I finally rode the weird, curved German elevator.

Over the years that I've been making videos, I've visited quite a few strange elevators and lifts. And every time I do, I get emails from people in Germany, saying "what about the one in the New Town Hall in Hanover? " And look, I don't want to become 'that weird elevator guy', but... I finally made it. - This New Town Hall is the only one in the whole of Germany with a dome. That's the first specialty, and another one is, of course, our curved elevator. That's the only one in the world. The elevator was opened in 1913, at the same time as this building was finished. They didn't want to change the design of this building, otherwise they had to install this elevator just in the middle of the main hall. So they found one spot on this building, one small tower, and the elevator follows the form of the cupola. It starts in the third floor of this building, 42 meters high, 8. 3 meters sideways. This elevator technik was developed during the construction of this building. - Elevators were already fairly common in high buildings by the time this was constructed, but this elevator has a unique design requirement. It means to travel up the side of a dome. The whole elevator shaft is curved. It's not a diagonal straight line like the Eiffel Tower lifts. The track bends as it goes up, about 17°. And it doesn't bend evenly. It's not a smooth curve. The path the elevator takes is irregular and lumpy. That would be a design challenge today, let alone a century ago. The new elevator was built by the company Lutz from Hamburg. You cannot use this elevator the whole year, because in the winter it's very slippery there on the dome. So each spring, there are many Hanover people who cannot wait to see again Hanover from above. - The various parts and mechanisms of the original lift were replaced over the years, and in 2007, what was left was ripped out. A few months later, this brand new elevator was completed. And it only just fits. At points, there's only 5mm of clearance between the cabin and the wall. At other places, there's lots more. Apparently, during testing and construction, it did bump and scrape the walls sometimes. Like I said, the path is lumpy. Oh, and also, the floor panels of this new lift? They can be transparent. Obvious question: how do they keep the cabin vertical as it goes up? I assumed this would have some kind of clever self-levelling mechanism, like a funicular railway, or the tram at Gateway Arch in St Louis. Or maybe a floor with hydraulics in it, so it would stay level as the cabin moved around it. But no. The solution is simple. They don't keep the floor level! The whole cabin is just dragged up the side as one. I can't lean on these doors, but I want to. I'm leaning on this pole. We started out on the ground at a slight angle, passed through vertical about halfway up, and we ended up leaning a little bit the other way. Because a floor with a tilt of a few degrees isn't really a big problem for a short journey. So there you go. Germany, you can stop emailing me. I have finally taken a trip on your elevator. For a video about an elevator ride, that was a lot of steps.