Große Freiheit

The Große Freiheit (German for: "Great Freedom") is a cross street on the North Side to Hamburg's Reeperbahn road in the St. Pauli quarter. It is part of the red light district or Kiez.

The street was named in 1610 after the fact that Count Ernest of Schaumburg and Holstein-Pinneberg had granted religious freedom to non-Lutherans such as Mennonites and Roman Catholics to practice their faith here and commercial freedom for handcrafters not enrolled in the else compelling guilds. At that time this district was part of the city of Altona within the county of Holstein-Pinneberg, and did not yet belong to Hamburg. When the Duchy of Holstein-Glückstadt annexed Holstein-Pinneberg in 1640 the comital freedoms were confirmed. Non-Lutherans were forbidden to publicly practise their religions in Lutheran Hamburg proper. The street has still a Catholic church (St. Joseph), situated among rather unholy businesses. The Mennonite church, established in 1611, moved in 1915 into another neighbourhood.

In 1938, when the Nazis changed borders with the Greater Hamburg Act, the street became part of Hamburg. In 1944, the German movie Große Freiheit Nr. 7 with Hans Albers was named after the road.

In the 1960s, The Beatles played here, e.g. in Große Freiheit 36 (Kaiserkeller), Große Freiheit 64 (today Indra-Musikclub), and in Große Freiheit 39 (the Star-Club, 1962–1969). The street still hosts music clubs like Grosse Freiheit 36 and Grünspan.

In the 1970s, several sex theatres (Salambo, Regina, Colibri, Safari) showed live sex acts on stage. As of 2007^[update], until its closure in 2013, the Safari was the only live sex theatre left in Germany. The popular table dance club Dollhouse now takes the place of the Salambo.

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