WEs we like - Sunday, December 7, 2008 20:04 - 2 Comments

A very special “WE” – The St. Pauli soccer fan community

As I wrote before I was at St. Pauli last Sunday – for the very first time in a German soccer stadium, in the so-called “black block”. Besides the fact that it was very cold and pourring during the second half, I felt quite comfortable within this crowd. The youngest fan couldn’t walk yet and the oldest one couldn’t walk anymore. Many women, I was surprised by that.

It just felt like a big party …

Before we went to the match I had an interview with Stefan Schatz, the fan community manager of the Club. He gave us some background information of the community’s history. In the mid-eighties St. Pauli was closely connected to left wing politics – and still is. Even though the political statements within the community became weaker as the years went by, there still is a strong and lively relationship. To me – who never saw a strong relation between sports and politics (except the Olympic Games) – this point of view was a kind of surprising …