For many decades, St. Pauli was the unconventional suburb of Hamburg, a port and entertainment district. This is where the people who were not wanted within the city walls gathered. The LGBTQI + community also felt welcome here – where the merchant’s daughter could dance with the sailor, same-sex couples on the dance floor were nothing to be disreputed about.

The ES district tour is about persecuting the queer community during the times when Section 175 still existed. On the other hand, the community found creative loopholes, established places of encounter and resisted discrimination. Queer people have been and still are in sex work, as hosts : inside and as artists : inside and have made a lot of difference on St. Pauli. We look at queer places of nightlife culture from the last hundred years to the present day and stop for a drink in Hamburg’s oldest gay bar.