Bruno Koschmider (1926 – 2000) was a German entrepreneur in Hamburg, best known for employing
the Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
in the early 1960s. He controlled various businesses, such as the Bambi Kino, which was a cinema, the Indra club and the
Kaiserkeller.
Personal life
Koschmider was born in 1926 in
Free City of Danzig
The Free City of Danzig (; ) was a city-state under the protection and oversight of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and nearly 200 other small localities in the surrou ...
(Gdańsk) and died in 2000 in
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
, Germany.
The Beatles
Allan Williams booked the Beatles (in May 1960) into Koschmider's Indra club.
[Miles. p56.][Photos of Clubs in Hamburg](_blank)
/ref>
The Beatles first played at the Indra[Miles. pp. 57–58.] In October 1960, they left the Kaiserkeller to work at the " Top Ten Club",[Cynthia Lennon, ''John''. p93.] which was run by Peter Eckhorn.[Miles. pp. 71–72.] When Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...
and Pete Best went back to the Bambi Kino to get their belongings they found it in total darkness.[Miles. p72.] Attaching a condom
A condom is a sheath-shaped Barrier contraception, barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a Sexually transmitted disease, sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both external condo ...
to a nail on the wall of their room and setting fire to it gave McCartney and Best a source of light, which they used to pack their belongings.[Spitz pg.230] There was no real damage, but Koschmider reported them for attempted arson
Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...
. McCartney and Best spent three hours in a local jail
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various cr ...
and were deported, as was George Harrison
George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Culture ...
, for working under the legal age limit.[Miles. pp. 72–73.]
Legacy
Koschmider has been portrayed in films about the early career of the Beatles. He was played by Richard Marner in the 1979 film '' Birth of the Beatles'', by Paul Humpoletz in the 1994 film ''Backbeat
In music and music theory, the beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse (regularly repeating event), of the ''mensural level'' (or ''beat level''). The beat is often defined as the rhythm listeners would tap their toes to when listening to a pi ...
'', and by Alex Cox
Alexander B. H. Cox (born 15 December 1954) is an English film director, screenwriter, actor, non-fiction author and broadcaster. Cox experienced success early in his career with ''Repo Man (film), Repo Man'' (1984) and ''Sid and Nancy'' (1986 ...
in the 2000 TV movie '' In His Life: The John Lennon Story''.
Notes
References
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koschmider, Bruno
Businesspeople from Hamburg
1926 births
2000 deaths
People from the Free City of Danzig