Love Me Do? ‘Quite good’, wrote John in revealing cache of Beatles letters

Memorabilia from the band’s Hamburg years, sent to photographer Astrid Kirchherr, will be auctioned in May

It was the city that made the Beatles. Not Liverpool, but Hamburg, the north German seaport where, between August 1960 and October 1962, the group played more than they ever did at the Cavern in their home city.

Sixty years on, previously unseen letters, work permits and photos have been unearthed about the band’s time in Germany and their relationship with Astrid Kirchherr, the photographer best known for her stark black-and-white portraits of the Beatles taken in Hamburg before they were famous.