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The Reeperbahn and St. Pauli District

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The Reeperbahn is a street in Hamburg's St. Pauli district, one of the centres of Hamburg's nightlife In German it is also called die sündige Meile (the sinful mile). The name Reeperbahn comes from the German word Reep meaning "a heavy rope for a ship" because at one time ropes were produced here for the nearby harbour.

JOHN: I might have been born in Liverpool - but I grew up in Hamburg

PAUL: Hamburg was quite an eye-opener. We went in as kids and came back as . . . old kids! We all got our education in Hamburg. It was quite something.

GEORGE: The whole area, the Reeperbahn and St. Pauli, was like Soho. We were in an area where the whole place was raving.

Beatles-Platz is at the crossroads of Reeperbahn and Große Freiheit. It was built to remember Hamburg's importance in the Beatles' history, because this is where their career began. 

It's circular with a diameter of 29 m and paved black to make it look like a vinyl record. Five statues representing the Beatles are placed in an arc looking up Große Freiheit. The fifth statue which indicates Stuart Sutcliffe, who dropped out of the band, is placed a bit off to the side. The drummer statue is crafted in a double image to pay homage to the two drummers who worked with the band in the Hamburg clubs: Pete Best and Ringo Starr.

The Große Freiheit ("Great Freedom") runs north-south and joins the Reeperbahn at the Beatle-Platz monument.  with several bars, clubs and a Catholic church. Over the years it has been the crowded with bars, clubs, sex theatres, and a Catholic church.

The street's name comes from the fact that Catholics were allowed to practice their religion here at a time when this district did not yet belong to Hamburg proper which was mainly