Former name(s) Heinrichstraße Postal code 20359 | Location Hamburg, Germany | |
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Owner The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg | ||
The Herbertstraße (formerly Heinrichstraße) is a street in Hamburg's St. Pauli district. The narrow, short street is notorious for its prostitution (about 250 women work here), with the prostitutes sitting in windows and waiting for customers.
Map of Herbertstra%C3%9Fe, 20359 Hamburg, Germany
Historically, Herbertstraße was the only area where prostition was tolerated in Hamburg. In 1933, the Nazi authorities erected wooden screens to hide the illegal activities. Today, prostitution is legal in Herbertstraße as well as in surrounding parts of St. Pauli and other designated areas within Hamburg.
In the 1970s police added signs advising youths and women against entering: the former for reasons of protection against harmful influence, the latter because prostitutes would actively seek to chase any women who entered away, thus causing trouble.
At present, Herbertstraße is still in operation and has become a tourist attraction for visitors of Hamburg. Similar brothel streets of less publicity exist in various German cities, e.g. Aachen (Antoniusstraße), Bochum (Im Winkel), Braunschweig (Bruchstraße), Bremen (Helenenstraße), Bremerhaven (Lessingstraße), Hagen, Minden (Rampenloch), Mannheim (Lupinenstraße), Essen (Stahlstraße), Duisburg (Vulkanstraße), Oberhausen (Flaßhofstraße), Düsseldorf (Hinter dem Bahndamm), Dortmund (Linienstraße), Hannover (Ludwigstraße) and Karlsruhe (Brunnenstraße).
Herbertstraße is not named after a person, but is part of a system of streets in the area named alphabetically after male given names (just as Davidstraße, Erichstraße, Friedrichstraße, Gerhardstraße etc.).