It's a typical early evening scene in Hamburg. Several well-dressed diners are discussing their most recent vacations while sampling the "new German" cuisine at Schauermann, a chic new harborside restaurant on Hafenstrasse in the St. Pauli area, all but oblivious to the scene outside the restaurant's large windowed facade: A large banner draped from the roof of a nearby apartment building reads: "Eat the Rich" -- evidence that the spirit of healthy anarchy lives on in St. Pauli, a district that is balancing precariously between prostitutes and squatters and gentrification.
The most famous and heavily
touristed street in St. Pauli is the Reeperbahn, an avenue that defines the heart of the city's red-light district.
But rather than intimidate, St. Pauli acts as an exhilarating foil to the beauty and almost sterile perfectionism of Hamburg. A city that's home to the most old-moneyed families in the country. Hamburg is sometimes called the "Venice of Germany" for the various canals running through a mix of imposing restored landmarks and
glittering, modern facades. Regal,
elegant villas line the Elbchaussee.
St. Pauli, on the other hand, has always been an outsider. Literally. Centuries ago, the land on which the neighborhood stands was outside the city's protective walls, and was
continuously battered and displaced by battle. The Reeperbahn was once a stretch of land where rope producers used to weave thick cord for the harbor's ships. ("Reeper" translates as ropemaker in an old dialect).
As St. Pauli was engulfed by
Hamburg's growing borders, it became the city's physical center. Now,
exploring the area's blinking and
electric streets, it's as if you've passed through the looking glass into the throbbing secret heart of the city -- and happened upon its most exciting scene. While one still passes by more pornographic-video window displays and East European streetwalkers than groovy DJ lounges, the street houses some of the city's more exclusive night-life venues.
"I had a friend from New York
visiting recently and he fell in love with the club scene here," said Scott McCormack, who moved from Manhattan to Hamburg last year to write a historical novel.
When the party crowd from some of Hamburg's wealthier circles head to St. Pauli, they're frequently found at East, an upscale hotel and restaurant-lounge that opened in a former iron foundry last fall, designed by the
Chicago-based architect Jordan Mozer.
It's not just the colorful design or designer cocktails that make East so fresh, it's that such a place exists just a few minutes' walk from the Reeperbahn. Like the other posh lounges and restaurants sandwiched between the neighborhood's dark car lots and sex shops, the extreme juxtaposition works amazingly well.
One might find that same polished East crowd sweating to electro music at the underground Bar Morphine (open only Friday after midnight), behind a nondescript door on a nearby block. Just a few strides from the renowned Herbertstrasse, a block-long street of bordellos closed off to women and anyone under 18 (enforced by the prostitutes themselves), stylish regulars dine well in the sleek Italian restaurant Cuneo.
At a St. Pauli soccer match last month it was possible to spot locals and heirs alike. But at the stadium (a quick walk from East and the Reeperbahn), the fans converged into what looked like a dancing and cheering band of pirates.
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