View source for Reeperbahn

{{Short description|Street in Hamburg, Germany}}
{{Infobox street
| name                    = Reeperbahn
| native_name             =
| image                   = Spielbudenplatz Hamburg St. Pauli.jpg
| caption                 = Reeperbahn (right) passing Spielbudenplatz 
| former_names            =
| known_for               = [[Night life]], [[prostitution]] 
| postal_code             = 20359, 22767<ref>{{Cite journal |author=Staff |publisher=Statistical office Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein (Statistisches Amt für Hamburg und Schleswig-Holstein) |title=Straßen- und Gebietsverzeichnis der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg 2008 (Hamburg list of streets and locations) |journal=Straßen- und Gebietsverzeichnis der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg |year=2008 |location=Hamburg |issn=0938-636X|language=de}}</ref>
| addresses               =
| length                  = 930 m
| width                   =
| location                = [[St. Pauli]],<br> [[Hamburg]], [[Germany]]
| coordinates             = {{Coord|53|32|58|N|9|57|44|E|type:landmark_region:DE|display=inline}}
| metro                   = {{nobreak|[[File:Hamburg S1.svg|30px]][[File:Hamburg S3.svg|30px]] [[Reeperbahn station|Reeperbahn]]}} <br>[[File:Hamburg U3.svg|30px]] [[St. Pauli (Hamburg U-Bahn station)|St. Pauli]]
| direction_a             = Millerntor 
| terminus_a              = Millerntorplatz
| direction_b             = Nobistor
| terminus_b              = Holstenstraße 
| junction                = [[Davidstraße]], <br>[[Große Freiheit]]  
| client                  =
| owner                   =
| sector                  =
| category                =
| cost                    =
}}
[[File:Reeperbahn sexshop.jpg|thumbnail|A [[sex shop]] on the Reeperbahn]]
[[File:Herbertstrasse.jpg|thumb|Entrance to ''[[Herbertstraße]]''; red sign to the right of the gate reads "No entrance for [[Minor (law)|juveniles]] under 18 years of age and women". The large cigarette ad reads literally, "...For more [[foreplay]]."]]
[[File:Reeperbahn - June 2008.JPG|thumb|Inside ''Herbertstraße'']]

The '''Reeperbahn''' ({{IPA|de|ˈʁeːpɐˌbaːn|lang|De-Reeperbahn.ogg}}) is a street and entertainment district in [[Hamburg]]'s [[St. Pauli]] district, one of the two centres of Hamburg's [[nightlife]] (the other being [[Sternschanze]]) and also the city's major [[red-light district]]. In [[German language|German]], it is also nicknamed ''die sündige Meile'' (the sinful mile) and ''[[Kiez]]''. The Reeperbahn Festival is among the largest club festivals.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Reeperbahn Festival |url=https://www.reeperbahnfestival.com/en |access-date=2023-11-05 |website=www.reeperbahnfestival.com}}</ref>

==Name and history==
The [[street name|name]] ''Reeperbahn'' means [[ropewalk]], which is a place where ropes are made ({{langx|nds|Reep}} = rope, the standard German word is {{lang|de|Seil}}; {{lang|nds|Bahn}} = track). Until the 1620s Hamburg's ropewalks had been located in the [[Neustadt, Hamburg|Neustadt]] (New Town) quarter of the inner city close to the [[Elbe]], 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, Hamburg|Altona]] – which later took on the street name 'Reperbahn'."<ref>Rainer Postel, "Hamburg at the Time of the Peace of Westphalia", in: ''1648, War and Peace in Europe'': 3 vols., Klaus Bussmann and Heinz Schilling (eds.), Münster in Westphalia: Veranstaltungsgesellschaft 350 Jahre Westfälischer Friede, 1998, (=Catalogue for the exhibition «1648: War and Peace in Europe» 24 October 1998 – 17 January 1999 in Münster in Westphalia and Osnabrück), vol.&nbsp;1: ''Politics, Religion, Law, and Society'', pp.&nbsp;337–343, here p.&nbsp;340. {{ISBN|3-88789-128-7}}.</ref> The street was a ropewalk in the 17th and 18th centuries.

==The street and its side streets==
The street is lined with [[restaurant]]s, [[night club]]s, [[discotheque]]s and [[Bar (establishment)|bars]]. There are also [[strip club]]s, [[sex shop]]s, [[brothel]]s and similar businesses. Between 1997 and 2007 the [[Erotic Art Museum (Hamburg)|Erotic Art Museum]] was open on Nobistor, a street running between the Reeperbahn and ''Louise-Schroeder-Straße''.

The ''{{lang|de|[[Operettenhaus]]}}'', a [[musical theatre]], is also located at the Reeperbahn. It played [[Andrew Lloyd Webber]]'s ''[[Cats (musical)|Cats]]'' for many years, after that ''[[Mamma Mia! (musical)|Mamma Mia!]]'', an [[ABBA]]-musical, followed by{{when|date=August 2012}} "{{lang|de|Ich war noch niemals in New York}}", ("I have never been to New York"), a [[jukebox musical]] featuring hit songs by Austrian singer/songwriter [[Udo Jürgens]], then ''[[Sister Act (musical)|Sister Act]]'' and finally ''[[Rocky the Musical|Rocky]]'', based on the [[Stallone]] film. There are other theatres at the Reeperbahn ([[St. Pauli Theater]], Imperial Theater, [[Schmidt Theater|Schmidt 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 ''{{lang|de|Davidstraße}}''. [[prostitution|Street prostitution]] is legal during certain times of the day on ''{{lang|de|Davidstraße}}''. The ''[[Herbertstraße]]'', a short side street off the ''Davidstraße'', has sex workers [[Window prostitution|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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2012}} Many pubs, and street-based sex workers, can be found on the square of [[Hans-Albers-Platz]] south of the Reeperbahn.

The ''{{lang|de|[[Große Freiheit]]}}'' ("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 show|sex acts on stage]]. {{As of|2007}}, until its closure in 2013, the ''Safari'' was the only live sex theatre left in Germany.<ref name=indep>[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/death-of-the-reeperbahn-hamburgs-streets-of-shame-799034.html Death of the Reeperbahn: Hamburg's streets of shame], ''The Independent'', 21 March 2008</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abendblatt.de/hamburg/hamburg-mitte/article124554323/Kiezclub-Safari-schliesst-nach-50-Jahren-seine-Tueren.html|title=Kiezclub Safari schließt nach 50 Jahren seine Türen|first=Daniel|last=Schaefer|date=2014-02-05}}</ref> 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.<ref name=indep/> 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]] scare.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/14/world/hamburg-journal-a-red-light-district-loses-its-allure.html |title=A Red-Light District Loses Its Allure |newspaper=The New York Times |date=14 May 1988 |first=Serge |last=Schmemann }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/koenig-von-st-pauli-willi-bartels-ist-tot-a-515535.html |title=Willi Bartels ist tot |work=[[Spiegel Online]] |date=5 November 2007 |lang=de}}</ref>

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]]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.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/marek-prozess-freiheit-fuer-die-bordell-bosse-a-478329.html |title=Freiheit für die Bordell-Bosse |work=Spiegel Online |date=19 April 2007 |lang=de}}</ref>

Because of the problems with the high [[crime rate]], 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 ''{{lang|de|Hansaplatz}}'', [[St. Georg, Hamburg|St. Georg]].<ref>[http://www.presseportal.de/polizeipresse/pm/6337/1102163/polizei_hamburg Ban of weapons in Hamburg] press release police Hamburg {{in lang|de}}</ref>

The ''St Pauli Preservation Society'' decries the ongoing [[gentrification]] of the area. Several older residents blamed the decline of the Reeperbahn's [[sex industry]] on the rise of discotheques and cheap bars that attract teenage customers.<ref name=indep/> In 2013, the [[Dancing Towers]] were built at the eastern end of Reeperbahn, symbolizing a couple dancing [[tango]]. The increasing number of these and other modern buildings erected at the Reeperbahn attracted criticism by some St. Pauli inhabitants.<ref>[https://www.abendblatt.de/hamburg/article107415030/Jetzt-kommen-Teheranis-Tanzende-Tuerme-an-die-Reeperbahn.html Jetzt kommen Teheranis "Tanzende Türme" an die Reeperbahn], Hamburger Abendblatt, in German</ref><ref name="sz">[https://www.sueddeutsche.de/geld/hochhauspaar-fuer-hamburg-schlankes-paar-auf-tuchfuehlung-1.412877-2 Club in den Niederungen], Süddeutsche Zeitung, in German</ref>

The Reeperbahn was hit hard by the [[COVID-19 pandemic]]. Almost every establishment was forced to close.

==The Beatles==
{{Main|The Beatles in Hamburg}}
In the early 1960s, [[The Beatles]] (who had not yet become world-famous) played in several clubs around the Reeperbahn, including the ''[[Star-Club]]'', ''[[Kaiserkeller]]'', ''[[Top Ten Club|Top Ten]]'' (Reeperbahn 136) and ''Indra''. Stories about the band's residencies, onstage and offstage antics are legendary; some stories are true ([[John Lennon]] played a song set with a [[toilet seat]] around his neck), others inflated (the band urinating in an alley as [[nun]]s walked past was told{{by whom|date=September 2013}} rather differently later).{{citation needed|date=September 2013}} A fellow musician, [[Kingsize Taylor|Ted "Kingsize" Taylor]], made a crude [[magnetic tape|tape recording]] of their last [[New Year's Eve]] 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]] – but I grew up in Hamburg".<ref name="BeatleEchoesOntheReeperbahn">{{cite web |first=Bill |last=Hillman |url=https://www.hillmanweb.com/BEATLES/echoes.html |title=Beatle Echoes On the Reeperbahn (Quotations taken from ''The Beatles Anthology'') |publisher=Hillmanweb  |access-date=2009-05-15}}</ref>

To mark the historical importance of their time in Hamburg, a ''[[Beatles-Platz]]'' was built at the cross of Reeperbahn and Große Freiheit.<ref>[http://www.bild.de/BILD/hamburg/aktuell/2008/05/26/baustart-fuer-hamburgs-beatles-platz/donnerstag-ist-spatenstich-an-der-grossen-freiheit,geo=4641162.html Spatensich für Beatles-Platz] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212232240/http://www.bild.de/BILD/hamburg/aktuell/2008/05/26/baustart-fuer-hamburgs-beatles-platz/donnerstag-ist-spatenstich-an-der-grossen-freiheit%2Cgeo%3D4641162.html |date=2009-02-12 }} bild.de {{in lang|de}} Retrieved on June 19, 2008</ref>

==In popular culture==
{{See also|List of songs about Hamburg}} 
[[File:Jörg Immendorff 1986, Hans- Albers-Denkmal (Hans Albers Memorial), Hamburg, Germany 4.jpg|thumb|Socle of Hans Albers statue at the Hans-Albers-Platz, by [[Jörg Immendorff]] 1986. ''Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins'']]
The popular 1944 movie ''[[Große Freiheit Nr. 7]]'' tells the story of a singer (played by [[Hans Albers]]) who works in a Reeperbahn club and falls in love with a girl played by [[Ilse Werner]]. Hans Albers and [[Heinz Rühmann]] played in the 1954 movie ''Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins'' (''[[On the Reeperbahn at Half Past Midnight (1954 film)|On the Reeperbahn at Half Past Midnight]]'', after a [[On the Reeperbahn at Half Past Midnight (song)|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 (film)|Ship of Fools]]'', [[Jose Ferrer]] and [[Christiane Schmidtmer]] sang "Heute Abend Geh'n Wir Bummeln Auf Der Reeperbahn" ("Tonight We Will Go Strolling on The Reeperbahn").

[[The Police]] 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 

* [[Elvis Costello]] song "Human Hands", 
* [[Van Morrison]]'s song "Heavy Connection",
* [[Paul Kelly (Australian musician)|Paul Kelly]]'s song "Every Fucking City"
* [[Midnight Oil]] song "Mountains of Burma"
* [[Sloppy Seconds (band)|Sloppy Seconds]] song "Germany" from their album ''[[Destroyed (Sloppy Seconds album)|Destroyed]]'' and in the [[Runrig]] song "Song of the Earth".
* heavy metal band [[Blue Cheer]] have a song called "Sweet Child of the Reeperbahn" on their 1991 album ''[[Dining with the Sharks]]''
* 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]]'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]]' 2002 release ''[[Alice (Tom Waits album)|Alice]]'' 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]] had the music video for his song "[[Toulouse (song)|Toulouse]]" shot in Hamburg, Germany. Near the end, the actors enter the Reeperbahn's subway system.

Australian pop-punk band the [[Hard-Ons]] 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 (band)|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]].

The commercial [[house music]] producer [[Eric Prydz]] has a track titled "Reeperbahn" under his moniker [[Pryda]].

London based indie band [[Spector (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''.

==See also==
{{Portal|Hamburg}}
* [[Prostitution in Germany]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Commons category-inline}}
{{Attached KML|display=inline,title}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090408044027/http://en.reeperbahn.se/ Information about Reeperbahn and the St. Pauli district] {{in lang|en}}
* [http://reeperbahn.hamburg.de - links and information about the reeperbahn] {{in lang|de}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928214415/http://www.szene-in-hamburg.de/reeperbahn.html - the night life in Hamburg on the Reeperbahn] {{in lang|de}}
* [http://bilder-hamburg.info/index.php/tag/16/Reeperbahn Picture from the Reeperbahn] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004220231/http://bilder-hamburg.info/index.php/tag/16/Reeperbahn |date=2013-10-04 }} {{in lang|de}}
* [http://www.rld-europa.com/articles/reeperbahn.html St. Pauli and the Reeperbahn] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409052529/http://www.rld-europa.com/articles/reeperbahn.html |date=2016-04-09 }} {{in lang|en}}

{{Hamburg}}
{{Boroughs of Hamburg}}
{{Prostitution in Germany}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Prostitution in Germany]]
[[Category:Red-light districts in Germany]]
[[Category:Streets in Hamburg]]
[[Category:Tourist attractions in Hamburg]]