At number 1 on Beatles Platz, in the heart of Hamburg’s red light district, the neon silhouette of a stripper above the Susis Bar Show aims to compete for attention with the discreet metallic silhouettes that pay tribute to those five Beatles who made their debut in 1960 in the legendary district of Sankt Pauli. Apart from the profiles of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, guitar in hand, those of bassist Stuart Sutcliffe, who played with them until 1961, and drummer Pete Best, who in 1962 would be replaced by Ringo Starr, shine in the twilight : improvement demanded by producer George Martin.
The daytime tourists who follow the song titles engraved on metal strips at the feet of the sculptures have nothing to do with the visitors who, at night, especially on weekends, partake in the party on this street full of clubs of striptease, sex shops and totally legal brothels. They have been since 2002 when the Social Democrats and the Greens regulated prostitution in Germany. Just like 60 years ago, they share space with live music venues.
Three of the four venues where the Beatles played, the Indra, the Kaiserkeller and the Star Club, keep the name. There are guides detailing the exploits of those young geniuses who, from August 1960 to December 1962, honed their musical skills in the port city, before becoming the transformative pop band that would rival in notoriety with the Rolling Stones.
It was Bruno Koschmider, owner of several clubs in the city, who hired them for a season, first at Indra and then at the Kaiserkeller, where they replaced Derry and the Seniors. But that had nothing to do with what the boys had imagined. Paul’s father would not have allowed his young man to go to Hamburg if he had imagined it. In that place of perdition they were exploited, they had them sleeping behind the screen of an old cinema, being cold.
The Beatles didn’t like Koschmider’s clubs or how they were treated. And in one of their pranks, they jumped on the wooden plank stage of the Kaiserkeller to test it, until it broke. Enraged, Koschmider had them beaten. Soon after, the band received an offer to play in the Top Ten, cooler, more serious, they paid better. In fact, they always escaped to see Tony Sheridan play there. So, in October 1960 they said goodbye to Koschmider, who took revenge by reporting Harrison for working underage (he was 17). In November, when things got interesting, George was deported.
Today, in front of the red facade of the Indra where everything from a punk festival to stand up comedy and dancing club proposals are announced, a group of nostalgic people enjoy the post-rainy moment and surround the Beatle route guide when this starts singing and playing a ukulele while remembering the old days. The group then proceeds along Große Freiheit, in the direction of Beatles Platz, and stops in front of 36, where the famous Kaiserkeller guitar still stands. The box office, however, sells tickets for a boxing tournament. On the sidewalk in front you can read Star Club on a discreet side sign on the walls of Paradies, a brothel.
The district that was then a typical red light district of a port city with a lot of sailor traffic is now a thriving business: prostitution was regulated as a commercial activity and the German tax authorities derive income from the 15,000 million euros a year that already generates throughout the country. Officially, there are 28,000 “sex workers” and 2,000 registered establishments.
They promised to emancipate prostitutes, but according to studies reported by the International Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution, 90% are controlled by a pimp, a task now legal. The law has industrialized prostitution. And with the arrival of a million Ukrainian refugees, the locals keep looking for fresh meat.
Even the Beatle route has had competitors at night: the former pimp Oli Zeriadtke has become a tour guide for the neighborhood and gives tours with explicit language and high-pitched jokes. He says that legalization has made society more accepting of “sex workers”.
