The Reference Council

FC St. Pauli

So this change happened when and how did it play into the birth of the legendary football club?

Well, all this really publicly kicked off with the occupation of the Hafenstrasse and I would say by the mid 80s the scene in the neighbourhood had changed to the point where the actual annexation so to say by the scene of the club was relatively easy and had occurred.

And this happened without any problems? Surely, the club must have wondered what all these new people were doing at the games all of a sudden. Like you said, the club itself up until this point was a relatively stiff and conservative affair?

It is important to say that the club was conservatively structured like almost all clubs in Germany and not in itself conservative. However, due to the left wing, anarchistic nature of the neighbourhood during this time, that scene essentially took over the club and it’s fan base. By the mid to late 80s the now famous skull and cross bone flag also made its first appearance in the fan block during the game. Also, and almost through accident, at this time, the clubs team which consisted mostly of local boys made it from the regional division to the premier division of German football, which contributed again to the myth that is St. Pauli.

So, now you had both the “street” and political / social myth being established as well as the athletic myth of the underdog becoming a serious contender for the top team of the country without any investors money and all through home grown talent. This combination was one of a kind in the world. On the one hand you have a totally new and different type of fan, usually consisting of punks and anarchists, artists and musicians as well as a lot of university students. And on the other hand, you had a totally new breed of team, mostly locals who made it to the premier league of the country by playing rough, street based football.

This created a really positive and close relationship between the team and the fans, a relationship that was really well nurtured and one, which was thoroughly soaked in anti-authoritarian mythology. How much of all that was true is hard to tell at this point. So obviously, there are and were a lot of stories to be told, and it was only a matter of time before the mainstream media picked all this up.

What is important to note is that because of all this, St.Pauli’s reputation of being a rough, working class, left wing, anti-authoritarian and even dangerous neighbourhood and club, a club that openly propagated it’s politics on national TV and during the games, was established here and then in the late 80s and early 90s.

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