Hamburg's best known police station is the best example of St. Pauli's lived tolerance: the Davidwache Hamburg. Here police officers and prostitutes stand side by side.
One of the most beautiful buildings on the Reeperbahn is certainly the Davidwache at Spielbudenplatz 31. The police station is responsible for just under one square kilometre and only 14,000 people, making it not only the smallest but by far the best known police station in Germany.
The "Wache vor Ort" was created by Fritz Schumacher in the style of an old Hamburg brick building. The fascinating baroque elements and weatherproof legionnaire's heads, which look down on the line at the side front of Davidstraße, are a real eye-catcher. Paul McCartney and Pete Best already spent a night at the police station.
The Davidwache became famous mainly because of its special location, directly on the Reeperbahn neighborhood, through numerous television and cinema films. In the 60s she achieved nationwide fame with the series Police Station Davidwache. Approximately 150 policemen in troops of up to eight people take care of the illegal prostitutes and robbed clients as well as the 100,000 drunken Reeperbahn visitors. Many people think they can behave as they please on St. Pauli.
The famous police station on the Reeperbahn with a long history
The Davidwache has existed since 1840 and thus has a remarkably long history. Already at that time, when the amusement business was still standing on shaky legs, a first small guard house was built at approximately its present location. The many decorative ceramics that decorate the outside of the Davidwache are striking. By the way, the name was not always the actual one: Officially, the Davidwache is called police district 15. It got the nickname already in the 1840s, but the reason is not known. Only in 1970 the district was allowed to officially call itself Davidwache.
The last renovation and reconstruction works took place in 1970, 1991 and 2003. The Hamburg police were to be restructured and the criminal investigation department, which had previously been in an inconvenient location, and the Schutzpolizei were to be accommodated in one building, which is now the case with the Davidwache. The precinct was enlarged by 795 square metres, this large extension was inaugurated in 2005. Today the brick building is a listed building and one of the most popular sights in Hamburg.
