Palette revisited (2005)

In the 1950s and early 1960s, Die Palette was a legendary basement bar on 55 ABC Street, a gathering place for a diverse mix of people: dockworkers, the homeless, students, runaways, artists, and small-time criminals. Hubert Fichte immortalized this atmosphere in his 1968 novel, *Die Palette*, published four years after the bar closed. Through interviews with former patrons, photographs, and documents, the film reconstructs the scene: What was Die Palette like? What music filled the air? What was the attitude towards sex and hitchhiking? Who was the local authority figure? And what did it truly mean to be part of a subculture in Hamburg during that era?