Große Freiheit

The Große Freiheit (German for: "Great Freedom") is a street starting on the North Side to Hamburg's Reeperbahn road in the St. Pauli quarter.

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 practise 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.

[citation needed] The street has still a Catholic church (St. Joseph), situated among rather unholy businesses.

Kleine Freiheit (international title: A Little Bit of Freedom) is a 2003 film by Kurdish director Yüksel Yavuz about the friendship (and later relationship) between two teenage boys who are illegal immigrants in Germany, is set on the street and the title is a play on words about the street.

"Entry“ to Große Freiheit as seen from Reeperbahn
Socle of Hans Albers statue at the Hans-Albers-Platz, by Jörg Immendorff , 1986 — Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins ("On the Reeperbahn at night at half past twelve")