First the church, then the steeple, then 'your logo here'
Over the past decade, giant commercial billboards have changed the look of many European cities. Whether at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate or Rome's Trevi Fountain, ads on historic structures have become a key way to finance their repair.
But Germany has taken the trend to new - and controversial - heights. In Frankfurt, the scaffolding of the famed 15th-century Gothic steeple of Bartholomew Cathedral now sports a Panasonic poster.
Throughout Germany, churches are renting their facades for commercial messages. Supporters hail the development as an ingenious fundraising tactic. But critics argue the move dilutes the sacredness of churches.
"We're not pleased about it," says Raban Tilmann, pastor of the Bartholomew Cathedral. "This is something we have to endure," he says.
Turning its steeple into high-profile ad space has allowed the cathedral to raise some 100,000 euros for restoration. But it has also raised serious questions about the integrity of the church's message in a heavily commercialized world.
"Money is one thing, but the long-term moral danger is something else," says Heinz Schilling, a history professor at Berlin's Humboldt University who specializes on churches.
In Germany, churches are financed through taxpayers, who register their religion affiliations and pay 8 percent of their income tax to their church.
The system has traditionally provided churches with a protection that they don't enjoy in other countries. But income-tax revenues have been falling and Germans have been leaving churches - and their taxpaying obligations - in unprecedented numbers. That's forced churches to adopt more businesslike practices to generate revenues, such as regrouping parishes, laying off personnel, and relying on sponsorships.
The first controversial case arose in Berlin when an oversized portrait of German model Claudia Schiffer, promoting lipstick and shampoo from the French cosmetics company L'Oréal, wrapped the scaffolding around the 167-ft. bell tower of Germany's best-known church.
Left intentionally in ruins after World War II, Berlin's Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church stands as a testimony against war and destruction. But in 1999, cracks appeared in the bell tower of a modern church built next to the ruins. The church was on the brink of bankruptcy - so when an advertising firm offered to rent the scaffolding around the tower for the L'Oréal poster, pastor Sylvia von Kekulé agreed. Six months of the Schiffer poster financed the $298,000 belltower restoration.
Advertising posters are "a good, clean way of earning money," says Ms. von Kekulé, who withstood a heated church debate over the issue. Instead of scaring parishioners away, she says, it's made them grateful.
"We thought, it's not particularly nice, but if it's going to help our church bells ring again, then it's worth it," says von Kekule. "People often assume that churches get everything for free. But ... the church has no money."
Local politicians have condemned the ads on churches and other historic buildings. "People are losing respect," says Berlin councilwoman Dorothee Dubrau. Even Johannes Krug, pastor of the ad-draped Protestant Marienkirche, says he'd rather not see ads on the church anymore.
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