Borussia Dortmund
The club the Ruhr built. Founded above a pub on 19 December 1909 by young men who broke away from a church team, Borussia Dortmund became the first German side to win a European trophy, went bankrupt in all but name twice, and turned a standing terrace into the loudest twenty-five thousand seats in football. Told through the surviving newsreels of the 1956 and 1963 championships, the full film of the 1966 Cup Winners' Cup final at Hampden Park, Riedle and Ricken in Munich in 1997, the Klopp years, the Yellow Wall in full voice, the Revierderby, and the days the club would rather forget.
A chronological documentary of 730 moments on Loreline.
last updated 2026-07-27
Eras
- The Club & The Roots — Borussia Dortmund began on 19 December 1909 in the Zum Wildschütz pub, named for the brewery across the road, playing on a field called the Weiße Wiese. This is the deep past — the earliest surviving film, the first German championships of 1956, 1957 and 1963, and the move to the Westfalenstadion in 1974.
- Das Revierderby — Dortmund against Schalke 04, thirty kilometres and a century of coal apart. The oldest surviving derby film from 1951, the 4-4 in 2017 when a four-goal lead evaporated, and the ghost derby played to an empty stadium in May 2020.
- The Titles — Eight German championships across seventy years, from the pre-Bundesliga finals of the 1950s to the Klopp doubles. The clinchers, the trophy lifts, the Hohensyburg parties — and the last day in 2023 when the title was there to be taken and was not.
- European Nights — Hampden Park in 1966, when Dortmund became the first German club to win a European trophy. Munich in 1997. Wembley in 2013 and again in 2024. The Real Madrid semi-final, Anfield, and the nights the Westfalenstadion sounded like nowhere else.
- The Dark Days — Relegation in 1972. The near-insolvency of 2005, when the club came within days of ceasing to exist. The team bus attacked on 11 April 2017 and the match played the following night. And 27 May 2023, when a whole city had already started celebrating.
- The Yellow Wall — Die Südtribüne — twenty-five thousand standing, the largest terrace in European football. The choreographies, the pyrotechnics, "You'll Never Walk Alone" before kickoff, and the ground itself from the Stadion Rote Erde to the Signal Iduna Park.
- The Cups — The DFB-Pokal runs and the finals in Berlin, the Supercups, and the 1997 Intercontinental Cup in Tokyo that made Dortmund champions of the world.
- The Legends — The players and managers who defined the club in black and yellow: Sammer, Kohler, Riedle, Ricken, Chapuisat, Möller, Zorc, Weidenfeller, Hummels, Kagawa, Reus — and the touchlines of Hitzfeld, Klopp, Tuchel, Favre and Terzić.
- The Academy — The talent factory. Dortmund buys young, plays them, and sells high — Sancho, Haaland, Bellingham, Pulisic, Dembélé, Moukoko, Brandt, Adeyemi. Their Dortmund years only: what they did in yellow, before the move.
…and 730 more moments. Full text archive: /loreline-text/borussia-dortmund.md
