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Borussia Dortmund Fanshop: "The black and yellow team rules here!"
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Soccer and culture
You cannot miss the „Union“ brewery’s sign when you are in Dortmund. But beer has not been brewed here for quite some time. The brewery has been sold, the Pilsener beer „Dortmunder Union“ is now produced elsewhere. But old times are not forgotten and Dortmund’s favorite beer still flows – especially on weekends when the black and yellow team plays at Westphalia Stadium. During a home game, the streets of Dortmund are empty. Fans meet at the Westphalia Stadium’s south stands. Borussia Dortmund isn’t just an idol for football fans, but it’s an inspiration for the whole region. And the enthusiasm is infectious: newly arrived Dortmunders soon have their own black and yellow T-shirt in their wardrobe.
Soccer is the number one leisure activity in Dortmund and a topic on which anybody willingly enters a conversation. Since 2000 there is more to talk about than the games or the players: Borussia Dortmund is the first German soccer team to become a joint-stock company. A quarter of the stocks are owned by private shareholders. For them, the team’s success is all the more important since for them it spells financial success.
Sports and Dortmund are inseparable. Soccer players and potential future Olympic athletes meet at the “Olympiastützpunkt”, the national Olympic training camp where more than 450 athletes are coached and trained. No wonder sport plays such an important role in the every day life of Dortmund’s citizens. Around 140.000 people are enrolled in one of the more than 600 sports clubs.
Dancing – outdoors and indoors
Dortmund finds mention in the Guinness Book of World Records. The entry was not earned through any sporting activity but with the world’s biggest foam party, part of the city’s annual summer festival “Let’s DO it!”. You can dance to your heart’s content all summer at open air concerts, with or without foam. For indoor dancing, Dortmunders and visitors gather in Europe’s largest concert hall, the Westphalia Halle. Here an impressive line up of international pop stars regularly has the audience grooving to their beat.
Life in traditional districts
Life in the Dortmund districts of Kreuzviertel and Nordstadt is comparatively peaceful. The districts are the students‘ first choice when looking for a place to stay. Kreuzviertel has more in common with Berlin’s famous Kreuzberg district than just part of its name: affordable living space in old buildings, streets lined with trees, cafés and pubs shape the image of the neighborhood. Nordstadt may seem less inviting at first sight, but it is at least as exciting. Many artists live here and meet in jazz bars and comedy clubs. Nordstadt is also home to many of the foreigners living in Dortmund. They provide the main street with shops full of foreign goods and specialties and a variety of restaurants. If you do not want to cook for yourself, you can choose between Greek, Turkish, Spanish, Indian and Chinese cuisine. All tastes are catered to and you can be sure to be served the best foreign food in town. Only foreign beverages have not become popular with the Dortmunders. They stick to their German Pilsener beers, preferably the home brewed regional brands. Well then: Prost!
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Mandana Asfa from Iran found the people of Dortmund to be initially reserved:
"The first contact is difficult here for foreigners, also because of the language." (German)
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