They still exist, but more and more seem to be disappearing. The one on Revaler Strasse in Berlin, which the author of these lines used to visit again and again – with an adjoining pub, from whose clouds of smoke people tried to protect their clothes by putting them in the Ikea bag as quickly as possible – is now gone too.
Technology
Laundromats were once ubiquitous. If you couldn’t afford a machine, or didn’t have the space for one, or both, at least you didn’t have to wash by hand in the bathtub at home – if you even had one.
And quite a few relationships started there. Even shy people got into conversation about the advantages of the short program or the question “Dry here or at home?”. Not to mention the fact that by frequently strolling by you could sometimes catch your loved one and then quickly get the – carefully filled – laundry bag at home.
The Cologne band BAP even dedicated a song to this analogue and very clean early form of social media. It’s about the only real problem with the machines apart from the dwindling coins: their technology, “of which I don’t lose anything”, as singer Wolfgang Niedecken put it.
The first laundromat is said to have opened its doors and drums 89 years ago today, on April 18, 1934. It is said to have been in Fort Worth, Texas, although there are historical sources that mention Chicago. For a long time, these shops were ubiquitous in western cities. Private machines only really caught on decades later.
Early Patents
The technology, however, had its origins much earlier. The first patent for a machine that was supposed to be able to wash fabrics, among other things, dates back to 1691. How exactly it worked is not known. Over time, roller washing machines, brush washing machines, cradle washing machines, swing washing machines and impeller washing machines were added.
The first drum washing machine, the prototype of the number one laundromat and most of the machines in use today, dates back to 1858. Electric motors were added at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. For the specific technical processes in these devices, the Cologne bard Niedecken has once again found the only right words: “Wisch-Wasch, Wiiisch-Wasch!”
Read all the episodes of the “Tagesrückspiegel” column that have been published so far here.
