Wanna buy a shark? Or a polar bear that ”growls” at you in total silence? No, of course, you don`t. But, if you did, the place to go is here, where the world`s wandering sailors dock, sooner or later, to sell bizarre items they have picked up in their travels.
They hock the stuff for pocket money in this Hanseatic port, where the naughtiest mile in Europe provides the sailors with shore-leave nightlife.
Next time you`re in Hamburg and you have some spare time on your hands, pay a call on Harry`s Hamburger Hafenbasar, perhaps the world`s most unusual antique shop. It has been in business for more than three decades. Its 30 showrooms are crammed with the most outrageous items ever assembled in one place.
And everything is for sale at Harry`s. Or, to put it in his own words:
”We are a museum, yes. But, no, we are not a museum!”
Many tourists go just to look, but some end up buying one of Harry`s curios. During a recent visit, two giggly teen girls from Canada were seen buying the ”shrunken head of an Ecuadorian Indian” the size of a tennis ball.
The witness, this reporter, ended up acquiring a hand-carved Dahomey warrior girl carrying her war club menacingly in her left hand. The doll had been carved in Africa a few months earlier. Harry alleged that he had paid $25 for it; he sold it to me for $30.
That`s one of the nice things about Harry`s bizarre bazaar-his prices range from cheap to reasonable.
Harry`s Hamburger Hafenbasar is close to the waterfront at Bernhard-Nocht Strasse 63 in Hamburg`s St. Pauli District. He is open every day from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. And, when customers or sailors selling something are drifting in late in the evening, he`ll stay open past midnight.
”We buy anything that could be called art or even collectible,” said Harry Rosenberg, who started his business in the 1950s when he opened a store that specialized in coins, paper money and stamps.
When foreign sailors in need of cash began visiting him offering to sell such things as a Chinese coolie hat or a South American boat carved from a peach pit (with tiny windows that could swing open), Harry bought them for his own pleasure.
Word soon got around within the maritime fraternity, and before long every man working on the high seas knew about the Port of Hamburg`s Harry and his generous wallet. His place also became a mail-drop where sailors could leave messages for their buddies due to arrive later.
In most cases, however, Harry doesn`t really buy anything from seamen. He runs a kind of pawnshop for sailors, who can deposit items there for as long as four months. After 120 days, Harry can sell them legally if they`re not reclaimed.
Rarely is any item left with him ever claimed, and that explains why more than 100,000 things are for sale.
When Harry`s wife, Lilli, is minding the store, local children play with the curiosities and rarities like toys.
Harry`s oddball collection on a recent visit included stuffed animals from many countries, native masks from the Philippines, coral chunks from the South Seas, spears from Africa, personal items that allegedly belonged to cowboy star Tom Mix, three-thonged whips from Russia, parts of famous ships, toys, rifles from the Spanish-American War, bound volumes of a Swiss newspaper printed in Romansch, military uniforms from World War I.
Also, obsolete stock and bond certificates, a bottle of Portuguese wine from 1925, ancient movie and/or propaganda posters, thousands of postcards from the Kaiser`s time, gas masks, daggers, bayonets, handguns, obsolete tourist guides for places that don`t even exist anymore, beer mugs in all sizes and shapes, old bus and tram tickets, statues and statuettes, old telephones, typewriters and what-have-you.
Some of Harry`s best clients are big companies and film producers. Quite often companies wanting to put on special displays in their lobbies need the kinds of props that can only be found at the Basar.
The most interesting item in the store is . . . you guessed it: Harry himself.
