THE BEATLES
Kirchherr, Voormann, and Vollmer were friends who had all attended the Meisterschule, and shared the same ideas about fashion, culture and music. In 1960, after Kirchherr and Vollmer had had an argument with Voormann, he wandered down the Reeperbahn (in the St.Pauli district of Hamburg) and heard music coming from the Kaiserkeller club. Voormann walked in and watched a performance by a group called The Silver Beetles. Voormann asked Kirchherr and Vollmer to listen to this new music, and after visiting the Kaiserkeller the next day, Kirchherr decided that all she wanted to do was to be as close to The Beatles as she could. They had never heard this new music called Rock n` Roll before, having previously only listened to Trad jazz, with some Nat King Cole and The Platters mixed in. The trio then visited the Kaiserkeller almost every night—arriving at 9 o`clock and sitting by the front of the stage. Kirchherr later said:“ It was like a merry-go-round in my head, they looked absolutely astonishing... My whole life changed in a couple of minutes. All I wanted was to be with them and to know them. ”
Kirchherr later said that her, Voormann, and Vollmer felt guilty about being German, and about Germany`s recent history. Meeting The Beatles was something very special for her, although she knew that English people would think that she ate sauerkraut, and would comment on her heavy German accent, but they made jokes about it together. Sutcliffe was fascinated by the trio, but especially Kirchherr, and thought they looked like "real bohemians". Bill Harry later said that when Kirchherr walked in, every head would immediately turn her way, and that she always captivated the whole room. Sutcliffe wrote to a friend that he could hardly take his eyes off her, and had tried to talk to Kirchherr during the next break, but she had already left the club. This was due to the strict German law at the time which prohibited young people from frequenting bars after 10 o`clock at night.
Sutcliffe managed to meet them eventually, and learned that all three had attended the Meisterschule, which was the same type of art college that Lennon and Sutcliffe had attended in Liverpool. Kirchherr asked The Beatles if they would mind letting her take photographs of them in a photo session, which impressed them, as other groups only had snapshots that were taken by friends. The next morning Kirchherr took photographs in a municipal park called "der Dom" which was close to the Reeperbahn, and in the afternoon she took them all (minus Best who decided not to go) to her mother`s house in Altona. Kirchherr`s bedroom (which was all in black, including the furniture, with silver foil on the walls and a large tree branch suspended from the ceiling) was decorated especially for Voormann, whom she had a relationship with, although after the visits to the Kaiserkeller their relationship became purely platonic. Kirchherr started dating Sutcliffe, although she always remained close friends with Voormann.
After meeting Kirchherr, Lennon filled his letters to Cynthia Powell (his girlfriend at the time) with "Astrid said this, Astrid did that" which made Powell jealous, until she read that Sutcliffe was in a relationship with Kirchherr. When Powell visited Hamburg with Dot Rhone (Paul McCartney`s girlfriend at the time) in April 1961, they stayed at Kirchherr`s house. In August 1963, Kirchherr met John and Cynthia Lennon in Paris while they both there for a belated honeymoon, as Kirchherr was there with a girlfriend for a few days holiday. The four of them went from wine bar to wine bar, and finally ended up back at Kirchherr`s lodgings, where all four fell asleep on Kirchherr`s single bed. The Beatles met Kirchherr again in Hamburg in 1966, when they were touring Germany. Kirchherr gave Lennon the letters he had written to Sutcliffe during 1961 and 1962, and Lennon said that it was, "The best present I`ve had in years".
The Beatles` haircut:
Kirchherr is credited with inventing the Beatles` moptop haircut, although she disagrees, and is quoted in The Beatles Off The Record by Keith Badman as saying:
“ All that shit people said, that I created their hairstyle, that`s rubbish! Lots of German boys had that hairstyle. Stuart had it for a long while and the others copied it. I suppose the most important thing I contributed to them was friendship. ”
In 1995, Kirchherr told BBC Radio Merseyside:
" All my friends in art school used to run around with this sort of ... what you call Beatles` haircut. And my boyfriend then, Klaus Voorman, had this hairstyle, and Stuart liked it very, very much. He was the first one who really got the nerve to get the Brylcreem out of his hair, and asking me to cut his hair for him. ... (Pete Best, the Beatles` original drummer) has really curly hair, and it wouldn`t work".
STUART STUTCLIFFE
Stuart Sutcliffe wrote to friends that he was infatuated with Kirchherr, and asked her friends which colours, films, books and painters she liked, and who she fancied. Best commented that the beginning of their relationship was, "like one of those fairy stories". Kirchherr and Sutcliffe got engaged in November 1960, and exchanged rings, as is the German custom. Sutcliffe later wrote to his parents that he was engaged to Kirchherr, which they were shocked to learn, as they thought he would give up his career as an artist. Sutcliffe later borrowed money from Kirchherr for the airfare to fly back to Liverpool in February 1961, although he returned to Hamburg in March.
Kirchherr and Sutcliffe went to Liverpool in the summer of 1961, as Kirchherr wanted to meet Sutcliffe`s family (and to see Liverpool) before their marriage. Everybody was expecting a strange beatnik artist from Hamburg, but Kirchherr turned up at the Sutcliffe`s house in Aigburth, Liverpool, bearing a single long-stemmed orchid in her hand as a present, and dressed in a round-necked cashmere sweater and tailored skirt. In 1962, Sutcliffe collapsed in the middle of an art class in Hamburg. He was suffering from intense headaches, and Kirchherr`s mother had German doctors perform various checks on him, although they were unable to determine exactly what was causing the headaches. While living at the Kirchherrs` house in Hamburg his condition got worse. On 10 April 1962, Sutcliffe was taken to a hospital—Kirchherr rode with him in the ambulance—but Sutcliffe died before the ambulance reached the hospital. Three days later Kirchherr met The Beatles at the Hamburg airport, and told them that Sutcliffe had died from a brain haemorrhage.