Hamburg Girls

Aside from forming long-lasting friendships with Astrid, Klaus and Jürgen, The Beatles also encountered various female fans and bar ladies while they played in Hamburg. These would go on to become their friends and girlfriends for the periods in which they stayed in Hamburg.

In 1960, John dated a girl named Renate, Paul dated Cory (whose father was the landlord of the 'Blockhütte'), George was friends with Monika, and Pete dated a blond called Helga. In 1962, John was close to Bettina and Paul was great friends with Ruth. Ringo's friend was Goldie.

Digging through the book "Mach Schau!..." and through a book of newspaper clippings, I came across some pictures and interviews with some of these girls, and thought they were worth putting on this site. These girls were, after all, friends of the Beatles during the Hamburg days.

Cory was Paul's girlfriend and remembered, back in 1966, that Paul "kissed really well" and that he was "the sweetest, craziest and most intelligent" and "a gentleman".

A big rock 'n roll fan, she met the Beatles at the Indra. At the time, she was seventeen, as was George, and so they struck up a friendship. She remembers George as being "unbelievably funny and open", and their friendship being totally platonic. One day, she invited the band home to her parents' house ("my parents always wanted to know who my friends were"), where they were served food and thanked the family "politely with a handshake and bow"; John went into an impromptu music act, playing guitar and singing a combination of German and English in the family's living room. She remembers that when George was deported for being underaged, her mother prepared him a bag full of sandwiches, fruit and fruit juice, which she and friend Helga brought to him at the trainstation before seeing him off, crying and waving.

The picture you can see here shows Paul and Ruth, and was taken in the Star Club. Ruth remembered that this picture was often mistakenly taken as showing Paul and Erika Hübers, the woman who claimed that Paul was the father of her child (until it was settled with a paternity test proving he was not the father). Ruth remembers being "very good friends" with Paul, who often visited her at the bar.
Goldie was friends with Ringo - she remembers not being interested in him in any way aside from the platonic sense. They can both remember going to the movies together with Ringo and Paul, and that Paul's German was quite good. He could even speak "Back-Slang", which was a special dialect spoken at the Hamburg harbor and amongst the bar people of St. Pauli. It consisted of moving the first letter of a word to the back of the word and adding an "i". Goldie used to example of her name: in "Back-Slang", it became Oldiegi.

Bettina worked at the Star-Club starting in 1962. Here, she met the Beatles and became friends with John. She remembers him as being her "first true love" and that he was into seeing the Dracula movies with Christopher Lee at the movies (which she didn't enjoy; whenever they went, she would cover her eyes and tell him to let her know when the bad bits were over. John, naturally, told her "now!" whenever something particularly bad came up - he was only joking, of course. ;))