Akte BVB 09

Profile – Facts, figures and milestones

Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e.V. Dortmund (Borussia Dortmund, BVB) is one of the most successful football clubs in Germany. Through the end of 2019, the club won eight German championships (most recently 2012) and four DFB-Pokals. Their last domestic cup triumph dates from 2017 (as of December 2019).

BVB became the first German European cup winner in 1966 and occupy second place in the Bundesliga all-time table by actual points won (as of December 2019). Since the 1976/77 season, Borussia Dortmund have played uninterrupted in the Bundesliga and have reached four further European finals since 1993, most recently in 2013.

The name "Borussia" derives from the old Latin word for Prussia. The Signal Iduna Park (Westfalenstadion), with a capacity of 81,360, is Germany's largest football-only stadium. The Südtribüne, accommodating 25,000 standing spectators, is Europe's largest terrace. For Champions League matches, the capacity is reduced to 66,000 (all-seater requirement).

With 155,244 members (as of December 1, 2018), Borussia Dortmund are Germany's third-largest sports club and the fifth-largest worldwide. Since November 1999, the first-team squad, reserve team and U19s have been outsourced into Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien — a listed partnership limited by shares.

Something new in the West. The BVB as clear number two in the Bundesliga behind Bayern München and alongside the record champions the only "global player" in German football? A fan magnet, a kind of substitute religion in black and yellow with 80,000 pilgrims at the Signal Iduna Park every other weekend? That was not always the case.

More precisely: it seemed unthinkable for a long time and only came about through several, sometimes spectacular, turning points in the club's history. And no, Borussia Dortmund were not a "tradition club" for a long time either. When clichés of Ruhr football were bandied about in the first decade after the war, it was Schalke 04 with their immortal heroes Ernst Kuzorra and Fritz Szepan who embodied the region.

What few people know today: a noteworthy cult around Borussia Dortmund only developed well after the turn of the millennium. The signs that something was changing in the football-breathing Ruhr after the devastating war were first detected by the Rhein-Ruhr-Zeitung in their football preview on May 18, 1947. "Schalke — or perhaps Borussia?" read the headline, "could it really be that Borussia Dortmund stand a chance in the final?" The disbelief of the experts was not unfounded. Borussia who? Until 1930, Borussia Dortmund were a third-division side, competing against the likes of SV Langendreer 04 or Sportfreunde Dortmund. During the turbulent 1920s, the club faced its first major financial crisis. Heinz Schwaben, director of the Dortmunder Union Brewery, personally guaranteed the BVB's debts. Under the leadership of August Lenz, Dortmund's first German international, the club finally reached the top-flight "Gauliga" in 1936. There, during the Nazi era, BVB had the reputation of a "fellow traveller" — the subscription champion Schalke 04, with their formidable modern short-passing game (the "Schalker Kreisel"), were simply unbeatable. Two runners-up finishes (1938 and 1942) remained BVB's greatest achievements.

Then the "turn in the West," as Hans Dieter Baroth wrote in his 1989 book "Jungens, Euch gehört der Himmel — The History of the Oberliga West 1947-1963": "On Monday there are no newspapers. The Rhein-Ruhr-Zeitung reports on May 20, 1947: Schalke no longer Westphalian champions. (…) The great surprise in West German football is the 2:3 (1:0) of Schalke 04 in front of 30,000 spectators in Herne against Borussia Dortmund in the final for the Westphalian Football Championship." Schalke were so deeply wounded that they boycotted the award ceremony. In the years that followed, Borussia consolidated their newly won position at the top. Between 1947 and 1950, they won the West German championship four times in a row. The attempt to claim the national title failed in 1949 in the final against VfR Mannheim (for now), but Borussia Dortmund were on their way to becoming a German top side. Before the introduction of the Bundesliga (1963), they won the West German championship three more times and reached two further finals (1949 and 1961). Most importantly: in 1956 and 1957, the Black and Yellows won the national title with the same starting line-up in both finals — a first in German football. By the early 1960s, Borussia boasted a hungry, well-drilled squad featuring players like Hans "Til" Tilkowski, Helmut "Jockel" Bracht, Reinhold "Zange" Wosab, Wolfgang Paul, Alfred "Aki" Schmidt, Dieter "Hoppy" Kurrat, "Timo" Konietzka and Gerd Cyliax — a team that continued its success into the new Bundesliga era. In 1965, Dortmund won the DFB-Pokal and a year later, in Glasgow, became the first German club to win a European trophy, beating heavily favoured Liverpool 2-1 after extra time in the Cup Winners' Cup final. The first Bundesliga title was thrown away on the final stretch amid the celebrations following the Glasgow triumph, with BVB finishing second behind 1860 Munich. A turning point.

After a solid Bundesliga start, BVB became a "mid-table team" following the European Cup triumph: in the years after the victory over Liverpool and the runners-up finish, Dortmund only managed to challenge for the title once more in 1967 (third place). The ageing European Cup heroes could no longer improve, and in 1969 the outstanding striker Lothar Emmerich was sold after yet another financial squeeze. As early as 1963, the golden times in the "Pott" seemed to be fading: "The final season of the Oberliga West had a symbolic character," wrote Baroth, "the mine closures had begun, pit towers collapsed under demolition charges." From the late 1960s, Borussia Dortmund suffered under this "structural change," as politicians euphemistically called the downward spiral. Attendance fell from over 26,000 (1966/67) to 16,000 (1971/72), partly because of the Bundesliga match-fixing scandal — in which BVB were not even involved. In 1972, BVB were relegated from the Bundesliga for the first time — and, strapped for cash, scraped through in the Regionalliga and 2. Bundesliga. Particularly painful for die-hard Borussen: in 1974, Schalke came for a charity match…

0-12 against Borussia Mönchengladbach: Borussia Dortmund’s greatest footballing humiliation came on April 29, 1978. On Gladbach’s Bökelberg, BVB were systematically dismantled in what remains one of the most lopsided results in Bundesliga history. By half-time it was already 5-0, and coach Otto Knefler stood helpless on the touchline as Jupp Heynckes, Allan Simonsen and the Gladbach attack ran riot. The final whistle brought the kind of stunned silence that accompanies true humiliation. For the travelling BVB fans, it was a march of shame that no one who experienced it has ever forgotten.

1999/2000 season statistics: The star ensemble, reinforced for €30 million — including Nigerian Victor Ikpeba and Georgian Georgi Kinkladze — produced one of BVB’s most absurd seasons. The team lost 11 away games, won just seven of 34 matches, conceded 64 goals, and achieved a negative goal difference of minus 15. Coach Bernd Krauss was sacked after just eight matches and replaced by Udo Lattek, who at 64 years old was dragged out of retirement for one last, futile rescue mission. The squad, assembled at enormous expense, had the consistency of a house built on sand. It was a masterclass in how money alone cannot buy chemistry, spirit or tactical discipline.

Champions League negative record: In the 2017/18 Champions League, a desolate Borussia set a new German negative record in the competition. With just two points from six group matches against Real Madrid, Tottenham Hotspur and APOEL Nicosia, Peter Bosz's side scraped into the Europa League, where the embarrassment continued.

Relegation 1971/72: The relegation season saw numerous club-record negatives that still stand: 17th place (worst ever league finish), only five victories, 27 defeats, 38 goals scored and 76 conceded. The Bundesliga match-fixing scandal of 1971, in which BVB were not directly involved, had poisoned the atmosphere across German football. Attendance at the Westfalenstadion collapsed from over 26,000 to barely 16,000 as disillusioned fans turned their backs. For a club that had won the European Cup Winners’ Cup just six years earlier, the drop was a catastrophic fall from grace.

The weak final season under Jürgen Klopp 2014/15 — a feast for haters! With 17th place and 15 points, Dortmund produced their worst-ever Hinrunde. Under Klopp in 2008/09, the record number of draws — 14 — also prevented a better finish than sixth.

Champions League winners 1997: The greatest triumph came under coach Ottmar Hitzfeld in 1997. On May 28, 1997, Borussia Dortmund beat Juventus Turin 3-1 (2-0) in the final at Munich's Olympiastadion to become the first German Champions League winners. Karl-Heinz Riedle scored twice and Lars Ricken sealed victory with a legendary chip.

The Double 2011/12: In the Bundesliga, the 2011/12 season — yielding the first "Double" in club history — represents the greatest domestic achievement. Under Jürgen Klopp, Borussia Dortmund defended the German championship in a long-distance duel with Bayern München and added the DFB-Pokal with a 5-2 demolition of Bayern in the Berlin final.

Robert Lewandowski: His enormous potential became apparent in 2011/12, when a BVB striker who had spent his first year mainly on the bench exploded into the most lethal goalscorer in German football. The Polish international scored 22 Bundesliga goals and 10 in the Champions League, terrorising defences with a combination of clinical finishing, intelligent movement and physical presence that defied his relatively slight frame. His four goals against Real Madrid in the 2013 Champions League semi-final — arguably the single greatest individual performance in the competition’s history — made him a global sensation. That he left for Bayern Munich in 2014 on a free transfer, having run down his contract, remains one of the most painful departures in Dortmund’s modern history.

Comeback 2001/02: The greatest title charge from behind came under coach Matthias Sammer in 2001/02. In the final three matchdays of the season, BVB overhauled Bayer Leverkusen in one of the most dramatic title races in Bundesliga history. Leverkusen, who had led for months and seemed destined for the treble, suffered a catastrophic collapse — losing the league, the DFB-Pokal final, and the Champions League final in the space of three weeks. Dortmund’s nerve held where Leverkusen’s cracked. The crucial 2-1 victory over Werder Bremen on the final day, secured by a Jan Koller goal and Jens Lehmann’s heroics in goal, sent the Westfalenstadion into raptures. It was Sammer’s vindication and Leverkusen’s eternal nightmare — "Vizekusen" was born that day, and the wound has never healed.

BVB as kingmakers: Schalke champions in Dortmund? "That can’t happen!" — not just the fans’ sentiment but the team’s too. On the final matchday of the 2006/07 season, Schalke needed BVB to lose against a direct rival in order to claim the championship. Dortmund, with nothing to play for in the table, found something far more powerful: Revierderby pride. The team delivered a performance fuelled by pure spite, ensuring that Schalke’s title dream died in the Westfalenstadion. It remains one of the sweetest non-victories in BVB history — proof that in the Ruhr, denying your neighbour success can feel as good as achieving your own.

Flemming Povlsen — The "holiday European champion": Flemming Povlsen, who astonished the football world with late-call-up Denmark at the 1992 European Championship in Sweden, was supposed to become BVB’s star signing. Instead, a catastrophic knee injury sustained in training turned the dream transfer into a nightmare. Povlsen had arrived from Borussia Mönchengladbach as one of the most exciting strikers in European football, but his knee never recovered. He played just a handful of matches, each one a painful reminder of what might have been. The club had invested heavily in a player who would never deliver on his promise — not through any fault of his own, but through the cruel lottery of sporting injury. Povlsen’s case became a cautionary tale about the fragility of football careers and the enormous financial risk clubs take when betting on human bodies.

Otto Addo — Goal with a torn cruciate: Otto Addo enjoys cult status among BVB fans. This is primarily due to one goal and one injury — both on September 24, 2003. In the European tie against Austria Wien, Addo scored the 1-0 in the 37th minute despite having torn his cruciate ligament moments earlier. BVB won 2-1; Otto Addo never played again.

Wolfgang Feiersinger — Final from the stands: Feiersinger joined Borussia Dortmund for the 1996/97 season. The Austrian defender had been a reliable performer all campaign, contributing to the defensive solidity that carried BVB to the Champions League final against Juventus in Munich. Then came the cruellest blow: Feiersinger was omitted from the matchday squad for the final itself. He watched from the stands as his teammates lifted the biggest trophy in the club’s history — a moment of supreme joy for everyone except the man who had helped make it possible. The decision, taken by coach Ottmar Hitzfeld for tactical reasons, was professionally understandable but humanly devastating. Feiersinger never spoke publicly about his pain, but teammates later revealed that the experience haunted him. He had done everything asked of him, yet when the moment of glory arrived, he was excluded from it.

Rolf Rüßmann — An early death: Rüßmann was one of the players who represented both Borussia Dortmund (1980-1985) and Schalke 04 (1969-1973, 1974-1980). After his playing career, he worked as manager at Borussia Mönchengladbach and VfB Stuttgart. Rüßmann died on October 2, 2009 — a life cut short far too early.

KFC — Kevin’s Failed Club: From 2018, Kevin Großkreutz became the first 2014 World Cup winner to play in the 3. Liga. The Dortmund-born defender, who had been a key part of Klopp’s double-winning squad, saw his career unravel through a series of off-field incidents and diminishing form. Großkreutz was Dortmund through and through — born in the city, raised as a fan, tattooed with the club crest. His departure in 2015 began a downward spiral through Stuttgart, Galatasaray, and Darmstadt before he landed at third-division KFC Uerdingen. The sight of a World Cup winner playing in front of 3,000 spectators in Krefeld was football’s version of a Greek tragedy. Großkreutz himself confronted his decline with a mixture of defiance and dark humour, but for BVB fans who remembered his tearful celebrations after winning the Bundesliga, the trajectory was heartbreaking. He later returned to amateur football in Dortmund’s lower leagues, full circle back to where it all began.

BVB have the dearest enemies: "Schalke and Bayern saved Dortmund," say many BVB haters. And it's true, even if some in black and yellow only admit it through gritted teeth. The Blue and Whites from Schalke and the big shots from Munich are the "dearest enemies" of the Dortmund faithful…

BVB received a major boost from FC Schalke 04: In early 1974, the Ruhr club was languishing in the second-tier Regionalliga West. The opening match at the new Westfalenstadion on April 2, 1974 against rivals Schalke 04 drew around 50,000 spectators — and delivered BVB a financial windfall that kept them afloat.

Players’ wage sacrifice: The 1973/74 season could only be completed because the players agreed to forgo part of their salaries. BVB were so financially destitute after relegation that they could not meet their payroll obligations. The squad, aware that the club’s very existence was at stake, accepted deferred and reduced payments to keep the lights on. Several players took second jobs during the off-season. The solidarity shown by the dressing room in this period is rarely mentioned in the club’s official narratives, which prefer to focus on the triumphs. But it was this spirit of collective sacrifice — players choosing the club over their own financial security — that kept Borussia Dortmund alive during its darkest hour. Without that wage sacrifice, there might be no BVB today.

Dortmund and money — always a complicated affair! After the glorious 1997 Champions League triumph, many sceptics asked: how will Dortmund finance the next step? The answer, it turned out, was recklessly. President Niebaum and manager Meier embarked on a spending spree that dwarfed anything in Bundesliga history. Transfer fees, signing bonuses and wages spiralled out of control. Amoroso alone cost €25.5 million from Parma — a club record that seemed insane even at the time. Rosicky, Koller, Ewerthon, Frings, Metzelder: the squad read like a fantasy football team. But the revenue model depended on Champions League qualification, premium TV deals (via Kirch), and the stock market debut delivering ongoing returns. When all three pillars collapsed simultaneously between 2001 and 2003, the financial architecture disintegrated. The club that had spent like a Premier League side found itself unable to pay its utility bills. It was the most spectacular financial collapse in the history of German professional football.

Stock-market Borussia: On October 31, 2000, Borussia Dortmund became the first German football club to go public. With a share price of €11 at launch, the IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange raised approximately €150 million. The mood was euphoric — analysts predicted the shares would soar as Dortmund monetised their brand, stadium and European success. The business plan was seductive: use the capital markets to fund a squad capable of sustained Champions League competition, generating revenue that would push the share price ever higher. On paper, it was a virtuous circle. In reality, it was a house of cards built on assumptions that would prove catastrophically wrong.

Borussia Dortmund were the first German European cup winners (1966). Many know that. Here are fun facts about BVB with a "wow" factor.

Borussia Dortmund were somehow always strong at home: The first home defeat in the Oberliga West (pre-1963) didn't come until their third season, on April 2, 1950 — a 0-1 loss to eventual runners-up Preußen Dellbrück. In the opposing goal stood Fritz Herkenrath, future German international goalkeeper at the 1958 World Cup.

The first international: August Lenz (1910-1988) became BVB's first international in 1935. He won 14 caps for Germany through 1938. After his playing career, Lenz ran a pub at the Borsigplatz in Dortmund for 33 years. His face, alongside the city eagle with the BVB crest, is now the logo of the Dortmund ultra group The Unity.

Dortmund Lions: Since the IPO in 2000, Borussia Dortmund have been considered by many critics and "traditionalists" as the commercially most aggressive club in German football. But the nickname "Dortmund Lions" predates any stock exchange listing — it goes back to the club’s original crest, which featured a lion. The lion was replaced by the now-iconic "BVB 09" lettering in the 1970s, but the nickname persisted in certain fan circles. Today, the tension between tradition and commerce runs through every decision the club makes, from naming rights to transfer policy.

A home match at the Westfalenstadion without Borussia Dortmund? Impossible! Except it happened — on April 2, 1976. Not a Bundesliga match, admittedly, but a German national team friendly against the Soviet Union. The DFB chose Dortmund’s ground as the venue, and BVB fans found themselves watching other teams play on their sacred turf. The Soviet Union won 1-0, and the Dortmund faithful, deprived of their own team’s involvement, gave the visitors a notably warmer reception than the German national side received — a small act of rebellion that perfectly captures the BVB mentality: if it’s not our team, we’ll cheer for whoever irritates the establishment most.