Foundation and early years The club was founded on 19 December 1909 by a group of young men unhappy with the Catholic church-sponsored
Trinity Youth, where they played football under the guidance of the local parish priest. The priest, Father Dewald was blocked at the door when he tried to break up the organising meeting being held in a room of the local pub,
Zum Wildschütz. The founders were Franz and Paul Braun, Henry Cleve, Hans Debest, Paul Dziendzielle, Franz, Julius and Wilhelm Jacobi, Hans Kahn, Gustav Müller, Franz Risse, Fritz Schulte, Hans Siebold, August Tönnesmann, Heinrich and Robert Unger, Fritz Weber and Franz Wendt. The name
Borussia is
Latin for
Prussia but was taken from Borussia beer from the nearby Borussia brewery in Dortmund. The team began playing in blue and white striped shirts with a red sash, and black shorts. In 1913, they donned the black and yellow stripes for the first time. Over the next decades the club had only modest success playing in local leagues. They came close to bankruptcy in 1929 when an attempt to boost the club's fortunes by signing some paid professional footballers failed miserably and left the team deep in debt. They survived only through the generosity of a local supporter who covered the team's shortfall out of his own pocket. The 1930s saw the rise of the
Third Reich, which restructured sports and football organisations throughout the nation to suit the regime's goals.
Borussia's president was replaced when he refused to join the
Nazi Party, and a couple of members who surreptitiously used the club's offices to produce anti-Nazi pamphlets were executed in the last days of the war. The club did have greater success in the newly established
Gauliga Westfalen, but would have to wait until after the
Second World War to make a breakthrough. It was during this time that Borussia developed its intense rivalry with
Schalke 04 of suburban
Gelsenkirchen, the most successful side of the era (see
Revierderby). Like every other organisation in Germany, Borussia was dissolved by the Allied occupation authorities after the war in an attempt to distance the country's institutions from its recent Nazi past. There was a short-lived attempt to merge the club with two others –
Werksportgemeinschaft Hoesch and
Freier Sportverein 98 – as
Sportgemeinschaft Borussia von 1898, but it was as
Ballspiel-Verein Borussia (
BVB) that they made their first appearance in the national league final in 1949.
First national titles Between 1946 and 1963, Borussia featured in the
Oberliga West, a first division league which dominated German football through the late 1950s. In
1949, Borussia reached the
final in
Stuttgart against
VfR Mannheim, which they lost 2–3 after extra time. The club claimed its first national title in
1956 with a 4–2 win against
Karlsruher SC. One year later, Borussia defeated
Hamburger SV 4–1 to win their
second national title. After this coup, the three Alfredos (
Alfred Preißler,
Alfred Kelbassa and
Alfred Niepieklo) were legends in Dortmund. In
1963, Borussia won the last edition of the
German Football Championship (before the introduction of the new
Bundesliga) to secure their third national title.
Bundesliga debut In 1962, the
DFB met in Dortmund and voted to establish a professional football league in Germany, to begin play in August 1963 as the
Bundesliga. Borussia Dortmund earned its place among the first sixteen clubs to play in the league by winning the last pre-Bundesliga national championship. Runners-up
1. FC Köln also earned an automatic berth. Dortmund's
Friedhelm Konietzka scored the first-ever Bundesliga goal a minute into the match, which they would eventually lose 2–3 to
Werder Bremen. In
1965, Dortmund won its first
DFB-Pokal. In 1966, Dortmund won the
European Cup Winners' Cup 2–1 against
Liverpool in extra time, with the goals coming from
Sigfried Held and
Reinhard Libuda. In
the same year, however, the team lost their top position on the
Bundesliga by losing four of their last five league games and finishing second, three points behind champions
1860 München, most of whose success came on the strength of the play of Konietzka, recently transferred from Dortmund. The 1970s were characterised by financial problems, relegation from the Bundesliga in 1972, and the opening of the
Westfalenstadion, named after its home region
Westphalia in 1974. The club returned to the Bundesliga in 1976. Dortmund continued to have financial problems through the 1980s.
BVB avoided being relegated in 1986 by winning a third decisive playoff game against
Fortuna Köln after finishing the regular season in 16th place. Dortmund did not have any significant success again until a 4–1 DFB-Pokal win in
1989 against Werder Bremen. It was
Horst Köppel's first trophy as a manager. Dortmund then won the
1989 DFL-Supercup 4–3 against rivals
Bayern Munich.
Golden age – the 1990s After a tenth-place finish in the Bundesliga in
1991, manager
Horst Köppel was sacked and manager
Ottmar Hitzfeld was hired. In
1992, Hitzfeld led Borussia Dortmund to a second-place finish in the Bundesliga, and would have won the title had
VfB Stuttgart not won their last game to become champions instead. Along with a fourth-place finish in the Bundesliga, Dortmund made it to the 1993
UEFA Cup final, which they lost 6–1 on aggregate to
Juventus. In spite of this result, Borussia walked away with
DM25 million under the prize money pool system in place at the time for German sides participating in the Cup. Thanks to the prize money, Dortmund was able to sign players who later brought them numerous honours in the 1990s. Under the
captaincy of 1996
European Footballer of the Year Matthias Sammer, Borussia Dortmund won back-to-back Bundesliga titles in
1995 and
1996. Dortmund also won the
DFL-Supercup against
Mönchengladbach in
1995 and
1. FC Kaiserslautern in
1996. In
1996–97 the team reached its first
European Cup final. In a memorable
match at the
Olympiastadion in
Munich, Dortmund faced the holders Juventus.
Karl-Heinz Riedle put Dortmund ahead, shooting under goalkeeper
Angelo Peruzzi from a cross by
Paul Lambert. Riedle then made it two with a bullet header from a corner kick. In the second half,
Alessandro Del Piero pulled one back for Juventus with a back heel. Then 20-year-old substitute and Dortmund-born
Lars Ricken latched onto a through pass by
Andreas Möller. Only 16 seconds after coming on to the pitch, Ricken chipped Peruzzi in the Juventus goal from over 20 yards out with his first touch of the ball. With
Zinedine Zidane unable to make an impression for Juventus against the close marking of Lambert, Dortmund lifted the trophy with a 3–1 victory. Hitzfeld's successful managerial reign then ended, with
Nevio Scala being appointed as his successor. Dortmund then beat Brazilian club
Cruzeiro 2–0 in the
1997 Intercontinental Cup final to become world club champions. Borussia Dortmund were the second German club to win the Intercontinental Cup, after Bayern Munich in
1976. As defending champions, Dortmund reached the Champions League semi-final in 1998. The team was missing key players from the start of the season when they played
Real Madrid in the 1998 semi-final. Sammer's career was shortened by injury and only played three first team games after the 1997 Champions League win. Lambert had left in November to return to play in Scotland. Möller missed the first leg as did Kohler who missed both games in the tie. Real won the first leg 2–0 at home. Dortmund played better in the second leg, but did not take their chances. The club exited 2–0 on aggregate.
21st century and Borussia "goes public" In October 2000, Borussia Dortmund became the first publicly traded club on the German stock market. In
2002, Borussia Dortmund won their third Bundesliga title. Dortmund had a remarkable run at the end of the season to overtake
Bayer Leverkusen, securing the title on the final day. Manager
Matthias Sammer became the first person in Borussia Dortmund history to win the Bundesliga as both a player and manager. In the same season, Borussia lost the
final of the
2001–02 UEFA Cup to the Dutch club
Feyenoord. Dortmund's fortunes then steadily declined for several years. Poor financial management led to a heavy debt load and the sale of their Westfalenstadion grounds. The situation was compounded by failure to advance in the
2003–04 UEFA Champions League, when the team was eliminated on penalties in the qualifying rounds by
Club Brugge. In 2003, Bayern Munich loaned €2 million to Dortmund for several months to pay their payroll. Borussia was again driven to the brink of
bankruptcy in 2005, the original €11 value of its shares having plummeted by over 80% on the
Frankfurt Stock Exchange. At this time
Hans-Joachim Watzke was appointed CEO and streamlined the club. The response to the crisis included a 20% pay cut for all players. In 2006, in order to reduce debt, the
Westfalenstadion was renamed "Signal Iduna Park" after a local insurance company. The naming rights agreement ran until 2021. Dortmund suffered a miserable start to the
2005–06 season, but rallied to finish seventh. The club was unable gain a place in the
UEFA Cup via the Fair Play draw. The club's management indicated that the club again showed a profit; this was largely related to the sale of
David Odonkor to
Real Betis and
Tomáš Rosický to
Arsenal. In the
2006–07 season, Dortmund unexpectedly faced serious
relegation trouble for the first time in years. Dortmund went through three coaches, and appointed
Thomas Doll on 13 March 2007, after dropping to just one point above the relegation zone.
Christoph Metzelder also left Borussia Dortmund on a free transfer. In the
2007–08 season, Dortmund finished 13th in the Bundesliga table, but reached the
DFB-Pokal final against Bayern Munich, where they lost 2–1 in extra time. The final appearance qualified Dortmund for the
UEFA Cup, because Bayern had already qualified for the
Champions League. Thomas Doll resigned on 19 May 2008 and was replaced by
Jürgen Klopp.
Klopp era and return to prominence . In the
2009–10 season, Klopp's Dortmund improved on the season before, finishing fifth in the Bundesliga to qualify for the
UEFA Europa League. The team missed an opportunity to qualify for the Champions League when they did not beat eighth-place
VfL Wolfsburg and 14th-place
SC Freiburg in the final two matches of the campaign. Entering the
2010–11 season, Dortmund fielded a young and vibrant roster. On 4 December 2010, Borussia became
Herbstmeister ("Autumn Champion"), an unofficial accolade going to the league leader at the winter break. They did this three matches before the break, sharing the record for having achieved this earliest with
Eintracht Frankfurt (1993–94) and 1. FC Kaiserslautern (1997–98). On 30 April 2011, the club beat
1. FC Nürnberg 2–0 at home, while second-place Bayer Leverkusen lost, leaving Dortmund eight points clear with two games to play. This championship equalled the seven national titles held by rivals Schalke 04, and guaranteed a spot in the
2011–12 Champions League group stages. One year later, Dortmund successfully defended of its Bundesliga title with a win over
Borussia Mönchengladbach, again on the 32nd match day. By the 34th and final match day, Dortmund had set a new record with the most points—81—gained by a club in one Bundesliga season. The club's fifth Bundesliga title and eighth German championship overall placed it third in
total national titles, allowing the club to wear
two stars above its crest in recognition of the team's five Bundesliga titles. The club capped its successful 2011–12 season by winning the
double for the first time, beating Bayern 5–2 in the
final of the
DFB-Pokal. Borussia Dortmund are one of four German clubs to win the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal
double, along with Bayern Munich,
1. FC Köln and
Werder Bremen. The club was voted Team of the Year 2011 at the annual
Sportler des Jahres (German Sports Personality of the Year) awards. during the
2013 Champions League final Borussia Dortmund ended the
2012–13 season in second place in the
Bundesliga, finishing second to Bayern Munich which had set a league record of 91 points. In the UEFA Champions League, Dortmund defeated Real Madrid in the semi-finals, winning the home leg 4-1 and losing the away leg 0–2 to advance on aggregate goals. Dortmund played in their second
UEFA Champions League final against Bayern Munich in the first ever all-German club final at
Wembley Stadium on 25 May 2013, which they lost 2–1. In the
2013–14 season, Borussia Dortmund won the
2013 DFL-Supercup 4–2 against rivals Bayern Munich. The 2013–14 season started with a five-game winning streak for Dortmund, their best start to a season. Despite a promising start, however, their season saw injuries to several key players, seeing them stoop as low as fourth place in the table, and with a depleted squad could go only as far as the quarter-finals of the
Champions League, losing 3–2 on aggregate to Real Madrid. Nevertheless, Dortmund ended their season on a high note by finishing second in the Bundesliga and reaching the
2014 DFB-Pokal final, losing 0–2 to Bayern in extra time. Dortmund begun their
2014–15 season by defeating Bayern in the
2014 DFL-Supercup 2–0. However, this victory did not affect the squad's solidity in performance at the start of the ensuing season, with Dortmund recording various results such as a 0–1 loss to
Hamburger SV and two 2–2 draws against
VfB Stuttgart and Bundesliga newcomers
Paderborn 07. During the winter, Dortmund fell to the bottom of the table on multiple occasions, but escaped the relegation zone after four consecutive wins in February. On 15 April 2015, Jürgen Klopp announced that after seven years, he would be leaving Dortmund. Four days later, Dortmund announced that
Thomas Tuchel would replace Klopp at the end of the season. Klopp's final season, however, ended on high note, rising and finishing seventh after facing relegation, gaining a DFB-Pokal final with VfL Wolfsburg and qualifying for the
2015–16 Europa League.
Post-Klopp era In the
2015–16 season, Dortmund started off winning 4–0 against
Borussia Mönchengladbach on the opening day, followed by five-straight wins which took them to the top of the Bundesliga. After the eighth matchday, they were surpassed by Bayern Munich following an unlucky draw with
1899 Hoffenheim. Dortmund kept their performances up, winning 24 out of 34 league games and becoming the best Bundesliga runner-up team of all time. In the
Europa League, they advanced to the quarter-finals, getting knocked out by a Jürgen Klopp-led
Liverpool in a dramatic comeback at
Anfield, where defender
Dejan Lovren scored a late goal to make it 4–3 to Liverpool and 5–4 on aggregate. In the
2015–16 DFB-Pokal, for the third-straight year, Dortmund made it to the competition
final, but lost to Bayern Munich on penalties. On 11 April 2017,
three explosions occurred near the team's bus on its way to a
Champions League match against
AS Monaco at the
Signal Iduna Park. Defender
Marc Bartra was injured, and taken to hospital. Dortmund lost the game 2–3 to AS Monaco. Dortmund manager Tuchel blamed the loss on the ignorant decision by
UEFA. UEFA said that the team made no objection to playing, and that the decision was made in compliance with the club and local law enforcement. In the second leg, Dortmund lost 1–3, leaving the aggregate score at 3–6, causing them to be eliminated from that year's UEFA Champions League. On 26 April, Dortmund defeated
Bayern Munich 3–2 in Munich to advance to the
2017 DFB-Pokal final, Dortmund's fourth consecutive final and fifth in six seasons. On 27 May, Dortmund won the
2016–17 DFB-Pokal 2–1 over
Eintracht Frankfurt with the winner coming from a penalty converted by
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Ahead of the 2017–18 season, Thomas Tuchel stepped down as manager. The Dortmund board made a decision to hire
Peter Bosz as the new manager and head coach. Although Bosz got off to a record-breaking start in the team's first 7 games, what followed was 20 games without a win, after which he was relieved of his staff role.
Peter Stöger was announced as the interim coach. During the January window of the same season, Aubameyang and Bartra both left the club. Stöger bought
Manuel Akanji of
FC Basel for a fee of €21.5 million and
Michy Batshuayi on a six-month loan from
Chelsea. Stöger coached Dortmund for the rest of the season, granting them a fourth-place finish in the Bundesliga before stepping down at the end of the season. In the summer of 2018, Dortmund appointed former
OGC Nice coach,
Lucien Favre as their manager/head coach. After a very busy transfer window for the team, seeing eight new players arrive at the club for the first team squad, Dortmund performed strongly, chasing
Bayern Munich for the title race down to the last matchday, narrowly missing out on the league title by two points and earning Lucien Favre a contract extension. A four-part
Amazon Prime Video documentary series was created, about the same season, named
Inside Borussia Dortmund. The next season, Dortmund announced a few big-name signings with the intent of winning the Bundesliga title. Although they won the DFL Supercup, this was their only silverware of the season. After a scrappy first half of the season, they changed their tactics and made a few more transfers in the January Window. They were eliminated in both the DFB-Pokal and the UEFA Champions League as well. Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, the season stopped abruptly. Once the season restarted, Dortmund looked better, but their performances were not enough to stop a dominant Bayern Munich side from winning the Bundesliga title. They finished the 2019–20 season in second place after beating
RB Leipzig in matchweek 33 due to a brace from
Erling Haaland. Dortmund got off to a rather shaky start in the 2020–21 season. They lost the DFL-Supercup and had an inconsistent set of results in the Champions League and the Bundesliga. After a 5–1 defeat to Stuttgart in Matchday 11, Lucien Favre was relieved of his managerial duties. Assistant manager
Edin Terzić was placed as the caretaker for the rest of the season. Under Terzić, Dortmund finished third on the final matchday of the Bundesliga and was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Champions League in a match against Manchester City. The team then won the DFB-Pokal,
defeating RB Leipzig 4–1 in the final. Marco Rose was appointed manager for the 2021–22 season, with Terzić being appointed as the club's new technical director. Rose lead the club to a second-place finish in the league, but was sacked ahead of the 2022–23 season with Terzić being reappointed as manager. Before the final match day of that season, Dortmund were top of the league table, though they later lost the Bundesliga title on goal difference to Bayern Munich after a 2–2 home draw against Mainz. After selling star player
Jude Bellingham to
Real Madrid for €103 million, Dortmund had a disappointing Bundesliga campaign in the 2023–24 season, finishing fifth, but experienced more success in the UEFA Champions League, knocking out
PSV Eindhoven,
Atlético Madrid and
PSG in the knockout stages to reach the
final for the first time in eleven years, where they lost 2–0 to
Real Madrid. Shortly before the end of the season, BVB management announced that the military weapons manufacturer
Rheinmetall would be the future sponsor. The partnership includes the use of high-reach advertising space, marketing rights as well as event and hospitality offers in the stadium and on the club premises and a payment of one million euro per year until 2027 by Rheinmetall. The sponsorship has been heavily criticised by BVB fans. In the 2024–25 season, BVB reached the quarter-finals of the
2025 FIFA Club World Cup, where they were defeated by
Real Madrid. ==Crest==