The time of the “Wunderelf”
When FC St. Pauli became almost German champion
Updated on August 29, 2025 – 2:58 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
HSV was long considered Hamburg’s clear number one. Now St. Pauli has been passed for the first time since 1954. A look at the history shows that it was often the case.
For a long time, the HSV was athletically far ahead of FC St. Pauli. But in the 2023/24 season, the “Kiezkicker” landed for the first time since 1954 in front of the city rival, in 2024/25 the skull even kicked in a higher league for the very first time than the diamond.
Until the mid-1950s, the race for the number one in the city was already balanced: HSV and St. Pauli had a close race for the championship in the Oberliga North year after year. In 1948 and 1949, both clubs even ended tied – a decision -making game had to be made to award the title in the north. The HSV prevailed in these duels in both years, but St. Pauli still made it into the final round for the German championship.
The HSV flew out against today’s TuS Koblenz in the quarterfinals. St. Pauli, however, made it into the semi -finals via the SG Union Oberschöneweide (7-0) – the only overall German championship game between 1947 and 1991. There was a bitter fight against the 1st FC Nürnberg in Mannheim. The Franks shocked the brown-whites with a double strike after half an hour. But FC St. Pauli came back into play, Fritz Machhate equalized after 82 minutes. It went into extra time. There was only one goal there – the 3-2 for Nuremberg, the later German champion.
In 1949 Kaiserslautern St. Pauli also stopped in the quarter -finals after extra time, in 1950 in the same round against Fürth. The HSV never got any further than the “Kiezkicker” – they marched through the competitions on an absolute eye level. It was the years of the so -called “Wunderelf” that slaughtered son Kurt Miller had built up in the years after the war. Even Helmut Schön, the world champion national coach of 1974, briefly wore the brown and white shirt during this time.
Forming figures, however, were other St. Paulians. Harald Stender, for example, who played 337 Oberliga games for St. Pauli in midfield, defender Hans Appel or coach Hans Sauerwein, who was even considered a candidate for the national coaching office. At the end of the “Wunderelf”, names such as Alfred Boller and Alfred Beck, who were something like “goal getter” today, were added.