Beatles' 50 years of fame began in Hamburg
A phenomenal 250 million records in 50 years - only the Beatles have achieved that. They released their first single on October 5, 1962. Soon enough they were world superstars. The dream began in Germany.
Masses of ivy surround the front door of run-down building. There's nothing about the place that indicates the role it played in music history.
But when you get closer you notice a mirror. Above a photograph of the band, the large lettering on the mirror reads: "Here lived the Beatles 1960." Here, in Hamburg, the search for traces of the world's most famous boy band begins.
Peter Paetzold, who was 10 years old at the time, lived just around the corner. He grew up in St. Pauli, the district of the city around the infamous Reeperbahn where the Beatles' career was launched.
The shabby building used to be a cinema - the Bambi Kino, where Paetzold once watched Disney films. The four Liverpudlian lads lived in the cinema for three months.
"For us they were just the English rockers who lived here. They looked totally different to the usual Hamburg rockers," recalls Paetzold, now 62.
Source: DW
