See the Eiffel Tower Evolve in 10 Major Transformations

The electrical engineer Fernand Jacopozzi, famous for creating a “false Paris” made entirely of light to divert attention from enemy bombing in World War I, was looking for great projects to light up Paris. He decided to focus on the Eiffel Tower and, faced with the high cost of such lighting, he managed to have it financed by Citroen who agreed to pay for it in exchange for turning the tower into, essentially, a large billboard. This helped carry out a huge publicity campaign for the company, which then became the first great illumination of the tower in 1925 and was repeated every year until 1935.

1935: A tower at the top of communication

Thanks to its transmitter, one of the most powerful in the world, the tower began broadcasting animated images in 1935. In 1940, when the German army was ordered to dismantle the Eiffel Tower to use its materials for other purposes, Kurt Hinzmann, in charge of propaganda in Paris, defended it, advocating the use of the tower as a means of communication. Paris, defended the tower and recommended modernizing its antenna system to broadcast German programs to wounded soldiers stranded in France. Now equipped with a state-of-the-art model that could reach the whole of the Ile de France, all the equipment was left as it was at the time of the liberation. The ORTF (French Radio and Television Office) took over the equipment and opened studios on top of the Eiffel Tower in the early 1950s.

1989: A ball is thrown