The Golden Glove, the Elbschlosskeller, the Clochard and the Lehmitz in Hamburg. These bars are and have been the city’s drain for decades. The collecting basins in which the fallen and the completely finished have found a final refuge. The photo series from the Hamburg crash bar Lehmitz comes from Anders Petersen. From 1967 to 1971, the Swedish photographer visited the Hamburg beer hall “Café Lehmitz” near the Reeperbahn. In terms of education and intelligence, Petersen actually had nothing to do with this world. As a 17-year-old, he fell under the spell of this scene quite by chance. His parents sent him to Hamburg to learn German. They had no idea that a friend named Gertrud kidnapped him to shops like Lehmitz.
Petersen became a documenter of heavy drinkers and spent whores and managed not to judge the lost people in front of his lens. His protagonists have names like Korn-Uschi, Der Zwerg or Karin Jägermeister. At the Gypsy Uschi’s he was allowed to sleep on the couch. Favorite drinks: Korn and beer or even better: Korn with yellow soda.
The solidarity view
As shocking as the images are, they are deeply influenced by the photographer’s big heart. He manages to make the evenings at Lehmitz look like an enviably wild party – except that the guests look a little more deranged than usual. Petersen has erected a monument to the drinkers and whores of Lehmitz. He focused the camera on the moment when the mood was running high – the humanitarian left out the real dirty life the morning after, when the intoxication had worn off.
“I don’t want it to be social pornography,” he said to the journalist who wrote the introduction to the illustrated book. “I don’t want you to write: This woman is an alcoholic and has two small children. She sells herself in the toilet.”
So Petersen probably brought more light into the booth at the Armory Market than was actually there. “I saw all these very poor, lonely, frustrated people, but I also felt that they had a heart of gold,” he said much later during an exhibition of his paintings in Hamburg
How the gutter defies change
What remains astonishing to the viewer is how much this outcropping of the big city defies the times. What has changed in Hamburg since 1962, since 1970 (Petersen) and since 1975 (Honka)? From a city of rubble, the city became a cosmopolitan metropolis, the port malochism developed into a service center – but the scenes at the drinking counters have always remained the same.
The documentary shocker “Mondo Cane” from 1962 shows the Reeperbahn
The most impressive film document comes from 1962 – the Oscar-winning documentary “Mondo Cane” showed its viewers the special and strange sides of the world that was still unknown to them. A kaleidoscope of exciting and shocking moments. There were pearl divers from the South Seas. The first gym for women was introduced in Hollywood. In Germany, the “Mondo Cane” makers chose the Reeperbahn – the world’s largest drinking mile. There are almost ten years between Petersen and Mondo Cane and yet the pictures are as similar as if they were taken in one night. People whose lives were dictated by alcoholism and who held each other, loved each other and fought with each other – while their life boats were dragged down into the whirlpool.
You can still hang out in the Golden Glove today. However, to avoid the tourists, it is better to look into the Elbschlosskeller. And here Hamburg is at the bottom – still. For some guests, the basement is the only roof over their heads. They live and sleep between counters and beer crates. Clothing changed in 1962. The wool coats and hats that were ubiquitous back then have been replaced by today’s leisure fashion. But the faces of those who drink their way to the end here have remained the same even after 50 years.
Café Lehmitz, Schirmer/Mosel. New edition. With text by Roger Anderson. 116 pages, 29.80