of the load exerted by the wind on the part of the pillar above the points in question. […] Before the supports converge at this high point, they seem to shoot up out of the ground and, as it were, receive their form from the action of the wind.”

As sophisticated as the architecture for optimizing the wind load is, the basic design of the Eiffel Tower, which is based on the large railway bridges made of iron framework as a structural model, is comparatively simple. Sixteen vertically staggered main struts, grouped in groups of four, rise in an arch and are connected via the three horizontal visitor platforms. Above the second platform, the struts are combined to form a pylon .

Tower base and foundation

Schematic drawing of the Eiffel Tower with technical data

The Eiffel Tower stands at a height of 30.5 meters above sea level at the north-west end of the Champ de Mars (→ location ). The structure stands on four mighty pillars made of iron framework, each 26.08 meters wide; they transfer the entire weight into the foundation, which reaches a depth of 15 meters. The pillars rest on solid masonry and are anchored to the ground with 16 rafters at a 54-degree angle. Screws 7.80 meters long connect the cast iron shoe to the substructure.

The tower construction is supported by the substructure in such a way that, depending on the wind load, it releases a pressure of around 5 kg/cm² to the ground. This corresponds roughly to the ground pressure that an adult sitting on a chair exerts on the ground - a comparison that Eiffel calculated himself and gave in his publication La Tour de 300 mètres .

The pillars are 74.24 meters apart in the lower area, which corresponds to a total spread of the tower at the base of 124.90 meters. The floor plan of the stand area is square. The Eiffel Tower was constructed in such a way that each of its pillars is precisely aligned with a cardinal point . The north and west pillars point towards the Seine, the east and south pillars towards the Champ de Mars. In each of the pillars there are entrances with ticket sales booths, staircases and elevators, which can be open differently depending on the number of visitors and the occasion. The distance between the pillars, which are connected by powerful arches, decreases as the height increases. The arches, also made of filigree-looking iron framework, 39 meters above the ground and with a diameter of 74 meters have a purely decorative character and have no supporting function. The passage between the pillar bases is reserved exclusively for pedestrians. On the north pillar stands a gold-colored bust on an elongated base in honor of the builder Gustave Eiffel .

Southwest of the west pillar, a shrub-covered red brick chimney juts out from an artificial grotto . It dates from 1887 and was used during construction to erect the south pillar. As part of the redesigned enclosure of the Eiffel Tower in 2018, the entire area below the pillars and partly beyond them was designed into a new garden. There are plants and trees on the site, some of which were already there before the Eiffel Tower was built. One of the oldest trees is a 20 meter high plane tree that was planted in 1814. The approximately 2,000 hectare green area with around 2,000 shrubs and 20,000 perennial plants such as ferns , lilies of the valley or hydrangeas were replanted to give the visitor an impression of the turn of the 20th century, which many Parisian gardens had at the time of the Belle Epoque .

tower base
Entrance on the east pillar
Eiffel's bust on the North Pillar

First floor

The first floor above the arches at a height of 57.6 meters offers space for around 3,000 visitors at the same time on a floor space of 4,415 square meters. On this level there is the 58 Tour Eiffel restaurant , a self-service establishment, and the Cineiffel cinema , which can also be used as an exhibition space. The wrap-around balcony on this level is equipped with panoramic panels on the parapet, so that the Parisian sights visible from there can be better located. There is a souvenir shop and a small daily post office (Bureau de Poste Tour Eiffel) in the south pillar , which has its own postmark as a reminder. On the first floor, the 300 square meter Gustave-Eiffel-Saal can be rented for meetings, conferences, concerts or receptions.

In the beginning, the Eiffel Tower had elaborately glazed halls on its first floor, which attracted attention from the outside due to the arched roof construction. It contained, among other things, four restaurants that were designed according to different themes. Between the north and east pillars was the Russian restaurant, now called the Gustave Eiffel Room. Between the south and west pillars was the Anglo-American bar, between the east and south pillars was the French restaurant, and between the north and west pillars was the Flemish restaurant. The latter was converted into a Dutch restaurant after the 1889 exhibition and used as a theater after 1900. All of these buildings and the historical ornaments were demolished in the course of the 1937 World Exhibition and replaced by less conspicuous ones from the outside in order to adapt them to changed tastes.

Along a frieze on the first floor are 72 names of eminent scientists and engineers , 18 on each side. in 1986 and 1987 they were made visible again. These are primarily engineers and mathematicians who worked during the French Revolution and the first half of the 19th century. Eiffel chose the names himself; for some names he was criticized. He deliberately ignored scientists with long surnames and women who had made a name for themselves in science, for example the important French mathematician Sophie Germain .

Second floor

At a height of 115.7 meters is the second floor with an area of 1430 square meters, which can accommodate around 1600 visitors at the same time. The second floor can be reached either via the elevator or one of the stairwells in the pillars; 704 steps lead up from the base to the second floor. At this level, the transfer to the elevators takes place, which continue to the top.

Here is the Jules Verne restaurant with 95 seats. It offers upscale gastronomy, was awarded one star by the Michelin Guide and received 16 out of a possible 20 points from Gault-Millau . The restaurant with a floor area of 500 square meters is slightly elevated on the south pillar at a height of 123 meters and can be reached via a separate elevator. Since 2007 it has been under the direction of chef Alain Ducasse .

There is also a fast food and gift shop on this level. The history of the Eiffel Tower is retold in words and pictures in showcases set up especially for visitors.

Third floor and spire

The third and top platform is 276.1 meters high and has an area of 250 square meters. This floor is only accessible to the public via the elevators. However, there is one continuous stairway that has 1665 steps from the east pillar to the top. It replaced the original 1710-step staircase in 1983 and is lighter and less dangerous. To date (2020) the top viewing platform is the fourth highest publicly accessible in Europe; the Oko Tower 1 in Moscow currently has the highest viewing platform .

Above the covered platform, stairs lead to the approximately 100 square meter open-air platform secured by steel grating. The entire area of the third floor can accommodate up to 400 people at a time. In good weather you can see up to 80 kilometers from here. Signs point to large cities in the world in the corresponding cardinal direction and indicate the linear distance from the Eiffel Tower. In addition to a champagne bar, Eiffel's study has been faithfully restored and decorated with wax figures showing Eiffel, his daughter Claire and the American inventor Thomas Edison trying out the phonograph that Edison had brought for Eiffel as a gift at the tower opening.

The top viewing platform

Above the visitor platform at a height of 295 meters there is a beacon for each direction . The movement is controlled by software and can be synchronized in such a way that a continuously rotating cross is simulated with the beacons. Several directional antennas are also located at this elevation . Above this are the dipole antennas for the radio frequencies; these are located at 291 meters and 294 meters. In the lower area of the actual antenna mast, which rises from the former lantern, there are more double dipole antennas on several floors in all directions, which are located at 299 meters and 304 meters. The UHF antennas are located above them - recognizable by the shielding, conspicuously white weather protection boxes. The spire is crowned by further dipole antennas pointing in the four cardinal points, meteorological measuring instruments and a maintenance platform.

At the top of the tower there are over 120 antennas for the transmission of dozens of radio and television programs (→ use as a broadcasting tower ). The antenna height has varied over the decades. Since its opening, the actual structure has stood 300.51 meters tall, reaching a total height of 312.27 meters with the lantern and flagpole at its top. Due to the additional installation of antenna platforms, the lantern can only be seen in the upper third through the curved lattice girders that converge to form the antenna mast. With a new antenna in 1991, the total height changed to 317.96 meters and the 1994 renovation at the top of the tower made it 318.70 meters high. The tower's last change in overall height was in 2000, when it grew to its present height of 324 meters.

Due to the effects of wind, the top of the tower swayed by up to 13 centimeters from its resting position during a storm in 1999. The expansion of the tower as a result of strong solar radiation can amount to several centimeters in height, the previous peak value of 18 centimeters was reached in the summer of 1976. According to Eiffel's calculations, the tower could even expand by up to 70 centimeters. In addition, it tilts slightly towards the side facing away from the sun, since the side facing the sun expands more than the other three. At the tip, this effect can add up to several centimeters.

360° panoramic view of Paris from the top observation deck

technology

elevators

The elevators in 1889

The ascent of the Eiffel Tower is provided by a total of nine different elevators – five in the tower piers operating between the entrance and the second floor, and two pairs of double-cabin elevators between the second and third floors.

In some cases, double- deck inclined elevators operate between the ground floor and the second floor , which adapt to the variable angle of inclination of the tower pillars from 54° to 76°. The further ascent takes place after a change on the second floor via a vertical lift. Special elevators for the Eiffel Tower, for which the enormous height as well as the inclination of the tower pillars are characteristic, represented a technical challenge for the industry at that time, which at that time only existed for a few years, because the first hydraulic elevator was at presented at the 1867 World's Fair. Despite many renovations and modernizations, the basic principle of the elevators is how Eiffel designed them for the construction of the tower. The machine room with the hydraulic drive of the elevators can be visited as part of special tours in the basement of the building.

Inclined elevators in the tower pillars

Double-deck inclined elevator

When building the tower, Eiffel deliberately relied on different techniques and manufacturers in order to remain independent in the event of a mistake. Otis elevators worked in the north and south piers until 1910 . The two-storey cabins were pulled up using a cable pull. Until 1897, the east and west pillars housed elevators from Roux, Combaluzie and Lepape; they could transport up to 200 people with the help of an endless double chain. Both systems were operated by a hydraulic conveyor system. On the occasion of the 1900 World's Fair, Eiffel replaced the elevators and also the steam engines that drove the hydraulics with electric motors . Two historical systems, installed by Fives-Lilles in 1899 in the east and west pillars, can still be visited today with a special tour. The elevators were modernized in 1986 and 1987 and have been overhauled several times since the 1990s. In 2010, modern and air-conditioned two-storey cabins were installed, each of which can transport 56 visitors.

In the south pillar is an Otis inclined elevator, which has been used exclusively for visitors to the Jules Verne restaurant since 1983. In 1989, this elevator was supplemented by a four-ton freight elevator. A Jeumont-Schneider inclined elevator was installed in the north pillar in 1965 ; it was fundamentally overhauled in the 1990s. The capacity of the lift in the north pillar is 920 people per hour, in the east and west pillars 650 people per hour. The small elevator to the restaurant can carry a maximum of ten people per trip. The goods elevator in the south pillar can transport either 30 people or four tons of goods per trip.

Vertical elevators from the second floor

vertical lift

The original vertical elevators for the passage from the second to the third floor were built by Léon Edoux, a classmate of Eiffel. The elevators, which are also hydraulically operated, used two counter-rotating elevator cars instead of a counterweight, which kept each other in balance. The principle required that visitors had to change cabins halfway up – at around 228 meters. The intermediate platform used specifically for this purpose as a jetty can still be seen today on the tower shaft. Since the hydraulic pressure to drive the elevators was built up with water stored in tanks in the viewing platforms, the elevators could not be used during the winter months. These elevators operated for almost 100 years and were not replaced until 1983 by electric elevators from the Otis company. The total of four elevator cars directly connect the second and third viewing platforms. This facility can transport up to 1140 people per hour.

painting

Color history of the Eiffel Tower

The iron framework construction of the Eiffel Tower made of puddle iron is protected against rust and weathering with several layers of paint . Gustave Eiffel already emphasized that the coating is of great importance for durability. The tower was first painted just two years after it opened and it has been repainted 19 times so far, most recently from March 2009 to October 2010 to mark the building's 120th anniversary. This means that the Eiffel Tower is completely repainted every seven years on average. The painting work is done by hand by 25 painters and costs around three million euros each.

Painting work in 1924 (left) and 2010

Around 60 tons of paint – including 10 tons of primer – are required for the area of 250,000 square meters , of which around 45 tons wear off through erosion. The specially trained painters are secured during the work with around 60 kilometers of safety ropes. From the base of the turret to its top, the paint used is slightly toned to make the turret look uniform in color against the background.

The color of the Eiffel Tower has been redesigned several times. While a Venetian red prevailed when the tower was first built , it switched to reddish brown when it opened in 1889. This was replaced by ocher brown as early as 1892. In 1899, a yellow-orange graded in five tones was used and in 1907 the emblem was painted in yellow-brown. Orange yellow and chestnut brown followed, until the last change to a bronze brown tone was made in 1968. The shade "Eiffel Tower Brown" contains the color pigments red, black and yellow. These are manufactured by the German specialty chemicals group Lanxess and mixed specifically for the Eiffel Tower by the Norwegian paint manufacturer Jotun. The proprietary special paint is characterized by a high degree of durability and flexibility and keeps flaking under wind and temperature fluctuations as low as possible.

lighting and light art

General lighting

Citroën neon sign from 1925 to 1936

At the time of its completion, the Eiffel Tower was already illuminated with gas lanterns. At the top of the tower there were also two light projectors that could be moved on rails, which bathed the Paris night sky in the colors of the French tricolor with a bright beacon. In 1900, the gas lighting gave way to a more modern electric string of 5,000 bulbs that traced the tower's contours. In 1907, a six meter high clock with luminous numbers was installed on the first viewing platform. Before that, at 12 noon, a cannon shot was fired to signal midday.

From July 4, 1925, an advertisement consisting of 250,000 light bulbs with the letters CITROËN vertically affixed to three sides of the Eiffel Tower shone on the Eiffel Tower . The advertisement designed by André Citroën was the largest neon sign in the world at the time. In 1933, Citroën added a clock with a diameter of 15 meters and colored hands to the advertisement. The neon letters of the costly light spectacle could be deciphered from a distance of 40 kilometers and were discontinued in 1936.

Illuminated spire

For the Paris World Exhibition in 1937 , the architect André Granet covered the Eiffel Tower in rays of light. In 1985, lighting engineer Pierre Bideau installed a new lighting unit on the Eiffel Tower, which was inaugurated at the turn of the year 1986. It consists of 352 sodium high-pressure floodlights , each with 600 watts in groups of four to seven light units and has a total output of 320 kW. The system shines from the bottom to the top and illuminates the structure from the inside of the tower, making the structure more visible. The annual electricity consumption is around 680,000 kWh and fell by around 40% with the new installation. With this constant load, a light bulb has an average life expectancy of a good 6000 hours. Since June 21, 2003, 20,000 lamps have been making the tower glitter like a diamond for five minutes at the beginning of every hour from dusk until 1 a.m. – in the summer months until 2 a.m.

In 2015, as part of an energetic renovation of the tower, the lighting was changed again. The previously installed lamps were replaced with energy-saving LED lighting . In addition, a heat pump heating system , a photovoltaic system and two small wind turbines with horizontal rotors were installed in order to cover part of the energy requirements of the tower using renewable energies .

On April 5, 1997 – exactly 1000 days before the beginning of the year 2000 – the then Mayor of Paris, Jean Tiberi , started a countdown at 100 meters on the shaft of the Eiffel Tower. On the north-west side of the Trocadéro, 33-metre-high, 12-metre-wide, 50-tonne luminous digits, composed of 1342 projectors, shone day and night, showing the remaining days until the year 2000. New Year's Eve on January 1, 2000 was heralded with fireworks at the Eiffel Tower. The countdown display changed the lettering to 2000 and glowed throughout the year.

Occasion-related special lighting

In the past, the Eiffel Tower received special lighting for certain occasions. In 1989, the year of its centenary, the letters 100 ans (100 years) shone from the tower shaft. As part of the Franco-Chinese cultural exchange program, the tower was bathed in red light between January 24 and 29, 2004, the time when Chinese celebrate New Year. The inauguration of the light ceremony was attended by the French and Chinese ministers of culture, as well as the mayors of Paris and Beijing . The 20th anniversary of Europe Day on May 9, 2006 was honored with blue lights at the Eiffel Tower. On February 1, 2007, the Eiffel Tower participated in the Earth Hour environmental campaign and switched off the lights completely from 7:55 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. that day to promote energy saving . This action was repeated in the same year on October 22nd. For Rugby World Cup 2007 from October 7th to 20th, the lower part of the tower up to the second viewing platform was illuminated in green light, symbolizing the playing surface. In addition, the Eiffel Tower was irradiated with an oversized goal and a rugby ball . From July to December 2008, on the occasion of the French Presidency of the Council, the tower was illuminated in blue and showed the twelve yellow stars of the European flag .

After the attacks of November 13, 2015 in Paris and the attack in Nice on July 14, 2016, the Eiffel Tower shone in the French national colors for three days ; divided by the three platforms respectively. After the right-wing extremist attack in Munich in 2016 , the Eiffel Tower was lit up in the German national colors of black, red and gold the following day; after the terrorist attacks in Brussels on March 22, 2016 , it was illuminated in the colors of the Belgian flag .

Copyright of the irradiated Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower 2015

Since there is no freedom of panorama in France , the operating company SETE claims the copyright for nocturnal shots in which the irradiated Eiffel Tower can be seen as the main object, although the building itself is no longer copyrighted. She sees the illumination as a work of art in its own right, although this attitude is controversial and has never been confirmed in court. The 1992 court ruling on which it is based refers solely to a 1989 light show and not the daily nighttime illumination of the tower. Irrespective of this, private images without commercial use generally do not constitute a violation. Approval is only required for images with commercial use if the building is protected by copyright. Detail shots or panoramic shots , in which the Eiffel Tower is only visible as an accessory , can be published without permission, regardless of the purpose. Due to the protection country principle , this does not apply to the distribution, e.g. in Germany.

tourism

facilities for the public

Queue at the Eiffel Tower

In principle, the Eiffel Tower is open to the public 365 days a year without a day off. Only in the case of strong storms can there be closures or restrictions. In total, more than 600 people are employed on or for the landmark. Among them are 280 administrative employees who work for SETE. Around 240 are employed in the restaurants, 50 in souvenir sales and 50 in other, mostly technical jobs. There is a post office in the tower and a dedicated police task force guards the monument. Due to the comparatively high income, the Eiffel Tower is one of the few French sights that do not require any state subsidies.

Visitor numbers and statistics

In the year it opened, almost 1.9 million of the 32.3 million visitors to the exhibition climbed the Eiffel Tower as part of the 1889 World Exhibition . In the following ten years, the number of visitors ebbed to an average of around 250,000. During the World Exhibition in 1900 , the Eiffel Tower only registered a visitor number of just over 1 million, despite significantly more exhibition visitors (50.8 million). In the years that followed, the number continued to fall below the level of the first ten years, until the tower was closed to the public during the First World War in 1915-1918. When it reopened in 1919, the number of annual visitors rose to almost 480,000. There were two striking outliers in 1931 and 1937 at the Paris Colonial Exhibition and the World Exhibition , each with over 800,000 guests. Because of World War II, the Eiffel Tower was closed in 1940; it reopened in June 1946. Around 1 million visitors came as early as the early 1950s; in the following decades more and more came, including many foreign tourists . Over 6.5 million people came in the mid-2000s; In 2011 and 2014 it was a good 7 million each. Sales in 2011 reached 85.7 million euros. With the increased number of visitors, which reaches around 35,000 on peak days, the waiting times increase to several hours at times; overcrowding was feared. Including 2011, over 260 million people have climbed the Eiffel Tower since it opened. On September 28, 2017, the 300 millionth visitor was counted.

year	visitor	year	visitor	year	visitor	year	visitor	year	visitor	year	visitor	year	visitor
Number of visitors to the Eiffel Tower from 1889 to 2017
1889	1,968,287	1910	203,803	1931	822,550	1952	1,250,094	1973	2,914,814	1994	5,419,462	2015	6,917,000
1890	393,414	1911	204,168	1932	339,242	1953	1,204,371	1974	3,018,455	1995	5,212,677	2016	5,841,026
1891	335,829	1912	258,950	1933	363,720	1954	1.301.152	1975	3,045,573	1996	5,530,279	2017	6,207,303
1892	277,276	1913	261,337	1934	322,969	1955	1,435,192	1976	3,050,606	1997	5,719,773
1893	265,894	1914	152,725	1935	288,643	1956	1,476,400	1977	3,298,844	1998	6,051,603
1894	210,836	1915	closed all year round	1936	264,145	1957	1,632,647	1978	3,430,886	1999	6,368,534
1895	218,974	1916		1937	809,978	1958	1,591,005	1979	3,429,571	2000	6,315,324
1896	226,654	1917		1938	258,306	1959	1,668,558	1980	3,594,190	2001	6,103,987
1897	199,827	1918		1939	252,495	1960	1,735,230	1981	3,393,208	2002	6.157.042
1898	183,391	1919	311,714	1940	closed all year June '46 open	1961	1,763,448	1982	3,399,683	2003	5,864,969
1899	149,580	1920	417,869	1941		1962	1,735,796	1983	3,701,558	2004	6,230,050
1900	1,024,887	1921	426,635	1942		1963	2,013,594	1984	4,183,857	2005	6,428,441
1901	131,724	1922	422,172	1943		1964	2,143,173	1985	4,368,573	2006	6,719,200
1902	121.144	1923	551,444	1944		1965	2,295,193	1986	4,386,291	2007	6,959,186
1903	122,979	1924	585,730	1945		1966	2,405,554	1987	4,293,187	2008	6,929,463
1904	156,918	1925	631,758	1946	603,349	1967	2,416,502	1988	4,668,468	2009	6,603,792
1905	169,770	1926	657,004	1947	1.009.161	1968	2,070,417	1989	5,580,363	2010	6,709,634
1906	182,399	1927	555,087	1948	958,386	1969	2,561,157	1990	5,698,613	2011	7,086,273
1907	190.026	1928	634,819	1949	1,143,046	1970	2,757,768	1991	5,442,346	2012	6,270,000
1908	189,338	1929	577,624	1950	1,026,631	1971	2,899,070	1992	5,747,357	2013	6,740,000
1909	181,574	1930	580,075	1951	1,129,637	1972	3,003,659	1993	5,537,155	2014	7,097,302

year	visitor	year	visitor	year	visitor	year	visitor	year	visitor	year	visitor	year	visitor
Number of visitors to the Eiffel Tower from 1889 to 2017 (cumulative)
1889	1,968,287	1910	7,104,524	1931	15.156.185	1952	25.175.987	1973	68.200.687	1994	156.888.933	2015	290.903.462
1890	2,361,701	1911	7,308,692	1932	15,495,427	1953	26.380.358	1974	71.219.142	1995	162.101.610	2016	296,744,488
1891	2,697,530	1912	7,567,642	1933	15.859.147	1954	27,681,510	1975	74.264.715	1996	167.631.889	2017	302.951.791
1892	2,974,806	1913	7,828,979	1934	16.182.116	1955	29.116.702	1976	77.315.321	1997	173.351.662
1893	3,240,700	1914	7,981,704	1935	16,470,759	1956	30.593.102	1977	80.614.165	1998	179.403.265
1894	3,451,536	1915	7,981,704	1936	16,734,904	1957	32,225,749	1978	84.045.051	1999	185,771,799
1895	3,670,510	1916	7,981,704	1937	17,544,882	1958	33,816,754	1979	87,474,622	2000	192.087.123
1896	3,897,164	1917	7,981,704	1938	17.803.188	1959	35.485.312	1980	91.068.812	2001	198.191.110
1897	4,096,991	1918	7,981,704	1939	18.055.683	1960	37.220.542	1981	94.462.020	2002	204.348.152
1898	4,280,382	1919	8,293,418	1940	18.055.683	1961	38,983,990	1982	97.861.703	2003	210.213.121
1899	4,429,962	1920	8,711,287	1941	18.055.683	1962	40,719,786	1983	101.563.261	2004	216.443.171
1900	5,454,849	1921	9,137,922	1942	18.055.683	1963	42,733,380	1984	105.747.118	2005	222.871.612
1901	5,586,573	1922	9,560,094	1943	18.055.683	1964	44,876,553	1985	110.115.691	2006	229.590.812
1902	5,707,717	1923	10.111.538	1944	18.055.683	1965	47.171.746	1986	114.501.982	2007	236,549,998
1903	5,830,696	1924	10,697,268	1945	18.055.683	1966	49,577,300	1987	118.795.169	2008	243.479.461
1904	5,987,614	1925	11.329.026	1946	18.659.032	1967	51,993,802	1988	123.463.637	2009	250.083.253
1905	6,157,384	1926	11.986.030	1947	19.668.193	1968	54.064.219	1989	129,044,000	2010	256,792,887
1906	6,339,783	1927	12.541.117	1948	20,626,579	1969	56,625,376	1990	134.742.613	2011	263.879.160
1907	6,529,809	1928	13.175.936	1949	21,769,625	1970	59.383.144	1991	140.184.959	2012	270.149.160
1908	6,719,147	1929	13,753,560	1950	22,796,256	1971	62.282.214	1992	145.932.316	2013	276.889.160
1909	6,900,721	1930	14,333,635	1951	23,925,893	1972	65,285,873	1993	151.469.471	2014	283.986.462

According to a statistical survey of 7,989 visitors, the following profile emerged in 2009: the majority of visitors came from Western Europe (43%), metropolitan France (29%) and North America (11%). Apart from France, the top visitor countries were Germany with 8.5%, the United Kingdom with 8.1%, followed by the United States (7.6%), Spain (7.3%), Italy (4.8%) and Australia (4.1%). If the age of the visitors is broken down into the categories “under 25”, “26 to 35”, “36 to 45” and “above”, they each make up around a quarter. Only 6.4% were over 56 years old. Most of the visitors came with their families (63.8%); around 23% visit the Eiffel Tower with friends and 7.8% in organized tour groups. Almost half (46.1%) came by metro, 17.3% walked, 12% drove their own car and 7.5% took the bus. Around 46% of those surveyed had climbed the Eiffel Tower before.

events

accidents and fatalities

The omnipresence of the Eiffel Tower in the Parisian cityscape has repeatedly tempted people to daring adventures or sporting top performances. On July 13, 1901, Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos Dumont narrowly avoided a collision with his airship while maneuvering the craft between Saint-Cloud and Champ de Mars.

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Film about Franz Reichelt's jump from the Eiffel Tower

The tower inspired some people to jump off the Eiffel Tower using homemade parachute-like structures. The tragic figures include the tailor Franz Reichelt , who tailored a frock coat with a wide cape and mounted springs on it. His announced project attracted numerous onlookers. After some hesitation, the Austrian Reichelt jumped from the first platform with his flightless equipment on February 4, 1912 in front of the journalists and spectators present and had a fatal accident. There is even a historical film document of this event.

Frenchman Marcel Gayet was killed in a similar attempt in 1928 by jumping from the first floor. Further attempts with new types of parachutes were successful, which inspired the makers of the James Bond films to create a corresponding scene. The then 23-year-old aviator Léon Collot had an accident in November 1926 while attempting to fly through the tower arch at the base with his light aircraft . He was blinded by the sun and got caught in a radio antenna that was stretched between the top of the tower and the ground at the time.

The Paris landmark has also been the scene of many suicides . The first suicide was reported on June 15, 1898, when a woman hanged herself. A total of around 400 people took their own lives at the Eiffel Tower.

Sporting achievements and records

Front page of Le Sport on the tower run on November 26, 1905

The Eiffel Tower has always encouraged people to artistic or sporting challenges. On October 18, 1909, Count Lambert successfully flew over the tower in his plane. In addition, the tower was also the scene of unusual performances, fun records or other media-noticed actions. As early as 1905, the newspaper Le Sport held a competition for the fastest ascent to the second platform. 227 runners took part in the stair running competition on November 26th. The winner, Forestier, did this in 3 minutes 12 seconds and was awarded a Peugeot bike for his achievement. In May 1964, on the occasion of the 75th birthday of the Eiffel Tower, mountaineers Guido Magnone and René Desmaison climbed the outside of the Eiffel Tower with official approval. The spectacle was broadcast via Eurovision .

On June 4, 1948, an 85-year-old elephant, who had escaped from the Bouglione circus, climbed up to the first platform. In 1983, Charles Coutard and Joël Descuns rode their motocross bikes up and down the stairs in the Eiffel Tower. A year later, Amanda Tucker and Mike MacCarthy managed to parachute from the third platform without official permission. The New Zealander A. J. Hackett dared to bungee jump from the second viewing platform for the first time in 1987.

In 1989, the high -wire artist Philippe Petit succeeded in crossing the Seine about 800 meters on a cable stretched from the Palais de Chaillot to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower. Petit campaigned for the approval of this project for about 15 years. Around 250,000 spectators watched the approximately one-hour run.

In 1995, triathlete Yves Lossouarn broke the record for tower ascent. It took him 8 minutes and 51 seconds to reach the top. In the sports event initiated by the arte television station , he emerged as the winner of a starting field of 75 athletes. BASE jumpers also made multiple jumps from the Eiffel Tower, including the well-known Swiss Ueli Gegenschatz who jumped off the highest platform on April 1, 2008.

major events and concerts

In addition to the four world exhibitions in 1889, 1900, 1931 and 1937, the Eiffel Tower was repeatedly used as a backdrop or venue for concerts or other major events.

On September 25, 1962, Édith Piaf sang her last concert on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower in front of an audience of 25,000. At the same time, the event was used as an advertising platform for the film The Longest Day . The chansonniers Charles Aznavour and Georges Brassens also gave a concert at the Eiffel Tower in 1966. On July 14, 1995, under the auspices of UNESCO , Jean-Michel Jarre held a concert for more tolerance at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. The concert, broadcast worldwide, had 1.2 million listeners.

For the 12th World Youth Day 1997 , around 300,000 pilgrims gathered on August 21st on the Champ de Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower, where the then Pope John Paul II gave a speech.

In May 2000, the Orchester de Paris and the Boston Symphony Orchestra , conducted by Seiji Ozawa , gave a free concert in front of the Eiffel Tower, which was specially illuminated for the occasion. Around 800,000 people attended the concerts. That same year, on June 10, Johnny Hallyday gave an open-air concert in front of 600,000 spectators, which was accompanied by a light and pyrotechnic show.

reception and effect

reception in architecture

The tower construction wave triggered by the Eiffel Tower

Contemporary depiction of Blackpool Tower (1899)

London's Watkin's Tower , inspired by the Eiffel Tower , was intended to surpass it but was never completed. The truncated tower, demolished in 1907, was only 47 meters high.

The construction of the Eiffel Tower brought the city a considerable increase in prestige and triggered a worldwide wave of tower construction. Many other cities, especially in the major colonial power of the United Kingdom, Great Britain, tried to emulate the project in the early days. One of the first replicas was the 158.1 meter high Blackpool Tower , built between 1891 and 1894 in the English seaside resort of Blackpool . This tower is architecturally successful despite its strong borrowing from the Eiffel Tower and has been included in the monument protection with the highest classification level (Grade I) in England. Rising from a large, multi-storey Victorian-style base house, the tower is home to a number of attractions, including a renowned circus. Extensively restored in recent years, Blackpool Tower is still a major tourist attraction in the North West region of England . Less successful was the New Brighton Tower built according to a similar concept (construction began in 1896); it had to be removed in the 1920s because the steel lattice construction had become dilapidated. This 172.8 meter high tower also had a base house with a wide range of leisure facilities, including the largest ballroom in Great Britain. After their construction, both towers were the tallest buildings in the country.

In 1890, the British capital London also announced an ambitious tower construction project. The project proposals envisaged steel towers between 300 and 456 meters high. A year later, construction of Watkin's Tower began , which was projected to be 358 meters and thus around 50 meters higher than the Eiffel Tower. The initiator of the project, Sir Edward Watkin , originally tried to recruit Gustave Eiffel himself as a designer; however, the Frenchman declined on patriotic grounds. The tower was demolished in 1907 when the project ran out of funds, leaving only a 150-foot (47-meter) stump. Other tower projects also had moderate success. Tower construction in Douglas , the capital of the Isle of Man , had to be completed shortly after the foundations were installed in October 1890. The 70 meter high pyramidal tower in the seaside resort of Morecambe , although architecturally very different from the Eiffel Tower, was demolished at the beginning of the First World War in favor of munitions production. In Germany, too, there were some adventurous project proposals to trump the Eiffel Tower. In 1913, for example, a questionable design for the Rheinturm was presented – today the television tower in Düsseldorf is called the Rheinturm – a 500 meter high steel framework tower with a strong stylistically based on the Eiffel Tower. The project was never implemented.

Shaping role model

Tokyo Tower (built 1958)

In January 1890, a 60-meter-high ephemeral ice replica of the Eiffel Tower was on display in St. Petersburg . In 1891, on the occasion of the industrial exhibition in Prague , the 60-meter-high Petřín lookout tower was built , which took up the shape of the Eiffel Tower. But even in France itself, the Paris model was emulated. The 85.9 meter high Tour métallique de Fourvière in Lyon , built between 1892 and 1894, reflects the basic structural shape of the upper part of the Eiffel Tower. The tower was open to the public and also housed a restaurant. Since 1953 it has only served as a radio and television tower. With the spread of radio and radio waves, more towers became necessary, especially from the 1920s. Even if the shape of these buildings sometimes showed little resemblance to the Paris Tower, the coincidence of four tower feet and the construction-related need for tapering towards the top was often enough for these buildings to be or are popularly associated with the Eiffel Tower. Examples of this are the transmitter in Gleiwitz ("Silesian Eiffel Tower"), the former transmitter in Ismaning ("Bavarian Eiffel Tower") or the Bismarck Tower in Wiesbaden ("Wiesbaden Eiffel Tower"). The Berlin radio tower from the mid-1920s also follows this design principle.

In the 1950s, several television and observation towers designed by the architect Naitō Tachū (1886-1970) were built in Japan, which are aesthetically more technical, but are still based on the design of the Eiffel Tower. The Nagoya Tower was built in 1954 , the Tsutenkaku Tower in 1956 , the Sapporo Tower in 1957 and the Tokyo Tower in 1958 . The Tokyo Tower in particular, which at 333 meters is even a few meters taller than the Eiffel Tower, is often mentioned in connection with the imitation of the building structure. Architecturally, it is considered less successful because of its proportions in the tapering of the steel lattice structure upwards and the tower baskets as well as the choice of diagonal bracing.

Eiffel Tower Replicas

The 165 meter high replica Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas (built 1999)

With the establishment of television tower structures made of reinforced concrete in vertical cantilever construction, starting with the Stuttgart television tower in the mid-1950s, the design similarities of the towers to the Eiffel Tower decreased significantly. Nevertheless, the Eiffel Tower has been used again and again in numerous replicas because of its symbolic charisma. Especially in France and the United States, replicas that are only a few meters high can sometimes be found in roundabouts, as advertising media or in front gardens. Above all, the leisure industry has discovered the strong advertising power for itself and tries to draw attention to itself again and again with replicas. One of the best-known replicas is a 108-meter-tall replica in the Window of the World amusement park in Shenzhen , China . Another 108 meter high replica - on a 1:3 scale - stands 9275 km from the original in Tianducheng, China. At 165 meters, the tallest replica to date is in Las Vegas . The replica from 1999 - more than 100 years after the construction of the Eiffel Tower - at the hotel complex of Paris Las Vegas also houses a tower restaurant and, like its original, has viewing platforms that can be climbed. Another replica of the Eiffel Tower was built on the same scale in 2016 on the Cotei Strip in Macau .

In addition, the Eiffel Tower in Paris is replicated in almost all miniature parks .

Architectural-historical assessment

The Eiffel Tower is assigned to the Wilhelminian style of historicism , which it initiated itself, which distinguishes it from the classical architecture of the 19th century. It is an important landmark of functionalism , which only occasionally manifested itself in engineering structures such as the Crystal Palace in London. In this way, modern civil engineering restores the unity of construction and building form that was lost after the Gothic period , which puts the Eiffel Tower in a position comparable to that of a historical sacred building. His structural approach of the broadly extending foundation because of the downward increasing stress caused by wind pressure has its natural model in the trees, which are attached to the ground with a widely branched root system and whose trunk tapers in height. (→ Architecture ) It not only plays a pioneering role formally, but also technologically, since until the construction of the Stuttgart TV tower practically all free-standing transmission towers were made of steel or iron framework based on the Eiffel model. The architecturally outstanding position and evaluation of the Eiffel Tower is based not only on its far-reaching effect, but also on the fact that it was built without any historical model.

Political and social reception

Many traditional artists, who were inspired by antiquity, saw the Eiffel Tower as a mixture of art and everyday life and therefore vehemently rejected it. In particular, the cultural world of France at that time turned against any state pressure to bring artistic and industrial workers together to improve products. The writer Charles Baudelaire , who however did not live to see the Eiffel Tower, put it this way:

"L'Industrie, faisant irruption dans l'art, en devient la plus mortelle ennemie."

"When technology overtakes art, it's certain death."

A photochrom print shows the Eiffel Tower during the 1889 World's Fair

This was accompanied by a discussion about the radicalization of the concept of art; it was fueled further by the construction of the Eiffel Tower. The fundamentally idealized character of art was socially primarily related to the upper class and, with the new Parisian landmark, suddenly also played a role in the lifestyle of ordinary people. The aversion to popular entertainment was combined with the fear of the common people's potential for rebellion against the upper class. For the most part, the upper class of Paris stayed away from the tower and the mass event of the world exhibition. The aversion of the upper class towards the "little man" is also reflected in the legend, according to which Guy de Maupassant is said to have climbed the tower because this was the only place where he did not have to see it, even though he was one of the strongest opponent of the heat, dust and stench characterized mass production. The republican press was generally more favorable to the project than the religious-conservative forces, which often had monarchist tendencies. The collective achievements of master builders on the one hand and contractors on the other, which were underlined in the commemorative speech marking the completion of the Eiffel Tower, met with rejection in a number of places. Eiffel himself even addressed the closeness to the working class when he showed himself in a poster with measuring tools, but also with working class clothes, thus embodying the connection between mental and physical exertion. For the old elites, this focus on the masses was a threat to their claim to leadership.

The construction of the tallest tower in the world was also received outside of France. Germany in particular, which had a tense relationship with France after the Franco-Prussian War , commented on the world exhibition and the Eiffel Tower in an implicitly political manner. The ambivalent assessment between admiring impression and a certain uneasiness becomes the tenor of the opinions. The Deutsche Rundschau emphatically characterizes the Eiffel Tower as a machine monster. In the mythical parallel to the Tower of Babel, in addition to the enthusiasm for conquering the powers, there are always concerns about having challenged these powers. From the point of view of the journalist Eugen von Jagow , who even emphasizes the ethereal character of the transparent architecture and cannot escape a certain fascination, castigates this form as unarchitectural, confusing and ultimately fails in itself. The sheer height, which is almost twice as high as Cologne Cathedral, impresses him, but the old church building is far superior to him in terms of artistic size and grandeur. His conclusion is that the tower is more a triumph of science than art. In a time that was generally hostile to art, he was the symbol of modernity. Precisely this juxtaposition of quantitative and qualitative size corresponds to the prevailing argumentation strategy of delimiting the elitist concept of art from mass culture. The interpretation as a victory of the masses over the individual becomes part of the confrontation with democracy, which since Alexis de Tocqueville has been given a topical character as criticism of America.

reception in art

Controversy notwithstanding, the Eiffel Tower already cast its shadow before it was erected, inspiring Jules Verne to process his impressions of a tower on the Champ de Mars in the science fiction novel Robur the Victor , published in August 1886 :

“Then he glided along the heights of the tallest buildings, as if he wanted to strip the sphere from the Pantheon or the cross from the Invalides. He steered between the two minarets of the Trocadero towards the iron tower of the Field of Mars, whose immense reflector flooded the entire capital with electric light."

Apollinaire 's Calligrams , shaped like the Eiffel Tower

After its opening, poets were among the first to describe the Eiffel Tower. Writer Blaise Cendrars sang of the "tower, tower of the world, tower in motion". The Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro described it as "the guitar from heaven" ("Guitarra del cielo") and published a volume of poetry entitled Tour Eiffel in 1918 . The writer Jean Cocteau , who also worked as a director, published the libretto Les mariés de la tour Eiffel (German: Wedding on the Eiffel Tower), which was performed as a ballet on June 18, 1921 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. The absurd, surrealistic story of a wedding couple takes place on top of the Eiffel Tower, which stands in the middle of the Namibian desert. The poet Guillaume Apollinaire processed his experiences of the First World War with a poem in the book Calligrammes in the form of the Eiffel Tower. The poetry, which begins with a welcome to the world, ends with gigantic French insults against the Germans.

The Eiffel Tower is also used again and again in music. Among others, Michel Emer sang about him in Paris, mais c'est la Tour Eiffel , Charles Trenet in Y'a d'la joie, la Tour Eiffel part en balade , Léo Ferré in Paris portait sa grande croix , Jacques Dutronc in La Tour Eiffel a froid aux pieds and Pascal Obispo in Je suis tombé pour elle . In 2009, the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt created the symphonic poem Silhouette - Hommage à Gustave Eiffel for string orchestra and percussion, which premiered in Paris a year later flow, poetized.

Delaunay 's La Tour Eiffel from the 1920s

Painting also dealt intensively with the Eiffel Tower. It has been painted in almost every style since the end of the 19th century by a large number of internationally renowned artists . With its technical character, the tallest landmark in Paris contributed to a debate in art that found completely new approaches to architectural and spatial forms of expression.

As early as 1888 - i.e. before its completion - Georges Seurat painted a picture with the work title La Tour Eiffel , which is now on display in the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco . The most famous painters who painted the Eiffel Tower include Henri Rousseau , Paul Signac , Pierre Bonnard , Maurice Utrillo , Marcel Gromaire , Édouard Vuillard , among others . Raoul Dufy painted Seine Grenell in 1890 , the picture is privately owned. Marc Chagall painted Paris Through the Window in 1913 , where he depicted the Parisian cityscape with the dominant Eiffel Tower and a parachutist beside it. In 1954, Chagall took up the motif of the tower again in Champ-de-Mars .

Robert Delaunay even created a whole series of pictures in which he depicted the tower from many cubist perspectives . Among the best known are The Red Tower from 1911, housed in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum , and La ville de Paris from 1910/12, which hangs in the Center Georges-Pompidou . Delaunay used the building's architecture and lighting effects to study the harmony and interplay of colors.

Contemporary painters also repeatedly take up the Eiffel Tower as a motif.

reception in the film

Because of its importance and fame, the Eiffel Tower keeps appearing in films. It is a distinctive feature of the city skyline in almost all films set in Paris . In addition, he was often the scene of filmic actions himself. The film genres in which it has been addressed range from pure documentaries to detective films , romantic romantic comedies and to action , science fiction and disaster films . The diverse inclusion of the Eiffel Tower can be explained on the one hand by its strong symbolic character, on the other hand because the tower and cinema were created in the same period (→ film history ).

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Documentary by the Lumière brothers (1897)

The first films ever include the Lumière brothers' documentary Panorama pendant l'ascension de la tour Eiffel from 1897, in which the ascent to the tower is shown, and Images de l'exposition 1900 by Georges Méliès . The first silent science fiction film to include the Eiffel Tower as an object was Paris qui dort (German: Paris im Schlaf ) by director René Clair from 1925. It is assigned to the avant-garde films because of its unreal atmosphere . A man wakes up on the Eiffel Tower after an attack by a mad scientist, finds Paris as a ghost town and looks for a way out with a few people who have also been spared. In 1928, in La Tour , Clair addressed the architecture and austerity of the construction of the Eiffel Tower.

In the 1939 romantic comedy Ninotschka , Count Leon, played by Melvyn Douglas, follows Ninotschka , played by Greta Garbo , who he has never met, on a walk to the Eiffel Tower, which she intends to visit. The two meet there, and Leon explains the advantages of the iron construction to Ninotschka in great detail. In the 1949 thriller The Man from the Eiffel Tower , the tower is the central setting and appears in the film's title and poster. Director Burgess Meredith stars in his film himself. Towards the end of the film there is a spectacular climb on the iron struts of the landmark.

There were brief overlays of the Eiffel Tower – mostly to refer to the city of Paris – for example in the films Casablanca , The Bridge on the River Kwai , Luck Came Overnight or in They Kissed and They Beat Him . In the Truffaut thriller Auf Liebe und Tod , Fanny Ardant as Barbara Becker knocks down a priest with an iron replica of the Eiffel Tower. The scene is also featured in the original movie poster . In the spy film parody The Tall Blonde in the Black Shoe , the top of the Eiffel Tower is used as the spy headquarters. In the 1985 spy film James Bond 007 , a spectacular pursuit takes place that ends with a parachute jump from the structure.

In end-time films , the Eiffel Tower was often destroyed or depicted as a ruin to increase the emotional impact . This occurs, for example, in the 1953 H.G. Wells literary adaptation Battle of the Worlds , in the 1996 US film Independence Day , in the sci-fi satirical Mars Attacks! from 1996 and in the disaster film Armageddon - The Last Judgment from 1998. In the action film GI Joe - Secret Mission Cobra , the Eiffel Tower becomes the target of a criminal demolition squad.

The Eiffel Tower and its history have also been the subject of several docu - fiction films (→ Films about the Eiffel Tower ).

Importance and appreciation as a national symbol

Tall towers not only have a cultural background due to the Biblical model of the Tower of Babel , but are also considered a symbol of overcoming gravity, as a sign of dominion over space and thus often over the people in the vicinity. In this context, the original resistance to the Eiffel Tower can be seen as a particularly outstanding example of the dominating power of technical towers such as blast furnaces , winding towers , gasometers , silos or industrial chimneys that emerged in the 19th century. On the other hand, Eiffel seems to have fulfilled a dream of mankind with the construction of his tower, after the dream of flying had already been realized by Montgolfière around 100 years earlier.

Raised the French tricolor on its completion in 1889 as a sign of national solidarity

Beyond the architectural achievement, the Eiffel Tower had a strong significance for French national consciousness. The building presents itself as a historical reminder of the French Revolution and underscores the emerging economic power of France at the end of the 19th century. Pride in this past and emancipation from the monarchy shaped the spirit of the world exhibitions that took place in Paris in 1867 and 1878. This open commitment to democratic ideals and thus to the anti-monarchical attitude stood in the way of the worldwide acceptance of the exhibition project, especially in monarchical states. In the historical context, the Eiffel Tower has the function of a revolutionary monument. Eugène-Melchior de Vogue even saw it as a new church of inner-worldly perfection. The Eiffel Tower thus embodies the triumph of the French Revolution, the Third French Republic and the Industrial Age . For the general public, the tower had great appeal; especially the simple people from the provinces of France wanted to see the marvel. However, the Eiffel Tower was also a meeting place for the different social classes, which at that time were strictly separated in public life. For this reason, the building helped to blur the dividing line between classes , in the spirit of republicanism.

The Eiffel Tower thus positions itself as a modern form of festival architecture and as a medium that non-violently swore the French people to republican values. Nicknamed la dame de fer (English: the Iron Lady), the Eiffel Tower is a symbol of France's strength and power, and few other structures are directly associated with France. As early as 1987, 25% of the French in a survey which historical building best represented their country indicated the Eiffel Tower, well ahead of the Palace of Versailles with 17%, the Arc de Triomphe and the Place de la Bastille with 13% each. The French philosopher Roland Barthes derives the global omnipresence of the tower from its symbolism and writes:

“[…] The Eiffel Tower [is] also present throughout the world. […] its simple form, acting as a matrix, gives it the capacity for infinite cipher: successively, according to the appeals of our imagination, symbol of […] modernity, of communication, of science […], rocket, stalk, derrick, phallus , lightning rod or insect.”

The Eiffel Tower on stamps and means of payment

Eiffel Tower on the 200 franc banknote in circulation until the introduction of the euro

Until the introduction of the euro , the 200- franc banknote featured the Eiffel Tower as a stylized silhouette on the front and back. While the portrait of Gustave Eiffel could be seen on the front, a view through the tower base of the four pillars was shown on the back in addition to the silhouette. In 1989, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Eiffel Tower, the Banque de France issued a silver 5-franc commemorative coin with a mintage of 800,000 . To commemorate the 125th anniversary of the inauguration of the Eiffel Tower, a 50 euro gold coin will be issued in France on March 3rd, 2014 in a limited edition of 1000 pieces. The obverse of the coin shows the UNESCO logo and a section of a city map showing the Eiffel Tower. The back focuses on the steel strut construction with a stylized and detailed view.

The French postal service initially held back from honoring the building on a stamp . The first postage stamp in France with the Eiffel Tower as the main motif appeared in the 40th anniversary year on May 5, 1939 (Yvert et Tellier No. 429) with a circulation of 1,140,000 pieces. The tower is shown at a 45-degree angle on the pink stamp with franking 90c+50c. However, as early as 1936 a series appeared with a postal plane over the sky of Paris, in which the Eiffel Tower was seen in the background as part of the silhouette of the city. It became the main motif again in 1989 for its 100th anniversary, as well as in 2009 and 2010. The Eiffel Tower has repeatedly been used as a symbol on stamps for a number of congresses and events that took place in Paris over the past few decades. For example, a large souvenir sheet was issued for the 2011 World Weightlifting Championships in Paris , in which the Eiffel Tower is graphically depicted as a weightlifter lifting a dumbbell, the two weight plates of which each have a round stamp with a face value of 60 and 89 cents. Up until 2011, well over 30 French stamps bore the Eiffel Tower as a motif.

commercialization, marketing and advertising

Reproduction of a paper kit from 1889

Eiffel Tower miniatures from 2012

The promotional marketing of the Eiffel Tower began even before its completion. Gustave Eiffel organized appropriate measures at regular intervals - not least to create a counterweight to the protest voices that were becoming louder again and again . Articles, brochures and various illustrations were already being produced and distributed in the spring of 1886. This made the tower world-famous even before it opened. The extent of this prompted the journalist and playwright Henry Buguet (1845–1920) to ask the following indignant question as early as September 13, 1888 in Le Soir :

"Don't you think that until this phenomenal tower is completed to everyone's and even universal satisfaction, don't the Eiffel Tower maniacs give us a little peace and quiet with that gigantic nail they hammer in your ears, day after day, hour after hour?" "

Eiffel Tower Keychain

The mass production of Eiffel Tower souvenirs began with the opening of the landmark. Even then, the variety of shapes knew almost no bounds. This was also continued by today's operating company. In addition to handicraft sheets, pendants, candles, snow globes , tableware or lamp bases, countless tower models made of different materials are offered for sale. There are a total of eight official souvenir shops in the Eiffel Tower on the first two levels and on the ground floor at the base of the tower; they carry over 700 different products. According to the operator, more than a million visitors shop in the stores every year. The demand for Eiffel Tower reproductions is also tried to be satisfied by numerous black market traders flying around the tower.

After the Citroën car brand drew attention to itself in the 1920s and 1930s with a conspicuous neon sign on the Eiffel Tower , many well-known French brands used the famous landmark for their advertising purposes, including Air France , La Samaritaine , Yves Saint Laurent , Jean Paul Gaultier , Nina Ricci , Alain Afflelou or Campari . According to architectural historian Bertrand Lemoine , the Eiffel Tower served the universal idea of material and social progress early on and thus fulfilled a “ Julesvernesque ” dream about nature in the sense of the Enlightenment century . That explains the success as an advertising medium, which also stands for modernity and ambition. The impact of the Eiffel Tower seems unbroken to this day, because contemporary advertising still refers to the building, as in an IBM commercial in the 2000s . Many advertising motifs with the Eiffel Tower have in common that they either refer to an extraordinary success or emphasize the city of Paris or the country of France. The Eiffel Tower is a symbol of both success in general and France. For example, in a 1952 advertising poster, Air France showed all the important Parisian buildings united in the dominant outline of the Eiffel Tower, with a stylized landmass behind which stands for the entire country. The poster, designed by the French graphic artist Bernard Villemot (1911-1989), has since become a classic and is still offered as a reproduction today .

Various toy manufacturers such as MB / Hasbro or Ravensburger have released a 3D puzzle based on the famous Paris landmark . Lego made a 1:300 scale kit of the Eiffel Tower from 3428 parts. The assembled model from 2007 has a height of 1.08 meters and is now a coveted rarity. The tower is also offered as a 1:160 scale model kit by a Korean company. The bronze model, which is around two meters high, weighs around 25 kilograms. In addition, there are also models made of paper, wood or matches from various other manufacturers, but also posters, pictures and wall tattoos .

The 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris advertised the event in the official poster with the Eiffel Tower. The French football club Paris FC , founded in 1969, has the Eiffel Tower as its emblem; it has been modified again and again over the years. The current logo shows the tower in stylized brush strokes. The football club Paris Saint-Germain , founded in 1970, also has the Eiffel Tower in its emblem. In the Netherlands, a team playing in the 1st basketball league (2005-2013) even named itself after the Eiffel Tower. 's-Hertogenbosch -based EiffelTowers Den Bosch , renamed Heroes Den Bosch since 2019 , also featured the Paris Tower in their logo.

Eiffel's estate

Page from the reprint of Eiffel's La tour de trois cents mètres

One of the most comprehensive technical descriptions of the Eiffel Tower is the publication by Gustave Eiffel himself, which appeared on June 1, 1900. The large folio volume in two editions, lavishly printed on vellum paper, entitled La tour de trois cents mètres (English: The 300-meter tower ) is divided into eight parts and presents the building in around 4300 plans, drawings and double-sided panels as well as contemporary photographs. The plans are generally printed on a scale of 1:200, smaller details are reproduced on a scale of 1:50, 1:20 or 1:10. All of the components are sized, and the text gives a precise account of the origins, principle of construction, cost, execution of the work on the foundations and metalwork, and the renovation work for the 1900 World's Fair. Eiffel even devotes a separate chapter to erecting the scaffolding. This very comprehensive account reflects the encyclopedic spirit of the Enlightenment tradition . In addition to the technical and engineering aspects, it was also a tribute to all employees. All 326 engineers , foremen and workers involved in the design and construction of the Eiffel Tower are named at the beginning of the book. At the same time, the monumental book served not only as an inventory, but also as a balance sheet, gift and advertising medium in which Eiffel wanted to preserve his achievement for posterity.

For the builder himself, the tower symbolized the "Century of Industry and Science" which, in his view, began particularly in post-revolutionary France. For this reason, he had the names of 72 scientists attached to the structure of the tower as a memorial. At the same time, he used all the technical means available up until then, such as electric lighting and elevator technology, in order to combine industrial and scientific achievements in the building.

frequencies and programs

The Eiffel Tower is the highest television tower in France and at the same time the most important transmitter for terrestrial transmission in the Paris region, especially for FM radio programs and digital television . The tower supports more than 120 transmission antennas . The transmission infrastructure is operated by TDF . Currently (2013) the Eiffel Tower broadcasts over 30 radio and 45 television programs.

radio

Frequency (MHz)	program	RDS PS	RDS PI	regionalization _	ERP (kW)	Antenna pattern round (ND)/directional (D)	Polarization horizontal(H)/ vertical(V)
87.8	France Inter	__INTER_	F201	–	10	ND	V
89.0	Radio France Internationale	__R_F_I_	FE10	–	10	ND	V
89.9	TSF Jazz	TSF_JAZZ	F223	–	6.3	ND	V
90.4	nostalgia	NOSTALGI	F218	–	10	ND	V
90.9	Chante France	CHANTE_F	FE43	–	4	ND	V
91.3	Chérie FM	CHERIEFM	F224	–	10	ND	V
91.7	France Music	_MUSIC	F203	–	10	ND	V
92.1	Le Mouv'	__MOUV'_	F208	–	8th	ND	V
93.5	France Culture	_CULTURE	F202	–	10	ND	V
94.3	Radio Orient	_ORIENT_	F22B	–	4	ND	V
96.0	skyrock	SKYROCK_	F214	–	10	ND	V
96.4	BFM Business	___BFM__	F227	–	4	D	V
96.9	VoltageFM	VOLTAGE_	FE45	–	4	ND	V
97.4	Rire et Chansons	_RIRE_&_	F226	–	4	ND	V
99.9	Southern Radio +	SUDRADIO	F20B	–	4	ND	V
100.3	NRJ	__NRJ___	F220	Paris	10	ND	V
100.7	Radio Notre Dame	_N.LADY_	FE32	–	10	ND	V
101.1	Radio Classic	CLASSIQ_	F221	–	10	ND	V
101.5	Radio Nova	__NOVA__	F22A	–	10	ND	V
101.9	fun radio	___FUN__	F217	–	10	ND	V
102.3	Ouï FM	_OUI_FM_	F21D	–	4	ND	V
102.7	MFM radio	M_RADIO_	F225	–	10	D	V
103.1	Radio Monte Carlo	___RMC__	F216	–	10	ND	V
103.5	Virgin Radio	_VIRGIN_	F219	Paris	10	ND	V
103.9	RFM	__RFM___	F212	–	10	ND	V
104.3	RTL	__RTL___	F211	–	10	ND	V
104.7	Europe 1	EUROPE_1	F213	–	10	ND	V
105.1	FIP	__F_I_P_	F204	–	10	ND	V
105.5	France Info	__INFO__	F206	–	10	ND	V
105.9	RTL 2	__RTL2__	F215	–	10	ND	V
107.1	France Bleu 107.1	__BLEU__	F20A	–	10	ND	V

Digital television (DVB-T)

channel	Frequency (in MHz)	multiplex	programs in multiplex	ERP (in kW)	Antenna diagram round (ND) / directional (D)	Polarization horizontal (H) / vertical (V)	Single Frequency Network ( SFN )
35	586	TNT bouquet R1	France 2 HD France 3 France 5 LCP France O	50	ND	H	Paris/Eiffel Tower , Villebon-sur-Yvette , Sannois , Chennevières-sur-Marne
25	506	TNT bouquet R2	France 4 BFM TV I-Télé directly 8 drain DirectStar	50	ND	H	Paris/Eiffel Tower , Villebon-sur-Yvette , Sannois , Chennevières-sur-Marne
22	482	TNT bouquet R3 (encrypted)	Canal+ TPS Star Canal+ Sport Canal+ Cinema CFoot Planete+	50	ND	H	Paris/Eiffel Tower , Villebon-sur-Yvette , Sannois , Chennevières-sur-Marne
30	546	TNT bouquet R4	W9 TFX M6 Paris Premiere Art HD	50	ND	H	Paris/Eiffel Tower , Villebon-sur-Yvette , Sannois , Chennevières-sur-Marne
28	530	TNT bouquet R5	France 2 HD TF1HD M6 HD	50	ND	H	Paris/Eiffel Tower , Villebon-sur-Yvette , Sannois , Chennevières-sur-Marne
32	562	TNT bouquet R6	TMC Monte Carlo NRJ 12 TF1 kind Eurosport (encrypted) LCI (encrypted) TF6 (encrypted)	50	ND	H	Paris/Eiffel Tower , Villebon-sur-Yvette , Sannois , Chennevières-sur-Marne
23	490	TNT bouquet L8	Cinaps TV / BDM TV / Demain IDF / Télé Bocal IDF1 NRJ Paris BFM Business Paris	50	ND	H	Paris/Eiffel Tower

Analog TV (SECAM)

Before the changeover to DVB-T, the transmission site was still used for analogue television (→ SECAM ):

channel	Frequency (MHz)	program	ERP (kW)	Transmission diagram round (ND)/ directional (D)	Polarization horizontal (H)/ vertical (V)
6	184.00	Canal+	100	ND	H
22	479.25	France 2	500	ND	H
25	503.25	TF1	500	ND	H
28	527.25	France 3	500	ND	H
30	543.25	France 5 / Arte	100	ND	H
33	567.25	M6	100	ND	H

Movie

The Eiffel Tower – Revolution in Steel. Documentary film, France, 2017, 43:25 min., written and directed by: Mathieu Schwartz, production: Martange Production, German first broadcast: March 30, 2020 on ZDFinfo , online video and synopsis available until August 14, 2021.
The Tower of Monsieur Eiffel , Drama (TV Movie), France, Belgium, Switzerland 2005, 95 minutes, directed by Simon Brook.
Operation Eiffel Tower [original title: The Hostage Tower ], action, thriller, USA 1984, 89 minutes, director: Claudio Guzmán.
The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower , TV Movie, Germany 1970, 90 minutes, Director: Michael Braun .

literature

Gustave Eiffel's publications

Cover of the first official publication about the Eiffel Tower

Projet d'une tour colossal en fer de 300 mètres de hauteur . Paris, 1884 (project description).
Tour en fer de 300 mètres des hauteur destinée à l'Exposition de 1889 . Paris, 1885 (First official publication on the Eiffel Tower).
La tour de 300 meters . Paris: Lemercier, 1900 – 2 vol. TI: Texts TII: Planches.
Origins of the Tour .
La Tour Eiffel in 1900 . Paris, Masson, 1902.
Experimental research on the resistance of the air carried out on the Eiffel Tower . L Maretheux, Paris 1907.
L'Architecture metallique . Maisonneuve et Larose, Paris 1996, ISBN 2-7068-1189-7 .

books by other authors

Roland Barthes: The Eiffel Tower , From the French by Helmut Scheffel, Suhrkamp Paperback 4632, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-518-46632-2 .
Jill Jonnes, Eiffel's Tower: The Thrilling Story Behind Paris's Beloved Monument and theExtraordinary World's Fair That Introduced It , Penguin, New York, NY / London 2010, ISBN 978-0-14-311729-2 (English).
Bertrand Lemoine : The Eiffel Tower. Gustave Eiffel: La Tour de 300 Meters. Taschen, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-8365-0903-9 (various languages).
Joseph Harriss: The Tallest Tower: Eiffel And The Belle Epoque , Unlimited Publishing, Bloomington, IN 2008, ISBN 978-1-58832-102-2 .
Meg Greene: Building World Landmarks - Eiffel Tower , Blackbirch Press, San Diego, CA 2003, ISBN 978-1-56711-315-0 (English).
Bertrand Lemoine: The Fantastic Story of the Eiffel Tower , Éditions Ouest-France, Rennes 1998, ISBN 978-2-7373-2238-9 .
Nigel Hawkes: Wunderwerke , Südwest Verlag, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-86047-250-X , pp. 76–79.
Erwin Heinle , Fritz Leonhardt : Towers of all times - of all cultures . DVA, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-421-02931-8 , pp. 214-218.
Jean-Kyeong Hong: The consequences of the industrial revolution for architecture: the development process of the new building types between the Coalbrookdale Bridge in 1779 and the Eiffel Tower in 1889 , [Cologne] 1994, DNB 943067499 (dissertation University of Cologne 1994, 159 pages).
Bertrand Lemoine: La Tour de Monsieur Eiffel , Gallimard, Paris 1989, ISBN 978-2-07-053083-0 (French).
Jeannot Simmen (ed.): Cent mille fois. Competition: 100 Years of the Eiffel Tower , König, Cologne 1987, ISBN 3-88375-062-X .
Roland Barthes , André Martin: The Eiffel Tower. Rogner & Bernhard, Munich 1970, ISBN 3-920802-34-9 .
Jules Simon : Guide officiel de la Tour Eiffel , Chaix, Paris 1893. ( online here (French))

technical article

Hubert Chanson: Hydraulic Engineering Legends Listed on the Eiffel Tower , in: Great Rivers History , ASCE -EWRI Publication, Paper presented at the History Symposium of the World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2009, Kansas City, USA, May 17-19 2009, JR ROGERS Ed., ISBN 978-0-7844-1032-5 , pp. 1–7. ( here online )
Dietrich Erben: On the Architectural Iconology of the Eiffel Tower: The Colossal, the Frame and the Chronotopos . In: INSITU 2020/2, pp. 253-268.
Hubertus Kohle : The Eiffel Tower as a monument to the revolution . In: Gudrun Gersmann , Hubertus Kohle (eds.) France 1871–1914: The Third Republic and the French Revolution , Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 978-3-515-08057-6 , pp. 119–132. ( here online )
Hubertus coal: The apotheosis of iron and iron construction. The Eiffel Tower in Germany. in: Beyond the limits. French and German Art from the Ancien Régime to the Present. DuMont Verlag, Cologne, 2000, ISBN 978-3-8321-5341-0 , pp. 262–268. ( here online (PDF; 765 KB); PDF; 783 kB)
P. Sandori: The Eiffel Tower is 100 years old , In: Canadian architect , 5/1989, pp. 47-52.
E. Schneider: Data on the Eiffel Tower , Stahlbau, 1989, ISSN 0038-9145 .
Patrick Weidmann, Iosif Pinelis: Model equations for the Eiffel Tower profile: Historical perspective and new results . In: Comptes Rendus Mecanique , 332, July 2004 (Edition 7), ISSN 1631-0721 , pp. 571–584. ( available here )
Karl Friedrich Walbrach: 110 years of the Eiffel Tower . In: Bautechnik , 76, 1999, Issue 8, pp. 696–699, ISSN 0932-8351 .
Anna Diercks: A "Triumph in the Naked Facts": The Eiffel Tower at the 1900 World's Fair ; ub.uni-muenchen.de (PDF; 251 kB)
Eiffel Tower . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 9 : Edwardes-Evangelical Association . London 1910, p. 133 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
Eiffel Tower . In: Brockhaus Konversations-Lexikon 1894-1896, 5th volume, pp. 779-780.

web links

Wiktionary: Eiffel Tower – explanations of meaning, word origin, synonyms, translations

Commons : Eiffel Tower - Album with images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Collection of documents on the Eiffel Tower – Sources and full texts (French)

Official "Tour-Eiffel" pages: French , English , German (limited content)
All you need to know about the Eiffel Tower (PDF; 432 kB; English brochure), in French (PDF)
paris.fr: Insolite: la Tour Eiffel vue d'en haut . (French) – Interview with the photographer Stéphane Compoint about the creation of unusual images directly from the top of the tower

broadcast contributions

Deutschlandfunk : The Leaning Tower of Eiffel , radio show by Suzanne Krause, April 13, 2011
Deutschlandfunk: In the service of the iron lady. Behind the Scenes of the Eiffel Tower , radio show by Suzanne Krause, August 6, 2011
Deutschlandfunk: Visiting an old lady. Discovering the Eiffel Tower from a different perspective , radio show by Suzanne Krause, October 30, 2011

panoramas and images

Historical images of the Eiffel Tower: General image collection ( Memento of February 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), high-resolution images of the construction work
High-resolution and sometimes 360-degree images at eiffel-tower.com
360 degree view from the Eiffel Tower
Pictures by the photo reporter Stéphane Compoint of the installation of the antenna and the painting work

itemizations

↑ michelin.de: Entry on Le Jules Verne ( Memento of May 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), retrieved on March 31, 2014

^ Thomas C. Clarke biographical summary ( Memento of April 19, 2012 at the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 615 kB), accessed March 1, 2012.

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Heinle, Leonhardt: Towers of all times - of all cultures , p. 214.

↑ Musée d'Orsay : Projet de phare monumental pour Paris, élévation , accessed 2 February 2012.

↑ Martin Trautz: Maurice Koechlin. The actual inventor of the Eiffel Tower In: Deutsche Bauzeitung , 04/2002 ( Online ( Memento of May 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive )).

↑ Trautz: Maurice Koechlin. The actual inventor of the Eiffel Tower , p. 4.

↑ Patent No. 164364 at the Institut national de la propriété Industrielle .

↑ Charles von Büren: The 300 meter tower , Baufachverlag Dietikon 1988, ISBN 978-3-85565-227-3 , p. 45.

↑ ^a ^b Lemoine: The Fantastic Story of the Eiffel Tower , p. 4.

↑ Henri Loyrette: The Eiffel Tower . In: Pierre Nora (ed.): Places of Remembrance in France , Beck 2005, ISBN 978-3-406-52207-9 , p. 116.

↑ Lemoine: The Eiffel Tower. Gustave Eiffel: La Tour de 300 Mèters , p. 9.

↑ Ursula Muscheler: The uselessness of the Eiffel Tower: A slightly different architectural history , Beck 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57523-5 , p. 201.

↑ Martin Michalky, Robert Schittler: The Big Book of the Stock Exchange , FinanzBuch Verlag 2007, ISBN 978-3-89879-265-3 , p. 42.

↑ Trautz: Maurice Koechlin. The actual inventor of the Eiffel Tower , p. 5.

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↑ The Tower in figures (PDF; 160 kB), accessed 6 March 2012.

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↑ ^a ^b Lemoine: The Fantastic Story of the Eiffel Tower , p. 9.

↑ E. Schneider: Data on the Eiffel Tower ( Memento of February 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). In: Steel Construction , 1989, ISSN 0038-9145 .

↑ 14 February 1887 edition of Le Temps .

↑ Ursula Muscheler: The uselessness of the Eiffel Tower: A slightly different architectural history , Beck 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57523-5 , p. 204.

↑ Lemoine, The Fantastic Story of the Eiffel Tower , p. 12.

↑ Ursula Muscheler: The Uselessness of the Eiffel Tower: A Slightly Different Architectural History . Beck, 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57523-5 , p. 205.

↑ Home Loyrette: La Tour Eiffel . In: Piene Nora (ed.): Les Lieux de Mémoire , vol. 3, 3 (les France – De I'Archive a I'Embleme), Paris 1992, p. 481.

↑ Hubertus Kohle: The Eiffel Tower as a monument to the revolution , p. 125.

↑ ^a ^b Hubertus Kohle: The Eiffel Tower as a monument to the revolution , p. 126.

↑ Andrew Garn (eds.), Paola Antonelli , Udo Kultermann, Stephen Van Dyk: World Exhibitions 1933-2005: Architecture Design Graphics , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt 2008, ISBN 978-3-421-03696-4 , p. 17.

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↑ Hawkes, Marvels , p. 76.

↑ ^a ^b Ursula Muscheler: The uselessness of the Eiffel Tower: A slightly different architectural history , Beck 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57523-5 , p. 206.

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↑ eiffel-tower.com: The Eiffel Tower's Attendance Figures Right from the Beginning ( Memento of January 22, 2013 at archive.today web archive ), retrieved February 15, 2012.

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g eiffel-tower.com: The major events , accessed March 13, 2012.

↑ The Eiffel Tower: key dates (English); Retrieved April 20, 2013.

↑ Lemoine, The Fantastic Story of the Eiffel Tower , p. 18.

↑ Matthias Eberling: Mahatma Gandhi - life, work, impact . Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-518-18219-6 , p. 20.

↑ ^a ^b Siegfried Forster: ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Tomorrow's radio. Changing French radio landscape ) Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 462 kB), accessed March 12, 2012.@1@2

↑ PTB-Mitteilungen 119 (2009), Issue 3 (PDF; 3.6 MB) ISSN 0030-834X , p. 214.

↑ Lemoine: The Fantastic Story of the Eiffel Tower , p. 16.

↑ Diercks: A "Triumph of the Naked Facts": The Eiffel Tower at the 1900 World's Fair , p. 51.

↑ Henri Loyrette: Images de la Tour Eiffel (1884-1914) . In: 1889. La Tour Eiffel et l'Expositionuniversale (catalogue for the exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay from 16 May to 15 August 1989, Paris 1989), p. 216.

↑ ^a ^b Diercks: A "Triumph of the Naked Facts": The Eiffel Tower at the 1900 World's Fair , p. 53.

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↑ MG Veltmann, Martinus Veltmann: Facts and Mysteries in Elementary Particle Physics , World Scientific Publishing 2003, ISBN 978-981-238-149-1 , p. 164 ff.

↑ Henning Sievers: Military service on the Eiffel Tower . In: Louis de Broglie and Quantum Mechanics . p. 9, archive : physics/ 9807012 .
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↑ The world mourns in black-yellow-red . In: star . March 23, 2016.
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before	Tallest building in the world	after that
Washington Monument (169 m)	Eiffel Tower (300 m) 1889-1930	Chrysler Building (319 m)

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[Türme_aller_Zeiten_–_aller_Kulturen,_S._214-3] Heinle, Leonhardt: Towers of all times - of all cultures , p. 214.

[4] Musée d'Orsay : Projet de phare monumental pour Paris, élévation , accessed 2 February 2012.

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[6] Trautz: Maurice Koechlin. The actual inventor of the Eiffel Tower , p. 4.

[7] Patent No. 164364 at the Institut national de la propriété Industrielle .

[8] Charles von Büren: The 300 meter tower , Baufachverlag Dietikon 1988, ISBN 978-3-85565-227-3 , p. 45.

[Lemoine,_Seite_4-9] Lemoine: The Fantastic Story of the Eiffel Tower , p. 4.

[10] Henri Loyrette: The Eiffel Tower . In: Pierre Nora (ed.): Places of Remembrance in France , Beck 2005, ISBN 978-3-406-52207-9 , p. 116.

[11] Lemoine: The Eiffel Tower. Gustave Eiffel: La Tour de 300 Mèters , p. 9.

[12] Ursula Muscheler: The uselessness of the Eiffel Tower: A slightly different architectural history , Beck 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57523-5 , p. 201.

[13] Martin Michalky, Robert Schittler: The Big Book of the Stock Exchange , FinanzBuch Verlag 2007, ISBN 978-3-89879-265-3 , p. 42.

[14] Trautz: Maurice Koechlin. The actual inventor of the Eiffel Tower , p. 5.

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[17] Lemoine: The Fantastic Story of the Eiffel Tower , p. 8.

[Die_phantastische_Geschichte_vom_Eiffelturm,_S._9-18] Lemoine: The Fantastic Story of the Eiffel Tower , p. 9.

[19] E. Schneider: Data on the Eiffel Tower ( Memento of February 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). In: Steel Construction , 1989, ISSN 0038-9145 .

[20] 14 February 1887 edition of Le Temps .

[21] Ursula Muscheler: The uselessness of the Eiffel Tower: A slightly different architectural history , Beck 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57523-5 , p. 204.

[22] Lemoine, The Fantastic Story of the Eiffel Tower , p. 12.

[23] Ursula Muscheler: The Uselessness of the Eiffel Tower: A Slightly Different Architectural History . Beck, 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57523-5 , p. 205.

[24] Home Loyrette: La Tour Eiffel . In: Piene Nora (ed.): Les Lieux de Mémoire , vol. 3, 3 (les France – De I'Archive a I'Embleme), Paris 1992, p. 481.

[25] Hubertus Kohle: The Eiffel Tower as a monument to the revolution , p. 125.

[Kohle,_S._126-26] Hubertus Kohle: The Eiffel Tower as a monument to the revolution , p. 126.

[27] Andrew Garn (eds.), Paola Antonelli , Udo Kultermann, Stephen Van Dyk: World Exhibitions 1933-2005: Architecture Design Graphics , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt 2008, ISBN 978-3-421-03696-4 , p. 17.

[28] Ursula Muscheler: The uselessness of the Eiffel Tower: A slightly different architectural history , Beck 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57523-5 , p. 202.

[29] Hawkes, Marvels , p. 76.

[Ursula_Muscheler_2008-30] Ursula Muscheler: The uselessness of the Eiffel Tower: A slightly different architectural history , Beck 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57523-5 , p. 206.

[Lemoine_24-31] Lemoine: The Fantastic Story of the Eiffel Tower , p. 24.

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[36] Matthias Eberling: Mahatma Gandhi - life, work, impact . Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-518-18219-6 , p. 20.