Although on the face of it St. Pauli and Bayern Munich are polar opposites, an extraordinary match in 2003 proved that they have far deeper ties than most would believe.

If you look at the continuum of different ways to found, shape and run a football club, it's true that you would find Pauli towards one end and Bayern all the way at the other.

The two clubs differ vastly in terms of structure, ethos and history, with St. Pauli a famously left-leaning, punk-inspired, fan-inclusive 'neighbourhood club' from a working-class area of Hamburg. Meanwhile, Bayern are a publicly traded company from the country's economic powerhouse in the affluent south with a turnover in the hundreds of millions every year. 

Watch: There's no club like St. Pauli

There is also a huge disparity in terms of the two clubs' achievements on the pitch. Bayern's full list of silverware is too long to reel off, but Germany's most decoared club have an untouchable 32 Bundesliga titles (plus one pre-Bundesliga championship), 20 DFB Cups and 10 domestic Supercups as well as six European Cup/UEFA Champions League titles, two FIFA Club World Cups and two Intercontinental Cups (more on one of those in a minute). Meanwhile, St. Pauli's only national-level silverware is two Bundesliga 2 titles, from successful 1976/77 and 2023/24 promotion campaigns.

St. Pauli are one of German football's Kultvereine (cult clubs) but haven't always had it easy. - DFL/Getty Images/Reinaldo Coddou

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The perfect rivalry

These differences between the clubs were an easy angle for Germany's football broadcasters to leverage. They sold clashes between the two sides as class warfare, emphasising the distance between the brown-clad side with the skull-and-crossbones emblem and the Bavarian glamour club known as FC Hollywood in every conceivable respect.

This led to some fairly spicy encounters. Although usually won handily by Bayern, there were some unforgettable upsets, notably on 6 February 2002 when bottom club Pauli beat Bayern 2-1 on home turf at the Millerntor.

So enraptured were the home fans, they printed T-shirts emblazoned with one of football's finest examples of a German compound noun in 'Weltpokalsiegerbesieger', or 'World Cup winner beaters', in reference to Bayern's being the reigning Intercontinental Cup holders at the time. 

Bayern had won the Intercontinental Cup weeks prior to their loss to Pauli, who were bottom of the Bundesliga at the time. - TORU YAMANAKA

Time to help out

While the result and T-shirts caused quite a stir, in reality, that win did little to help Die Kiezkicker's cause to stay in the top flight. They were relegated from the Bundesliga in last place. And it got worse as they were then also relegated from Bundesliga 2 the following year. 

The club's finances were in tatters and they were almost €2 million short of earning a licence to play in the third-tier Regionalliga, without which Pauli would've been sent even further down the pyramind.

Die Kiezkicker launched a fundraising campaign which included the sale of some 140,000 Retter (saviour) T-shirts and a local bar initiative that saw a portion of money spent on drinks donated to the club.

And then in stepped Bayern, when president Uli Hoeneß offered to take his star-studded squad to Hamburg to play Pauli in a fundraiser. Although the reigning champions won 1-0 in front of a packed Millerntor on 12 July 2003, St. Pauli were the winners as Bayern forewent their share of the gate, leaving all €200,000 to the hosts' successful cause. 

But Hoeneß and his team also received something very special that day.

Bayern president Uli Hoeneß in the now-famous tight brown 'Retter' T-shirt. - imago

"Someone before the game gave me this brown 'saviour' T-shirt and it didn't quite fit me. I had gained quite a bit of weight back then but I still managed to get it on, which wasn't easy," Hoeneß recalled on the Pauli podcast Don't call it a Kultclub in 2023. "I was very proud to walk across the pitch and to get to my seat in a wave of euphoria. That was something completely new; we weren't used to that as Bayern Munich representatives."

There were even banners around the Millerntor reading "Thank you, Uli Hoeneß" to show the gratitude of the Pauli faithful.

It was a unique moment that drew the supporter groups of the two clubs closer together in the early 2000s. It was a great display of unity, with Bayern's pulling power ultimately aiding Pauli's bid for survival as they secured the future of the club.

The Kiezkicker have rebuilt themselves since, returning to the Bundesliga for one season in 2010/11 before their 2024 comeback to the big time, where they will once again get to face German football's big dogs and get one over their one-time saviours. Retterbesieger T-shirts, anyone?

About the clubs

FC Bayern München

Allianz Arena

FC St. Pauli

Millerntor-Stadion