Walter Staudinger (entrepreneur)

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Walter Staudinger (born February 16, 1942 in Munich ) is a German entrepreneur in the red light and arcade area . Among other things, he opened the first peep show in Europe in Munich in 1976 and later the largest amusement arcade in Europe at the time. As a so-called red light great, he is nicknamed "The Godfather of Munich". The writer Wolf Wondratschek dedicated his factual novel Eine von der Straße to him in 1991 , in which Staudinger's biography served as a template for the hero role of Gustav "Johnny" Michael Berger.

Live and act

Staudinger was born in Munich during the Second World War as the son of an artist .

Childhood and adolescence

After the war ended, his parents separated and his mother became involved with the then prison director of the Munich-Stadelheim correctional facility . During his school days, Staudinger developed his first criminal energies, his behavior in school turned out to be rather difficult, he ended up in a reformatory . In the big city of the post-war period he became a fan of rock 'n' roll culture and frequented a GI bar called “Tabarin” in the Lehel district . He quickly developed into the head of a powerful gang of thugs , also known as the "Tabarin gang". Various criminal offenses led to charges. As the main suspect, the then 16-year-old was sentenced to four years in prison.

Hamburg years

After his release in 1962, Staudinger soon left his hometown and headed for the Reeperbahn in Hamburg . In the Star Club he took a job as a temporary waiter and saw the Beatles perform there . From then on, music, women, alcohol, gambling and fights shaped his life. In the first German Eros Center in Hamburg-St. Pauli he rented a floor with 23 rooms in 1964, where prostitutes could go about their business. In an interview with Stern in 1992, he stated that he never saw himself as a pimp , that he had "always earned his own money".

Munich years

On the occasion of the upcoming 1972 Summer Olympics, Staudinger sensed the big entertainment business in his hometown and returned to Munich in 1971. He opened the “Rotes Palais” brothel and, together with Munich playboy James Graser, took over the “Moulin Rouge” strip bar on Herzogspitalstrasse, which Elvis Presley had already visited in March 1959 with Vera Matson . To highlight the change of tenant in the strip club, Staudinger hired Anita Ekberg for a week . Almost at the same time, he invested with the Frankfurt building contractor and brothel king Willi Schütz (1920–2001) in the Eros Center “ Leier-Kasten ” in Zweigstrasse in the immediate vicinity of the main train station .

In 1972, the so-called "prostitute's war" over the lyre box provoked nationwide media coverage. Since the Free State of Bavaria as well as the city feared that the crime rate in the city center would increase with the settlement of the red light establishments, the lyre box and a few other restaurants were opened on the evening of April 10, 1972 in view of the upcoming Olympic Games Occupied by the police after the city center had been declared an extended restricted area two days earlier . The prostitutes were forbidden to go about their business in these bars at night. As a result, the house's prostitutes protested and spontaneously received support from hundreds of citizens. A short time later the suitors stormed the brothel and the police withdrew. An extrajudicial compromise was reached on Friday of the same week.

As a result, Staudinger increasingly expanded his relationships with city politics and the district administration department and gained increasing influence, not least due to the fact that he knew better-known politicians, directors, lawyers, etc. from their visits to brothels. So he was able to further expand his brothel empire. A clinic boss wanted to hire him as a thug and Arndt von Bohlen und Halbach bought security from him. Nevertheless, he made it a point to remain in the background as a gray eminence. The police could not prove any criminal offenses. As part of the investigation into the kidnapping of the entrepreneur's son Richard Oetker in December 1976, the police had him repeat the extortion over the phone without any result to compare votes.

The “Las Vegas City” on Bayerstrasse, Munich.

Shortly before, in 1976, Staudinger opened Europe's first “peep show” in Bayerstrasse near Munich's main train station . He got the know-how and material for the 32 cabins in New York. According to stories, he obtained approval from the district administration department on the pretext of wanting to build a stage for nude models with booths for penniless painters. His biological father would have brought it to him, who regularly painted landscape motifs, as these were free, unlike nude models. In the late 1970s, Staudinger and Charly Meyer opened  the legendary luxury discotheque " Charly M " at Maximiliansplatz 5 , where the 1980 Bambi Awards for 1979 took place. In the early 1980s, Staudinger opened “Las Vegas City” on Bayerstrasse next to the peep show, which was then the largest amusement arcade in Europe. Staudinger rejected the plan to build an amusement park on the Schliersee due to the long construction period and instead bought a farm, a house in St. Tropez and several luxury vehicles on the Ammersee .

Emigrated to the United States

In the late 1980s, Staudinger left his home as a multimillionaire for Beverly Hills , California . He later took on US citizenship. According to the website of his former milieu colleague and writer Joannis “Janny” Gakomiros, who also mentions him in the second volume of his book Life and Nothing Else. In the middle of the milieu: Mentioned several times on the other side of the street , Staudinger now lives in Miami . A Spiegel report from 2002 also points to Miami. He has obviously withdrawn from the business. In the United States he met his wife. With her he has a daughter, whose christening sponsor is the singer Cher .

He passed the Munich business on to his son Walter Staudinger Jr., who continued to run the game library in the role of managing director. He transferred the license to Beate Uhse Retail GmbH , which operated a sex shop on site. In 2010 the company hit the headlines because of the death of a Czech prostitute during illegal traffic in one of the video booths and because of suspected illegal drug trafficking.

Boxing

Staudinger opened the boxing school “Bavaria” during his time in Munich and promoted several fights.

The boxer Norbert Grupe lived on Staudinger's ranch in Mexico until his death in 2004 . In Gerd Kroske's film documentary about Gruppe's life story Der Boxprinz 2000, Staudinger plays himself.

literature

  • Wolf Wondratschek: One from the street ; Tatsachenroman, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1991. ISBN 978-3-423-13426-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Sex-Shows: Fenster zum Fleisch , Der Spiegel 52/1976, December 20, 1976.
  2. ↑ obscure object: Mirror editor Ariane Barth peep show , Der Spiegel 9/1979, February 26 1979th
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g "Most influential milieu in the city": The Godfather of Munich , Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 19, 2010.
  4. ↑ a b c d A Munich brothel and peepshow entrepreneur had the poet Wolf Wondratschek sing about him in a heroic epic. , Der Spiegel 9/1992, February 24, 1992.
  5. ^ Books: Eine von der Straße , Hamburger Abendblatt, August 26, 2009.
  6. ↑ a b c Münchner Stadtmagazin , No. 5/1992, February 19, 1992, p. 28 ff.
  7. ↑ 50 years of Elvis Presley in Munich Long live the king! , Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 17, 2010.
  8. Jump on the heart , Der Spiegel 9/1992, February 24, 1992.
  9. ↑ "We will starve the women" ( Memento from January 19, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ), AZ archive.
  10. ↑ La "guerra de las prostitutas" de Munich  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Spanish), Expres Español, AG Fitel, July 1972.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.ag-fitel.org  
  11. ↑ A break for the dolls: Munich police pulled the shorter one in the prostitute war , Die Zeit, April 21, 1972.
  12. ↑ Prostitutes on the roof of the lyre box in the so-called "Whore War" , photo from the AZ archive, Munich 1972.
  13. ↑ obscure object: Mirror editor Ariane Barth peep show , Der Spiegel 9/1979, February 26 1979th
  14. ↑ Gecko Club - new nightlife location at Maximiliansplatz 5, Munich , Ganz-muenchen.de, October 2013.
  15. ↑ When Rudi Carrell completely freaked out ( memento from February 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Bambi Story, accessed on January 20, 2014.
  16. ↑ WA Riegerhof: Belly shot Schwabing , epubli, 2013, p. 62.
  17. ↑ https://www.abendblatt.de/archive/1992/pdf/19920902.pdf/ASV_HAB_19920902_HA_016.pdf
  18. ↑ Joannis Gakomiros: Life and nothing else. In the middle of the milieu, on the other side of the street: Part Two: Die Verdammten des Rotlicht Milieus , Books on Demand, 2011. ISBN 978-3-8448-5315-5
  19. ^ Caption , website by Joannis Gakomiros.
  20. ↑ Boxing: Deutscher Tyson , Der Spiegel 4/2002, January 21, 2002.
  21. ^ Death of a prostitute, drug raid in "Las Vegas" , Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 17, 2010.
  22. ↑ Bad Boy Boxer Wilhelm von Homburg .
personal data
SURNAME Staudinger, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German brothel, peepshow and arcade operator
DATE OF BIRTH February 16, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich