The Beatles residency at the Indra Club in Hamburg ended on October 3rd. They were still under contract with Bruno Koschmider until October 16th, so were moved the following night to the larger Kaiserkeller, to begin a 56-night run, which ended on November 30th. They alternated sets with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, another Liverpudlian band featuring Ringo Starr on drums.
The Kaiserkeller was situated at 36 Grosse Freiheit, on the corner of Schmuckstrasse. The club's bouncer was Horst Fascher, and the clientele were mostly black-clad gangsters, sailors, and sex workers.
On November 1st, furious that The Beatles had made a verbal agreement to play at rival Peter Eckhorn's Top Ten Club and the fact that George Harrison was too young to be working in the club, Kaiserkeller owner Bruno Koschmider terminated their contract.
Koschmider's notice to The Beatles, given on this day, stated:
I the undersigned hereby give notice to Mr George Harrison and to Beatles' Band to leave on November 30th, 1960. The notice is given to the above by order of the Public Authorities who have discovered that Mr George Harrison is only 17 (seventeen) years of age.
There was a curfew in place and the German police would get on stage every night and announce: 'It is twenty-two hours and all young people under eighteen years must leave this club. We are making an Ausweiskontrolle.'
Although The Beatles were aware of the curfew, they managed to avoid the police checks for some time, despite having no work permits.
The Beatles continued to perform at the Kaiserkeller for another three weeks. Harrison was finally deported on 21 November 1960, although The Beatles continued to perform at the Kaiserkeller for a few more nights without him.
Having been told on 1 November that their contract to perform at his Kaiserkeller club was being terminated by owner Bruno Koschmider, The Beatles began moving their belonging to the attic room above the nearby Top Ten Club.
At the time The Beatles were staying in the Bambi-kino, where the accommodation was basic and sanitary facilities minimal. John Lennon and Stuart Sutcliffe had already moved out, and on November 29th, Paul McCartney and Pete Best started gathering their belongings in order to move. It was dark in the Bambi Kino and as there were no lights they lit a condom attached to a nail, in order to see. There was no damage apart from a burn mark on the wall, and the fire eventually extinguished itself on the damp wall.
Bruno Koschmider, however, was furious, and told the police that The Beatles had attempted to set fire to the cinema.
McCartney and Best were arrested, and spent the night in jail before being released. They were deported from Germany the following day.
Ten days later John travelled back to England alone by train and boat, as Stuart decided to stay and move in with his girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr. For several days Harrison, McCartney and Best remained unaware that Lennon had returned to Liverpool, before he finally contacted them December 15th.
Sutcliffe’s continued stay in Hamburg, meanwhile, effectively signified the end of his time in The Beatles. He flew back to England on January 20, 1961.