What few people know
What few people know
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.
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.
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.
in 1974, Schalke came for a charity match…
Dortmund were a coaching carousel long before their relegation. After the departure of successful coach Willi "Fischken" Multhaup in 1966, Dortmund lost all continuity in the coaching position. Six coaches in six years came and went at the little Stadion an der Roten Erde before relegation struck in 1972. In the search for lost time, a total of eight coaches tried their luck at BVB from 1972 onwards. Only the Essen-born Otto Rehhagel had limited success, achieving promotion back to the Bundesliga in 1976. After Rehhagel's dismissal on April 30, 1978, a further 16 (!) coaches followed in the eight years before the fateful turning point of 1986.
Big names like Udo Lattek, Karl-Heinz Feldkamp, Erich Ribbeck, Pal Csernai and Branko Zebec — in Dortmund, almost everyone got a turn! A low point was the 1983/84 season, when four coaches — Uli Maslo, Helmut Witte, Heinz-Dieter Tippenhauer and Horst Franz — greeted the journalists in succession. Tippenhauer was pushed back to his managerial position after just two matches, and the fans at the Westfalenstadion could barely be restrained from climbing the perimeter fences. It was the 34-year-old Reinhard Saftig who, by securing survival through the relegation play-offs in 1986, finally turned the tide.
the fact that the Borussia ship reached calmer waters was thanks to a young lawyer who served as the "shadow man" on the 1984 emergency board under Dr. Reinhard Rauball, primarily overseeing the financial consolidation of the Ruhr club, which was 8.4 million Marks in debt. His name: Dr. Gerd Niebaum.
No other president at Borussia Dortmund embodies rise and fall like Dr. Gerd Niebaum, born October 23, 1948 in Lünen. Elected as Dr. Rauball's successor in 1986, he was seen as the great hope. That he brought in local sponsors and led the club into European competition as fourth-placed finishers just a year after near-relegation in 1986 was just the beginning of a new euphoria around Black and Yellow. The philosophy: build with players from the region! In 1986, Borussia surprisingly signed striker Frank Mill from Rhineland namesake Mönchengladbach. Together with Siegerland native Norbert "Nobby" Dickel, he formed a strike partnership that half the league envied.
"Frankie" and "Nobby" fired BVB to the UEFA Cup quarter-finals in 1987 and the DFB-Pokal triumph in 1989 — the first trophy in 23 years. The reception for the "Heroes of Berlin" at Dortmund's Friedensplatz is a piece of city history. Another transfer masterstroke in the early Niebaum years was the surprise signing of Frankfurt's midfield jewel Andreas Möller.
Niebaum's greatest coup, however, was the hiring of the previously unknown Lörrach native Ottmar Hitzfeld in summer 1991. Hitzfeld and Niebaum became the new "Dynamic Duo" of German football. Their strategy: bring back mercenaries from the Lira paradise of Italy. This put them a step ahead of industry leader Bayern, who between 1991 and 1996 only managed to "grab" the championship trophy once. Bundesliga matches and European nights in Dortmund became events from 1992 onwards. The Westfalenstadion, built in 1974 for the World Cup in West Germany, was rechristened the "Mailänder Scala of German football" by Munich's Kaiser Franz Beckenbauer.
The bigwigs from Munich, still playing in the draughty Olympiastadion, looked almost enviously towards Dortmund, where media frenzy and glamour in the style of "FC Hollywood" had (still) no place. Michael Meier, poached from Bayer Leverkusen as manager in 1989, turned Borussia Dortmund into a brand — and was named "Manager of the Year" by Kicker sports magazine in both 1992 and 1993, a fact rarely acknowledged today.
Borussia Dortmund was founded in 1909 by 18 young men from the Trinity parish. The early decades were unremarkable — the club played in regional leagues without notable success. Everything changed in the post-war era when the BVB emerged as a dominant force in West German football.
In the late 1940s, Dortmund overtook rivals Schalke 04 as the Ruhr region's top club. Captain Adi Preissler and his teammates won back-to-back German championships in 1956 and 1957, establishing BVB as a national powerhouse for the first time.
On May 5, 1966, Borussia Dortmund defeated Liverpool 2-1 in extra time to win the Cup Winners' Cup in Glasgow. It made BVB the first German club to win a European trophy — a distinction that still resonates today.
Under President Gerd Niebaum, Dortmund rose from Bundesliga also-ran to Champions League winner in 1997. But Niebaum's megalomania — the stock market listing in 2000, reckless spending on star players, the ill-conceived ventures — brought the club to the brink of insolvency by 2005.
Borussia Dortmund posted record revenues of 526 million euros for the 2024/25 financial year, with EBITDA reaching 150 million in 2023/24. The club has transformed from a near-bankrupt institution into one of Europe's most profitable football businesses.
The BVB's transfer model has become a case study in football economics. Players like Dembele (135M to Barcelona), Haaland (60M clause to Man City), Bellingham (103M to Real Madrid), and Sancho (85M to Man United) generated massive profits. Yet the model carries risk: each departure requires finding the next talent.
With a capacity of 81,365 (standing included), Signal Iduna Park is Germany's largest football stadium and home to the famous Gelbe Wand — the Yellow Wall — a single standing terrace holding 24,454 fans. It consistently records the highest average attendance in European football.
When Juergen Klopp arrived in 2008, Dortmund were a mid-table club recovering from near-bankruptcy. Within three years, he had built the youngest championship-winning squad in Bundesliga history. Two consecutive titles (2011, 2012), the domestic Double, and a Champions League final appearance in 2013 transformed BVB into a global brand.
Before Klopp, before the Yellow Wall mythology, before the Champions League nights — there was the darkness. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Borussia Dortmund languished in the second division, a fallen giant unable to compete with the Bayerns and Gladbachs of the world. The club's return to the Bundesliga in 1976 was followed by another relegation in 1972. This cycle of promotion and relegation shaped the club's DNA: the knowledge that nothing is guaranteed, that today's glory can become tomorrow's humiliation.
BVB's 2024 sleeve sponsorship deal with defence contractor Rheinmetall generated fierce debate. Critics argued that a football club — especially one with Dortmund's working-class identity — should not associate with arms manufacturers. Supporters countered that in an era of Russian aggression, defence was legitimate industry. The deal reflected BVB's commercial ambitions but tested the boundaries of what the fanbase would accept.
Real opposition only formed when it was almost too late. Blinded by the enormous successes of the 1990s and early 2000s — three German championships and, the crowning glory, the UEFA Champions League — few questioned the direction set by president Gerd Niebaum and managing director Michael Meier. After forcing out success coach Ottmar Hitzfeld in 1998, Niebaum and Meier lost all sense of reality. Transfers in the double-digit millions, a proprietary kit label, a BVB travel agency, a mega-store the size of a shopping mall, a club TV show — the sky was the limit for the newly rich club. But the binge had its price.
Schalke and Dortmund — they were even friends once. The Revierderby thrives on the folklore of "Lüdenscheid-Nord" (Dortmund) versus "Herne-West" (Schalke), and on the misconception that the two clubs have been mortal enemies since the dawn of football. They were not. Dortmund played in blue-and-white in its early years. When Schalke became German champions in 1934, they paraded through Dortmund in open cars and signed the city's Golden Book. The BVB, stuck in a local league at the time, could only dream of such glory.
Former BVB spokesman and archivist Gerd Kolbe confirmed that deep sympathy existed between the two clubs. Schalke used Dortmund's Stadion Rote Erde for championship qualifying matches between 1934 and 1943. When Borussia needed coaching help in the 1930s, it was Schalke legends Ernst Kuzorra and Fritz Thelen who served as BVB's first professional managers, leading the club into the Gauliga Westfalen in 1936. Only from the 1970s onward did fan culture radicalise. The "Judas" label seems invented for the Revierderby — more than 20 players have crossed the divide since 1963, including Abramczik, Freund, Libuda, Möller, Rüssmann and Wegmann.
Dortmund's reputation as a coaching graveyard predates the modern era. Since the Bundesliga's founding in 1963, the BVB have employed more head coaches than almost any other club. The pattern is consistent: a coach arrives with ambition, delivers initial results, hits the Bayern ceiling, and departs — either through dismissal or exhaustion. Only Klopp (2008-2015) and Hitzfeld (1991-1997) managed sustained success. The rest are chapters in an ever-expanding book of what-ifs.
In the 2024/25 financial year, Borussia Dortmund generated record revenue of 526 million euros.
Key partners include 1&1 (shirt sponsor), Evonik Industries, Signal Iduna (naming rights), Puma (kit supplier) and Rheinmetall (since 2024).
The most expensive sale was Jude Bellingham to Real Madrid for a fixed fee of 103 million euros (2023). The most expensive purchase was Sébastien Haller for 31 million euros (2022).
Borussia Dortmund have had over 40 head coaches since 1966, including four in a single season (1983/84).