Every fixture in the Bundesliga this weekend began with an atmosphere boycott.
It was eerie. Games in Germany always begin with colour and life from the terraces, but on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, fans stayed silent for the first 12 minutes, barring some half-hearted claps and catcalls.
This was a protest called by Fanszenen Deutschland, one of the largest umbrella organisations of supporters’ groups in Germany, and it has been building in response to threatened safety legislation that would see the adoption of far stricter stadium security measures affecting supporters.
The proposals discussed by the Conference of Interior Ministers (IMK), which will meet again in December, include the adoption of AI-assisted facial recognition software, personalised tickets, stronger ID checks on entry to stadiums, and expedited, harsher banning procedures. Fan groups see this as government overreach, believing that stadiums are already safe enough and that curbs on supporter freedom will only serve to inhibit the atmosphere that gives German football its distinct characteristics.
It was a strange weekend and the point was made profoundly. Below is footage of St Pauli and Union Berlin taking to the pitch yesterday at the Millerntor. As is traditional, AC/DC’s Hells Bells still played, but notice that there’s almost no noise from the fans themselves (many of whom are holding red placards reading “NO IMK”).
Almost silent Hells Bells at the Millerntor (plus 12 minutes of atmosphere boycott once the game started), as part of the league wide protests against proposed fan security measures. pic.twitter.com/VPl3SVU5oR
— Seb Stafford-Bloor (@SebSB) November 24, 2025
During the international break, Fanszenen Deutschland called on member groups around the country to take part in a march in Leipzig city centre. Over 20,000 people representing more than 50 different clubs took part, descending on Leipzig the day before the German national team faced Slovakia. And this atmosphere boycott was the next step. No chanting, no capos, no choreography. Instead, just silence, and banners reading “Soll das die Zukunft des fussballs sein? (Is this meant to be the future of football?)”.
When the stadium clocks struck 12 minutes, everything returned to normal. At the Millerntor, the home and visiting fans volleyed a “Scheiss IMK” chant back and forth for a few minutes, before all the noise, colour and fire began. Here’s Union’s pyro display…
Union Berlin pyro. pic.twitter.com/6Tt6jtMjqa
— Seb Stafford-Bloor (@SebSB) November 23, 2025
Union won that game courtesy of Rani Khedira’s goal that moved Steffen Baumgart’s side up into eighth. St Pauli have now lost eight Bundesliga games in a row, a new and unwanted record, but have no intention yet of dismissing head coach Alexander Blessin.
Club president Oke Goettlich was interviewed on the pitch immediately after, and rejected any suggestion that Blessin was about to lose his job.
“There’s absolutely no truth that we’re considering Alexander Blessin’s (position). He’s our coach, and the coach who had us playing outstanding football in the first three matches. He’s moulded us into a team. Quite frankly, we’re FC St Pauli, we know our place perfectly well.
“Last year, he built the second-best team defensively. This year, we’ll try to at least secure a mid-table position defensively, and then also pick up some points.”
St. Pauli head to Allianz Arena to face Bayern Munich next. Goettlich concedes that FCSP “probably won’t win that one by a wide margin”, but it’s clear that Blessin is staying for now.
But he and his players will face a Bayern in ferocious form. They fell 0-2 behind to Freiburg on Saturday, before roaring back to win 6-2, courtesy of highly exuberant performances from Lennart Karl and Michael Olise.
Both were almost perfect, and Karl received his first “call-up” to Kicker’s Elf des Tages. It will not be his last, and with Luis Diaz suspended for Wednesday’s Champions League game, he might get a chance to face Arsenal from the start.
Borussia Dortmund and Stuttgart drew 3-3 at the Westfalenstadion. BVB seemed to have the game won twice — first at 2-0, then after Karim Adeyemi scored on 89 minutes to make it 3-2 — but a Deniz Undav dreierpack (his hat-trick was neither scored in the same half, nor did it comprise an uninterrupted run of goals) was enough for a VfB point.
Eintracht Frankfurt just about held on to their lead to win 4-3 in Koln. Unfortunately, their travelling fans produced an image that was duly seized upon by the media (and used to undermine the “stadiums are safe” protest) when they accidentally started a fire in the gaesteblock.
The fire occurred at the end of the game, while Jonathan Burkardt — who scored twice and played brilliantly — was being interviewed on Sky DE. Needless to say, other fan groups have been angered (in which nobody was hurt), accusing SGE fans of undermining the protest and arming politicians with an image that will be used to hurt the community as a whole.
Back on the pitch, RB Leipzig beat Werder Bremen 2-0, Wolfsburg were soundly beaten at home 3-1 by Bayer Leverkusen, and Sandro Wagner’s Augsburg beat Hamburg 1-0.
And Borussia Monchengladbach!
Gladbach had a torrid start to the season. They sacked head coach Gerardo Seoane and saw Roland Virkus, their sporting director, resign. But they have now won three games in a row, four in all competitions, which has been enough for Eugen Polanski to be rewarded with the head coaching job on a full-time basis.
Deservedly. The technical quality of their second and third goals on Saturday — both intricate, multi-player moves, find them if you can — described the work Polanski has done, and he has earned this first senior coaching chance.
On Saturday, he and his players were set on their way to that win in Heidenheim by a Kevin Diks penalty. That’s two penalty goals in two games for the defender, and Diks (who, like Karl, was also picked in Kicker’s team of the weekend for the first time) is part of an interesting sub-plot.
Born in the Netherlands, he represents Indonesia internationally and is the first player from the country to ever play in the Bundesliga.
Kevin Diks puts Gladbach ahead from the penalty spot against Heidenheim (Christian Verheyen/Borussia Moenchengladbach via Getty Images)
Diks’ form has been a positive for Gladbach. He’s started 10 straight games and has been a big part of their revival; BMG have only conceded once in the whole of November. But this has been good news for the Deutsche Fussball Liga (DFL), too.
Football is highly popular in Indonesia and interest in Diks has translated into encouraging data. The Bundesliga is currently the fastest-growing league in the country and has enjoyed a significant viewership spike this season. In addition, the announcement of Diks’ signing in the summer from Copenhagen generated 12 per cent social media growth for the league in the local market and a 16 per cent jump across Gladbach’s channels.
How do you increase international interest in a competition that is not the Premier League? Nobody really has an answer for that, but stories that capture local imagination certainly help.
Finally, a story from German football’s heartlands.
SG Egels-Popens, an amateur club from Aurich, in the north-west, made national news this week, when their automated lawnmower went berserk overnight, ruining their first-team pitch and making it unplayable until the spring.
Nobody is quite sure how it happened, only that the mower — “Robby” — experienced some kind of sensory issue, preventing it from returning to its housing and leaving it, instead, to endlessly loop around the pitch, churning up the grass to such an extent that it will now have to be relaid (photos of the damage done by Robby can be found here).
“It’s unclear whether it was already raining when he started, or whether it started afterwards. In any case, at some point, his sensors became so dirty that he just kept driving in circles,” one of the club’s chairman told Der Spiegel.
Seven different games had to be postponed as a result and the club will move to a nearby all-weather surface for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, Egels-Popens have become a national cause and are accepting donations from around the country, with the aim of developing their facilities and growing their membership.
