IN comedy shellsuits and mullet wigs, German darts fans’ delirious chant of “Es kommt nach hause” echoed to Ally Pally’s rafters.
A good-natured goading of the English, and set to the Three Lions tune, the phrase means “It’s coming home”.
While a little tongue in cheek — Germany’s highest ranked player at this year’s tournament was seeded 13 — British dominance of the arrows may soon be over.
For darts, birthed in the pubs and working men’s clubs of Britain, has become a German obsession.
Tens of thousands are making the pilgrimage to the World Championship at Alexandra Palace in north London for this year’s tournament.
Organisers say as many as 40 per cent of the crowd at some sessions are from overseas, most of them German.
Millions more have been watching at home after four Germans — Arno Merk, Gabriel Clemens, Martin Schindler and Ricardo Pietreczko — made it through to the third round.
It has even spawned a craze for glamorous darts influencers selling pin-up calendars and other merchandise.
Elmar Paulke, the teutonic answer to legendary darts commentator Sid Waddell, told me: “For the last five years, Germany has been going nuts about darts.”
The 55-year-old broadcaster drove his van from Munich to Ally Pally, interviewing darts stars on the way.
The one-time tennis pundit revealed: “Normally, when we have successful sports on TV, we have German heroes.
Sunlounger rivalry
“So tennis had Boris Becker and Steffi Graf while motor racing had Michael Schumacher.
“Darts has broken through without that huge figure.
“We will have a world champion in the next five to ten years and then you will see the sport peak in Germany.”
There’s little wonder Germans love the arrows. It’s basically Oktoberfest with a darts tournament tacked on.
It may take five years but a German will win the World Championship
Felix Kienle
With copious amounts of lager, Bierkeller-style trestle tables and the chance to dress in silly clothes, the Germans feel as much at home as their British counterparts.
It means that alongside those sporting disciplines that divide the two nations — big tournament football and the 100-yard sunlounger dash — must now be added championship darts.
Adjusting her white cowboy hat, financial tech worker Tasha King, 29, from Henley-on-Thames, tells me: “Well, there’s obviously the sunlounger rivalry.
“You have to get up at 5am to get a lounger to beat the Germans.
“It’s great to see so many Germans here but there’s no chance they’ll ever be better than the Brits at darts.”
Office clerk Felix Kienle, 22, at the World Championship with five mates from Aalen, Baden-Wurttemberg, told me: “It may take five years but a German will win the World Championship. There’s a crossover between darts and football fans so there is a rivalry between England and Germany here.”
So how did the quintessential British pub sport become a German sporting staple?
In the quiet of the Press room at Ally Pally, Patrick Exner, who runs dedicated darts website dartn.de, gives me a potted history.
“I think British soldiers stationed in Germany brought it over in the Fifties and Sixties,” he explained.
“I’m from Monchengladbach where the British Army of the Rhine was stationed.
“They drank in German pubs and said, ‘Let’s hang a dartboard up’.”
The 52-year-old arrows fanatic added: “I started my website 20 years ago, and it was a niche sport.
“And then it started growing. Now darts in Germany has gone ballistic.
“I know people who get the first flight to Britain in the morning, go to Ally Pally then take a flight at night back home. It’s really crazy.”
In January, more than three million Germans tuned into the 2025 World Championship final between Luke Littler and Dutch star Michael van Gerwen.
Germany also holds the attendance record for a single day’s tournament play, when over 20,000 filled the Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen for the German Darts Masters in 2018.
The sport has also germinated its own vibrant German culture.
Pantomime villain
There’s 25-year-old referee Franz Engerer, described as “German eye candy”, who sings his 180 — einhundertachtzig! — calls in a curious operatic manner.
Then there’s Sarah Milkowski, 33, who has been described as the world’s sexiest darts influencer.
Germans and Austrians like the darts because we like to drink and we like to party
Jan Grillitsch
Meeting her near Ally Pally, I tell her that I didn’t realise darts had influencers.
A decent player in her own right, the social media star from Dusseldorf explained: “I think I was the first darts influencer in the world. There are many others now.
“I just started putting my hobby on social media and there was an explosion of reactions.”
Now, for the third year in a row, she is flogging calendars, which feature Sarah in lingerie clutching a set of arrows, for £27 a piece.
“I sell many in the UK,” she added. “The Netherlands and Belgium are also big markets.
“But I also have fans in the US, Australia, New Zealand, Japan. Everywhere.”
World champ Luke Littler has experienced first hand the intense darts rivalry between England and Germany.
While Littler is worshipped as a darts god on these shores, in Germany he’s a pantomime villain targeted with deafening boos.
After receiving abuse at Berlin’s Premier League Darts in April, he admitted: “I had a little headloss moment.
“I just don’t get it. You do your walk-on, but then as soon as I got on stage, I started getting booed.”
Describing how compatriot Luke Humphries is also the target of teutonic jeers, The Nuke added: “Obviously, the Germans mustn’t like us English.”
Tommy Seipel, 54, and son Nick, 25, and Nick’s girlfriend Saskia Raffin, 25, who have travelled to Ally Pally from Stuttgart, explain the animosity against the champ.
Car dealer Tommy says of Littler: “He’s got a big mouth. Too cocky.”
While accounts manager Saskia added: “He thinks he’s the boss. He’s too big-headed.”
German players are similarly put through the mincer by partisan Ally Pally crowds with symphonies of whistles and catcalls.
Dressed as a wartime fighter ace at Ally Pally, Rupert Jessop, 48, insisted: “Of course there’s a big rivalry, but it’s all good-natured stuff. Littler gets booed in Germany but that’s the darts.”
The project manager from Herne Hill, South London, with four friends in similar garb, added: “I’ve been coming for 12 years and there’s never any trouble.
“It’s always a laugh. Everyone is here to have a good time. The Germans, the Dutch, aren’t actually that different from us when you look at it. Germans like to sink a few beers like we do.”
Ally Pally is just a cult — in my country we say it’s a cult
German thrower Max Hopp
Sporting lederhosen, Jurgen Grillitsch, 50, and son Jan, 22, have travelled from Graz, Austria, to witness the famous Alexandra Palace atmosphere.
Pesticide salesman Jurgen said: “Darts is big in Austria but bigger in Germany. I think the booing might be related to football rivalry.”
While student Jan said: “Germans and Austrians like the darts because we like to drink and we like to party.”
Inside the raucous, lager-drenched bearpit of Alexandra Palace, I watched German star Martin “The Wall” Schindler — knocked out by Englishman Ryan Searle yesterday — face a barrage of heckles.
Cult-like status
People are always going to boo me when there’s a walk-on,” he insisted afterwards.
“If they’re going to boo me, I need to deal with that.”
The star was also serenaded by fans from his homeland with a chant of “Ohne Deutsche ware hier gar nichts los”.
It means, “Without Germans there would be nothing going on here”.
While not strictly accurate, the Germans certainly bring passion and colour to the spectacle.
And they prove their sometimes maligned sense of humour is robust enough to see them don fancy dress, cope with a bit of ribbing and join in the general silliness.
German thrower Max Hopp insists a night at the World Championship has achieved cult-like status with his countryfolk.
“Ally Pally is always a great venue,” he said. “Next year we move to a bigger arena [the venue’s Great Hall] as well, so the crowd is going to be buzzing.
“Ally Pally is just a cult — in my country we say it’s a cult.”
Britain may be the home of darts but Deutschland is the new pretender.
