Phone booth - why not give us a call!

The FeH 78 telephone boxes are an architectural object that once characterized public space and everyday social life and is important for the history of the people. The yellow telephone booths are a familiar feature of everyday social life and are part of the history of communication, but can hardly be experienced or conveyed today.

A socio-historical value also results from the location and general accessibility as part of the public space as well as the booth being protected from the weather and noise and offering shelter. Furthermore, the telephone booth was and is an indispensable element of pop culture and an important component of films and various publicity campaigns.

Within the cities, the formerly numerous FeH 78s are now rare following their mass dismantling by Telekom AG. Smaller collections in various museums (e.g. LVR Freilichtmuseum Kommern, Museumsstiftung Post und Telekommunikation Frankfurt etc.) point to the historical value of the telephone boxes, whereby the museums focus purely on the technical documentation character. What is also important, however, is their location and preservation in situ within the urban fabric as evidence of public use and accessibility as well as their integration into the street space and the structural and usage-related context.

The distinctive, honey-yellow telephone booths, such as those on Würselener Straße and Püngeler Straße, are characteristic of the public space, especially as their installation, the necessary technical requirements and, last but not least, their shape were addressed in urban planning at the time and the booth itself should be clearly recognizable and easily accessible for users. They were therefore often installed at central locations, street intersections or points with a context appropriate to their use, i.e. close to central institutions or stores, for example.

In times of ubiquitous mobile communication, the traceability of local communication and telephone technology in public, urban spaces provided by the telephone booths is of great importance.