Hamburg · DE
True Crime Hamburg
Bikers, Serial Killers, and Riots on the Waterfront
What's the walk about?
Welcome to St. Pauli, Hamburg's legendary harbour district of neon lights, rock'n'roll history and ships gliding past on the Elbe. But behind the glitter of the Reeperbahn and the postcard views of the port lie darker stories: biker feuds, a notorious serial killer, a mysterious club fire and riots on the waterfront. Our journey begins here at the Millerntor, where the Reeperbahn starts and where, one summer night in 2018, a routine stop at a red light turned into an ambush.
What you'll see
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1
Shots at the Red Light - Millerntorplatz
Square
Late on 26 August 2018, a leading Hamburg Hells Angel was shot five times in his white Bentley while waiting at the red light on this junction at the start of the Reeperbahn; he survived paralysed, the jailed instigator got life and the getaway driver twelve and a half years, but the shooter was never identified.
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2
The Danger Zone Mystery - Spielbudenplatz
square
On 28 December 2013 police reported a masked mob attacking the Davidwache at the end of this square, a report that fuelled a danger zone over St. Pauli lasting ten days with 990 people checked, until police conceded the badly hurt officer had been injured 200 metres away and no attacker was ever found.
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3
The Beatles Under Arrest - Davidwache
police_station
On 29 November 1960, Paul McCartney and Pete Best were brought to Germany's most famous police station, accused of attempted arson after a tiny fire in the cinema where the Beatles slept, and were soon deported to England.
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4
The Serial Killer's Bar - Zum Goldenen Handschuh
Bar
Between 1970 and 1975 Fritz Honka, a night watchman and regular of this St. Pauli dive bar, where he met women living on the margins of the Kiez, killed four women, until a fire in his Ottensen attic flat in July 1975 exposed the crimes and a Hamburg court sentenced him to 15 years and committal to a psychiatric hospital.
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5
Stabbing on Große Freiheit - Beatles-Platz
Square
On 10 November 2024, a quarrel inside a disco on Große Freiheit, the Beatles' old Hamburg street, escalated into a knife attack: a 23-year-old woman stabbed her 25-year-old rival several times and cut a woman who stepped in, and in January 2026 she was jailed for four years and ten months for attempted manslaughter.
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6
Fire at the Pudel - Park Fiction / Golden Pudel Club
club
Around 3 a.m. on 14 February 2016, fire tore through the Golden Pudel, St. Pauli's legendary little club at the foot of Park Fiction; all 150 guests escaped unhurt, police investigated aggravated arson, and the fire setter was never identified.
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7
Welcome to Hell - Hafenstraße
street
On 6 July 2017, the eve of the G20 summit, police stopped the 'Welcome to Hell' march of some 12,000 people after barely 100 metres along this flood wall below the famous squatted Hafenstraße houses, and a night of rioting followed that left 76 officers injured.
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8
16 Tonnes of Cocaine - Alter Elbtunnel / Landungsbrücken
Landmark
On 12 February 2021, customs officers in Hamburg's port opened containers from Paraguay declared as wall filler and found 16 tonnes of cocaine hidden in 1,728 tins, at the time the biggest cocaine seizure Europe had ever seen, with the container cranes in view across the Elbe from the historic Landungsbrücken.
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