www.nme.com

Beatles museum in Hamburg closing due to 'lack of interest'

'Beatlemania' will be shut down by the end of June

June 6, 2012

The Beatles museum in Hamburg, Germany will close down at the end of this month, according to reports.

The five-storey 'Beatlemania' museum was opened in May 2009 but will apparently be shut at the end of June due to a lack of interest from Fab Four fanatics.

Speaking to German newspaper Hamburger Morgenpost, manager Folkert Koopmanns said that the museum – which has over 1,000 pieces of memorabilia on display and is located in the same area where The Beatles played live shows when visiting the country in the early '60s – has only had 150,000 visitors since opening three years ago.

"In view of the high deficits, there is no solution left but closure, if you want to act responsibily," he said. "A privately run museum as big as Beatlemania is condemned to fail without public support. That's a fact that we fought against until enthusiasm turned into resignation – a bitter experience."

He added:

We had many hopes and wishes, unfortunately only some of them were fulfilled in the city which John Lennon used to say he became an adult.

Punters may have not flocked to the Beatlemania museum, but the popularity of Fab Four-related memorabilia at auctions shows no sign of abating. Last month (May 22), a rare photograph showing The Beatles walking 'backwards' across Abbey Road was sold for £16,000, while a document showing how the Fab Four refused to play to segregated crowds was sold for $23,000 in 2011.

You can watch an NME video looking at the history of The Beatles below. Also, check out our annotated guide to the band's famous 'Abbey Road' sleeve by hovering over the tags on the image below.

Video: The Beatles Through The Years