Hamburg's Sports-Integration Program Also Teaches Migrant Women to Ride a Bike, Not Just Places Kids in a Club

Three Entry Points, Not One Office

If someone told you to “just join a Verein” as a migrant or refugee family in Hamburg, that advice skips over a genuinely useful fact: the Hamburger Sportbund (HSB) runs Germany’s federal “Integration durch Sport” (IdS) program here through three separate, differently-shaped efforts, not one hotline, and most families never hear about more than one of them.

The program itself is real and long-running, not a pilot. According to DOSB’s own program page, organized sport in Germany has coordinated IdS nationally since 1989, working with federal interior and migration authorities. In Hamburg it’s implemented by HSB, based at Haus des Sports, Schäferkampsallee 1, 20357 Hamburg (040 41908-0). HSB is a large umbrella, more than 800 member clubs, but according to a recent web search of HSB’s own materials, only around 30 of those currently hold the specially funded “Stützpunktverein” status, clubs specifically equipped and paid to run structured, low-barrier offers for people with a migration or refugee background rather than just passively accepting whoever shows up.

Two current Stützpunktvereine show what that actually looks like in practice. Parkour Creation e.V. has held Stützpunktverein status since 2016 and runs Die Halle, an 800-square-meter parkour facility in Wilhelmsburg staffed by around 42 volunteer and professional trainers. Its integration work centers on sessions like “Live Free, Run Free” and integrative summer camps where children with refugee experience learn parkour fundamentals alongside their Hamburg peers. Goldbekhaus e.V., a Winterhude sport and culture center founded in 1981, has also been a Stützpunktverein since 2016, built around water sports offers including stand-up paddling, alongside its broader arts and culture programming.

For clubs applying to become a Stützpunktverein, HSB’s own 2026 funding announcement set a 15 October application deadline through the HSB member portal into DOSB’s own digital funding system, with a preliminary consultation strongly recommended beforehand. That deadline moves annually, so a family or club asking about the current round should confirm the exact date directly with Erik Dawid rather than assuming last year’s date still applies.

Willkommen im Sport: A Database Built Specifically for Refugee Families

Neither the Stützpunktverein network nor its funding lines replace the tool most families actually need first: something searchable, without a phone call. HSB and the Hamburger Sportjugend jointly built Willkommen im Sport for exactly that gap. Unlike a general club directory, it’s built specifically around refugee families’ actual questions: search by district or neighborhood, by target group, and by sport type, and member clubs post their own offers directly onto the platform. It also includes a Sportbörse, a marketplace where clubs can post requests for coaches or volunteers and prospective helpers can offer themselves. According to a BQM Hamburg newsletter covering the project’s launch, roughly 45 sports clubs and 18 of HSB’s Stützpunktvereine participated by creating offers on the platform at the outset, giving families a real, if not exhaustive, starting inventory rather than an empty database waiting to be filled.

FiPS: Six Months With a Real Mentor, Not Just a Club Address

If a database still leaves you unsure where to actually start, HSB’s FiPS program (Finde Deinen Platz im Sport) is built to close that specific gap. It pairs a mentee, someone with a refugee or migration background, with a mentor, a paid staff member or volunteer already embedded in a Hamburg sports club, for a structured six-month tandem. Rather than handing over a phone number, the mentor actively walks the mentee through the club’s day-to-day roles, from playing to coaching to committee work, alongside seminars and workshops organized by HSB’s own IdS team.

The program’s first cohort ran from March to September 2023, matching five tandems. HSB’s own coverage of that cohort profiles one pairing directly: Pallavi, a 35-year-old software developer from India who had lived in Hamburg for two years, was matched with Marco Peters, club manager and board chair at HSV Barmbek-Uhlenhorst. Her daughter joined the club’s rhythmic gymnastics group, and the tandem culminated in a club summer festival on 1 July. Peters described the point of the program plainly: getting newcomers to actually understand how a German club runs, its structures, its volunteer culture, its committees, not just show up to train.

Fit und mobil mit dem Rad: Hamburg Also Teaches Adults to Ride a Bike

One HSB program addresses a barrier that has nothing to do with finding a club at all: never having learned to ride a bicycle. “Fit und mobil mit dem Rad” offers free, step-by-step cycling courses built primarily for women, taught by qualified instructors, though HSB also arranges customized sessions for youth, seniors, refugees more broadly, and social institutions on request. The courses run through three named partner clubs covering different parts of the city: Hamburger SV e.V., Sportvereinigung Billstedt-Horn von 1891 e.V., and Harburger Turnerbund von 1865 e.V., giving coverage across Hamburg’s south, west, and east districts. Program coordinator Johanna Wittneben handles registration and can arrange additional courses or cycling excursions beyond the standing schedule.

This matters more than it might sound. A parent who can’t ride a bike in a city built around cargo bikes, Stadtrad docking stations, and bike-accessible school runs isn’t just missing a hobby, it’s facing a genuine mobility gap that a sports club membership alone doesn’t fix.

Photo by Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto on Pexels

FC Lampedusa: What a Self-Organized Migrant Club Looks Like at St. Pauli

Not every family wants to be matched into an existing mainstream club, and Hamburg has a well-documented example of the alternative. FC Lampedusa, according to Wikipedia’s sourced history, was founded in 2014 by members of the Lampedusa Refugee Group, several hundred West African migrants who had reached Hamburg by way of the Italian island after fleeing Libya. By March 2015 the club had opened membership to any migrant or refugee aged 16 or older, regardless of nationality or legal documentation status, a deliberate choice given that many potential players couldn’t register with a standard league club without proper papers. Since 2016, FC Lampedusa has operated as part of FC St. Pauli itself, covered in more detail in SettledIn’s separate guide to Hamburg’s football culture, coached on a volunteer basis by staff from the club’s women’s and girls’ division. It marked its tenth anniversary in 2024 and is still active.

It’s worth being precise here: FC Lampedusa isn’t confirmed as one of HSB’s Stützpunktvereine, it grew out of grassroots refugee organizing rather than HSB’s own funding structure. That makes it a genuinely different kind of option, not better or worse than the Stützpunktverein network, just built by and for a specific community rather than assigned to newcomers from the outside.

Paying for It: The Bildungspaket’s 15 Euros a Month

None of the four programs above waive a club’s own membership fee, that’s set by the individual Verein, but real cost help exists and stacks with any of them. According to hamburg.de’s own page on the subsidy, households receiving benefits under SGB II, SGB XII, or the Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz, or entitled to Wohngeld or Kinderzuschlag, can get a flat 15 EUR a month toward a child’s membership fee in a sports club, music school, or similar activity through the Bildungspaket. If your household receives Bürgergeld, get the certificate from the Jobcenter team.arbeit.hamburg first; otherwise, the relevant Bezirksamt’s Sozialleistungen office (or the Wohngeldstelle, for Wohngeld-only households) handles it. Some clubs and course providers will bill the city directly for the 15 EUR instead of asking a family to pay the full fee upfront and wait for reimbursement, worth asking about specifically before you commit to a payment method.

Step by Step

1. Search Willkommen im Sport first if you're comfortable browsing on your own. Filter by district, target group, and sport at willkommen-im-sport.de, no phone call required.
2. Contact HSB's program director if you want a person to point you toward a Stützpunktverein. Call Kristjana Schultchen at 040/41908-276, describe your child's age, sport, and district, and ask which current Stützpunktvereine, such as Parkour Creation e.V.'s Die Halle or Goldbekhaus e.V., are realistic nearby options.
3. Ask about FiPS if you want a personal mentor, not just a club address. The six-month tandem program pairs you directly with someone already embedded in a Hamburg club.
4. If an adult in your family never learned to ride a bike, ask about Fit und mobil mit dem Rad. Contact coordinator Johanna Wittneben or one of the three partner clubs directly for the current course schedule.
5. Consider a self-organized club like FC Lampedusa if that fits your family better than a mainstream Verein. It's part of FC St. Pauli and open to any migrant or refugee aged 16 or older.
6. If cost is the actual barrier, apply for the Bildungspaket. Bürgergeld households start at the Jobcenter team.arbeit.hamburg; other households go through their Bezirksamt's Sozialleistungen or Wohngeldstelle office, for 15 EUR a month toward the membership fee.

Compliance Note

This page describes Germany’s federal “Integration durch Sport” program as implemented in Hamburg by the Hamburger Sportbund, current as of mid-2026. Program contacts, funding amounts, application deadlines, and which clubs currently hold Stützpunktverein status can change year to year, so confirm current details directly with HSB’s Integration durch Sport team before acting on anything here.