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Sausage snack bar "Lucullus" on Hamburg's Reeperbahn: "I don't know anything"
Photo:
Jana Felsenhauer
The neighborhood lives from the light.
After all, people in Hamburg should find their way into all the dance halls, strip clubs and seedy pubs.
And of course the currywurst, like the ones served at the cult snack bar Lucullus, which courts customers like no other in the middle of the Reeperbahn.
There is no way around this snack.
Brightly colored LED sausages flash almost desperately all around the roof.
A clown's face laughs.
Crazy blinking all night.
Today as well.
"I don't know anything about an ordinance," says one of the salespeople, shoveling fries onto a paper plate.
He smiles sheepishly.
Autumn is spreading, the air has already cooled down, it gets dark around half past eight.
On the Reeperbahn everything is as usual.
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Erotic shop »Bouique Bizarre«: Everything as usual
Photo: Jana Felsenhauer
On the Spielbudenplatz, the place where major events like the "Grand Prix Party" take place, beer advertisements are lit up on a huge monitor, a few people are queuing in front of food trucks, "Sexual Healing" is booming from the "Hot Corner" grill.
On the facade of the St. Pauli clubhouse, the flashiest building here on the square - it looks as if hundreds of flat screens have been stacked on top of each other - Udo Lindenberg flickers to lure people into »Panic City«, an interactive tour through his life.
Whether the facade, which is designed to outdo all the others, is actually in the dark after 10 p.m. will be seen later.
"Neon lights, shimmering neon lights/And when night falls/This city is made of light," as they say at Kraftwerk.
And now this: Energy Saving Ordinance.
A cumbersome word for an area like this.
One you go to more to see rules broken.
save electricity?
Unsexy.
"The operation of illuminated or light-emitting advertising systems is prohibited from 10 p.m. to 4 p.m. the following day," says the ordinance.
can be followed.
But you can also take a chance.
The bartender of a notorious trendy pub leans over the counter.
"If the police come, I'll turn off the light." He smiles aggressively.
"First of all, they should go over to Penny's, he's lit up all day." Indeed.
The penny in a strip club look is a scream advertisement.
"In-Out" is written in illuminated letters above the entrance.
Typical Reeperbahn.
And something yesterday.
If energy saving, then maybe here.
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Entrance to the »Penny« market: let them go first
Photo: Jana Felsenhauer
Anyone who sets off for the amusement mile »Große Freiheit« will pass »Susi's Show Bar«, a strip bar that advertises that it is »the hottest thing Hamburg has to offer.« But the yellow neon tube woman who otherwise bends on a rod on the facade, does not light up.
And that before 10 p.m.
"It's a catastrophe," says Koberer Slawek Klinko, who has been trying to lure passers-by into the bar with more or less original slogans for thirty years.
You are already testing how the store looks without the light.
An employee walks around the building with his cell phone and films.
"The street lamp across the street is broken, and if we turn off the light, people here will bump their heads," he says.
It's a little dark.
But you don't need a headlamp.
Across the way on Beatles-Platz, three men are sitting on a stairway, looking ahead of them, slightly crippled.
Nothing going on today.
"We don't have any women yet," Serhat regrets.
He grew up here, DJs hip-hop in a club.
He's free tonight.
He likes the lights of life, avoids the dark side.
But today not even Susi shines for him.
That's shit. "The neighborhood has to shine," he says.
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Neon sign at Susi's Show Bar: You don't want to hit your head
Photo: Jana Felsenhauer
Shortly before ten.
Countdown like on New Year's Eve.
Is it going to be pitch black?
From the stairs, Serhat and his friends can see the »Great Freedom«, which lies in semi-darkness without the neon sign of »Susi's Show Bar«.
The names of the bars and clubs are sometimes more, sometimes less illuminated.
The lettering above the nude temple »Dollhouse«: black.
In a smaller shop across the street, a flashing sign advertises "Girls Girls Girls."
It probably depends on the size.
Energy Saving Ordinance?
Doesn't that only apply to the port?
Shortly after midnight in front of the David Watch.
A police officer stands at the traffic light with a kebab bag and strolls to the station.
Doesn't seem as if the lighting regulations are agitated here.
Things are still relaxed on the Reeperbahn.
A few houses away, the St. Pauli clubhouse is actually in the dark, and the large monitor on the Spielbudenplatz is also switched off.
party mood?
leniency
Two women in short dresses come running from the direction, walking barefoot past »Schmidts Tivoli«, their high heels in their hands.
You danced at a company party, now you're tired.
They don't really care whether the facades are lit or not.
afraid of the dark?
No.
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Clubhouse St. Pauli: Actually dark
Photo: Jana Felsenhauer
Now go past »Susi's Show Bar« again.
Susi is dancing again!
What's going on there?
Klinko pushes around.
His teeth flash.
You can't let people walk around in the dark like that.
And the ordinance?
They tend to affect the industry at the port.
Oh I see.
Further up in front of the "Olivia Jones Bar" stands a drag queen on platform shoes forty centimeters high, with wings growing out of her silver armour.
A red sparkle flashes, almost shyly, in the crown of her head.
Passers-by look up at her and take photos.
It doesn't matter how dark it gets around here: there's always a light somewhere.