Ralf-Peter Zlomke, Schnapps Peter, was told in St. Pauli: You’re a ladies’ man!

Joerg Otto Meier

ST. PAULI
PORTRAITS

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Ralf-Peter Zlomke
"Schnapps Peter",
42 years

Casual worker,
February 1985

»The first time I got divorced, I was 22. I landed in St. Pauli because a mate of mine said to me, ‘Go there, Peter! You’re a ladies’ man! You can be a pimp. But I was too stupid to be a pimp. I’d rather make my own living, because I don’t like having to say: Thank you.«

Excerpt: Once I used to average one and a half litres of schnapps at work, sometimes I went on a binge for two or three days straight. Now I can only manage a litre a day and a couple of beers, then I’ve had enough to sleep well. But I need that much at least because I’m a level drinker – the level of alcohol in my blood must always be right! And what I say is: if you drink alcohol moderately, even large amounts of it can’t do you any harm. Every body should get as much as it can take.

After I’d been in St. Pauli for 15 years, I started working down at the port. But after 15 years, pissed every day, all that screwing and smoking ...? Your body’s not in the state it once was. And then all that slaving away, doing something different every day for six months! But anyway, I survived. I say, if you’ve never been really down and out, you can’t appreciate it when things are going well.

When I visit my parents – they live a decent life in Travemünde - I hardly recognize myself. But when I fall out of bed here in St. Pauli, whether I’m pissed or not, and I go into the nearest pub, I’ve got friends everywhere. And it doesn’t matter whether I go left or right or forwards or backwards, there’s always someone calling out: Hello, Peter!

I’m glad I can be friendly and say hello everywhere. I haven’t been banned from any pubs. Yeah, that’s why I feel so at home here. And if someone owed me a few marks and he didn’t happen to have anything on him to pay me back, then there was always someone else who’d help me: Peter, do you need some money? Twenty or fifty? You can have a hundred if you like. And so I always got by on my own, never needed to say thank you to anyone. I’ve been able to retain that much pride. ...