Borussia Dortmund was born out of a small rebellion. On 19 December 1909, in a pub on the north side of Dortmund, a group of young men decided to play football without asking anyone's permission. 117 years have passed since that evening, and the team that started out in blue and white stripes is now synonymous with yellow and black.

The "Zum Wildschütz" pub

The founders were members of the youth group of the Catholic Holy Trinity parish. The priest in charge, Hubert Dewald, frowned on their football ambitions and tried to stop the founding. The meeting took place at the "Zum Wildschütz" restaurant on Oesterholzstraße, near today's Borsigplatz. Of the more than forty who gathered, eighteen finally stuck to the plan. Their spokesman was Franz Jacobi, who had been playing with his friends since 1906 on a pitch known as the "Weiße Wiese".

A name from a beer sign

Borussia is the Latin name for Prussia, but in Dortmund the choice had a more down-to-earth origin. According to the story told by the club itself, Jacobi looked at an enamel advertisement for the local Borussia brewery on the wall and, with no better suggestion on the table, the name stuck. That is how Ballspielverein Borussia 1909 came about, known to everyone as BVB. The first official match took place on 15 January 1911 at the "Weiße Wiese" and ended in a 9-3 win over VfB Dortmund.

From blue and white to lemon yellow

The first shirt looked nothing like today's. The players wore blue and white stripes with a red diagonal sash and black shorts. In 1912–13 three neighbouring clubs, Rhenania, Britannia and Deutsche Flagge, dissolved and their members moved to Borussia. Along with the new players came new colours: the team switched to a yellow, almost lemon shirt with black shorts. The crest with BVB and the year 09 appeared a little later, in 1918–19. These colours also gave the club its nickname Die Schwarzgelben, the Black and Yellows.

Glasgow 1966: a first for Germany

Dortmund won their first German championships in 1956, 1957 and 1963. The biggest moment of that era, however, came abroad. On 5 May 1966, at Hampden Park in Glasgow, they beat Liverpool 2-1 after extra time in the Cup Winners' Cup final, with goals from Sigfried Held and Reinhard Libuda. It was the first European trophy ever won by a German club.

Munich 1997 and Ricken's lob

The mid-1990s brought back-to-back league titles in 1995 and 1996 and a run of Nike shirts in a bright, almost neon yellow. On 28 May 1997, at Munich's Olympic Stadium, Dortmund faced holders Juventus. Karl-Heinz Riedle scored twice and, after Del Piero pulled one back, substitute Lars Ricken sealed a 3-1 win with a long-range lob just 16 seconds after coming on. A few months later the Intercontinental Cup followed, with a 2-0 win over Cruzeiro.

The Yellow Wall and the rebirth

Since 1974 the team's home has been the Westfalenstadion, built for that year's World Cup next to the old Stadion Rote Erde. Its south stand, the Gelbe Wand, is considered the largest standing terrace in Europe. In 2005 the club came close to bankruptcy, but recovered. With Jürgen Klopp on the bench it won the 2011 league title and the 2012 double, and it reached Champions League finals in 2013 and 2024. Since 2012 the shirts have been made by Puma.

So happy birthday to the club that was born out of a quarrel with the parish priest. May the Yellow Wall always be full and the shirts always visible from a mile away.

See Borussia Dortmund shirts and merchandise at sportarena.gr.

Photo: Signal Iduna Park – Dmitrij Rodionov, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.