Große Freiheit (St. Pauli)

Pedestrian street lined with bars and live music venues that date back to the 20s; the Beatles were discovered here

The Große Freiheit is a side street to the Reeperbahn / Nobistor, starting at Beatles Square, which today belongs to the district of St. Pauli. The road was created in 1610 in Altona.
Its official name since the 17th century, like the neighboring Kleine Freiheit, has been influenced by religious and Freedom of trade, the resident, unzünftige craftsmen u. Glaubensgem. enjoyed in the city of Altona. It goes to a 1601 by Count Ernst von Schauenburg issued privilege to the Mennonite dealer François Noë u. others, which allowed them to set up a special economic zone in Altona, which eventually became known as Liberty. To the religion u. Trade freedoms still reminds the cath. St. Joseph's Church with its representative Baroque façade (rebuilt 1721) a. the listed building ensemble Große Freiheit 73 (built 1850) a. 75 (1772) as a former parish houses of the Altona Mennonites. The Great Freedom 75 housed the former pastorate, the Great Freedom 73 consisted in its original form of 2 wings, which marked the entrance to the 1943/44 bombed former Mennonite Church u. were joined later. Foundations u. Building remains of the ruined church are still between the building u. an adjacent school building suspected. Near the Altonaer Reichenstraße u. the Pepermölenbek was in the 18th century also the Dompelaarkirche. In the neighboring Little Freedom were each a French u. German-Dutch Reformed Church.
To St. Pauli the street belongs only since December 1938, when the National Socialists changed as a result of the incorporation of Altona to Hamburg by the Greater Hamburg Act, the neighborhood limits analogous to the boundaries of the Nazi Party districts.
It owes its fame to the nightclubs that used to exist there, such as Salambo, Safari, Colibri, Regina u. a., which were characterized by the fact that they not only offered striptease, but also showed the sexual act, sometimes in costumes, on stage. All are now closed.
Today the street offers some well-known music clubs & clubs. Discos like Große Freiheit 36, Kaiserkeller u. Verdigris u. is a busy part of the nightlife of the Reeperbahn. In the Great Freedom 64 is still the Indra music club to find the Beatles had their first performances before they came through their concerts in the Star Club to greater fame.

The Große Freiheit 36 is the oldest and largest club in Hamburg.As early as the 1940s, the Hippodrom entertainment venue, made famous by the Hans Albers films, was located at the address, in which there was a rotunda filled with sawdust, in which guests and in-house artists could ride real horses. During the Second World War, the building was destroyed by bombing and rebuilt after 1945. Bruno Koschmider (* 1926; † 2000), a former trapeze artist, opened the Kaiserkeller in October 1959 at Große Freiheit 36 with space for 550 guests (not seated). On September 19, 1985, the music club opened under its current name, Große Freiheit 36, with a concert by blues guitarist Rory Gallagher. A year later, the Kaiserkeller was reopened in the basement and a café set up on the upper floor.