The Reeperbahn () is a street and entertainment district 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 ...

's St. Pauli district, one of the two centres of Hamburg's

nightlife Nightlife is a collective term for entertainment that is available and generally more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It includes pubs, bars, nightclubs, parties, live music, concerts, cabarets, theatre, ...

(the other being

Sternschanze Sternschanze () (lit. ''Star Sconce'') is a quarter in the center of Hamburg (Germany) within the Altona borough. In 2014, the population was 7,776 on an area of 0.6 km2 with a density of 14,113 inhabitants per km2.red-light district A red-light district or pleasure district is a part of an urban area where a concentration of prostitution and sex industry, sex-oriented businesses, such as sex shops, strip clubs, and adult theaters, are found. In most cases, red-light district ...

. In

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, it is also nicknamed ''die sündige Meile'' (the sinful mile) and '' Kiez''. The Reeperbahn Festival is among the largest club festivals.

Name and history

The

name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A person ...

''Reeperbahn'' means

ropewalk A ropewalk is a long straight narrow lane, or a covered pathway, where long strands of material are laid before being twisted into rope. Due to the length of some ropewalks, workers may use bicycles to get from one end to the other. Many ropew ...

, which is a place where ropes are made ( = rope, the standard German word is ; = track). Until the 1620s Hamburg's ropewalks had been located in the Neustadt (New Town) quarter of the inner city close to the

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...

, which then became a densely built up area. Therefore, the ropewalks "had to be relocated outside the city walls on the country road leading toward Altona – which later took on the street name 'Reperbahn'." The street was a ropewalk in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The street and its side streets

The street is lined with

restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...

night club A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a Bar (establishment), bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighti ...

discotheque A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighting displays, and ...

s and bars. There are also

strip club A strip club (also known as a strip joint, striptease bar, peeler bar, gentlemen's club, among others) is a venue where strippers provide adult entertainment, predominantly in the form of striptease and other erotic dances including lap dances. St ...

sex shop A sex shop is a retailer that sells products related to adult sexual or erotic entertainment, such as sex toys, lingerie, pornography, and other related products. An early precursor of the modern sex shop was a chain of stores set up in Par ...

brothel A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establis ...

s and similar businesses. Between 1997 and 2007 the Erotic Art Museum was open on Nobistor, a street running between the Reeperbahn and ''Louise-Schroeder-Straße''. The ', a

musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...

, is also located at the Reeperbahn. It played

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948) is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End theatre, West End and on Broadway theatre, Broad ...

's ''

Cats The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

'' for many years, after that '' Mamma Mia!'', an

ABBA ABBA ( ) were a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the List ...

-musical, followed by "", ("I have never been to New York"), a

jukebox musical A jukebox musical is a stage musical or musical film in which a majority of the songs are well-known, pre-existing popular music songs, rather than original music composed for the musical. Some jukebox musicals use a wide variety of songs, while ...

featuring hit songs by Austrian singer/songwriter

Udo Jürgens Jürgen Udo Bockelmann (30 September 1934 – 21 December 2014), generally known as Udo Jürgens, was an Austrian composer and singer of popular music whose career spanned over 50 years. He won the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 for Austria, ...

, then '' Sister Act'' and finally ''

Rocky ''Rocky'' is a 1976 American independent film, independent sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the Rocky (film series), ''Rocky'' franchise and also star ...

'', based on the Stallone film. There are other theatres at the Reeperbahn ( St. Pauli Theater, Imperial Theater, Schmidt's Tivoli) and also several Cabarets/Varietés. A famous landmark is the Davidwache, a police station located on the South side of the Reeperbahn at the cross street '.

Street prostitution Street prostitution is a form of prostitution in which a prostitute solicitation, solicits customers from a public place, most commonly a street, while waiting at street corners or walking alongside a street, but also other public places such as ...

is legal during certain times of the day on '. The '' Herbertstraße'', a short side street off the ''Davidstraße'', has sex workers displaying themselves behind windows, waiting for customers. Since 1933, large screens block the view into Herbertstraße from the adjacent streets. Since the 1970s, there have been signs saying that entrance to the street is prohibited for women and juveniles; however, it is a public road which anyone may enter. Many pubs, and street-based sex workers, can be found on the square of Hans-Albers-Platz south of the Reeperbahn. The ' ("Great Freedom") is a street starting on the North Side with several bars, clubs and a Catholic church. In former years, several sex theatres here (''Salambo'', ''Regina'', ''Colibri'', ''Safari'') would show live sex acts on stage. , until its closure in 2013, the ''Safari'' was the only live sex theatre left in Germany.Death of the Reeperbahn: Hamburg's streets of shame
''The Independent'', 21 March 2008 The popular table dance club ''Dollhouse'' now takes the place of the ''Salambo''. '' Hotel Luxor'', Hamburg's oldest brothel that had operated on this street for 60 years, was closed in 2008. The street's name comes from the fact that Catholics were allowed to practise their religion here at a time when this district did not yet belong to Hamburg; they were forbidden from doing so in Protestant Hamburg proper. In 1967, Europe's largest brothel at the time, the six-floor ''Eros Center'', was opened on the Reeperbahn. It was closed in the late 1980s amidst the

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

scare. At a major trial during 2006 and 2007 ten members of the "Marek Gang", which controls brothels on and near the Reeperbahn, were charged with

pimp Procuring, pimping, or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term "pimp" ...

ing. The judge rejected the charge of forming a criminal gang and handed out suspended sentences: the men had started relationships with young women in local discotheques in order to recruit them to work in their brothels, an illegal practice if the women are under 21 years of age; some men had also abused some of the women who worked for them. Because of the problems with the high

crime rate In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...

, in 2007 the Senate of Hamburg enacted a ban on weapons in the Reeperbahn area. The only other such area with a weapons ban in Hamburg is the ', St. Georg. The ''St Pauli Preservation Society'' decries the ongoing

gentrification Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has ...

of the area. Several older residents blamed the decline of the Reeperbahn's

sex industry The sex industry (also called the sex trade) consists of businesses that either directly or indirectly provide sex-related products and services or adult entertainment. The industry includes activities involving direct provision of sex-related se ...

on the rise of discotheques and cheap bars that attract teenage customers. In 2013, the Dancing Towers were built at the eastern end of Reeperbahn, symbolizing a couple dancing

tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries from a combination of Arge ...

. The increasing number of these and other modern buildings erected at the Reeperbahn attracted criticism by some St. Pauli inhabitants.Club in den Niederungen
Süddeutsche Zeitung, in German The Reeperbahn was hit hard by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Almost every establishment was forced to close.

The Beatles

In the early 1960s,

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 ...

(who had not yet become world-famous) played in several clubs around the Reeperbahn, including the ''

Star-Club The Star-Club was a music club in Hamburg, Germany, that opened on Friday 13 April 1962, and was initially operated by Manfred Weissleder and Horst Fascher. In the 1960s, many of the giants of rock music played at the club. The club closed on 3 ...

'', '' Kaiserkeller'', '' Top Ten'' (Reeperbahn 136) and ''Indra''. Stories about the band's residencies, onstage and offstage antics are legendary; some stories are true (

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...

played a song set with a

toilet seat A toilet seat is a hinged unit consisting of a round or oval open seat, and usually a lid, which is bolted onto the bowl of a toilet used in a sitting position (as opposed to a squat toilet). The seat can be either for a flush toilet or a dry ...

around his neck), others inflated (the band urinating in an alley as

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 5 ...

s walked past was told rather differently later). A fellow musician, Ted "Kingsize" Taylor, made a crude

tape recording An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present ...

of their last

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly the entire day, of the last day of the year, 31 December, also known as Old Year's Day. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated with dancing, eating, drinkin ...

show, at the Star-Club in December 1962; a cleaned-up version of the tape was later released as an album, later characterized by Harrison as "awful". Famously John Lennon is quoted: "I might have been born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

– but I grew up in Hamburg". To mark the historical importance of their time in Hamburg, a '' Beatles-Platz'' was built at the cross of Reeperbahn and Große Freiheit.Spatensich für Beatles-Platz
bild.de Retrieved on June 19, 2008

In popular culture

The popular 1944 movie ''

Große Freiheit Nr. 7 ''Große Freiheit Nr. 7'' (English: ''Great Freedom No. 7'') is a 1944 German musical film, musical drama film directed by Helmut Käutner. It was named after Große Freiheit (grand freedom), a street next to Hamburg's Reeperbahn road in the St. ...

'' tells the story of a singer (played by

Hans Albers Hans Philipp August Albers (22 September 1891 – 24 July 1960), also known by his nickname “der blonde Hans” (The Blond Hans), was a German actor and singer. He was the biggest male movie star in Germany between 1930 and 1960 and one of the m ...

) who works in a Reeperbahn club and falls in love with a girl played by Ilse Werner. Hans Albers and

Heinz Rühmann Heinrich Wilhelm "Heinz" Rühmann (; 7 March 1902 – 3 October 1994) was a German film actor who appeared in over 100 films between 1926 and 1993. He is one of the most famous and popular German actors of the 20th century, and is considered a Ge ...

played in the 1954 movie ''Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins'' ('' On the Reeperbahn at Half Past Midnight'', after a song of the same name sung by Albers in the 1944 film). "Reeperbahn" is a 1978 song by Udo Lindenberg, to the tune of Penny Lane, lamenting the decay of the entertainment there. In the 1965 film '' Ship of Fools'',

Jose Ferrer Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. Given name Mishnaic and Talmudic periods * Jose ben Abin * Jose ben Akabya *Jose the Galilean * Jose ben Halafta ...

and Christiane Schmidtmer sang "Heute Abend Geh'n Wir Bummeln Auf Der Reeperbahn" ("Tonight We Will Go Strolling on The Reeperbahn").

The Police The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. Within a few months of their first gig, the line-up settled as Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar, primary songwriter), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussi ...

song "Low Life" is about the Reeperbahn. Randy Pie's 1975 song "Kitsch" is about a curiosity shop on the Reeperbahn – the group hailed from Hamburg. Reeperbahn is the name of a 1980s Swedish band. Finnish artist Irwin Goodman has a song and an album called ''St.Pauli ja Reeperbahn''. The street is also mentioned in the

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television host. According to ''Rolling Stone'', Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical ...

song "Human Hands", in

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan "Van" Morrison (born 31 August 1945) is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician whose recording career started in the 1960s. Morrison's albums have performed well in the UK and Ireland, with more than 40 reaching the UK ...

's song "Heavy Connection", in Paul Kelly's song "Every Fucking City", in the

Midnight Oil Midnight Oil (known informally as "The Oils") are an Australian rock band composed of Peter Garrett (vocals, harmonica), Rob Hirst (drums), Jim Moginie (guitar, keyboard) and Martin Rotsey (guitar). The group was formed in Sydney in 1972 by H ...

song "Mountains of Burma", the Sloppy Seconds song "Germany" from their album '' Destroyed'' and in the

Runrig Runrig were a Scottish Celtic rock band formed on the Isle of Skye in 1973. From its inception, the band's line-up included brothers and songwriters Rory MacDonald (musician), Rory MacDonald (bass, vocals) and Calum MacDonald (musician), Calum ...

song "Song of the Earth". The heavy metal band

Blue Cheer Blue Cheer was an American rock band that initially performed and recorded in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was sporadically active until 2009. Based in San Francisco, Blue Cheer played in a psychedelic blues rock or acid rock style. The ...

have a song called "Sweet Child of the Reeperbahn" on their 1991 album '' Dining with the Sharks''. The punk band The Toy Dolls have a song titled "Caught up the Reeperbahn", first released on their 1993 album '' Absurd-Ditties''. "Reeperbahn" is the name of a track from the Christian rock group

Model Engine A model engine is a small internal combustion engine typically used to power a radio-controlled aircraft, radio-controlled car, radio-controlled boat, free flight, control line aircraft, or ground-running tether car model. Because of the ...

's CD ''The Lean Years Tradition''. The Reeperbahn is often mentioned in Karen Duve's 1999 novel, '' Regenroman''. (The English translation is entitled ''Rain'').

Tom Waits Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on society's underworld and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He began in the American folk music, fo ...

' 2002 release ''

Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

'' contains a track called "Reeperbahn". Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction released the track 'Christmas eve on the Reeperbahn' on their 2002 album I Am Rock. Dutch DJ and producer

Nicky Romero Nick Rotteveel (; born 6 January 1989), professionally known as Nicky Romero or Monocule, is a Dutch DJ, record producer and remixer from Amerongen, Utrecht Province. He has worked with, and received support from DJs, such as Tiësto, Fedde l ...

had the music video for his song "

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

" shot in Hamburg, Germany. Near the end, the actors enter the Reeperbahn's subway system. Australian pop-punk band the

Hard-Ons The Hard-Ons are an Australian punk rock band, that formed in 1982 in Punchbowl, New South Wales. Its founding members were Keish de Silva on lead vocals and drums, Peter "Blackie" Black on guitar and backing vocals, and Ray Ahn on bass guita ...

have a song called "Don't Fear The Reeperbahn" on their 2007 album ''Most People Are Nicer Than Us''. Its title is a play on the Blue Öyster Cult song " (Don't Fear) The Reaper". German electro house duo Digitalism recorded the song "Reeperbahn" on their 2011 release '' I Love You Dude''. Udo Lindenberg recorded 2011 a song titled "Reeperbahn" live together with

Jan Delay Jan Phillip Eißfeldt (born 25 August 1976), known professionally as Jan Delay, is a German rapper and singer whose stylistic range includes mainly hip hop, reggae, dub and funk. An accomplished solo artist, he became known to the public as ...

. The commercial

house music House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...

producer Eric Prydz has a track titled "Reeperbahn" under his moniker

Pryda Eric Sheridan Prydz (, ; born 19 July 1976), also known by his many aliases including Pryda () and Cirez D (), is a Swedish DJ and record producer. He rose to prominence with his 2004 hit single "Call on Me (Eric Prydz song), Call on Me", and s ...

. London based indie band Spector have a bonus track titled "Reeperbahn" on the deluxe version of their 2015 album '' Moth Boys''. UK based folk rock band Skinny Lister wrote a song titled "Hamburg Drunk", which depicts a rough night "falling and sprawlling down the old Reeperbahn" on their 2016 album ''The Devil, The Heart and the Fight''.

References

External links