New Beatles museum opens in Hamburg, Germany

Entrance to the new BEATLEMANIA Hamburg museum
in Hamburg, Germany
(Photo: www.mediaserver.hamburg.de)

We all know The Beatles were from Liverpool, but they really became a cohesive band in Hamburg, Germany in the early 1960s. Now the German part of Beatles history will forever be preserved in the new BEATLEMANIA Hamburg museum which opened in the St. Pauli district on May 29, 2009.

The five-story museum is located on the Reeperbahn, very close to the recently inaugurated Beatles Square as well as the location of the clubs where The Beatles used to play. A life-size Yellow Submarine along with many items of Beatles memorabilia and historical artifacts are on display. (See slideshow below)

The Beatles first played at the Indra club on Grosse Freheit in Hamburg starting in August 1960 with John, Paul, George, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best as their new drummer. They played for 4 1/2 months during their first trip to Hamburg. They would return several times over the next two years and, as their popularity grew, would play bigger clubs like the Kaiserkeller, the Top Ten Club and the Star Club.

Not only were the first professional photographs of The Beatles taken in Hamburg (by Astrid Kirchherr), but Hamburg is where they were inspired to comb their hair forward into the revolutionary Beatles haircut.

After The Beatles became a worldwide phenomenon, they never forgot their time in Germany. They even recorded two of their mega-hits in German to show appreciation for their German fans: "Sie Liebt Dich" ("She Loves You") and "Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand" ("I Want to Hold Your Hand").

In the 1960s, Hamburg had a reputation of being a rough town with prostitutes and drugs all around. But the city has been cleaned up since then. The Reeperbahn is undergoing a transformation from a former red-light district to a cool entertainment and music venue attracting young artists and promising new talent at the annual Reeperbahn Music Festival.

While tourists and fans won't be experiencing the nitty-gritty aspect of the Beatles' history in Hamburg, they finally have a place to celebrate where it all began.