Saturday 6 August 2016

Memorial to John Lennon's vist to Verden for "How I Won the War"

50 Years ago in Verden Germany, John Lennon arrived to film scenes the antiwar film “How I Won the War."  Most of the film was filmed in Almeria Spain, but for three days he was in Verden and the residents of the town remember it well.

In this BILD newspaper article published just this week, Gerald Piepenburg, age 50, says that the Beatles are still very popular in Verden and he is a huge fan although he was just a baby in the Beatles heyday.  In fact, he is the organizer of a weekly “Stammtisch” about the Beatles.  A Stammtisch is a weekly meetup of people in a pub to have a few drinks and talk.  He believes that the town is right to preserve and maintain their Beatles heritage.

Filming in Verden was done at the Brunnenweg barracks and the Mill Gate where there is now Lennon Memorial that was erected back in 2008.

Mayor Lutz Brockmann, age 55, recounts how some of the older children in the town skipped school when John Lennon was in town to do the filming and that it was “very exciting for us!”  He also reveals that many fan clubs have visited Verden just to see the only Lennon Memorial in all of Germany.

A huge meetup of Beatles fans was planned for today at 2pm in an effort to keep this tourist attraction from being forgotten.  Piepenburg has a dream goal.  He would love to create a fan meeting place modeled after the Strawberry Fields Memorial in Central Park in New York.

On September 16, there is a guided 90-minute walking tour with a meal included for 22 Euro. The tour entitled “In the Footsteps of the Famous Beatles” will explore both the history of Verden and John’s famous visit.  More details are available on the Verden website.

Also starting September 10 a new exhibition located in the town’s horse museum will open entitled “John Lennon in Verden.”

See a television interview with the Stammtisch group at the memorial.  In the interview you can see the hotel where he stayed and photos of his visit.
See photos of the memorial and of John in Verden in the BILD article.

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