Hvorfor er St. Pauli så populær?

Nedenfor følger en engelsksproget artikel om St Pauli, der stammer fra fanzinet Der Übersteiger. Det er ganske vist en ældre sag - men den giver svar på mange af de spørgsmål, som folk stiller om St Pauli.
OK. Here goes:

The district of St. Pauli surrounded by the port and the famous red-light district is a typical working-class area. During the last 15 years many foreigners, students, squatters, alternatives etc. moved in. A lot of St. Pauli's inhabitants grew up in a proletarian tradition where togetherness still exist. Everybody knows his/her neighbour and there's always plenty of time for a little chinwag. FC St. Pauli was founded in 1910 by workers. The identification with the club has its roots in this working-class district. After the match, when the players have to find their way through the crowded club-home, you feel that the players of FC St. Pauli play football for the people. At Millerntor, common identity has top priority as football is a part of the people. It is even part of their life and it doesn't matter if they are active football players or just spectators of the matches. And for more and more people it'is the only fun they have in their life. St. Pauli has a very high unemployment rate and, therefore, it is one of the poorest districts of Hamburg. Watching football does not only mean passive consumption but also means distraction of their problems and a big party in which everybody is welcome to take part in. The supporters really celebrate football and even after lost games they celebrate their team and also themselves (provided that the team fought tooth and nail beforehand). For example: in 1991's German-Cup after the 0-2 defeat at Bremen more than 1,500 fans stayed in their end one hour after final whistle and celebrated their team's performance with chants and rejoice. They must have been crazy you might think. No, they weren't crazy at all.

Like the district of St. Pauli, there's no homogeneous social structure on the terraces of (officially called) Wilhelm-Koch-Stadium at Millerntor (this ground holds 20,500, last seasons' average attendance was about 16,000). The Turkish greengrocer drinks his beer with the ordinary supporter or with the lawyer from next door. There aren't any class differences on the terraces but you certainly will observe a very rough difference between the supporters groups: in north end, you'll find the younger fans, boys and girls, who are not member in one of the 23 fan-clubs (although a lot of these fan-clubs have their tickets for the north-end). The clubs are spread at all parts of the ground. In the GEGENGERADE (we call it "back-straight" because it describes this terraces best) you'll find the so-called Schwarzer Block ("black block"), a big group of some hundred people from the alternative scene such as punks, squatters, SHARP-skins etc., colourfully assorted like the people on the terraces.

Even in the south-end, the away-end, St. Pauli supporters stand side by side to the away-support (there's no segregation in this part of the ground). The feeling of the much-cited "big family" is the actual, real strength of the supporters. Combined with the willingness to go new ways, St. Pauli supporters have achieved some unique things. In 1989, we started a campaign against plans of the club who intended to build a state-of-the-art all-seater ground (which they called "Sports-Dome") on the place of our time-honoured Millerntor. We organized public discussions, created leaflets, held demonstrations and, at one match, a special kind of protest: at one home-game the whole ground remained silent for five minutes in order to show how the atmosphere will have changed when the plans of building the "Sports Dome" would taken into action. We finally won this struggle and found out that we, the supporters, have the power of changing a lot and are able to win through! The first St. Pauli fanzine "Millerntor Roar!" started with a circulation of 1,000 copies and some years later we became Germanys best sold football-fanzine with a circulation of approx. 3,600. Over the years we achieved many things: reduced admission for the unemployed, the installation of a kindergarten where parents can bring their children before kick-off for example. Nevertheless, the most important success was the prohibition of fascist symbols, chants and flags inside and around Millerntor. Fighting against fascism was and is still one of the main points of the supporters movement. After some trouble with right-winged bastards we went to the AGM and insisted on passing an official resolution against these scumbags. The resolution was passed without any noes. Also the selling of anti-fascist stickers and badges has been very successful since we launched up this campaign. But that's not the only point we take resistance: in 1991, the club transferred the St. Pauli V Hertha BSC Berlin game to the ground of Hambuger SV. We didn't believe that it was to safety's sake and, as a result, we boycotted that match. Instead of going to Volksparkstadium we organized a radio-broadcast from there to our home-like Millerntor. 2,000 fans passed the gates and took part in a party in a ground with no players on the pitch but full flood-light. During our boycott of games in the former GDR such a "radio paadie" was organized again. At that time, it seemed to be too dangerous for us St. Pauli fans to follow the team to the east of Germany because there were too many fascists who waited for us. It was also set up that supporters could take part in the press-conference in order to tell his/her view about the match. During these conferences it sometimes happened that supporters stated dissatisfaction about the board or the team.

You see the supporters scene is unique but powerful enough to fight for their interests. Unfortunately, the team wasn't. In the past, St. Pauli was mostly of the time in the shadow of the big neighbour, Hamburger SV. In '77/'78 we were in 1st division but only for one season. In 1988, we promoted for the second time and relegated were down to 2nd division three years later. In 1993, we just avoided relegation down to 3rd division in the last minute. This season was horrible but, finally, it had its happy end. After that game thousands of St. Pauli supporters celebrated on non-relegation the whole night. In 1994, St. Pauli gambled away a comfortable lead of 5 points and failed in winning promotion. One year later, after terrible first weeks the team finally managed to win promotion and about 40,000 people celebrated around the red-light district another whole night long. May we have more occasions to have our famous "paadies" in future.

Let's return to the supporters: Me, the representative of St. Pauli's supporters and some colleagues run the alternative fan office called Fan-Laden which is a mixture of office, youth club and pub. We organize all away-tours, build up new contacts with supporters from all over the world and provide people with all information required on our club. Many people visit our office just for having a drink, a chat, sometimes they watch TV or video-tapes, read fanzines or even cry about the latest defeat. In this office, we also sell self-created fan-articles. We make no profits.

The mentioned fanzine "Millerntor Roar!" discontinued publication in 1993 due to internal quarrels. As a result, the MR! edition split up in two new fanzines called "Der Uebersteiger" and "Unhaltbar!" (each with a circulation of approx. 3,000). Beside these two zines there are three some more fanzines which write about our club such as "Fan-Mag", "Pi-Pa Millerntor", "Splitter", "Froesi" (by fans of Hansa Rostock) and "Der Zonenzombie" (from Berlin).

Our fan office is open from Tuesday to Friday (15.00h - 19.00h).
Get a warm welcome and a cold beer!