FC St. Pauli has already played in the Bundesliga five times. Of all places, the leaders of the second division (6.30 p.m./Sky) can make their sixth promotion perfect in the city derby against their big rivals Hamburger SV.
It would be the first time in the long history of the two clubs that the Kiezkickers would play in a league above the six-time German champions.
Rise in 1977
47 years ago, the two Hamburg rivals were still worlds apart. HSV had just won the European Cup. And despite the first Bundesliga promotion in the club’s history, FC St. Pauli still had nothing to do with the cult club it later became. Indebted, at odds and unable to compete in sports, they wandered through the first year of the first division. A big mistake was to play the home games in the sparsely filled Volksparkstadion instead of at our own Millerntor. The highlight of an otherwise disastrous season: a 2-0 win against the big HSV in the first derby.
Rise in 1988
Former HSV and St. Pauli coach Willi Reimann later describes this time as the “birth of FC St. Pauli as a cult club and crowd puller”. Leftists and autonomous people were drawn to the club’s games in droves. A team with all Hamburg boys like Andre Golke and Andre Trulsen managed to get promoted with Helmut Schulte, who was promoted from Reimann assistant to head coach. St. Pauli stayed in the Bundesliga for three years – longer than ever before or since.
Promotion in 1995
At first glance, the patriarch Heinz Weisener as president and the conservative Uli Maslo as coach did not fit in at all with FC St. Pauli. And when Maslo gave a much-quoted sports studio interview after the promotion (“I’m proud to be a German”), many fans actually liked him. Nevertheless, the former coach of Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund managed to stay in the league with his team, at least in the first season. And in the 1996/97 relegation season, an old friend returned as manager: Helmut Schulte.
Rise in 2001
This promotion to the first division was the most surprising of all. Just a year earlier, St. Pauli was almost relegated to the regional league. Similar to 1977, coach Dietmar Demuth’s team had no chance in the Bundesliga and was even pushed through to the third division a year after relegation in 2002. Similar to 1977, one game remained in the memory this time: the 2-1 win against FC Bayern Munich, which was then honored with the legendary “World Cup Winners’ T-shirt.”
Promotion in 2010
From the regional league to the Bundesliga – this promotion was achieved in just four years with the coach and former player Holger Stanislawski. With a goal from Gerald Asamoah, St. Pauli also won the city derby against HSV 1-0 in February 2011. But after that, Hamburg only got one point in the last twelve games and fell from 15th to last place in the table. FC St. Pauli lost its last Bundesliga game on May 14, 2001, 1-2 at FSV Mainz 05. A St. Pauli striker at the time: Max Kruse. The Mainz coach was Thomas Tuchel.
