St Pauli Sunday's

FC St Pauli wellington boots, smoke-filled bars, swing-dancing and football - all in a days pub-crawling in Hamburg.

I began my Sunday jaunt in one of Hamburg's most famous districts, St Pauli.  Hamburg and Altona were once independent of one another and this middle ground between the two was used for industry that neither wanted within their own walls.  With those beginnings it's not surprising that the region developed a fiercely independent and counter-cultural identity.
Entertaining workers from the docks, numerous bars and music venues sprung up as well as a red light district located around the Reeperbahn, once dubbed 'Europe's most sinful mile'.

It's also famous for the emergence in the early sixties of a little-known band called the Beatles and a world-famous football club called FC St Pauli.
As the numbers employed in the shipyards and docks declined, squatters, students, punks and anarchists took their place living in St Pauli.  

And when these locals decided to go to the football, the crowds on the dilapidated terraces of the Millentor stadium shot up from the 2,000 to 20,000.  In contrast to what was happening at many other clubs this crowd were orientated firmly towards the left - anti-racist, anti-homophobic, anti-capitalist and lots of more besides. 

I would've loved to have watched FC St Pauli play, but tickets are incredibly difficult to get hold of, so I'd visited instead on a weekend when Hamburger SV were at home and St Pauli were playing away at Arminia Bielefeld.

Scouring the music listings I spotted that rock club Knust (Neuer Kamp 30, Hamburg 20357) opened specially on 'St Pauli Sunday's' to show the games on the big screen.  Located a couple of hundred meters from the stadium, this club is situated in what was once a slaughterhouse.  It's main hall would be a great place to see a band (I'd contemplated a bit of thrash metal here from Satanic Surfers, but had instead plumped to get tickets for the Levellers across town this evening). 
Benches were laid out in the hall and the game projected onto a large screen at the back of the stage.  The game was also being shown in a side-room and on an outdoor screen, with a good crowd of folk assembled to cheer the local team on and join-in with the 'Woo-hoo' bit of Blur's 'Song 2' when a goal was scored.
The beer to drink when in St Pauli is Astra - the brand is owned by Carlsberg these days, but it's still deeply associated with the district. In Knust I quenched my thirst with a couple of  bottles of their 'Urtyp', a 4.9% session pale lager.

Last time I stayed in Hamburg, many years ago, we visited a number of the bars around the Reeperbahn - a dodgy rock bar, our boring choice of Molly Malone's Irish pub and Gretel & Alfons which was apparently Paul McCartney's hang-out, in which he still hasn't paid his bill.

This visit I wanted to pick somewhere kinda traditional, so I plumped for 
David Quelle (Davidstr.23, 20359 Hamburg) 
This bar dates back to 1906 according to it's signage.  It had a thick curtain across the door, giving that sense that you're not quite sure what to expect behind it.

What I found was a small bar with wood panelling giving way to a vast collection of football scarves pinned to the wall and ceiling. 

And an eccentric bunch of customers on a Sunday afternoon.  Beer and shots of dubious spirits were being lined up on the bar and one lady kept demanding the attention of all present so she could make important (?) announcements, before breaking into St Pauli football songs.  

I sat as anonymously as an odd English bloke at the bar can with my Duckstein pils.

Not feeling the urge to donate my Forest scarf to the collection

Walking northwards took me to St Pauli's neighbouring district Sternschanze where I visited  Galopper des Jahres (Schulterblatt 73, Hamburg 20357).  This serves as a coffee shop during the day with the bar opening at 5pm (I'd learnt this the hard way visiting at 3pm on my first day in Hamburg).  But this afternoon it looks as though the bar may have been open longer with the place a buzz of energy and activity.  It's swing-dance central.  A DJ is spinning '40's era swing classics, with tables pushed aside to create a busy dance floor full of enthusiastic folk.
"It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing".
You don't get this at Brewdog. 

Unlike in the Half Man Half Biscuit song,
this evening of swing has not been cancelled

So I probably didn't get a real flavour for the place as a beer bar, as I dodged dancing couples and perched on the corner of a table.  There were 10 beers listed on chalkboards above the bar, from which I picked a 'Fastmoker Pils', from local Wildwuchs Brauwerk. After Astra and Duckstein this seemed packed with flavour and was thoroughly enjoyable.

Possibly a little irresponsible

St Pauli is an area well worth exploring and apologies for not really doing it justice here.  Glancing at a few reports of how lively the small bars become on a match day it does look an amazing place to be when FC St Pauli are at home.  

For craft beer there is Uberquell by the river, a short walk from the Reeperbahn, or up in Sternschanz Altes Madchen, both of which I visited at different times on this trip.
For me it was time to head across to Altona, just as dusk fell and the neon lights of the Reeperbahn began to shine bright.