What has happened at St. Pauli?

Bundesliga club St. Pauli has decided to suspend the playing of its famous "Das Herz von St. Pauli" (The heart of St. Pauli) fan song after research by the Bundesliga club's museum team revealed the song has a Nazi past.

"We absolutely know and understand that the song has great emotional significance for many people," emphasized club president Oke Göttlich in a statement. "This can remain the case on a personal level, but an anthem in the stadium has a special function: such a song should bring people together, it should be a shared and unifying moment. In view of the discussion surrounding the song, such a moment cannot be created at present, as many members and fans have made it clear that they no longer feel comfortable with the song."

Göttlich added that many questions are still unanswered, and so discussion on the matter will continue. The club is also working to produce scientific documentation on the song and the author of the lyrics. Only after this and in consultation with fans and the museum staff, will a final decision be made on how to deal with the song.

"We can be proud of the fact that when our club and the fans face difficult situations, we do not avoid discussions and conduct them openly," Göttlich said.

Celina Albertz, part of the museum curation team at St. Pauli, spent weeks researching the origin of the song. Albertz found nothing wrong with the song, but did find something troubling about the people who wrote it. In a club history podcast episode by the museum team, Albertz and her colleagues discuss the performer (Hans Albers), the composer (Michael Jary) and the lyricist (Josef Ollig) and the issues surrounding their links to the Nazis.

The song, that has the lyrics "The heart of St. Pauli, this is my home, in Hamburg, that's where I'm at home" in it, is part of the ritual of visiting the stadium on a matchday.

What exactly was the connection between the Nazis and this song?

Albertz's research revealed that the first recording of the song was made in 1956 in Harburg, making the song already well known before the film of the same name, with Albers, was released in December 1957.

The composer of the song, Jary, was a successful German film and pop composer in the late 1930s and 1940s as well as in the post-war period. His name can be found on Joseph Goebbels' Gottbegnadeten-Liste (List of God's Blessings), a list of artists and intellectuals considered essential to the Nazi regime.

Albers' name was also on the list, but Albertz explains that his relationship with the Nazis remains controversial because he both distanced himself from the regime as well as took part in Nazi propaganda films.

Ollig was a soldier in the Wehrmacht and a war correspondent for Nazi propaganda. He later wrote song lyrics — especially for local patriotic seamen's hits such as "Das Herz von St. Pauli."

What do St. Pauli fans think about this?

This history coming to light is obviously difficult for large sections of the active fan scene and has many wrestling with whether the work can be separated from its authors. The fact the stadium played the rock version of the song by Phantastix & Elf rather than Albers' is of little consequence.

"For many years, it was a song we all sang from the heart," Maik, a St. Pauli fan and blogger, told DW. "It belongs to the whole matchday setup. I really like to sing it and it's always really special. On the other hand, now I have mixed feelings about the song, especially about the writer because of his past. These are things we didn't know before. If we stick to our values, we can't sing it anymore."

Some fans believe the song has become theirs over the years through singing it, and while Maik can see that perspective he is not sure that makes an answer easier to find.

"There was an idea to have an online vote about this, but what would be the number you have to reach before you say it's enough?" Maik asks. "Even if there are two to three thousand people who disagree with singing it and really refuse, you don't want to play or sing it against the will of so many people. You need to live with the result."

He expects the conversation to continue though, with some fans suggesting new lyrics should be written for the song.

Has anything like this happened before?

St. Pauli themselves had to face a similar situation with their stadium. In 1998, they renamed their stadium after they found a former club president, after whom the stadium had been named, had a past as a member of the Nazi party, the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party).

Edited by: Matt Pearson