New to the Bundesliga this season, St. Pauli is one of the oldest clubs in Germany, having been founded in 1910. However, its fame is more pronounced outside the football pitch, where it is known for its outspoken political commitment to fighting racism, fascism, sexism and championing the causes of immigrants and refugees.
Since the outbreak of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip and the increasing number of Palestinian civilian casualties and the worsening humanitarian crisis, the reputation of this leftist club has suffered a severe blow among its supporters around the world.
marginalized neighborhood
Going back in history, St. Pauli has had a leftist, resistant and rebellious identity since ancient times. The district located on the northern part of the port of Hamburg was a stronghold for the marginalized, the poor, the sick, craftsmen and all polluting industrial activities, such as the distillery or the plague farm that was created during the plague epidemic in the country.
St. Pauli has long been known for its frequent social unrest, including that which accompanied the German Revolution of 1848. Its residents could not pass through the locked gates of Hamburg without paying a toll.
In the 20th century, the neighborhood attracted immigrant families who lived there for generations alongside retirees, students, welfare recipients, and freelance cultural and arts workers, all forming a mixed social and cultural mix.
The team’s fans began to attract the world’s attention in the 1980s, when the city’s other club, FC Hamburg, reached the peak of glory with a golden generation that won the Champions League. But St. Pauli’s fans – unlike the wave of right-wing extremists that spread across European stadiums at that time – chose the opposite path in the stands, promoting left-wing values and turning football into an element that promotes integration, not the opposite.
A landmark in the club’s history was the demand by its fans to change the name of its stadium, “Wilhelm Koch Stadium”, in 1988 due to the politician Wilhelm Koch’s past affiliation with the far-right National Socialist Nazi Workers’ Party (NSDAP). The stadium was then renamed “Millerentor”.
Incubator for immigrants
Until recently, St. Pauli and its fans were one of the icons of European clubs fighting against commercial football. One of its most notable initiatives was the launch of FC Lampedusa in 2014 through a donation campaign from committed fans, in a symbolic gesture of support for the city that is the front line of the influx of migrants and refugees, many of whom end up in Hamburg.
For St. Pauli, FC Lampedusa is not just a football club, it is a home for migrants and refugees who have lived complex and inspiring human stories in their tragic journeys, as the club provides them with language and integration courses. Thanks to its commitment to humanitarian and social causes, the club has succeeded in inspiring many fan groups.
At the beginning of the millennium, a large number of St. Pauli fan clubs were launched abroad, such as in Britain, Greece, Catalonia, Italy, New York, Canada, Argentina and dozens of other countries. Statistics indicate that there are about 500 fan clubs in the world that share the same values as St. Pauli.
Although the fans in the stands, wearing pirate shirts, proudly raise the slogan “No man is illegal,” this slogan was severely damaged when it was put to the test while thousands of children and women fell under the Israeli military machine in the Gaza Strip.
double standards
Since October 7, 2023, this unprecedented international spread for a second-tier club has witnessed a rapid decline, with the image of the rebellious leftist pocket on the football map being severely damaged, which may not be possible to repair in the future.
In his interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net, Mohammed Amin Al-Kanani, a media specialist in sports affairs in Germany at Sky Sport, explains that the voice of the Ultras in Germany is generally no different from the voice of politicians on this particular point, and the reason for this is the close and deliberate link between all criticism directed at the occupying state and anti-Semitism and endangering the existence of the State of Israel.
He continued in his analysis, “These groups, especially the St. Pauli Ultras, which claim to fight for minorities and freedoms, did not show honorable positions like those issued by the Celtic fans’ associations and the Green Brigade groups supporting Palestine. Al-Kanani does not rule out the existence of German political pressure on the positions of the Ultras, including in particular the position of the St. Pauli fans’ associations.
Whether or not this is true, Al-Kanani believes that the credibility of St. Pauli fan groups has in any case been dealt a fatal blow over the course of about a year.
Sympathy for the dead of Israel
During the Al-Aqsa Intifada, the German club issued a statement expressing its sympathy with the Israeli dead, and announced its rejection of this operation, while at the same time sending its condolences to the Hapoel Tel Aviv club, with which it has a friendship.
But the statement did not pass unnoticed and was a starting point for causing divisions within the ranks of the fan clubs, the reason being that St. Pauli turned a blind eye to what happened to Palestinian civilians under the intense Israeli bombardment over several months later in the Gaza Strip, and did not issue any statement condemning the killings and collective punishment.
It did not stop there. On October 12, pro-Palestine groups received a new warning on the website of the Council of Supporters’ Associations against expressing sympathy for Hamas or justifying its attacks, and comments in this direction were considered to have “crossed the line.”
The statement was the Achilles’ heel of the St. Pauli fan club, with several foreign clubs subsequently announcing their dissolution, including groups from Liverpool, Chania, Glasgow and Catalonia.
Ultras Celtic message
The backlash continued as the Bilbao fans group announced in a press release the immediate cessation of their activities linked to St. Pauli, due to the German club adopting “one version of events, ignoring the indiscriminate killing of civilians, apartheid and the occupation of Palestinian lands.” The fans added in their statement, “We have come to the conclusion that we are definitely not in our place.”
The club crisis has cast a shadow over the strong friendship between the St. Pauli Ultras and their counterparts, the Scottish Celtic fans, who are known for their anti-colonialism and sympathy for the Palestinians. The situation has reached the point of openly exchanging slogans between fans.
At the end of October 2023, a St. Pauli stand displayed the message “From Glasgow to Gaza: Fight anti-Semitism, Free Palestine from Hamas.” The Green Brigade responded quickly with a banner reading “Damn St. Pauli, Free Hamburg from the Jazz Fans.”
Then it was not long before the announcement of the “FC St. Pauli Supporters Club in Glasgow”, which was founded in 2016 and announced its dissolution on January 11, 2024.
Commenting on the crisis surrounding the club, the Hamburg Morgenpost website said that it has become clear that the friendly scenes between the fan groups have become a dilemma, as St. Pauli’s position was clear, while the other’s position was completely opposite. Even in the “Alerta” network, to which the St. Pauli Ultras belong, many fan groups tend to side with the opponents of Israel.
St Pauli fans respond to their international fan clubs after criticism for their statements regarding the war in Israel, during their match against Schalke tonight. pic.twitter.com/Xvmt7rGuOc
— 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐔𝐥𝐭𝐫𝐚 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 (@thecasualultra) October 31, 2023
Info Libertarian, a website specializing in resistance and anti-fascist journalism and supporting alternative journalism, has drawn attention to an identity crisis within St. Pauli. On the one hand, the club presents itself as a stronghold of the German radical left, “anti-German,” and German nationalism, a wave that emerged after the unification of the two parts of Germany in the early 1990s. On the other hand, it does not hesitate to defend Israel and the practices of colonialism and settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories.
“They suffer from a German-centric reading of Israeli colonialism,” wrote the Parisian MFC 1871 fan club in a comment on the dilemma. “This leads to a reactionary and racist position, the logical consequence of the continued support for an imperialist and far-right state.”
While most St. Pauli fans within Germany tend to support their club’s stance, fans outside the country find it difficult to accept that the club does not show an objective balance of sympathy for the Palestinian victims.
A joint statement signed by 13 international fan groups said they “understand the left’s sensitive and cautious position towards Israel” but expressed their sadness that the club had not taken a position on Palestinian civilians in Gaza, which has been under siege for 14 years, and called for “a permanent solution that guarantees freedom and peaceful coexistence between Israel and Palestine”.
Germany defends Israel
Although about a year has passed since the Israeli aggression on Gaza, Germany has failed to push for a political solution that would end the suffering of civilians in Gaza and the ongoing killing, and on the contrary, it has been the country most exposed to international criticism in its handling of the catastrophic situation of the Palestinians.
The German journalist specializing in Middle East and North African affairs, Kirsten Kneipp, told Tel Aviv Tribune Net – during the first weeks of the Israeli aggression – that his country feels that it has a historical debt and a duty to protect Israel. Indeed, “Israel’s security and existence are the reason for the existence of the state in Germany, so they together represent the essence of German interests.”
In this context, St. Pauli President Uki Göttlich admits in one of his statements that “there is a German view on anti-Semitism, due to Germany’s Nazi history, which justifies defending the Israeli people and their state,” but at the same time he points out that the club opposes the “anti-human” and “far-right” policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He also noted that St. Pauli “helps the people of Gaza by donating to humanitarian programmes” and went so far as to say “If I were a politician, I would fight for a two-state solution, but I am not the one who decides. Here we reach our limits. Sometimes we can only be a football club.”