“Since February 2025, part of St. Pauli’s matchday routine has been missing. Das Herz von St. Pauli, a popular fan song, had been played at the Millerntor Stadium for two decades. But no more. Earlier this year, an investigation by the club’s museum revealed that the song’s writer, composer and singer had all been entangled with the Nazi party and the propaganda of Joseph Goebbels. The playing of Das Herz von St. Pauli — the Heart of St. Pauli — was suspended in February, and has not been heard since. For Germany’s foremost left-wing club, it has been a difficult, fractious and sensitive period. That is not unusual. The Germans have a word — Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung — which means ‘coping with the past’, and 80 years after the Second World War ended, the issue of who did what during it and how willingly remains alive, as does the conversation about how those people — and their work — should be judged. …”
NY Times/The Athletic