Frankfurt color slides 1959-61 - Photo #29 - Berlin 1959 and Hamburg 1960

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Große Freiheit Hamburg red light district, August 1960, long frequented by sailors of every nationality on shore leave, famous for its bars, strip joints, and brothels. This was on a family trip, my Dad wanted to show us his old stomping grounds from the Navy in the 1930s. The street in the foreground is the Reeperbahn, and we're looking down Die Große Freiheit. Towards the end of the street on the left is the Indra club (you can see the sign if you enlarge the photo), where the Beatles were playing, though I didn't know it at the time; you can see the white sign over the cobblestones in the very center of the image. I took a photo myself with my Brownie Hawkeye (left), it's reproduced in John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth by Elizabeth Partridge, Viking Press (2005).

Youtube: See a video of the Reeperbahn and Große Freiheit in the early 1960s (while the link lasts). The sound track includes some bands that might be the very early Beatles. About 3 minutes long.