Kaiserkeller
Underneath Große Freiheit 36
20359 Hamburg, Germany
Kaiserkeller is a music club in the St. Pauli quarter of Hamburg, Germany, near the red-light district called The Reeperbahn. It was opened by impresario Bruno Koschmider on October 14, 1959. The Beatles had a contract with Kaiserkeller to begin to play there in 1960… a full 4 years before their USA Ed Sullivan debut.
They played for 7 or 8 hours a night, SEVEN NIGHTS A WEEK. This was their second club gig in Hamburg, the first being at Kochschmeider’s Indra Club (see separate page).
The flimsy and dangerous stage of the Kaiserkeller was made of planks of wood balanced on the top of beer crates. One onlooker and fan, was a local German boy by the name of Klaus Voorman, who would go on to be instrumental in shaping the Beatles’s lives by introducing them to his friend Astrid Kircherr who gave them their famous “Mop Top” haircuts, and later Klaus would go on to be the artist who drew the pen and ink cover for the LP “Revolver”.
Today the Kaiserkeller is an alternative Rock Club in the basement that belongs to the “Große Freiheit 36” club which is above it on street level.
Map Link: https://goo.gl/maps/eXaxQHqWTy1aubpP6
Check their website: https://grossefreiheit36.de/ueber-die-location/kaiserkeller-2/
