St. Pauli - History

History

At the beginning of the 17th century it developed as a suburb called 'Hamburger Berg' (Hamburg mountain) outside the gates of the nearby city of Hamburg and close to the city of Altona. The name comes from a hill in that area that was planed by Hamburg in 1620 for defence reasons (free field of fire for the artillery). Therefore, settlement was initially allowed there, but soon businesses, which were not desired inside Hamburg, e.g. for their smell or noise, were relegated to 'Hamburger Berg'. Also the rope makers (or 'Reeper' in Low German) went here because in the city it was hard to find enough space for their work. The name of St. Pauli's most famous street Reeperbahn, or "Rope Walk," harkens back to its rope making past. When people were officially allowed to live in St. Pauli at the end of the 17th century the city government moved workhouses and (pestilence) hospitals out of the city to 'Hamburger Berg,' which later was named after its church, 'St. Pauli' (Saint Paul).

There have been various social fights during the last decades (examples are Hafenstraße, Rote Flora and Bambule).

Read more about this topic:  St. Pauli

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    There has never been in history another such culture as the Western civilization M a culture which has practiced the belief that the physical and social environment of man is subject to rational manipulation and that history is subject to the will and action of man; whereas central to the traditional cultures of the rivals of Western civilization, those of Africa and Asia, is a belief that it is environment that dominates man.
    Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)

    Free from public debt, at peace with all the world, and with no complicated interests to consult in our intercourse with foreign powers, the present may be hailed as the epoch in our history the most favorable for the settlement of those principles in our domestic policy which shall be best calculated to give stability to our Republic and secure the blessings of freedom to our citizens.
    Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)

    No one is ahead of his time, it is only that the particular variety of creating his time is the one that his contemporaries who are also creating their own time refuse to accept.... For a very long time everybody refuses and then almost without a pause almost everybody accepts. In the history of the refused in the arts and literature the rapidity of the change is always startling.
    Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)