The Große Freiheit (
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 ...
for: "Great Freedom") is a street starting on the North Side to
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
Reeperbahn road in the
St. Pauli quarter. It is part of the
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 ...
.
History
The street was named in 1610 after the fact that Count
Ernest of Schaumburg and Holstein-Pinneberg had granted religious freedom to non-Lutherans such as Mennonites and Roman Catholics to practise their faith here and commercial freedom for handcrafters not enrolled in the else compelling guilds. At that time this district was part of the city of
Altona within the county of
Holstein-Pinneberg, and did not yet belong to Hamburg. When the Duchy of
Holstein-Glückstadt annexed Holstein-Pinneberg in 1640 the comital freedoms were confirmed. Non-Lutherans were forbidden to publicly practise their religions in Lutheran Hamburg proper. The street has still a Catholic church (St. Joseph), situated among rather unholy businesses. The Mennonite church, established in 1611, moved into another neighbourhood in 1915.
In 1938, when the
Nazis
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
changed borders with the
Greater Hamburg Act, the street became part of Hamburg. In 1944, the German 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. ...
'' with
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 ...
was named after the road.
In the 1960s,
The Beatles performed at clubs in the street, e.g. in Große Freiheit 36 (
Kaiserkeller), Große Freiheit 64 (today Indra-Musikclub), and in Große Freiheit 39 (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 ...
, 1962–1969). The street still hosts music clubs like ''
Große Freiheit 36'' and ''
Grünspan''.
In the 1970s, several sex theatres (''Salambo'', ''Regina'', ''Colibri'', ''Safari'') showed live
sex acts on stage. , until its closure in 2013, the ''Safari'' was the only live sex theatre left in Germany. The popular
table dance club ''Dollhouse'' now takes the place of the ''Salambo''.
In 1975, the German rock band
Randy Pie used two views of Grosse Freiheit for their album ''Kitsch'': the front cover is a picture of the street at night, while the back cover is the same view but at day time.
In 2008, the
Beatles-Platz square was built. In the same year, Hamburg's oldest brothel, the
Hotel Luxor, which had operated on the street for 60 years, closed.
There is only one hotel on the street, the
St. Joseph Hotel Hamburg, which opened 2005 and named after the church of the same name, St. Joseph.
Sights
Image:Große_freiheit_rockclub.jpg, Music club "Große Freiheit 36"
Image:Grenzgang Gr.Freiheit.jpg, Houses at the "Grenzgang" of Altona, between Große Freiheit and Talstraße
Image:St. Joseph Kirche.jpg, St. Joseph Church on Große Freiheit
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.
''
Kleine Freiheit'' (international title: A Little Bit of Freedom) is a 2003 film by Kurdish director Yüksel Yavuz about the friendship (and later relationship) between two teenage boys who are illegal immigrants in Germany, is set on the street and the title is a play on words about the street.
[Gozde Naiboglu ]
Literature
* Uwe Heimowski: ''Brunos Dankeschön - Geschichten von der Reeperbahn,'' Neufeld Verlag, Schwarzenfeld 2005,
References
External links
*
*
Images from the road, Grosse Freiheit
City of Hamburg about Reeperbahn
History Reeperbahn
''Beatles Hamburg 1966'' on Youtube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grosse Freiheit
Red-light districts in Germany
Streets in Hamburg
Prostitution in Germany