Theme Week Hamburg – St. Pauli, Reeperbahn, St. Pauli Landing Bridges and Fish Market
Sunday, 30 January 2011 - 04:02 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische UnionCategory/Kategorie: General, Architecture, Hamburg Reading Time: 9 minutes St. Pauli
St. Pauli located in the Hamburg-Mitte borough is one of the 105 quarters of the city of Hamburg, Germany. Situated on the right bank of the Elbe river, the Landungsbrücken are a northern part of the port of Hamburg. St. Pauli contains a world famous red light district around the street Reeperbahn. Around 28,000 inhabitans are living here. At the beginning of the 17th century it developed as a suburb called “Hamburger Berg” (Hamburg mountain) outside the gates of the nearby city of Hamburg and close to the city of Altona. The name comes from a hill in that area that was planed by Hamburg in 1620 for defence reasons (free field of fire for the artillery). Therefore, settlement was initially allowed there, but soon businesses, which were not desired inside Hamburg, e.g. for their smell or noise, were relegated to “Hamburger Berg”. Also the rope makers (or “Reeper” in Low German) went here because in the city it was hard to find enough space for their work. The name of St. Pauli’s most famous street Reeperbahn, or “Rope Walk”, harkens back to its rope making past. When people were officially allowed to live in St. Pauli at the end of the 17th century the city government moved workhouses and (pestilence) hospitals out of the city to “Hamburger Berg”, which later was named after its church, “St. Pauli” (Saint Paul).
Hamburg Beatles Museum: beatlemania-hamburg.com
Reeperbahn
The Reeperbahn is a street in Hamburg’s St. Pauli district, one of the two centres of Hamburg’s nightlife and also the city’s red-light district. In German it is also called die sündige Meile (the sinful mile). The street is lined with restaurants, night clubs, discotheques and bars. There are also strip clubs, sex shops, brothels, a sex museum and the like. The Operettenhaus, a musical theatre, is also located at the Reeperbahn. It played Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats for many years, after that Mamma Mia!, an ABBA-musical, and now “Ich war noch niemals in New York”, featuring hit songs by Austrian singer/songwriter Udo Jürgens. There are other theatres at the Reeperbahn (St. Pauli Theater, Imperial Theater, Schmidts 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 Davidstraße. Street prostitution is legal during certain times of the day on Davidstraße. The Herbertstraße, a short side street of the Davidstraße, has prostitutes 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, technically it is a public road which anyone may enter. The Große Freiheit (“Great Freedom”) is a cross street 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. As of 2007, the Safari is the only live sex theatre left in Germany. 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 practice 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. Read more on Hamburg.de and Wikipedia Reeperbahn.

Landungsbrücken © Staro1 – the Hard Rock Cafe Hamburg located here
The St. Pauli Landungsbrücken (St. Pauli Landing Bridges), part of the Hamburg Harbour, are located between the lower harbor and the Fischmarkt (Fish Market) directly on the Elbe River. The Landungsbrücken today are a major tourist attraction and a central transportation hub, with S-Bahn, U-Bahn and boat stations. There is an entrance to the Old Elbe tunnel directly at the western end of the Landungsbrücken. The eastern end of the building complex is marked by the Pegelturm (water level tower). Halfway up the tower, there is a water level indicator built into the wall, which gives the current condition of the tides. Wikipedia Landungsbrücken
Fischmarkt
Moin, Moin … welcome to the Hamburg Fischmarkt! Thousands of people from all around the world are coming to the Fischmarkt (Fish Market) at the Elbe river in Hamburg every Sunday morning. It’s located at the bank of the Elbe river between Hafenstraße and Große Elbstraße. At the Fischmarkt you can meet some well known locals. Two of them are “Aale Dieter” and “Vogel Jakob”. They are both real originals from the Hamburg Fischmarkt. It’s due to them that the Hamburg Fischmarkt is a special experience every Sunday. If you want more than only fish sticks, you have to come to the Hamburg Fischmarkt. You will find a large amount of fresh fish and seafood every Sunday.
Here you can find the complete Overview of all Theme Weeks.
Read more on Hamburg.de and Fischauktionshalle.com (German only). Learn more about the use of photos. To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.
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