The Beatles in Hamburg

[2] Since the end of the war in which England and Germany had been mortal enemies, only 15 years had passed when this first wave of British musicians started to wash the shores of the Hamburg harbour.

"[4] In the early 1960s, the Hamburg scene revolved around the Kaiserkeller, Top Ten, Star-Club, Beer-Shop, Mambo, Holle, Wagabond, and the Pacific Hotel, as well as the less popular clubs like Grannies, the Ice Cream Shop, Chugs, and Sacha's.

[5] Harrison remembered the Reeperbahn and Große Freiheit as the best thing the group had ever seen, as it had so many neon lights, clubs and restaurants, although also saying, "The whole area was full of transvestites and prostitutes and gangsters, but I couldn't say that they were the audience ...[6] Hamburg was really like our apprenticeship, learning how to play in front of people.

"[7] McCartney explained that the Beatles had only experienced sex with girls from Liverpool, but when they got to Hamburg the only women who hung around the clubs late at night were strippers, dancers, or prostitutes.

[8] McCartney said: "By the time you got to Hamburg, a girlfriend there was likely to be a stripper, so to be suddenly involved with a hard-core striptease artist, who obviously knew a thing or two about sex... it was quite an eye-opener.

"[12] Astrid Kirchherr also supplied Sutcliffe and the other Beatles with Preludin, which when taken with beer, made them feel euphoric and helped to keep them awake until the early hours of the morning.

He was regarded as a steady drummer, playing the bass drum on all four beats in the bar, which pushed the rhythm,[30] and was known in Liverpool at the time as being "mean, moody, and magnificent" by female fans,[31] which convinced McCartney he would be good for the group.

[33][34] Best had the chance to go to a teacher-training college, as he had passed his school exams, unlike Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, who had failed most of theirs, but decided that playing in Hamburg would be a better career move.

[35] The St. Pauli quarter of Hamburg, where the Indra club was located, was well known as a red light district where prostitutes were to be found, and was a dangerous place for anyone that looked different from the usual clientele.

Williams drove the group and their equipment in his Austin J4 minibus[43] which was loaded by crane onto a ferry at Harwich on 16 August 1960, and landed at Hook of Holland.

All five Beatles, Williams and his wife Beryl, her brother Barry Chang, and "Lord Woodbine" were in the minivan, along with Georg Sterner (Koschmider's translator and future waiter),[44] making a total of ten people, which resulted in a journey that was both uncomfortable and dangerous.

[52] The group played at the club on the same night, but were told they could sleep in the storeroom of Bambi Kino (a small cinema), which was cold and in very poor condition[46] (33 Paul-Roosen Straße).

[56] Pete Best remembered the Indra as being a depressing place that was filled with a few tourists, and having heavy, old, red curtains that made it seem shabby compared to the larger Kaiserkeller, a club also owned by Koschmider and located nearby at 36 Große Freiheit.

[60] As Best had been the only one to take O-Level German at school, he could communicate with Koschmider and the clientele better than the rest of the group,[61] and was invited to sing a speciality number called "Peppermint Twist" (while McCartney played the drums) but Best complained that he always felt uncomfortable being at the front of the stage.

[20][65] They were appalled at the living conditions the Beatles and other groups like Howie Casey and the Seniors (who were sleeping in one room at the back of the Kaiserkeller) had to put up with,[66] so they booked into Hamburg's Seamens' Mission.

[67] Horst Fascher (born 1936, Hamburg) was Koschmider's nightclub bouncer, who had been the 1959 West German featherweight boxing champion, but his career was cut short after he unintentionally killed a sailor in a street fight.

[69] Fascher remembered Lennon often greeting the audience with a "Heil Hitler",[70] and a Nazi salute: "He'd pull out a black comb and pretend it was a moustache...people laughed.

"[69] Astrid Kirchherr remembered that Lennon would make sarcastic remarks from the stage, saying "You Krauts, we won the war", knowing that very few Germans in the audience spoke English, but sailors from English-speaking countries present would roar with laughter).

[17] According to McCartney, Sutcliffe was a "typical art student", with bad skin and pimples, but his reputation grew after he began wearing tight trousers and dark Ray-Ban sunglasses.

"[76] On Saturday 15 October 1960, Williams arranged a recording session for Lou Walters (of the Hurricanes) at the Akustik Studio, a small booth on the fifth floor of 57 Kirchenallee (The Klockmann-House).

[24] The Top Ten club was opened on 31 October 1960 by Peter Eckhorn,[79] and was operated by Iain Hines, who was an organist who became a member of Tony Sheridan's band, The Jets.

[80] Tony Sheridan, later remembered the living conditions at the club: "John, George, Paul, Stuart and Pete and I were booked to open the smart Top Ten in the Reeperbahn.

[81] The Beatles, who until 31 December 1960 were under contract with Bruno Koschmider, the owner of Kaiserkeller, often visited Top Ten Club, where Tony Sheridan performed with his Jets.

As a snub to Koschmider, McCartney and Best found a condom in their luggage, attached it to a nail on the concrete wall of the room, and set fire to it in order to have light to gather their possessions.

[95] After Harrison turned 18 and the immigration problems had been solved, the Beatles went back to Hamburg for a second residency at the Top Ten Club, playing from 27 March to 2 July 1961.

To secure their return, Eckhorn paid DM 158 to the German authorities, which was the cost of deporting McCartney and Best back to Liverpool the previous winter.

[96] Fellow musician, The Beatles appeared back at the Top Ten Club with Tony Sheridan from 1 April to 1 July 1961; together they performed there for 92 nights consecutively.

"[107] Portions of their final performances were taped with a portable recorder by an associate of Ted "King Size" Taylor of the Dominoes, another group playing at the club.

[126] In 1995, she told BBC Radio Merseyside: "All my friends in art school used to run around with this sort of what you call Beatles' haircut, and my boyfriend then, Klaus Voormann, had this hairstyle, and Stuart [Sutcliffe] liked it very very much.

"[107] A memorial square, Beatles-Platz, was constructed in Hamburg in 2008 at the meeting of Reeperbahn and Große Freiheit streets, containing five stainless steel sculptures of the Beatles.