Beatles Square and Grosse Freiheit (Hamburg, October 2016)

Beatles Square and Grosse Freiheit (Hamburg, October 2016)

If you have ever been to Hamburg and toured the sights, you may know that the Grosse Freiheit (German for: "Great Freedom") is a cross street to Hamburg's Reeperbahn road in the St. Pauli quarter. It is part of the (in-)famous red light district or "Kiez".

The street was named in 1610 after the fact that the then ruling Count had granted religious freedom to non-Lutherans to practice their faith and commercial freedom for handcrafters not enrolled in guilds. These freedom rights only applied for this specific area as a kind of special economic and religious zone.

The Beatles Square with the modern art memorial was built in 2008 at the junction of Grosse Freiheit and Reeperbahn. It was here that the Beatles in the early 1960ies started their international career playing at music clubs such as the "Indra" (Grosse Freiheit Nr 64).