From Wikipedia:
St. Pauli and the "Kult" phenomenon
It was in the mid-'80s that St. Pauli's transition from a traditional club into a "Kult" club began. The club was also able to turn the location of its ground in the dock area part of town St. Pauli near Hamburg's famous Reeperbahn - centre of the city's nightlife and its red-light district - to its advantage. An alternative fan scene emerged built around left-leaning politics and the "event" and party atmosphere of the club's matches. Supporters adopted the skull and crossbones as their own unofficial emblem. Importantly, St. Pauli became the first team in Germany to officially ban rightwing, nationalist activities and displays in its stadium in an era when fascist inspired football hooliganism threatened the game across Europe. In 1981, the team was averaging crowds of only 1,600 spectators: by the late '90s they were frequently selling out their entire 20,000 capacity venue.
In the early '90s, the media in Germany started to work on the Kult-image of the club, i.e. by focusing on the punk part of the fan-base in tv broadcasts of the matches. By this time, the media also started to establish nicknames like "Freibeuter der Liga" (Pirates of the League) as well as das Freudenhaus der Liga ("league house of merryment", a double entendre for league brothel"') phrases not used by the club's followers.
St. Pauli began a roller coaster ride that saw them in and out of the Bundesliga over the course of the next dozen years: The 1984-85 season ended very close but St. Pauli was relegated to Oberliga again. The team won the 1985-86 championship and returned to 2. Bundesliga. Two increasingly strong years followed resulting in promotion and three seasons in 1. Bundesliga 1988-91. Four seasons followed in 2. Bundesliga, and then another two-season-long run in 1. Bundesliga 1995-97, before returning to 2. Bundesliga.
Into the new millennium
Their most recent appearance in the top flight was a single season cameo in 2001-02. Apart from a 2-1 home win against Bayern Munich, the then-World Club Championship winners, which led to the wildly popular Weltpokalsiegerbesieger (World Club Champ beaters) shirts, the team disappointed and finished last, partly because the management did not trust the team which surprisingly won the promotion in 2001, but rather spent the additional money from Bundesliga tv contracts and advertisements for expensive but disappointing players. After the relegation to the 2. Bundesliga, only a skeleton of the successful 2001 team had remained, thus the season 2002/2003 ended up in chaos, with the team fighting, unavailingly, against relegation from the very beginning, various coach demissions and other internal problems in the club.
With the club almost bankrupt again and the less lucrative Regionaliga Nord (III) looming the club began its fundraising activities, the so called Retteraktion. They printed t-shirts with the club's crest surrounded by the word Retter (rescuer/saviour) and more than 140,000 were sold within 6 weeks. They also organized a benefit game against Bayern Munich to try and help rescue the club. Many other activities, like selling the Retter-Shirts in McDonalds restaurants in Hamburg, led to harsh criticism from the fan base.
The club has also been active in terms of charity and in 2005 the club, the team and the fans initiated the viva con agua de sankt pauli campaign which collects money for water dispensers for schools in Cuba.
During the 2005-06 season, the team enjoyed unprecedented success in the DFB Cup, with wins over Burghausen, Bochum and, significantly, Bundesliga sides Hertha Berlin and, in the quarter-finals on January 25, 2006, Werder Bremen. Their 3-1 victory in front of a sell-out Millerntor crowd and their subsequent place in the DFB Cup semi-final netted the club approximately €1 million in TV and sponsorship money, going a long way to saving the club from immediate financial problems.
In the wake of its DFB Cup victories, the club has also produced a new line of t-shirts with the slogan "Wir sind Pokal" (We Are Cup), after the BildWe Are Pope). newspaper's famous 2005 headline "Wir sind Papst" (
St. Pauli finally went out of the cup to FC Bayern Munich on April 12 going down 3-0 with a goal from Owen Hargreaves and two from Claudio Pizarro. Incidentally, Bayern Munich was also drawn as St. Pauli's opponent in the first round of the following season's cup leading to an early exit as Bayern Munich won 2-1.
However, after success in the 2006/2007 season the team was promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga.
