Everyone has a different name for these calendars, which will probably not need a name anytime soon.

On Ebay they are called strangely stiff "ladies' calendars".

Or more directly: “erotic” and even “nudist calendars”.

The motor oil manufacturer Liqui Moly called it "Girlskalender".

And Würth, the largest screw dealer in the world, spoke of the "model calendar".

Sarah Obertreis

Editor in the “Society & Style” department.

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"I think pin-up calendars are a good fit," says Simone van de Loo.

The photographer has been in dozens of workshops over the past six years.

There she took pictures of a world in which clichés were still reality.

Her photos show the oil-stained walls of car repair shops, with pictures of women in bikinis, lingerie or latex hanging on them.

Sometimes bare nipples also look at the viewer.

"I felt a sensuality that is embodied and amplified by the girls on the calendar pages," says Simone van de Loo about her visits to the workshops.

In her compositions she sees "a contrast and yet at the same time a completely natural interplay".

With this choice of words alone, the photographer, who was born in 1963, is likely to encounter some contradiction.

Because the calendars, which have long been controversial, have lost so much acceptance in recent years that it will be difficult to find an up-to-date copy in 2023.

A circulation of 630,000 pieces

Würth recently announced the end of its model calendar.

“Job descriptions are less and less occupied in the understanding of classic role models.

We also support that,” the company announced.

There was a shitstorm for the calendar on Twitter.

Würth customers had complained about him and certainly some wives from the Würth empire, whom the 87-year-old screw billionaire Reinhold Würth once called "the secret employees of our house".

The former "Bild" editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt hung the model calendar in the editorial office of his YouTube channel.

This is what the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” reported in September.

But that didn't save him either.

Unlike the impressive Würth art collection with works by David Hockney, Carl Spitzweg and Max Ernst, the model calendar, which was not quite as artistically valuable, had long since fallen out of date.

Until recently, it had had a circulation of more than 630,000 copies.

Heidi Klum and Claudia Schiffer once had their picture taken for the calendar, and in between it was not only distributed to Würth customers, but also sold for 25 euros each.

For Simone van de Loo he is "cult".

But during her research, the photographer was also in a workshop where the decline of the "women's calendar" was not bad at all.

Companies tried to smooth things over with men's calendars

"When calendars like this hang up, it shouldn't come as a surprise that men keep making jokes about women," says Christine Maurer.

She runs the Vespa workshop "Vespenstich" in Frankfurt's Gallus district.

Van de Loo visited Maurer years ago and discovered a calendar with almost naked men in the lounge of the "Vespenstichs".

Maurer can vaguely remember.

She says they didn't give the team much thought about the men's calendar.

The main thing is that there was no pin-up girl calendar hanging there.

Companies like Förch and Würth tried to smooth things over with their men's diaries.

"Look here," they should say, "we now have equality among scantily clad models." Of course, it's not that easy.

Mechanics like Christine Maurer are still the absolute exception in the workshops.

Women came and are found there mainly as sex objects and not as real people with skills and knowledge.

The equipment manufacturer Stihl tried to circumvent this problem by showing the models in suggestive poses, but gardening with chainsaws and high-pressure cleaners.

A male model was also always featured on the December paper.

The Swedish forest agency was not convinced.

She announced in December 2020 "that no more Stihl devices will be procured as long as calendars with scantily clad women continue to be published".

Stihl no longer printed a calendar for 2021.

The motor oil manufacturer Liqui Moly also stopped its calendar after the 2022 edition.

Not exactly voluntarily, as the former boss of the company likes to emphasize.

Ernst Prost sees himself as a victim of the zeitgeist.

Eventually it got too stupid for him.

Simone van de Loo avoids photographing Liqui Moly's “Girlskalender”.

The photographer finds the pictures “unaesthetic”.

That didn't work in her own pictures either.

The nudity and the fact that there were only female models doesn't bother her.

"I have the impression that the more revealing it is on Instagram, the more tense it is outside.

That's a certain double standard."

Christine Maurer from the Vespa workshop would like companies to think ahead with their calendars.

That they show men and women in typical professional situations.

Then she wouldn't have anything against a bikini here and there.

The model could still wear dungarees.