Manche hatten Krokodile (2016) - full transcript
Decades ago, they ended up in St. Pauli, a borough in the port city of Hamburg, Germany, hoping to escape the narrow-minded confines of the petit bourgeoisie, looking for work and a ...
SOME HAD CROCODILES
Robiño?
Yeah!
We can start.
- Alright.
Tell me when, Öner.
I'll tell you.
Hot in here:
- Hermine.
Hermine? Five?
- Five.
Hermine has money.
- I'm sure.
22.50 as well, right?
Did she win the lottery?
Who knows.
OK.
One second.
Number ten.
Mike?
Ten. Mike.
Eleven.
- Ten's empty.
Eleven is cash:
12.50.
Number 13, mine.
Empty.
Mine? 13.
- Yeah.
52.50, right?
There you go.
So...
Three hundred seventy-five.
And tomorrow,
our Heinz will take it to the bank.
Freedom. I don't know why, but that was it.
Freedom.
I came to Hamburg in '66, I was here during
the '68 movement and felt incredibly free.
You came here 20 years ago?
- No, 44 years ago.
Holy moley.
- In October. It was a cold winter.
I came here from Austria.
In '70.
He wanted to go to sea.
- I went to the employment agency.
He came too late.
- On Admiralitätsstrasse.
Long time ago.
- The whores at the fish market were better.
Hamburg's where it's at
if you want to go to sea.
Not Stade or something.
You have to be in Hamburg.
I was doing badly in Brazil.
My daughter died.
Nothing was working out.
I didn't have a job.
Then I got a chance to work on
a Harmburg Süd ship to pay for the passage.
That's how I came to Hamburg.
My father ended up here
because of the port somehow.
A few Chinese
had already settled here in St. Pauli.
My father took the place over from his uncle,
who moved to Holland just in time.
I came here to make money to buy a car.
I thought I'd stay for two years.
But then I never left.
I wanted to go to sea.
You wanted to go to sea.
Didn't happen.
So I got stuck here in "St. Lewd."
And we're still here.
Angela's coming tomorrow. She's got work.
Red Bull, tonic...
We have plenty of apple and tomato.
What about orange juice?
Orange juice...
Yes. Orange juice.
- Orange juice. Kümmerlinge?
We have plenty of apple, plenty of tomato.
- Fine.
Dragon blood.
OK, so, Jever Fun, white wine,
Jägermeister, Kümmerlinge,
orange juice, tonic, dragon blood.
They were out of dragon blood.
We went to the wholesale place on Saturday.
Not one dragon blood to be had.
He brought that over back in the day.
It's the family's household god.
He had it shipped over here.
I don't know what year.
In the beginning.
He's facing the door
to keep the bad spirits away.
And there were
hollow spaces in the walls,
for the spirits to get trapped in.
He's still watching over us.
- Yeah.
I put him behind glass later
They started messing with him.
Ripping off the pompons,
trying to scrape off the gold leaf.
So I put him behind glass. Bulletproof.
The first time my dad came over on
a steamer. The second time on a regular ship.
The first time in 1931. The second time
in 1936, when he got into the business.
Like I said,
I was born in '42.
Here in Hamburg. I started school here,
but spent most of my time in Heidelberg.
With friends of my father's fiance.
In 1943, the Chinese were "purged.”
They all got arrested
and sent to concentration camps.
And I was in Heidelberg at that time.
My dad spent about a year and a half
in different concentration camps.
In Harburg, in Kiel-Sasse, in...
Fuhlsbüttel.
When he got out, he got this place again.
It had been rented to someone else.
So he took over again,
got his liquor license back,
and slowly got back into business.
I came back to Hamburg in 1981.
I had regularly visited, along with family.
When I came back in 1981,
my dad was pretty sick.
He wanted me to take over the business
and showed me the ropes.
Hi.
The folks who wanted
to live and work in St. Pauli,
they were a special breed. Right?
You couldn't mention that you lived
in St. Pauli if you were somewhere else.
I experienced that at the gymnasium.
There were just three of us from St. Pauli
who went to the all girls' gymnasium.
We were treated like scum by our dassmates.
The people who worked here later didn't care,
they wanted to earn money.
They were a different breed.
They had a different attitude.
Right. - "It's nobody's business.
It's my life. I'll take care.
I'll do my thing."
I finished my job training in '47 or '48.
I trained as a photo lab technician.
They made so little money. I was young,
I wanted to buy shoes and dresses.
Alone the room I rented in Pinnasberg
was 30 a month already.
So I looked for a job at a bar.
But I was under 21, so I couldn't.
So when I turned 21,
I started working at Indra bar.
That was on Grosse Freiheit.
It was a pretty respectable bar,
a pretty place. They did cabaret and so on.
Did you ever work there?
No, I didn't.
- No?
I started at Ellis Elliot.
On Reeperbahn.
A corner pub on Reeperbahn and
Detlev-Bremer-Strasse. It's a sex shop now.
Then I went on tour.
Dancing all over Germany.
I was "Germany's heaviest stripper."
We did some pretty dirty stuff.
We started that in St. Pauli:
taking liberties.
Using a vibrator or a candle on stage.
And then the live shows started.
They really took off
in the late '60s, early '70s.
On stage we could...
love each other.
Nicely put.
- What can I say?
Here, Heinz.
6.50.
I'll give you five today.
And five for Christmas,
And 1.50 later
That thing needs to land on gold.
That'd be pretty damn awesome.
I'd get a cab.
Right to the store.
Take a break.
I'd take a cab to the store!
Leave my bike here and then come back...
with a new bike.
I'd get a brand-new hike.
If that thing lands on gold:
immediately.
A ladies' bike, 28 inches, three gears.
Because that one's broken, I checked it.
Broken ball bearing,
the cogs are worn down...
It's a 21-gear bike...
the one I got.
A moped would be even better.
Can I get another beer, Klaus?
Sure.
Now they're saying that's nothing, but...
You forgot one thing.
Cigarettes used to cost three euros,
not seven.
I got this life insurance once.
For when I retire.
Now it's only worth half.
Not enough to buy groceries.
- That's what I mean.
Fuck.
Hi.
I first went to my parents' friends
in Aachen.
I had the choice between Berlin,
Frankfurt, Munich and Hamburg.
I figured Hamburg was more international,
I'd have better chances there.
So I came to Hamburg.
I think I was the last one to work on a ship
in order to come to Germany.
I know no one else.
I saw an ad,
Bayrisch Zell was looking for a waitress.
I liked the place, so I applied.
I was lucky, I got the job.
After I passed my trial period
at Bayrisch Zell,
I started looking for an apartment
and got lucky.
I got the place of the owner's parents.
That's how I became a St. Paulian.
That was in November of '84.
You didn't get a Christmas bonus
or vacation pay in the service industry.
If you hadn't saved money,
you couldn't go on vacation.
There's nothing harder
than saving money when it's right there,
You can't do it
if it's right in front of you.
I've tried to save at home.
Believe me, it doesn't work.
Something important always pops up.
Anything. Because you can afford it.
And then it's not there
when you really need it.
You need to put money aside.
So these savings clubs were perfect,
because you went to the bar anyway.
These days you go to a bar
because you're in the savings dub.
Back then it was the other way around.
So you wouldn't need to go to the bank.
I come from a village, population: 600.
One time I went home
to visit my mom.
I got up at four one morning.
She asked where I was going.
"Out for a beer," I said.
"You're home. This isn't Hamburg."
That was the difference.
You were a bartender,
your old lady worked the streets.
That was life back then.
If you didn't feel like working,
you went on vacation. Money was no problem.
Why save money for retirement?
You won't make it to 60 the way you live.
A lot of people did that.
And then...
when they started thinking
it might be wise after all... By that time,
the good old days were over.
The days
when you dealt with girls.
Maybe you were too old.
It was just a normal career.
I used to do
the ski jumping circuit. And platform diving.
Two events, one for summer, one for winter.
I played on both national teams.
Before leaving Slovenia,
Iwas on TV for an hour.
I was invited for interviews.
I did the European championship
for hairdressers.
And a hairdresser named Klein
had five salons in Hamburg.
And because I had won
an award at this championship,
he told me he needed a hairdresser
here in St. Pauli.
So I signed a two-year contract
and came to Hamburg.
He got me an apartment and everything.
And I ended up staying.
I liked it so much I didn't want to leave.
Well, I...
got along just fine here all in all.
I came here
at a tumultuous time.
For the St. Pauli police, anyway.
Oh, yeah, right.
Al those guys from Vienna.
Those Vienna guys.
Oh, yes, those were the days...
They wanted to take over St. Pauli.
-'70, '71.
That's right.
I witnessed this war that went on here too.
We call it a war.
With the Austrians.
With the pimps.
- The pimp wars, yes.
And then at Sahara with the black folks.
Those were hard times.
We sat under tables at night
because people were shooting.
When there was a police raid
and they saw the Austrian passport...
"Oh, shit, another one," they'd say.
They were pretty eager.
They wanted to take over everything.
And the German pimps
didn't allow that.
I always stayed out of that whole business.
All those offers I got back then.
You too, right? You were always respectable.
Pretty much.
I just did my thing.
- That's right.
My brother was very active here.
He was very well-known here.
He made lots of money in St. Pauli.
He kept his merchandise in his pockets.
He sold watches, jewels and jewelry.
All the St. Pauli people who could afford it,
he adorned them with gold and jewels.
People made a lot of money here, and they
spent it just as fast as they made it.
I wasn't involved in any savings clubs
back then, to tell the truth.
I didn't start that whole savings club
thing until the 1990s.
That's when I became a member.
Hi, honey. You're in the movies now?
- Yes.
Hi.
Here you go.
The boss lady is...
taller by two heads, and wider...
Well,
that's another argument for becoming gay.
I worked on Schmuckstrasse.
On Testicle Alley.
Testicle Alley.
Where the real women tum tricks.
- You mean "Rue de la Trappe"?
That's what they used to call it.
But Testicle Alley too.
I've never lived like a nun.
Once I jumped out of a four-storey window
on the job.
It was an accident.
I thought it was the ground floor,
Oh, shit.
- That was over in Wandsbek.
Spent months in the hospital.
Broke all my bones.
For real?
I wanted to escape.
The john wouldn't let me leave.
I climbed out the kitchen window
and fell down into the basement.
I'd stolen something, so...
I can tell you that too.
Things were different then.
People got paid every week.
Pay packet parties.
Envelopes with strips.
Listen, I'll tell you how it was back then.
Even as a laborer, one week of work
paid for your rent, utilities, everything.
Then maybe another half a week for food.
And cigarettes.
And then you had two, two and a half weeks
worth of wages to kill.
Those were the golden days.
I was there for the good old days.
I always say: that wasn't work.
That was fun, day and night.
Really.
All we did was party, party, party.
Every day.
I made such good money here.
And over there, things were...
bad back then.
So I started sending money back home.
And that made it impossible
for me to go back.
I'd have had to start from scratch.
And they needed my money.
It's still like that today.
No, no, no.
Three more weeks. So you didn't pay in
three times due to illness.
You're saving box 28/38.
Oh, nonsense. We won't need that.
Aright. Bye.
That was Karsten.
Who?
- Karsten.
From Herbertstrasse.
Oh, the tall one.
Still in the savings club?
Yeah, he doesn't know if he'll continue.
He's leaving Hamburg.
He always says that. Wants to go to Sweden.
I think his parents live there,
He's an errand boy on Herbertstrasse, right?
He's a slave.
- He makes good money though.
He does. His job is to get beat up.
- Real good money.
He's a slave, he gets beat up.
- He works as a slave?
I see. I thought he just runs errands.
- Sure.
I don't care what they say,
I wouldn't join a savings club.
You can save your money at home.
Or in the bank.
Sure you can, but truth be told,
especially now that money's tight,
there's always some reason you need it now.
I wouldn't have saved any without the club.
Money. You see where it ends up.
Easy come, easy go.
Easy come, easy go.
I never did anything for free.
Today I volunteer my services.
Can't ask for money at my age.
You're the only one who ever gets lucky
on that damn thing.
Oh, right.
That's true. I always play your...
I don't play for five cents. I always play...
- ...for a euro.
If I play at all.
- And how many times have I..
He thought that too.
I'm not a gambler.
But when I win, I win.
And once that 4.50 is spent,
that's it.
No more today.
Tomorrow's another day.
I'll have to survive tomorrow,
I'll have money anyway.
Look!
- Bingo again!
I told you!
- Third time.
What did I say? He hasn't come for ten days.
That bastard.
I'll drink to that.
Unbelievable.
Three times "bingo" in one hour.
Robi, give my dear friend Stefan a shot.
Or a beer?
- Beer or Kümmerling?
Kümmerling. And a beer on my tap.
And the Kümmerling on mine.
- I'll have a shot too.
And a brandy
for my litte Max.
- Right away.
And another beer for me too.
- You too? Then I gotta get two.
That's how to persevere.
That's how to persevere.
I'd have laughed my ass off if it had
happened now. 19 and 20 were missing.
I swear I'd have had a heart attack.
I swam across the Elbe river in '73.
From East Germany.
I didn't think of the consequences.
I had just turned 19.
My parents got in trouble for it
with the state security service,
Obvious.
They could've shot me or something.
But you don't realize that at that age.
I even smoked a cigarette
in the ditch beforehand.
My buddy almost peed his pants.
"Stop smoking!" "Relax, they won't see us."
I thought it was a game, an adventure.
It was evening when we went into the Elbe.
Almost 10 p.m.
On August 29, '73.
First we crossed a mine field.
Then rolled-up barbwire,
A year later, that fence went up.
That would've been impossible.
But we made it. I had long hair.
I weighed 150 pounds. I was thin.
So then we crossed the Elbe.
There's an undercurrent
that takes out your legs.
I thought I'd drown. My jacket...
got caught up here in the sleeves.
I took a deep breath
and took it off underwater.
So my documents,
my passport and money was gone.
We saw a house on the main road
with a "room for rent" sign. So we knocked.
We were covered in oil
from the ships on the river.
There was an oil film on the Elbe.
The guy thought we were criminals.
We told him we had escaped from the GDR.
So he called the Federal Border Police.
They got there in a military jeep, three guys.
They took us to Hitzacker.
We took a shower there.
Then they gave us some food.
The next day I called
my dad's sister in Bremen.
They picked us up from the camp
two days later.
Then I had a job for three months
and went to sea.
I wanted to go to sea.
My grandfather gave me 3,000 marks.
So I went to Hamburg.
And I did that for 16 years.
I went to all five continents.
Once I went around the whole world
on a steamer, All five continents.
Never got seasick. Never!
I got here. Went to sea.
17 months in all. Of those 17 months,
I puked for 13.
Never got seaworthy. So that was it.
The steersman was drunk,
the sailor was drunk.
Didn't change course, just off Sassandra.
We hit the rocks. Right on the rock face.
Mid-ship.
Got stuck there, rocked,
and then broke into two pieces.
That was in West Africa.
In the morning.
At five to five,
I only went to sea
to avoid military service.
Me too.
I worked at Siemens.
I didn't want to do military service,
so I signed up for deep-sea fishing.
They couldn't get me then.
First deep-sea fishing and then
the big journey.
Until...
Don't know.
Hi.
- Hello, Uwe!
There it is. Bye-bye.
That was in Santos, Brazil.
I was there for three years.
Looking for gold!
First a sailor,
so how did you become a gold hunter?
I jumped ship in Santos.
I've told you that several times.
You missed the boat?
- Yeah,
Then I met this French guy...
and a Spanish guy I think.
They took me to the jungle.
- see.
Sometimes we'd get a pound or two...
Depending.
Not too shabby.
Sure, but two seconds later...
On Bacardi or Cach-Cach...
Cachaça.
- That was the cheapest.
A dollar a bottle.
I did that three years before I was caught.
And then off
to Hamburg on a plane.
You hear about Germany expelling foreigners,
but that was a case of a German guy
being sent home.
So I opened a bar
Around the corner,
You needed a place to stay
and took on the bar.
I walked past one morning.
Uschi had thrown out my suitcase.
A long time ago.
I saw this sign, "Bar for Sale."
So I bought it.
I called my brothers. "Kalle, I need...
25,000."
"What do you need?"
"25,000," I said.
He got it back, too. Bit by bit.
I ran that bar
for about 24 years.
You lived behind it.
Till I'd had enough. Threw down the key.
Didn't cancel the lease.
Didn't want to tend bar anymore,
Here I am again though.
Got no choice.
Robi, tell me when I get to ten euros.
Hi.
- Hi.
Sure, I know lots of people who used
to be important here, if you will.
I mean, they were pimps.
They're still good people, but back then,
ten, 20 years ago, they had millions.
Now they're like,
"Frank, will you buy me a beer?" Times change.
But people don't. Just...
the state of your wallet.
Everyone needs money,
but when I have it, I spend it.
That's what I work for
I'm in the savings club,
but I don't save a lot.
I want to live here and now.
I make money and I spend it.
I don't need 10,000 in the bank.
I want to live. And I do.
It's pretty...
crazy when you see or hear about people
barely scraping by. People who...
save money for a coffee.
Where the sex shop is now,
that used to be Sophienburg.
That was a pimp bar back in the '20s.
The street was called Sophienstrasse
and the bar on the comer Sophienburg.
And back in the '20s...
- Never heard of it.
That was before your time.
The pimps.
And they set up
pigeonholes for saving money.
You don't say.
So any pimp who wanted to become
a member of that club
had to have at least one woman
working for him,
These women had to hand their earnings
over to their pimps.
And they would put it in the pigeonholes.
That money got saved.
Eventually they'd get it back
and spend it partying.
But a certain amount was kept at the bar
and used to pay lawyer fees
or to support people getting out of jail
or for women who got sick.
Back then, they didn't have those
mandatory medical check-ups yet.
That's what that money was used for.
The club in this place was called
"Credit and Social Club Fidelio."
Very nice. Fidelio.
Sounds merry.
- Right.
Back in the '60s and '70s over there
on Gerhardstrasse and stuff,
the boys paid into a fund
to help guys...
- Over at the Chikago.
Who went to jail and so on.
- Exactly.
When I moved here twelve, 13 years ago,
I was skeptical if this would work out.
But oddly enough, it works very well.
I wanted to be where it's at,
and this is the place.
And once you start living here, you realize
it's like a village
with crazy crowds on the weekends.
But it doesn't matter if you're a big-shot
pimp or whatever, we all get along.
It's all good.
They sort all the drama out among themselves,
no one else really notices.
Hi.
He's in the club too. Rolf
You're still in the club or did you get
kicked out? - No, why? - I don't know.
Did you get kicked out?
- Me? Never.
Who did then?
- You, I thought.
Why?
- No reason.
Frank, ten euros!
- Thanks.
Not that I know of.
I think they still hope the good times will
return, that they can do their thing again.
But those times are over,
But they know that some folks
make good money here
and that they can profit from it
and get their share once in a while.
Frank, when do you have work in Kiel again?
- On Monday.
St. Pauli got their ass kicked in soccer.
- Yeah, 3-0.
Heinz!
What? 3-0?
No!
Embarrassing.
With the new coach.
- Sure.
3.10 euros.
- That crazy one.
3-0, really...
So of course
St. Pauli was the place to go.
Thankfully,
the tolerance level has risen to the point
that nowadays, transvestites here in Germany,
even in Bavaria or wherever,
can hold a regular job.
They can be a sales clerk or whatever.
That was impossible back then.
You just couldn't do that.
I did talk to my boss back then.
I worked at a pharmacy.
I got along with him and had a good job.
But there was nothing to be done.
It'd be different today.
I got to know St. Pauli
when I was 14.
My aunt lived here.
I already found it terribly exciting,
although I only knew it at daytime.
But it's always fascinated me.
And then a friend took me
to this one bar
The old Roxy-Bar.
That was great.
They had one of those coal-burning stoves.
Right there on the dance floor,
a coal-burning stove.
Which they kept filling.
And so I heard about this place
and went there,
And that's where I started dancing
for the first time.
Sashayed around in a curtain.
Terrible, but great. Anyway...
I got hooked.
I knew it was my thing.
So that's how it got started.
I had a friend who let me change
at her place.
And I danced there too.
So I did that for a few years.
And then I told my parents. "That's it.
I'm gonna be a dancer"
My parents said,
"If that's what you want. It's your life."
I had fantastic parents.
Really great.
I worked on Grosse Freiheit too.
Those places are gone now.
They were called SoHo, Bikini, Jungmühle...
I could leave home in my ball gown,
wearing real jewels,
walk through Schmuckstrasse or wherever...
It was great back then.
And I made some cash that way.
But of course
I threw the money around.
The discos were open till the morning hours.
We used to work six nights a week.
And then the high life
when we got off in the morning.
And if you weren't prudent,
you might be broke today.
I'd be wasted after all those cases of beer.
- That's for one week.
One week? You drink that much?
- Not me. - Oh, other people do.
Robi, can I get another beer?
And a coffee!
I got my own savings club.
At home.
I bought a big piggy bank and I put
five or ten euros in there every week,
however much I feel like.
That's how I save my money.
It's a little pink piggy bank.
Got it at some one-euro store.
My wife called me crazy.
But I bought the piggy bank and took it home.
And I put money in it, just the way
I used to when I was a club member.
OK,I got a key,
so I can open it if I need some change.
But that's how I save money now.
It's safe too. It's money too.
Same as here.
I saw a piggy bank once
at the St. Pauli flea market.
"Illicit Earnings" it said.
So awesome. I bought it. Never put
any money in it. It's just for decoration.
You need one of those in St. Pauli.
Here we go.
Number one,
Empty.
Number two.
- Empty.
And number four
Don't count the pennies and dimes.
50 cents and up.
Is that the supermarket lady?
- She can give that to the kids, not to us.
So that's...
- Just small change?
And pennies.
- No pennies.
50, 60...
Five.
And ten,
No, wait, we'll put that back in. Ten.
I'm not doing that.
Then we have...
Moi. Me.
Ten.
- Yes.
Change too?
- No.
That's 20.
-20.
Next, 26.
Empty.
Next, 30.
Eleven.
Then that's it. Fine.
That was it?
- Yes. Now I have to count.
So that's done.
So the savings club works like this.
At some point, someone told me...
I always saw that case
and asked about it.
He told me it was for the savings club.
You deposit money every week.
You get it back in December.
And they used to do a lottery too.
Half of it was profit,
the other half interest.
The interest financed a party
and the rest was returned to the savers.
At home, you have access to your money.
If you're trying to save.
At the bar, you don't have access to it.
The rules were: "You're not getting it."
If someone wanted their money to get a drink,
I'd say, "Kiss my ass.
You'll get it at the end of the year"
"Oh, shit!"
No, no.
I'm not sure. We have the statutes somewhere,
I don't think anyone ever read them.
No idea. We put money in every week.
If you can't, you have to pay a fine.
We get monthly lottery tickets.
We're still hoping for the big jackpot.
Thank God we haven't hit it yet.
We all knew each other
and met here in the mornings. - Right.
Peggy opened this place. She was one of us.
So we'd meet here at Peggy's.
- And we miss her
We miss Peggy.
After about six months,
the savings CLub got started.
i was a member for the first few years,
then I quit for a while.
Because I went on tour
i was never in the club.
But you were always there.
Maybe...
You were never in the savings club?
Nope.
I didn't know that either.
I never was.
But you came to the Christmas parties.
I had to manage somehow.
So much for that.
And the parties we had here...
costume parties.
That was always... Christmas parties too...
With awards ceremonies.
I won nine out of twelve.
She beat me once.
- I only...
I think I did five.
I participated in five.
I beat you more than once.
Maybe twice, but I won nine times.
Bitch.
My mom always said, "You know
how you can tell you're getting old?
When your heels...
get lower"
- I got old long ago then.
Me too.
You can't jump around
like an 18-year-old girl anymore,
Yes, I can.
- And she does.
Maybe just for two minutes,
then I run out of breath,
But hey, watch it.
I can still outdo my girls.
- Hi, Jimmy.
This is our..
Train driver
- Train driver.
Coffee?
- Yeah.
We always went to Hamburg
and Antwerp and then...
Port Limón or Barranquilla
or La Ceiba, Honduras.
We had nice idle periods there.
It was a nice ship, 22 knots.
You were there in six days. That was pleasant.
Barranquilla, Columbia.
There were merchants with parrots and snakes.
One had a little ocelot.
A baby ocelot.
He was kind of wild. And I bought him
for $20 and a case of Holsten beer;
I put him up in the room. Fed him some meat.
I was a cook, so I had access to food.
But then they noticed
we had too many animals on board.
The carpenter had a dachshund on board too.
Pancho.
He was always on board.
Some had crocodiles.
Three or four of them and snakes...
We had twelve passengers too.
Until the captain said...
"All animals out, except for the dog."
So we had to get rid of them. I'd have taken
that ocelot to Hamburg with me.
So did you throw them overboard?
No!
The crocodiles, yes.
We drank a case of beer with the engine guy,
opened the chute
and threw them in the Río Magdalena.
They were this small. They swam off.
He hid the snakes and took them to Hamburg.
This thing got rusty over the years.
It depends. You had to deposit
at least five euros a week.
So that's 20, 25 euros a month.
A lot of people deposited ten or 20 euros...
I mean marks, and then euros later
Some put in 50 or 100.
Not many,
but a few people were able to do that.
Yeah, some had 20,000 or 30,000 in there.
Under the table money.
That too.
Some savings clubs
had so much money that the boys put in.
Those were unlike
any regular savings clubs.
Most folks used the money
to pay something off at the end of the year;
And so they could spend it
over Christmas and New Year's.
Usually around St. Nicholas' Day
on December 6,
people get their savings back
and then there's a Christmas party.
And if there's money left,
people get drink coupons or cash. Whatever.
I have to say,
I did a ton of stupid stuff.
But at the time it was the right thing.
At that moment it was.
We see things differently today,
but it was the right thing.
All the retired folks here
have a side job if they physically can.
Because they didn't put money aside
back then.
That's up to each individual person.
Some people can save their money,
some people live in the moment and can't.
Or just for a little while.
And once the stash gets too big,
they have to go crazy again.
I used to light my cigarettes
with 100-mark bills.
That's how dumb I was. Or I'd light up,
put the 100-mark bill in the ashtray
and if the waiter grabbed it,
I'd smack his hand. "Off!"
If the bill burned, I blew the ashes
at the waiter. "Your tip." If he sucked.
And if I...
had put 20 marks aside every day,
I'd have 500,000 now.
I could've saved 100 a day too, no problem.
Then I'd even have more now.
But easy come, easy go.
I had an investment fund with 5,000 marks
once.
I'd get these statements: There were so
many figures I couldn't figure the shit out.
All I saw was eventually
there was only 3,000 left.
I closed the fund before it all disappeared.
The "Global Player” fund.
I couldn't reach the idiot who sold it to me.
I'd have stuffed the statements in his mouth.
Our Rolf.
373 euros.
373, right.
2,350.
Hermine, you're next. You did well.
No.
- Yes, you did.
How do you want it?
Big bills if you can.
Big? I can.
One big bill, two...
Here.
Yes, that's fine.
Round sum?
- Yes.
Now.
I calculated everything.
It comes to
11,000 something.
You have to check it again.
- OK. One more time?
Of course.
Make sure it's right.
It was always the same thing.
Two cashiers were in on it. Or one was
too lazy and the other was after the money.
So they'd steal
the weekly deposits of different people.
End of the year was always a dangerous time.
There'd be up to 20,000 marks in there.
So that was really difficult.
It was important
that both cashiers were honest people.
If not it was risky.
It's not just St. Pauli,
it's the same all over Germany.
People in charge of the money
taking off with it before Christmas.
All the savings gone.
This was a salaried employee.
He had his locker here and everything.
And I... was against him being a cashier
And I was right.
I checked regularly to make sure the money
got deposited into the savings account.
Only he and I had access to the safe.
And I noticed two or three missed deposits.
I forgot about that.
Before I joined the savings club,
there were people here...
I remember charging my cell phone up there.
Ten minutes later it was gone.
It was the end of the year
when people got their deposits.
They said, "Frank, you're crazy."
But two weeks later
the club money was all gone.
Then they said, "You were right, Frank."
They didn't just take my cell phone,
but the club money too.
I forgot about that.
Other than that we never had any problems
with the savings club.
Just before the huge amounts
were to be withdrawn, he really did it.
We went to the police, they found nothing.
So two of my employees went to his place,
took it apart and found 3,000 marks,
it was marks back then,
under the fridge.
He never showed his face in St. Pauli again.
They'd have kicked his ass.
Does this work?
- Yes, it's new.
But did you try it?
- Yes.
Where's the plug?
- You have it.
You should have it there.
This isn't clean.
We don't have any hooks up there.
I'll put some up.
I'll pack this up.
Hi.
How are you?
Armani shirt and everything!
Sixty...
seventy...
eighty.
Eighty. Up there.
- There you go.
Aunt Hermine.
Two or three...
Thank you. You're welcome,
- Sure,
One autograph, please.
- One autograph.
Just the way I like you.
Thank you.
I really saved money this time.
Not like last year I've had enough. I'm...
completely
debt-free.
I'd like to go down to Marietta's now,
get my notes of debt, put them on a rocket
and launch it into space.
Just get rid of all that crap.
Without throwing it away or all that.
And I'll do it again.
I'll always keep saving.
370, That's right.
50 cents still in it.
50 cents.
One autograph.
We start again the second week of January.
I'll put in money for one month.
And if I win on the machine,
I put that in too.
A bit for me and the rest goes in there.
I might save a grand that way.
For a mountain bike!
A bicycle.
One, two...
three, four, five.
No one wants this, right?
Can we turn the music back on?
SOME HAD CROCODILES
SOME HAD CROCODILES
Special Thanks to Al Participants:
Robiño?
Yeah!
We can start.
- Alright.
Tell me when, Öner.
I'll tell you.
Hot in here:
- Hermine.
Hermine? Five?
- Five.
Hermine has money.
- I'm sure.
22.50 as well, right?
Did she win the lottery?
Who knows.
OK.
One second.
Number ten.
Mike?
Ten. Mike.
Eleven.
- Ten's empty.
Eleven is cash:
12.50.
Number 13, mine.
Empty.
Mine? 13.
- Yeah.
52.50, right?
There you go.
So...
Three hundred seventy-five.
And tomorrow,
our Heinz will take it to the bank.
Freedom. I don't know why, but that was it.
Freedom.
I came to Hamburg in '66, I was here during
the '68 movement and felt incredibly free.
You came here 20 years ago?
- No, 44 years ago.
Holy moley.
- In October. It was a cold winter.
I came here from Austria.
In '70.
He wanted to go to sea.
- I went to the employment agency.
He came too late.
- On Admiralitätsstrasse.
Long time ago.
- The whores at the fish market were better.
Hamburg's where it's at
if you want to go to sea.
Not Stade or something.
You have to be in Hamburg.
I was doing badly in Brazil.
My daughter died.
Nothing was working out.
I didn't have a job.
Then I got a chance to work on
a Harmburg Süd ship to pay for the passage.
That's how I came to Hamburg.
My father ended up here
because of the port somehow.
A few Chinese
had already settled here in St. Pauli.
My father took the place over from his uncle,
who moved to Holland just in time.
I came here to make money to buy a car.
I thought I'd stay for two years.
But then I never left.
I wanted to go to sea.
You wanted to go to sea.
Didn't happen.
So I got stuck here in "St. Lewd."
And we're still here.
Angela's coming tomorrow. She's got work.
Red Bull, tonic...
We have plenty of apple and tomato.
What about orange juice?
Orange juice...
Yes. Orange juice.
- Orange juice. Kümmerlinge?
We have plenty of apple, plenty of tomato.
- Fine.
Dragon blood.
OK, so, Jever Fun, white wine,
Jägermeister, Kümmerlinge,
orange juice, tonic, dragon blood.
They were out of dragon blood.
We went to the wholesale place on Saturday.
Not one dragon blood to be had.
He brought that over back in the day.
It's the family's household god.
He had it shipped over here.
I don't know what year.
In the beginning.
He's facing the door
to keep the bad spirits away.
And there were
hollow spaces in the walls,
for the spirits to get trapped in.
He's still watching over us.
- Yeah.
I put him behind glass later
They started messing with him.
Ripping off the pompons,
trying to scrape off the gold leaf.
So I put him behind glass. Bulletproof.
The first time my dad came over on
a steamer. The second time on a regular ship.
The first time in 1931. The second time
in 1936, when he got into the business.
Like I said,
I was born in '42.
Here in Hamburg. I started school here,
but spent most of my time in Heidelberg.
With friends of my father's fiance.
In 1943, the Chinese were "purged.”
They all got arrested
and sent to concentration camps.
And I was in Heidelberg at that time.
My dad spent about a year and a half
in different concentration camps.
In Harburg, in Kiel-Sasse, in...
Fuhlsbüttel.
When he got out, he got this place again.
It had been rented to someone else.
So he took over again,
got his liquor license back,
and slowly got back into business.
I came back to Hamburg in 1981.
I had regularly visited, along with family.
When I came back in 1981,
my dad was pretty sick.
He wanted me to take over the business
and showed me the ropes.
Hi.
The folks who wanted
to live and work in St. Pauli,
they were a special breed. Right?
You couldn't mention that you lived
in St. Pauli if you were somewhere else.
I experienced that at the gymnasium.
There were just three of us from St. Pauli
who went to the all girls' gymnasium.
We were treated like scum by our dassmates.
The people who worked here later didn't care,
they wanted to earn money.
They were a different breed.
They had a different attitude.
Right. - "It's nobody's business.
It's my life. I'll take care.
I'll do my thing."
I finished my job training in '47 or '48.
I trained as a photo lab technician.
They made so little money. I was young,
I wanted to buy shoes and dresses.
Alone the room I rented in Pinnasberg
was 30 a month already.
So I looked for a job at a bar.
But I was under 21, so I couldn't.
So when I turned 21,
I started working at Indra bar.
That was on Grosse Freiheit.
It was a pretty respectable bar,
a pretty place. They did cabaret and so on.
Did you ever work there?
No, I didn't.
- No?
I started at Ellis Elliot.
On Reeperbahn.
A corner pub on Reeperbahn and
Detlev-Bremer-Strasse. It's a sex shop now.
Then I went on tour.
Dancing all over Germany.
I was "Germany's heaviest stripper."
We did some pretty dirty stuff.
We started that in St. Pauli:
taking liberties.
Using a vibrator or a candle on stage.
And then the live shows started.
They really took off
in the late '60s, early '70s.
On stage we could...
love each other.
Nicely put.
- What can I say?
Here, Heinz.
6.50.
I'll give you five today.
And five for Christmas,
And 1.50 later
That thing needs to land on gold.
That'd be pretty damn awesome.
I'd get a cab.
Right to the store.
Take a break.
I'd take a cab to the store!
Leave my bike here and then come back...
with a new bike.
I'd get a brand-new hike.
If that thing lands on gold:
immediately.
A ladies' bike, 28 inches, three gears.
Because that one's broken, I checked it.
Broken ball bearing,
the cogs are worn down...
It's a 21-gear bike...
the one I got.
A moped would be even better.
Can I get another beer, Klaus?
Sure.
Now they're saying that's nothing, but...
You forgot one thing.
Cigarettes used to cost three euros,
not seven.
I got this life insurance once.
For when I retire.
Now it's only worth half.
Not enough to buy groceries.
- That's what I mean.
Fuck.
Hi.
I first went to my parents' friends
in Aachen.
I had the choice between Berlin,
Frankfurt, Munich and Hamburg.
I figured Hamburg was more international,
I'd have better chances there.
So I came to Hamburg.
I think I was the last one to work on a ship
in order to come to Germany.
I know no one else.
I saw an ad,
Bayrisch Zell was looking for a waitress.
I liked the place, so I applied.
I was lucky, I got the job.
After I passed my trial period
at Bayrisch Zell,
I started looking for an apartment
and got lucky.
I got the place of the owner's parents.
That's how I became a St. Paulian.
That was in November of '84.
You didn't get a Christmas bonus
or vacation pay in the service industry.
If you hadn't saved money,
you couldn't go on vacation.
There's nothing harder
than saving money when it's right there,
You can't do it
if it's right in front of you.
I've tried to save at home.
Believe me, it doesn't work.
Something important always pops up.
Anything. Because you can afford it.
And then it's not there
when you really need it.
You need to put money aside.
So these savings clubs were perfect,
because you went to the bar anyway.
These days you go to a bar
because you're in the savings dub.
Back then it was the other way around.
So you wouldn't need to go to the bank.
I come from a village, population: 600.
One time I went home
to visit my mom.
I got up at four one morning.
She asked where I was going.
"Out for a beer," I said.
"You're home. This isn't Hamburg."
That was the difference.
You were a bartender,
your old lady worked the streets.
That was life back then.
If you didn't feel like working,
you went on vacation. Money was no problem.
Why save money for retirement?
You won't make it to 60 the way you live.
A lot of people did that.
And then...
when they started thinking
it might be wise after all... By that time,
the good old days were over.
The days
when you dealt with girls.
Maybe you were too old.
It was just a normal career.
I used to do
the ski jumping circuit. And platform diving.
Two events, one for summer, one for winter.
I played on both national teams.
Before leaving Slovenia,
Iwas on TV for an hour.
I was invited for interviews.
I did the European championship
for hairdressers.
And a hairdresser named Klein
had five salons in Hamburg.
And because I had won
an award at this championship,
he told me he needed a hairdresser
here in St. Pauli.
So I signed a two-year contract
and came to Hamburg.
He got me an apartment and everything.
And I ended up staying.
I liked it so much I didn't want to leave.
Well, I...
got along just fine here all in all.
I came here
at a tumultuous time.
For the St. Pauli police, anyway.
Oh, yeah, right.
Al those guys from Vienna.
Those Vienna guys.
Oh, yes, those were the days...
They wanted to take over St. Pauli.
-'70, '71.
That's right.
I witnessed this war that went on here too.
We call it a war.
With the Austrians.
With the pimps.
- The pimp wars, yes.
And then at Sahara with the black folks.
Those were hard times.
We sat under tables at night
because people were shooting.
When there was a police raid
and they saw the Austrian passport...
"Oh, shit, another one," they'd say.
They were pretty eager.
They wanted to take over everything.
And the German pimps
didn't allow that.
I always stayed out of that whole business.
All those offers I got back then.
You too, right? You were always respectable.
Pretty much.
I just did my thing.
- That's right.
My brother was very active here.
He was very well-known here.
He made lots of money in St. Pauli.
He kept his merchandise in his pockets.
He sold watches, jewels and jewelry.
All the St. Pauli people who could afford it,
he adorned them with gold and jewels.
People made a lot of money here, and they
spent it just as fast as they made it.
I wasn't involved in any savings clubs
back then, to tell the truth.
I didn't start that whole savings club
thing until the 1990s.
That's when I became a member.
Hi, honey. You're in the movies now?
- Yes.
Hi.
Here you go.
The boss lady is...
taller by two heads, and wider...
Well,
that's another argument for becoming gay.
I worked on Schmuckstrasse.
On Testicle Alley.
Testicle Alley.
Where the real women tum tricks.
- You mean "Rue de la Trappe"?
That's what they used to call it.
But Testicle Alley too.
I've never lived like a nun.
Once I jumped out of a four-storey window
on the job.
It was an accident.
I thought it was the ground floor,
Oh, shit.
- That was over in Wandsbek.
Spent months in the hospital.
Broke all my bones.
For real?
I wanted to escape.
The john wouldn't let me leave.
I climbed out the kitchen window
and fell down into the basement.
I'd stolen something, so...
I can tell you that too.
Things were different then.
People got paid every week.
Pay packet parties.
Envelopes with strips.
Listen, I'll tell you how it was back then.
Even as a laborer, one week of work
paid for your rent, utilities, everything.
Then maybe another half a week for food.
And cigarettes.
And then you had two, two and a half weeks
worth of wages to kill.
Those were the golden days.
I was there for the good old days.
I always say: that wasn't work.
That was fun, day and night.
Really.
All we did was party, party, party.
Every day.
I made such good money here.
And over there, things were...
bad back then.
So I started sending money back home.
And that made it impossible
for me to go back.
I'd have had to start from scratch.
And they needed my money.
It's still like that today.
No, no, no.
Three more weeks. So you didn't pay in
three times due to illness.
You're saving box 28/38.
Oh, nonsense. We won't need that.
Aright. Bye.
That was Karsten.
Who?
- Karsten.
From Herbertstrasse.
Oh, the tall one.
Still in the savings club?
Yeah, he doesn't know if he'll continue.
He's leaving Hamburg.
He always says that. Wants to go to Sweden.
I think his parents live there,
He's an errand boy on Herbertstrasse, right?
He's a slave.
- He makes good money though.
He does. His job is to get beat up.
- Real good money.
He's a slave, he gets beat up.
- He works as a slave?
I see. I thought he just runs errands.
- Sure.
I don't care what they say,
I wouldn't join a savings club.
You can save your money at home.
Or in the bank.
Sure you can, but truth be told,
especially now that money's tight,
there's always some reason you need it now.
I wouldn't have saved any without the club.
Money. You see where it ends up.
Easy come, easy go.
Easy come, easy go.
I never did anything for free.
Today I volunteer my services.
Can't ask for money at my age.
You're the only one who ever gets lucky
on that damn thing.
Oh, right.
That's true. I always play your...
I don't play for five cents. I always play...
- ...for a euro.
If I play at all.
- And how many times have I..
He thought that too.
I'm not a gambler.
But when I win, I win.
And once that 4.50 is spent,
that's it.
No more today.
Tomorrow's another day.
I'll have to survive tomorrow,
I'll have money anyway.
Look!
- Bingo again!
I told you!
- Third time.
What did I say? He hasn't come for ten days.
That bastard.
I'll drink to that.
Unbelievable.
Three times "bingo" in one hour.
Robi, give my dear friend Stefan a shot.
Or a beer?
- Beer or Kümmerling?
Kümmerling. And a beer on my tap.
And the Kümmerling on mine.
- I'll have a shot too.
And a brandy
for my litte Max.
- Right away.
And another beer for me too.
- You too? Then I gotta get two.
That's how to persevere.
That's how to persevere.
I'd have laughed my ass off if it had
happened now. 19 and 20 were missing.
I swear I'd have had a heart attack.
I swam across the Elbe river in '73.
From East Germany.
I didn't think of the consequences.
I had just turned 19.
My parents got in trouble for it
with the state security service,
Obvious.
They could've shot me or something.
But you don't realize that at that age.
I even smoked a cigarette
in the ditch beforehand.
My buddy almost peed his pants.
"Stop smoking!" "Relax, they won't see us."
I thought it was a game, an adventure.
It was evening when we went into the Elbe.
Almost 10 p.m.
On August 29, '73.
First we crossed a mine field.
Then rolled-up barbwire,
A year later, that fence went up.
That would've been impossible.
But we made it. I had long hair.
I weighed 150 pounds. I was thin.
So then we crossed the Elbe.
There's an undercurrent
that takes out your legs.
I thought I'd drown. My jacket...
got caught up here in the sleeves.
I took a deep breath
and took it off underwater.
So my documents,
my passport and money was gone.
We saw a house on the main road
with a "room for rent" sign. So we knocked.
We were covered in oil
from the ships on the river.
There was an oil film on the Elbe.
The guy thought we were criminals.
We told him we had escaped from the GDR.
So he called the Federal Border Police.
They got there in a military jeep, three guys.
They took us to Hitzacker.
We took a shower there.
Then they gave us some food.
The next day I called
my dad's sister in Bremen.
They picked us up from the camp
two days later.
Then I had a job for three months
and went to sea.
I wanted to go to sea.
My grandfather gave me 3,000 marks.
So I went to Hamburg.
And I did that for 16 years.
I went to all five continents.
Once I went around the whole world
on a steamer, All five continents.
Never got seasick. Never!
I got here. Went to sea.
17 months in all. Of those 17 months,
I puked for 13.
Never got seaworthy. So that was it.
The steersman was drunk,
the sailor was drunk.
Didn't change course, just off Sassandra.
We hit the rocks. Right on the rock face.
Mid-ship.
Got stuck there, rocked,
and then broke into two pieces.
That was in West Africa.
In the morning.
At five to five,
I only went to sea
to avoid military service.
Me too.
I worked at Siemens.
I didn't want to do military service,
so I signed up for deep-sea fishing.
They couldn't get me then.
First deep-sea fishing and then
the big journey.
Until...
Don't know.
Hi.
- Hello, Uwe!
There it is. Bye-bye.
That was in Santos, Brazil.
I was there for three years.
Looking for gold!
First a sailor,
so how did you become a gold hunter?
I jumped ship in Santos.
I've told you that several times.
You missed the boat?
- Yeah,
Then I met this French guy...
and a Spanish guy I think.
They took me to the jungle.
- see.
Sometimes we'd get a pound or two...
Depending.
Not too shabby.
Sure, but two seconds later...
On Bacardi or Cach-Cach...
Cachaça.
- That was the cheapest.
A dollar a bottle.
I did that three years before I was caught.
And then off
to Hamburg on a plane.
You hear about Germany expelling foreigners,
but that was a case of a German guy
being sent home.
So I opened a bar
Around the corner,
You needed a place to stay
and took on the bar.
I walked past one morning.
Uschi had thrown out my suitcase.
A long time ago.
I saw this sign, "Bar for Sale."
So I bought it.
I called my brothers. "Kalle, I need...
25,000."
"What do you need?"
"25,000," I said.
He got it back, too. Bit by bit.
I ran that bar
for about 24 years.
You lived behind it.
Till I'd had enough. Threw down the key.
Didn't cancel the lease.
Didn't want to tend bar anymore,
Here I am again though.
Got no choice.
Robi, tell me when I get to ten euros.
Hi.
- Hi.
Sure, I know lots of people who used
to be important here, if you will.
I mean, they were pimps.
They're still good people, but back then,
ten, 20 years ago, they had millions.
Now they're like,
"Frank, will you buy me a beer?" Times change.
But people don't. Just...
the state of your wallet.
Everyone needs money,
but when I have it, I spend it.
That's what I work for
I'm in the savings club,
but I don't save a lot.
I want to live here and now.
I make money and I spend it.
I don't need 10,000 in the bank.
I want to live. And I do.
It's pretty...
crazy when you see or hear about people
barely scraping by. People who...
save money for a coffee.
Where the sex shop is now,
that used to be Sophienburg.
That was a pimp bar back in the '20s.
The street was called Sophienstrasse
and the bar on the comer Sophienburg.
And back in the '20s...
- Never heard of it.
That was before your time.
The pimps.
And they set up
pigeonholes for saving money.
You don't say.
So any pimp who wanted to become
a member of that club
had to have at least one woman
working for him,
These women had to hand their earnings
over to their pimps.
And they would put it in the pigeonholes.
That money got saved.
Eventually they'd get it back
and spend it partying.
But a certain amount was kept at the bar
and used to pay lawyer fees
or to support people getting out of jail
or for women who got sick.
Back then, they didn't have those
mandatory medical check-ups yet.
That's what that money was used for.
The club in this place was called
"Credit and Social Club Fidelio."
Very nice. Fidelio.
Sounds merry.
- Right.
Back in the '60s and '70s over there
on Gerhardstrasse and stuff,
the boys paid into a fund
to help guys...
- Over at the Chikago.
Who went to jail and so on.
- Exactly.
When I moved here twelve, 13 years ago,
I was skeptical if this would work out.
But oddly enough, it works very well.
I wanted to be where it's at,
and this is the place.
And once you start living here, you realize
it's like a village
with crazy crowds on the weekends.
But it doesn't matter if you're a big-shot
pimp or whatever, we all get along.
It's all good.
They sort all the drama out among themselves,
no one else really notices.
Hi.
He's in the club too. Rolf
You're still in the club or did you get
kicked out? - No, why? - I don't know.
Did you get kicked out?
- Me? Never.
Who did then?
- You, I thought.
Why?
- No reason.
Frank, ten euros!
- Thanks.
Not that I know of.
I think they still hope the good times will
return, that they can do their thing again.
But those times are over,
But they know that some folks
make good money here
and that they can profit from it
and get their share once in a while.
Frank, when do you have work in Kiel again?
- On Monday.
St. Pauli got their ass kicked in soccer.
- Yeah, 3-0.
Heinz!
What? 3-0?
No!
Embarrassing.
With the new coach.
- Sure.
3.10 euros.
- That crazy one.
3-0, really...
So of course
St. Pauli was the place to go.
Thankfully,
the tolerance level has risen to the point
that nowadays, transvestites here in Germany,
even in Bavaria or wherever,
can hold a regular job.
They can be a sales clerk or whatever.
That was impossible back then.
You just couldn't do that.
I did talk to my boss back then.
I worked at a pharmacy.
I got along with him and had a good job.
But there was nothing to be done.
It'd be different today.
I got to know St. Pauli
when I was 14.
My aunt lived here.
I already found it terribly exciting,
although I only knew it at daytime.
But it's always fascinated me.
And then a friend took me
to this one bar
The old Roxy-Bar.
That was great.
They had one of those coal-burning stoves.
Right there on the dance floor,
a coal-burning stove.
Which they kept filling.
And so I heard about this place
and went there,
And that's where I started dancing
for the first time.
Sashayed around in a curtain.
Terrible, but great. Anyway...
I got hooked.
I knew it was my thing.
So that's how it got started.
I had a friend who let me change
at her place.
And I danced there too.
So I did that for a few years.
And then I told my parents. "That's it.
I'm gonna be a dancer"
My parents said,
"If that's what you want. It's your life."
I had fantastic parents.
Really great.
I worked on Grosse Freiheit too.
Those places are gone now.
They were called SoHo, Bikini, Jungmühle...
I could leave home in my ball gown,
wearing real jewels,
walk through Schmuckstrasse or wherever...
It was great back then.
And I made some cash that way.
But of course
I threw the money around.
The discos were open till the morning hours.
We used to work six nights a week.
And then the high life
when we got off in the morning.
And if you weren't prudent,
you might be broke today.
I'd be wasted after all those cases of beer.
- That's for one week.
One week? You drink that much?
- Not me. - Oh, other people do.
Robi, can I get another beer?
And a coffee!
I got my own savings club.
At home.
I bought a big piggy bank and I put
five or ten euros in there every week,
however much I feel like.
That's how I save my money.
It's a little pink piggy bank.
Got it at some one-euro store.
My wife called me crazy.
But I bought the piggy bank and took it home.
And I put money in it, just the way
I used to when I was a club member.
OK,I got a key,
so I can open it if I need some change.
But that's how I save money now.
It's safe too. It's money too.
Same as here.
I saw a piggy bank once
at the St. Pauli flea market.
"Illicit Earnings" it said.
So awesome. I bought it. Never put
any money in it. It's just for decoration.
You need one of those in St. Pauli.
Here we go.
Number one,
Empty.
Number two.
- Empty.
And number four
Don't count the pennies and dimes.
50 cents and up.
Is that the supermarket lady?
- She can give that to the kids, not to us.
So that's...
- Just small change?
And pennies.
- No pennies.
50, 60...
Five.
And ten,
No, wait, we'll put that back in. Ten.
I'm not doing that.
Then we have...
Moi. Me.
Ten.
- Yes.
Change too?
- No.
That's 20.
-20.
Next, 26.
Empty.
Next, 30.
Eleven.
Then that's it. Fine.
That was it?
- Yes. Now I have to count.
So that's done.
So the savings club works like this.
At some point, someone told me...
I always saw that case
and asked about it.
He told me it was for the savings club.
You deposit money every week.
You get it back in December.
And they used to do a lottery too.
Half of it was profit,
the other half interest.
The interest financed a party
and the rest was returned to the savers.
At home, you have access to your money.
If you're trying to save.
At the bar, you don't have access to it.
The rules were: "You're not getting it."
If someone wanted their money to get a drink,
I'd say, "Kiss my ass.
You'll get it at the end of the year"
"Oh, shit!"
No, no.
I'm not sure. We have the statutes somewhere,
I don't think anyone ever read them.
No idea. We put money in every week.
If you can't, you have to pay a fine.
We get monthly lottery tickets.
We're still hoping for the big jackpot.
Thank God we haven't hit it yet.
We all knew each other
and met here in the mornings. - Right.
Peggy opened this place. She was one of us.
So we'd meet here at Peggy's.
- And we miss her
We miss Peggy.
After about six months,
the savings CLub got started.
i was a member for the first few years,
then I quit for a while.
Because I went on tour
i was never in the club.
But you were always there.
Maybe...
You were never in the savings club?
Nope.
I didn't know that either.
I never was.
But you came to the Christmas parties.
I had to manage somehow.
So much for that.
And the parties we had here...
costume parties.
That was always... Christmas parties too...
With awards ceremonies.
I won nine out of twelve.
She beat me once.
- I only...
I think I did five.
I participated in five.
I beat you more than once.
Maybe twice, but I won nine times.
Bitch.
My mom always said, "You know
how you can tell you're getting old?
When your heels...
get lower"
- I got old long ago then.
Me too.
You can't jump around
like an 18-year-old girl anymore,
Yes, I can.
- And she does.
Maybe just for two minutes,
then I run out of breath,
But hey, watch it.
I can still outdo my girls.
- Hi, Jimmy.
This is our..
Train driver
- Train driver.
Coffee?
- Yeah.
We always went to Hamburg
and Antwerp and then...
Port Limón or Barranquilla
or La Ceiba, Honduras.
We had nice idle periods there.
It was a nice ship, 22 knots.
You were there in six days. That was pleasant.
Barranquilla, Columbia.
There were merchants with parrots and snakes.
One had a little ocelot.
A baby ocelot.
He was kind of wild. And I bought him
for $20 and a case of Holsten beer;
I put him up in the room. Fed him some meat.
I was a cook, so I had access to food.
But then they noticed
we had too many animals on board.
The carpenter had a dachshund on board too.
Pancho.
He was always on board.
Some had crocodiles.
Three or four of them and snakes...
We had twelve passengers too.
Until the captain said...
"All animals out, except for the dog."
So we had to get rid of them. I'd have taken
that ocelot to Hamburg with me.
So did you throw them overboard?
No!
The crocodiles, yes.
We drank a case of beer with the engine guy,
opened the chute
and threw them in the Río Magdalena.
They were this small. They swam off.
He hid the snakes and took them to Hamburg.
This thing got rusty over the years.
It depends. You had to deposit
at least five euros a week.
So that's 20, 25 euros a month.
A lot of people deposited ten or 20 euros...
I mean marks, and then euros later
Some put in 50 or 100.
Not many,
but a few people were able to do that.
Yeah, some had 20,000 or 30,000 in there.
Under the table money.
That too.
Some savings clubs
had so much money that the boys put in.
Those were unlike
any regular savings clubs.
Most folks used the money
to pay something off at the end of the year;
And so they could spend it
over Christmas and New Year's.
Usually around St. Nicholas' Day
on December 6,
people get their savings back
and then there's a Christmas party.
And if there's money left,
people get drink coupons or cash. Whatever.
I have to say,
I did a ton of stupid stuff.
But at the time it was the right thing.
At that moment it was.
We see things differently today,
but it was the right thing.
All the retired folks here
have a side job if they physically can.
Because they didn't put money aside
back then.
That's up to each individual person.
Some people can save their money,
some people live in the moment and can't.
Or just for a little while.
And once the stash gets too big,
they have to go crazy again.
I used to light my cigarettes
with 100-mark bills.
That's how dumb I was. Or I'd light up,
put the 100-mark bill in the ashtray
and if the waiter grabbed it,
I'd smack his hand. "Off!"
If the bill burned, I blew the ashes
at the waiter. "Your tip." If he sucked.
And if I...
had put 20 marks aside every day,
I'd have 500,000 now.
I could've saved 100 a day too, no problem.
Then I'd even have more now.
But easy come, easy go.
I had an investment fund with 5,000 marks
once.
I'd get these statements: There were so
many figures I couldn't figure the shit out.
All I saw was eventually
there was only 3,000 left.
I closed the fund before it all disappeared.
The "Global Player” fund.
I couldn't reach the idiot who sold it to me.
I'd have stuffed the statements in his mouth.
Our Rolf.
373 euros.
373, right.
2,350.
Hermine, you're next. You did well.
No.
- Yes, you did.
How do you want it?
Big bills if you can.
Big? I can.
One big bill, two...
Here.
Yes, that's fine.
Round sum?
- Yes.
Now.
I calculated everything.
It comes to
11,000 something.
You have to check it again.
- OK. One more time?
Of course.
Make sure it's right.
It was always the same thing.
Two cashiers were in on it. Or one was
too lazy and the other was after the money.
So they'd steal
the weekly deposits of different people.
End of the year was always a dangerous time.
There'd be up to 20,000 marks in there.
So that was really difficult.
It was important
that both cashiers were honest people.
If not it was risky.
It's not just St. Pauli,
it's the same all over Germany.
People in charge of the money
taking off with it before Christmas.
All the savings gone.
This was a salaried employee.
He had his locker here and everything.
And I... was against him being a cashier
And I was right.
I checked regularly to make sure the money
got deposited into the savings account.
Only he and I had access to the safe.
And I noticed two or three missed deposits.
I forgot about that.
Before I joined the savings club,
there were people here...
I remember charging my cell phone up there.
Ten minutes later it was gone.
It was the end of the year
when people got their deposits.
They said, "Frank, you're crazy."
But two weeks later
the club money was all gone.
Then they said, "You were right, Frank."
They didn't just take my cell phone,
but the club money too.
I forgot about that.
Other than that we never had any problems
with the savings club.
Just before the huge amounts
were to be withdrawn, he really did it.
We went to the police, they found nothing.
So two of my employees went to his place,
took it apart and found 3,000 marks,
it was marks back then,
under the fridge.
He never showed his face in St. Pauli again.
They'd have kicked his ass.
Does this work?
- Yes, it's new.
But did you try it?
- Yes.
Where's the plug?
- You have it.
You should have it there.
This isn't clean.
We don't have any hooks up there.
I'll put some up.
I'll pack this up.
Hi.
How are you?
Armani shirt and everything!
Sixty...
seventy...
eighty.
Eighty. Up there.
- There you go.
Aunt Hermine.
Two or three...
Thank you. You're welcome,
- Sure,
One autograph, please.
- One autograph.
Just the way I like you.
Thank you.
I really saved money this time.
Not like last year I've had enough. I'm...
completely
debt-free.
I'd like to go down to Marietta's now,
get my notes of debt, put them on a rocket
and launch it into space.
Just get rid of all that crap.
Without throwing it away or all that.
And I'll do it again.
I'll always keep saving.
370, That's right.
50 cents still in it.
50 cents.
One autograph.
We start again the second week of January.
I'll put in money for one month.
And if I win on the machine,
I put that in too.
A bit for me and the rest goes in there.
I might save a grand that way.
For a mountain bike!
A bicycle.
One, two...
three, four, five.
No one wants this, right?
Can we turn the music back on?
SOME HAD CROCODILES
SOME HAD CROCODILES
Special Thanks to Al Participants: