Pioneers

Stefan Mau has run the sideline in Hamburg since at least 2021. The club he inherited traces back to 1988, when it started life inside the multi-sport SV Polizei Hamburg, and it remains the oldest American football outfit in the city.

Mau's side climbed the German pyramid in stages: the Oberliga Nord in 2001 and again in 2008, then the regional Schleswig-Holstein/Hamburg title in 2012. In 2023, the Pioneers went through the Regionalliga Nord unbeaten, ten wins from ten, and stepped up into the GFL 2. The men's team still has no German Bowl to show for any of it.

The silverware has come from elsewhere in the building. The Snappers, the club's flag football team, have taken the DFFL Bowl eight times, most recently in 2024, and the Amazons added a Ladies Bowl in 2023.

The Hamburg derby has swung both ways in recent years — a 17-7 Blue Devils win in 2018, a 42-39 Pioneers answer in 2022 — and it is the fixture the 800-capacity ground at the Jahnring fills up for.