Mein Hamburg lieb ich sehr

A few minutes before kick-off at the Volksparkstadion, thousands of scarves rise above the stands.

Blue, white and black stretch across the stadium. The players have not yet entered the pitch. The match has not begun. But for many supporters, this is already one of the most important moments of the afternoon.

The opening notes of “Mein Hamburg lieb ich sehr” fill the Volkspark. Conversations stop. People stand. Then the stadium begins to sing.

It is not simply a song played through the loudspeakers. The supporters complete it.

“Mein Hamburg lieb ich sehr” was recorded by Abschlach!, a Hamburg band whose music is closely connected to the city and Hamburger SV.

The song first appeared in 2003. It did not arrive as an official club anthem created by a marketing department. It came from inside Hamburg's supporter culture and gradually found its place in the matchday ritual.

Its emotional centre is not victory. It does not celebrate a championship, a famous player or one particular generation. It expresses affection for Hamburg and for the club that represents part of the city.

That makes it useful in every kind of season. It can be sung before a decisive match, during years of disappointment and after something worth celebrating.

Stadium music can easily become background noise. The same songs return every weekend and the same routines unfold before every match.

This one works differently. When the scarves rise, the Volkspark briefly becomes a single image. When the supporters begin to sing, the recorded version loses its importance. The loudest sound comes from the stands.

Not every person sings with the same voice. Not everyone has supported HSV for the same length of time. Some remember European trophies. Others first encountered the club during relegation battles or in the second division.

For those few minutes, those differences disappear.

The meaning of a football song is revealed when there is little left to celebrate.

On 12 May 2018, HSV was relegated from the Bundesliga for the first time. The famous clock had reached the end of its original purpose. A record that had helped define the club was gone.

Yet the people remained inside the Volkspark. In a moment that could have been defined only by anger and humiliation, large parts of the stadium responded with something else.

They sang.

“Mein Hamburg lieb ich sehr” became more than part of the pre-match programme that afternoon. It expressed what the result could not change. The league could change. The relationship between the supporters, the club and the city did not disappear with it.

HSV expected its absence from the Bundesliga to be brief. It lasted seven years.

Seasons ended in disappointment. Promotion was missed in different and increasingly painful ways. Coaches, players and expectations changed. The Volkspark continued to fill.

Before the next home match, the scarves went up again.

The ritual gave the years a sense of continuity. It connected the club that had never been relegated with the club trying to find its way back. It did not pretend that the difficult years were unimportant. It simply placed them inside a much longer relationship.

In May 2025, that journey finally ended. HSV secured promotion back to the Bundesliga. Players and supporters celebrated together on the pitch and in the stands.

Once again, they sang “Mein Hamburg lieb ich sehr”.

Football songs accumulate meaning. Every time they are sung, another memory becomes attached to them.

This one now belongs to afternoons of expectation, the pain of relegation, years of waiting and the release of promotion. The words remained the same while the club around them changed.

A visitor may first experience it as an impressive piece of stadium atmosphere. For the people holding the scarves, it carries something more personal.

It is a declaration made before anyone knows what the following ninety minutes will bring.

Some songs celebrate what a club has won. This one explains why people keep returning.