St Pauli is looking to return to the Bundesliga for the first time since 2011.
St Pauli are more renowned for their distinctive culture than on-the-field exploits, so for a long time Hamburger SV could claim football bragging rights in the city.
Going into Friday's derby, the neighbourhood club is perfect in their past five meetings, a game with a little more riding on it.
Every club in the top half of the 2 is fighting for promotion as both sides head into the game. The table claims to have ambitions of reaching the top flight.
St Pauli is in ninth place after 19 games, seven points behind leaders Nurnberg, while HSV is fifth and lodged between clubs in Werder Bremen and Schalke who are more focused on trying to get into the playoffs.
Third place will face a play-off against the club finishing third bottom in the Bundesliga in order for the top two to go up.
The city building is still excited despite the fact that only 100 fans from St Pauli will be present at the 57,000-capacity Volksparkstadion.
Tanja Hufschmidt says that it is always something special.
The city is in awe of this match. The whole city says "hey, I am blue, white and black" or "no, I am white and brown!"
The occasion is felt by the players, especially at St Pauli, under the direction of coach Timo Schultz, who was part of the last Buccaneers side to feature in the Bundesliga.
Max Weinhold of the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper says that Pauli is excited about it. Timo has been at Pauli as a player and played in the derby in the first division in 2011.
He knows the meaning of the derby and the club.
The players are aware of how important it is. It is obvious that the derby is in everyone's head, and that's why Schultz has been trying to set the focus on the next game.
They have drawn 10 of their 19 games this season, but have lost only twice.
The clubs represent different parts of the city. The more established HSV have entertained a far larger fan base, having won six league titles and the European Cup in 1982-83, and they remain one of Germany's biggest clubs.
The 2010 final was played at their impressive stadium after they lost to Cottagers in the semi-finals.
The supporters of a certain vintage still remember 'Mighty Mouse' Kevin Keegan winning the Ballons d'Or twice in his time in the northern port city.
The club's identity is more important than football, which is unsurprising given they only ever spent eight seasons in the top flight and the last of those was 11 years ago.
The Millerntor ground has been referred to as a "party with a pitch" because the club adopted the Jolly Roger emblem as a symbol of their fans' social and political values.
Michael Pahl, chair of the club's fan-founded museum, previously told the BBC that St Pauli is about authenticity. "Doing things differently, finding your own way and staying true to your values is what it's about."
More than 400 official supporter groups have been formed by that unique outlook.
"St Pauli is becoming more popular," says Weinhold. The club for the poor people or alternative ones is more mainstream now.
The club wants to change the game forever.
On Tuesday, they knocked out of the German Cup.
St Pauli have delivered the football this season and, while their league campaign has stuttered a bit, they are winless in three.
Tim Walter's outfit conceded a 122nd-minute goal, but they went on to win the cup on penalties.
If anyone can show St Pauli that promotion is not certain, it is their rivals, who have twice topped the table only to miss out on a return to the top flight.
It has been a rough few years for the former European champion and their fans after they lost their record as the only club to have played in every Bundesliga season.
The last game in the first division was hard. The whole stadium joined in when we started singing our song, because it was obvious we'd be demoted around 75 to 80 minutes.
It was touching and amazing. Being demoted for the first time was hard to take, it was something that made us unique and we lost it.
Some St Pauli supporters are content with their place in Germany's second tier, despite the fact that they would rather not see their rivals promoted at their expense.
"There is a view shared kind of ironically, but I do see some truth in it, with fans saying it is better to stay in the second division."
"'That's where we're at and that's where we're fine, we don't need to have the biggest success, we are all good here' - that is a view some people have always had and has been seen as an issue that has kept the
The people who are responsible for what is happening on the pitch are trying to shift that focus. That is one thing that has been mentioned a lot recently, to shift the focus to football.
The focus will be on what's happening under the lights on Friday evening.
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