The Reeperbahn got its name from rope makers and rope makers, the so-called Reepschläger, who need a long, straight path to make ship ropes. Accordingly, there are also streets of this name in other cities. On a Hamburg map from 1791 this is entered with the name "Reepschläger Bahn". The last real Reeperbahn remaining in Hamburg territory can be found today in Hamburg-Hausbruch on the southern side of the Elbe. Reeper probably derives from Proto-Germanic *raipaz, which is also the same ancestor for English rope and Dutch reep.
Until the Hamburg gates were closed in 1860/1861 and Hamburg gradually expanded, the Reeperbahn was located in the suburb of Hamburger Berg (old district of St. Paulis) exactly between the two cities of Hamburg with the Millerntor city limits and Altona with the Nobistor city limits at the level of the confluence the great freedom. People and trades that were undesirable in both cities were able to settle in the immediate vicinity and were still involved in city life. A first residential development was made in 1826-1827 as small residential buildings in the style of a row of houses on the north side of the Reeperbahn between Millerntor and Hamburger Berg. Individual houses were later torn down to make way for the cross streets laid out in the 1880s.
A small historical error is that the Hamburg Reeperbahn was allegedly not the actual railway of the Reeper, but the parallel Simon-von-Utrecht-Straße, which ran dead straight compared to the Reeperbahn. The Seilerstrasse still lies between these two today. The term "Reeperbahn" is therefore - in addition to the production site for cordage and road in Hamburg - today as a synonym for: "The sinful mile" or its immediate vicinity, but mostly just affectionately called "the neighborhood".
After the number of violent crimes had risen steadily, in 2007 a ban was issued for the Reeperbahn and the side streets to carry weapons, knives and other dangerous objects. Local shops have been asked to stop selling glass bottles. The glass bottle ban law in 2009 also completely banned the carrying of glass bottles and glasses on weekend nights and before public holidays and can be punished with a fine of up to €5,000. Yellow signs mark the area. A reduction in violence has not been determined as a result of this measure.