Nazis supporters
Expert opinion burdened “The Heart of St. Pauli” poet
06/27/2025 – 6:14 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Because of the Nazi past of the copywriter, FC St. Pauli “The Heart of St. Pauli” no longer plays in the stadium. Now the result of a scientific investigation is available.
FC St. Pauli has presented a documentary on the Nazi past of journalist Josef Ollig, who wrote the text of the stadium anthem “The Heart of St. Pauli”. The scientists emphasized that they do not recommend how the club should handle the song in the future. Rather, the aim is to reconstruct the past in the respective historical context and to make it understandable, “said the club.
After Ollig’s entanglement had become known in the Nazi system, the association for the first time in mid-February for the first time in the home game against SC Freiburg. This waiver had remained until the end of the season. Some fans criticized the decision. Ollig’s text was published in the 1950s and sung by Hans Albers in the film of the same name (1957).
Political and media scientist Celina Albertz from FC St. Pauli-Museum and the historian Peter Römer from the History Villa Ten Hompel in Münster wrote the almost 60-page report. The Hamburg Memorials and Learning Places Foundation examined their work professionally.
In its statement, the foundation made it clear: Ollig clearly supported the Nazi system both before the war and as a war rapporteur. In his texts, he constructed racist enemy images and conjured up the unity of the “folk community”. It cannot be finally clarified whether this was done out of careerism or by conviction.
According to the foundation, the expert opinion emphasizes that Ollig was already at the end of the Weimar Republic an important position with a reporting hostile to the Republic of Hamburg, which openly supported the NSDAP from 1930.
According to the report, Ollig tried to present his editorial activity as apolitical in the denazification procedure to present his editorial activity during the Nazi era through omissions and lies. Next Wednesday (July 2), the report will be presented and discussed in the Millerntor Stadium.