Dortmund

Etymology

"Seal of Dortmund, the city of Westphalia" [SIGILLVM TREMONIE CIVITATIS WESTFALIE]

Dortmund was first mentioned in the Werden Abbey, which was built between 880 and 884. The Latin entry reads: In Throtmanni liber homo Arnold viii den nob solvit. (German: In Throtmanni zahlt uns der freie Mann Arnold 8 Pfennige and English: In Throtmanni the free man Arnold pays us 8 pfennigs)).^[14] According to this, there are a large number of different names, but they all go back to the same phoneme stem. Their respective use in the sources appears arbitrary and random.

In the course of time the name changed many times: trut munia 899, Thortmanni, Trutmania, Trotmunni 939, Tremonia 1152. From the 13th century on, the Dortmunde appeared for the first time, but it was not until a few centuries later that it became generally accepted.

In the Middle Ages 1389, when the city had withstood the siege of 1200 knights under the leadership of the Archbishop of Cologne, it chose as its motto a saying that is still upheld today by traditional societies: So fast as Düörpm. (High German: As firm as Dortmund).

In the past, the city was called Dortmond in Dutch, Tremonia in Spanish and Trémoigne in Old French. However, these exonyms have fallen into disuse and the city is now internationally known by its German name of Dortmund. The common abbreviation for the name of the city is "DTM", the IATA code for Dortmund Airport.

Early history

Historical view of the German town of Dortmund by Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg (between 1572 and 1618)

The Sigiburg was a hillfort in the South of present-day Dortmund, overlooking the River Ruhr near its confluence with the River Lenne. The ruins of the later Hohensyburg castle now stand on the site of the Sigiburg. The hillfort is presumably of Saxon origin, but there are no archeological or documentary proofs. During the Saxon Wars, it was taken by the Franks under Charlemagne in 772, retaken by the Saxons (possibly under Widukind) in 774, and taken again and refortified by Charlemagne in 775. Archaeological evidence suggests the Sigiburg site was also occupied in the Neolithic era.^[15][16]

The first time Dortmund was mentioned in official documents was around 882 as Throtmanni – In throtmanni liber homo arnold[us] viii den[arios] nob[is] soluit [solvit].^[3][17] In 1005 the "Ecclesiastical council" and in 1016 the"Imperial diet" met in Dortmund.^[18]

Middle Ages and early modern period

St. Marys and St. Reinolds in 1470

After it was destroyed by a fire, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa) had the town rebuilt in 1152 and resided there (among other places) for two years. In 1267 St. Mary's Church, Dortmund, and three years later in 1270 St. Reinold's Church first mentioned. The combination of crossroad, market place, administrative centre – town hall, made Dortmund an important centre in Westphalia. It became an Imperial Free City and one of the first cities in Europe with an official Brewing right in 1293.^[19] Throughout the 13th to 14th centuries, it was the "chief city" of the Rhine, Westphalia, the Netherlands Circle of the Hanseatic League.

Old market St. Reinolds

After 1320, the city appeared in writing as "Dorpmunde". In the years leading up to 1344, the English King even borrowed money from well-heeled Dortmund merchant families Berswordt and Klepping, offering the regal crown as security. In 1388, the Count of Mark joined forces with the Archbishop of Cologne and issued declarations of a feud against the town. Following a major siege lasting 18 months, peace negotiations took place and Dortmund emerged victorious. In 1400 the seat of the first Vehmic court (German: Freistuhl) was in Dortmund, in a square between two linden trees, one of which was known as the Femelinde. With the growing influence of Cologne during the 15th century, the seat was moved to Arnsberg in 1437. After Cologne was excluded after the Anglo-Hanseatic War (1470–74), Dortmund was made capital of the Rhine-Westphalian and Netherlands Circle. This favors the founding of one of the oldest schools in Europe in 1543 – Stadtgymnasium Dortmund [de].^[19] In 1661 an earthquake made the Reinoldikirche collapse.

18th, 19th and early 20th centuries

Pre-industrial Dortmund in 1804

With the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss resolution in 1803, Dortmund was added to the Principality of Nassau-Orange-Fulda, with as a result that it was no longer a free imperial city. William V, Prince of Orange-Nassau did not want stolen areas and therefore let his son Prince Willem Frederik (the later King William I of the Netherlands) take possession of the city and the principality. This prince held its entry on 30 June 1806, and as such the County of Dortmund then became part of the principality. On 12 July 1806, most of the Nassau principalities were deprived of their sovereign rights by means of the Rhine treaty. In October of the same year, the County of Dortmund was occupied by French troops and was added to the Grand Duchy of Berg on 1 March 1808. It is the capital of the Ruhr department. In 1808 Dortmund becomes capital of French satellite Ruhr (department).^[18] At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the entire Grand Duchy of Berg, including Dortmund, was added to the Kingdom of Prussia. The state mining authority of the Ruhr area was founded in 1815 and moved from Bochum to Dortmund. Within the Prussian Province of Westphalia, Dortmund was a district seat within Regierungsbezirk Arnsberg until 1875, when it became an urban district within the region.

French troops in Dortmund c. 1923–1925

During the industrialisation of Prussia, Dortmund became a major centre for coal and steel. The town expanded into a city, with the population rising from 57,742 in 1875 to 379,950 in 1905. Sprawling residential areas like the North, East, Union and Kreuz district sprang up in less than 10 years. In 1920, Dortmund was one of the centres for resistance to the Kapp Putsch – a right-wing military coup launched against the Social Democratic-led government. Radical workers formed a Red Army who fought the freikorps units involved in the coup. On 11 January 1923, the Occupation of the Ruhr was carried out by the invasion of French and Belgian troops into the Ruhr. The French Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré was convinced that Germany failed to comply the demands of the Treaty of Versailles. On the morning of 31 March 1923, it came to the sad culmination of this French-German confrontation.^[20]

World War II

Photo of part of the city center area around Liebfrauen church in 1945

Under Nazi Germany, the Old Synagogue, which had opened in 1900, was destroyed in 1938. With a capacity of 1,300 seats, it was one of the largest Jewish houses of worship in Germany. Also, the Aplerbeck Hospital in Dortmund transferred mentally and/or physically disabled patients to the Hadamar Killing Facility as part of Aktion T4, where they were murdered. An additional 229 children were murdered in the "Children's Specialist Department", which was transferred from Marburg in 1941.

Bombing targets of the Oil Campaign of World War II in Dortmund included Hoesch-Westfalenhütte AG, the "Hoesch-Benzin GmbH" synthetic oil plant, and the Zeche Hansa.^[21] The bombings destroyed about 66% of Dortmund homes.^[22] The devastating bombing raids of 12 March 1945 with 1,108 aircraft (748 Lancasters, 292 Halifaxes, 68 Mosquitos) destroyed 98% of buildings in the inner city center, and 4,851 tonnes of bombs were dropped on Dortmund city centre and the south of the city; this was a record for a single target in the whole of World War II.^[4]

The Allied ground advance into Germany reached Dortmund in April 1945. The US 95th Infantry Division attacked the city on 12 April 1945 against a stubborn German defense. The division, assisted by close air support, advanced through the ruins in urban combat and completed its capture on 13 April 1945.^[23]

Postwar period

Rebuilt and modern reconstruction around St. Reynolds

Post-war, most of the ancient buildings were not restored, and large parts of the city area were completely rebuilt in the style of the 1950s. A few historic buildings such as the main churches Reinoldikirche and Marienkirche were restored or rebuilt, and extensive parks and gardens were laid out. The simple but successful postwar rebuilding has resulted in a very mixed and unique cityscape. Dortmund was in the British zone of occupation of Germany, and became part of the new state (Land) of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1946. The LWL-Industriemuseum was founded in 1969.^[24] In 1987 the pit Minister Stein closed, marking the end of more than 150 years of coal mining. Dortmund^[25] has since adapted, with its century-long steel and coal industries having been replaced by high-technology areas, including biomedical technology, micro systems technology, and services. This has led Dortmund to become a regional centre for hi-tech industry.

In 2001 a new era began for the district Hörde in Dortmund, 160 years of industrial history ended with the beginning of the Phoenix See. The development of the Phoenix See area was carried out by a subsidiary of the Stadtwerke AG. In 2005 the first cornerstone was laid on the Phoenix area. The work started with full speed to manage the work with over 2.5 million meters of ground motion and 420.000 cubic meters of ferroconcrete. On 1 October 2010, the largest and most highly anticipated milestone could be celebrated: the launch of the flooding of the Phoenix See. Since 9 May 2011, the fences disappeared and the Phoenix See has been completed.^[26] In 2009, Dortmund was classified as a Node city in the Innovation Cities Index published by 2thinknow^[5] and is the most sustainable city in Germany.^[7]

On 3 November 2013, more than 20,000 people were evacuated after a 4,000-pound bomb from World War II was found. German authorities safely defused the bomb. The bomb was found after analysing old aerial photographs while searching for unexploded bombs dropped by Allied aircraft over Germany's industrial Ruhr region.^[27]

Discover more about History related topics

Timeline of Dortmund

Timeline of Dortmund

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Dortmund, Germany.

Werden Abbey

Werden Abbey

Werden Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Essen-Werden (Germany), situated on the Ruhr.

Middle Ages

Middle Ages

In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and transitioned into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages.

Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 million people in the urban region. Centered on the left (west) bank of the Rhine, Cologne is about 35 km (22 mi) southeast of NRW's state capital Düsseldorf and 25 km (16 mi) northwest of Bonn, the former capital of West Germany.

Dutch language

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after its close relatives German and English. Afrikaans is a separate but somewhat mutually intelligible daughter language spoken, to some degree, by at least 16 million people, mainly in South Africa and Namibia, evolving from the Cape Dutch dialects of Southern Africa. The dialects used in Belgium and in Suriname, meanwhile, are all guided by the Dutch Language Union.

Spanish language

Spanish language

Spanish is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula. Today, it is a global language with about 486 million native speakers, mainly in the Americas and Spain. Spanish is the official language of 20 countries. It is the world's second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese; the world's fourth-most spoken language overall after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu); and the world's most widely spoken Romance language. The largest population of native speakers is in Mexico.

Old French

Old French

Old French was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligible yet diverse, spoken in the northern half of France. These dialects came to be collectively known as the langue d'oïl, contrasting with the langue d'oc in the south of France. The mid-14th century witnessed the emergence of Middle French, the language of the French Renaissance in the Île de France region; this dialect was a predecessor to Modern French. Other dialects of Old French evolved themselves into modern forms, each with its own linguistic features and history.

Abbreviation

Abbreviation

An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word abbreviation can itself be represented by the abbreviation abbr., abbrv., or abbrev.; NPO, for nil per (by) os (mouth) is an abbreviated medical instruction. It may also consist of initials only, a mixture of initials and words, or words or letters representing words in another language. Some types of abbreviations are acronyms or grammatical contractions or crasis.

Dortmund Airport

Dortmund Airport

Dortmund Airport is a minor international airport located 10 km (6.2 mi) east of Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It serves the eastern Rhine-Ruhr area, the largest urban agglomeration in Germany, and is mainly used for low-cost and leisure charter flights. In 2020 the airport served 1,220,624 passengers. The nearest major international airport is Düsseldorf Airport approx. 70 km (43 mi) to the southwest.

Sigiburg

Sigiburg

The Sigiburg was a Saxon hillfort in Western Germany, overlooking the River Ruhr near its confluence with the River Lenne. The ruins of the later Hohensyburg castle now stand on the site, which is in Syburg, a neighbourhood in the Hörde district of Dortmund. Archaeological evidence suggests the site was occupied in the Neolithic era. The hillfort was raised ca. 700 by Westphalian Saxons. During the Saxon Wars, it was taken by the Franks under Charlemagne in 772, retaken by the Saxons in 774, and taken again and refortified by Charlemagne in 775.

Hillfort

Hillfort

A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roman period. The fortification usually follows the contours of a hill and consists of one or more lines of earthworks, with stockades or defensive walls, and external ditches.

Ruhr (river)

Ruhr (river)

The Ruhr is a river in western Germany, a right tributary (east-side) of the Rhine.

Location

Emscher River in Dortmund

Dortmund is an independent city located in the east of the Ruhr area, one of the largest urban areas in Europe (see also: megalopolis), comprising eleven independent cities and four districts with some 5.3 million inhabitants. The city limits of Dortmund itself are 87 km (54 mi) long and border twelve cities, two independent and ten kreisangehörig (i.e., belonging to a district), with a total population of approximately 2.4 million. The following cities border Dortmund (clockwise starting from west): Bochum, Castrop-Rauxel, Waltrop, Lünen, Kamen, Unna, Holzwickede, Schwerte, Hagen, Herdecke and Witten. Historically speaking, Dortmund is a part of Westphalia which is situated in the Bundesland North Rhine-Westphalia. Moreover, Dortmund is part of Westphalian Lowland and adjoins with the Ardey Hills in the south of the city to the Sauerland.

The Ruhr forms the reservoir on the Hengsteysee next to the borough of Syburg in the south of Dortmund between the cities of Hagen and Herdecke, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The Klusenberg, a hill that is part of the Ardey range, is located just north of the Hengsteysee and the highest point of Dortmund 254.3 m (834 ft). There is also a pumped-storage plant on this reservoir, named Koepchenwerk. The lowest point can be found in the northern borough of Brechten at 48.9 m (160 ft).

The Emscher is a small river and has its wellspring in Holzwickede, east of the city of Dortmund, and flows west through Dortmund. Towns along the Emscher take in Dortmund, Castrop-Rauxel, Herne, Recklinghausen, Gelsenkirchen, Essen, Bottrop, Oberhausen and Dinslaken, where it flows into the Rhine.

Boroughs

Municipalities and neighbouring communities

Aerial view of urban Kreuzviertel

Dortmund comprises 62 neighbourhoods which in turn are grouped into twelve boroughs (called Stadtbezirke), often named after the most important neighbourhood. Three boroughs cover the area of the inner city (Innenstadt-West (City centre West), Innenstadt-Nord (City centre North), Innenstadt-Ost (City centre East)) and the remaining nine boroughs make up the surrounding area (Eving, Scharnhorst, Brackel, Aplerbeck, Hörde, Hombruch, Lütgendortmund, Huckarde, Mengede). Each Stadtbezirk is assigned a Roman numeral and has a local governing body of nineteen members with limited authority. Most of the boroughs were originally independent municipalities but were gradually annexed from 1905 to 1975. This long-lasting process of annexation has led to a strong identification of the population with "their" boroughs or districts and to a rare peculiarity: The borough of Hörde, located in the south of Dortmund and independent until 1928, has its own coat of arms.

The centre can be subdivided into historically evolved city districts whose borders are not always strictly defined, such as

• Stadtzentrum (City centre)
• Hafenviertel (Harbour Quarter)
• Nordmarkt (Northern market)
• Borsigplatz
• Kaiserviertel (Emperor Quarter)
• Kronenviertel (Crown Quarter)
• Kreuzviertel (Cross Quarter)
• Klinikviertel (Clinical Quarter)
• Saarlandstraßenviertel (Saarland street Quarter)
• Unionviertel (Union Quarter)
• Gartenstadt (Garden Town)

Climate

Dortmund is situated in the temperate climate zone with oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb). Winters are cool; summers are warm. The average annual temperature lies at approximately 9 to 10 °C (48 to 50 °F), the total average annual amount of precipitation lies at approximately 800 mm (31 in). Precipitation evenly falls throughout the year; steady rain (with some snow), prevails in the wintertime, isolated showers dominate the summer season. Dortmund features characteristics of densely populated areas as for example the occurrence of urban heat islands is typical.^[28]

Discover more about Geography related topics

Ruhr

Ruhr

The Ruhr, also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km2 and a population of over 5 million (2017), it is the largest urban area in Germany. It consists of several large cities bordered by the rivers Ruhr to the south, Rhine to the west, and Lippe to the north. In the southwest it borders the Bergisches Land. It is considered part of the larger Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region of more than 10 million people, which is the third largest in Europe, behind only London and Paris.

Independent city

Independent city

An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity.

District

District

A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions of municipalities, school district, or political district.

Bochum

Bochum

Bochum is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 364,920 (2016), is the sixth largest city of the most populous German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the 16th largest city of Germany. On the Ruhr Heights (Ruhrhöhen) hill chain, between the rivers Ruhr to the south and Emscher to the north, it is the second largest city of Westphalia after Dortmund, and the fourth largest city of the Ruhr after Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg. It lies at the centre of the Ruhr, Germany's largest urban area, in the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region, and belongs to the region of Arnsberg. Bochum is the sixth largest and one of the southernmost cities in the Low German dialect area. There are nine institutions of higher education in the city, most notably the Ruhr University Bochum, one of the ten largest universities in Germany, and the Bochum University of Applied Sciences.

Castrop-Rauxel

Castrop-Rauxel

Castrop-Rauxel, often simply referred to as Castrop by locals, is a former coal mining city in the eastern part of the Ruhr Area in Germany.

Lünen

Lünen

Lünen is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located north of Dortmund, on both banks of the River Lippe. It is the largest town of the Unna district and part of the Ruhr Area.

Kamen

Kamen

Kamen is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in the district Unna.

Holzwickede

Holzwickede

Holzwickede is a municipality in the district of Unna in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

Hagen

Hagen

Hagen is the 41st-largest city in Germany. The municipality is located in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the south eastern edge of the Ruhr area, 15 km south of Dortmund, where the rivers Lenne and Volme meet the river Ruhr. As of 31 December 2010, the population was 188,529.

Herdecke

Herdecke

Herdecke is a town in the district of Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It is located south of Dortmund in the Ruhr Area. Its location between the two Ruhr reservoirs Hengsteysee and Harkortsee has earned it the nickname Die Stadt zwischen den Ruhrseen.

Ardey Hills

Ardey Hills

The Ardey Hills are a range of wooded hills, up to 273.8 m above sea level (NN), in the territory of the city of Dortmund and the districts of Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis and Unna in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The hills form part of the eastern Rhenish Massif and, to a lesser extent, to the Berg-Mark Hills.

Sauerland

Sauerland

The Sauerland is a rural, hilly area spreading across most of the south-eastern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, in parts heavily forested and, apart from the major valleys, sparsely inhabited.

Dortmund's population grew rapidly in the time of the 19th century industrialisation when coal mining and steel processing in the city began. 1904 marks the year when Dortmund saw a population of more than 100,000 for the first time in its history. During the 19th century the area around Dortmund called Ruhr attracted up to 500,000 ethnic Poles, Masurians and Silesians from East Prussia and Silesia in a migration known as Ostflucht (flight from the east). Most of the new inhabitants came from Eastern Europe, but immigrants also came from France, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Almost all their descendants today speak German as a mother tongue, and for various reasons they do not identify with their Polish roots and traditions, often only their Polish family names remaining as a sign of their past. Not taking the fluctuation of war years into account, the population figures rose constantly to 657,804 in 1965. As a result of the city's post-industrial decline, the population fell to just under 580,000 in 2011. Today with a population of 601.402 (2017) the City of Dortmund is the eighth largest city in Germany after Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Düsseldorf. It is also the largest city in the Ruhr agglomeration.

Contrary to earlier projections, population figures have been on the rise in recent years due to net migration gains. Dortmund has seen a moderate influx of younger people (18 to 25 years of age) mainly because of its universities.^[30] Data of the EU-wide 2011 census revealed massive inaccuracies with regard to German population figures. Consequently, respective figures have been corrected, which resulted in a statistical "loss" of 9,000 inhabitants in Dortmund.^[31] In 2016 it was announced that the population was back above 600,000.^[32]

Largest groups of foreign residents^[34]

Nationality	Population (31 December 2016)
Turkey	22,154
Poland	9,988
Syria	7,791
Romania	4,561
Greece	4,132
Spain	3,623
Italy	3,569
Morocco	3,421
Bulgaria	3,416
Ukraine	2,420
Iraq	2,229
Croatia	2,103
North Macedonia	2,034
Russia	1,902
Portugal	1,851
Bosnia and Herzegovina	1,780
Serbia	1,532
China	1,304
Hungary	1,284
Kosovo	1,225

As of 2012^[update], Dortmund had a population of 571,403 of whom about 177,000 (roughly 30%) were of non-German origin.^[30] The table shows the number of first and second generation immigrants in Dortmund by nationality as of 31 December 2014.^[35] As with much of the Ruhr area, Dortmund has sizable Turkish and South European communities (particularly Spanish), and had one of Germany's most visible Slavic populations.

Religion

As of 2014^[update] the largest Christian denominations were Protestantism (49.9%) and Catholicism (27.4% of the population).^[36] Furthermore, in Dortmund the Greek Orthodox Church, the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Macedonian Orthodox Church are represented. The Church of the Holy Apostles (gre. I.N. Αγίων Αποστόλων Ντόρτμουντ – I.N. Agíon Apostólon Dortmund) was the first Greek church in Germany to be founded due to the influx of "guest workers". Also Dortmund is home of the New Apostolic Church in North Rhine-Westphalia with more than 84,944 community members.

The Jewish community has a history dating back to Medieval times and has always ranked among the largest in Westphalia. Dortmund is home to the National Association of Jewish Communities of Westfalen-Lippe. The synagogues operate there in City center, Hörde and Dorstfeld. Due to the growing immigration of people from Muslim countries beginning in the 1960s. Dortmund has a large Muslim community with more than 30 mosques.

In June 2019 Dortmund hosted the 37th Evangelischer Kirchentag – German Evangelical Church Assembly.^[37]

Discover more about Demographics related topics

Ruhr

Ruhr

The Ruhr, also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km2 and a population of over 5 million (2017), it is the largest urban area in Germany. It consists of several large cities bordered by the rivers Ruhr to the south, Rhine to the west, and Lippe to the north. In the southwest it borders the Bergisches Land. It is considered part of the larger Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region of more than 10 million people, which is the third largest in Europe, behind only London and Paris.

Polish people

Polish people

Poles, or Polish people, are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Central Europe. The preamble to the Constitution of the Republic of Poland defines the Polish nation as comprising all the citizens of Poland, regardless of heritage or ethnicity. The majority of Poles adhere to Roman Catholicism.

East Prussia

East Prussia

East Prussia was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 ; following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's Free State of Prussia, until 1945. Its capital city was Königsberg. East Prussia was the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast.

Ostflucht

Ostflucht

The Ostflucht was the migration of Germans, in the later 19th century and early 20th century, from areas which were then eastern parts of Germany to more industrialized regions in central and western Germany. The migrants originated in East Prussia, West Prussia, Silesia, Pomerania and Posen; they moved to provinces along the Rhine and Ruhr rivers. Most of the migrants were ethnic Germans, but many migrants to the Ruhr were of Polish ethnicity, later known as Ruhrpolen.

List of cities in Germany by population

List of cities in Germany by population

As defined by the German Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development, a Großstadt is a city with more than 100,000 inhabitants. As of December 31, 2015, 79 cities in Germany fulfill this criterion and are listed here. This list refers only to the population of individual municipalities within their defined limits, which does not include other municipalities or suburban areas within urban agglomerations or metropolitan areas.

Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constituent states, Berlin is surrounded by the State of Brandenburg and contiguous with Potsdam, Brandenburg's capital. Berlin's urban area, which has a population of around 4.5 million, is the second most populous urban area in Germany after the Ruhr. The Berlin-Brandenburg capital region has around 6.2 million inhabitants and is Germany's third-largest metropolitan region after the Rhine-Ruhr and Rhine-Main regions.

Hamburg

Hamburg

Hamburg, officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, is the second-largest city in Germany after Berlin, as well as the overall 7th largest city and largest non-capital city in the European Union with a population of over 1.85 million. Hamburg is 941 km2 in area. Hamburg's urban area has a population of around 2.5 million and is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, which has a population of over 5.1 million people in total. The city lies on the River Elbe and two of its tributaries, the River Alster and the River Bille. One of Germany's 16 federated states, Hamburg is surrounded by Schleswig-Holstein to the north and Lower Saxony to the south.

Munich

Munich

Munich is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, and thus the largest which does not constitute its own state, as well as the 11th-largest city in the European Union. The city's metropolitan region is home to 6 million people. Straddling the banks of the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps, Munich is the seat of the Bavarian administrative region of Upper Bavaria, while being the most densely populated municipality in Germany with 4,500 people per km2. Munich is the second-largest city in the Bavarian dialect area, after the Austrian capital of Vienna.

Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 million people in the urban region. Centered on the left (west) bank of the Rhine, Cologne is about 35 km (22 mi) southeast of NRW's state capital Düsseldorf and 25 km (16 mi) northwest of Bonn, the former capital of West Germany.

Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main, is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its namesake Main River, it forms a continuous conurbation with the neighboring city of Offenbach am Main and its urban area has a population of over 2.3 million. The city is the heart of the larger Rhine-Main metropolitan region, which has a population of more than 5.8 million and is Germany's second-largest metropolitan region after the Rhine-Ruhr region. Frankfurt's central business district, the Bankenviertel, lies about 90 km (56 mi) northwest of the geographic center of the EU at Gadheim in Lower Franconia. Like France and Franconia, the city is named after the Franks. Frankfurt is the largest city in the Rhine Franconian dialect area.

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state and the seventh-largest city in Germany, with a population of 644,280.

Poland

Poland

Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of 312,696 km2 (120,733 sq mi). Poland has a population of 38 million and is the fifth-most populous member state of the European Union. Warsaw is the nation's capital and largest metropolis. Other major cities include Kraków, Wrocław, Łódź, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.

Dortmund coat of arms

Townhall Dortmund

Townhall Aplerbeck, one of twelve district councils

Dortmund is one of nineteen independent district-free cities (kreisfreie Städte) in North Rhine-Westphalia, which means that it does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity, in this case it is not part of a Landkreis. Since 1975, Dortmund is divided into twelve administrative districts. Each district (Bezirk) has its own elected district council (Bezirksvertretung) and its own district mayor (Bezirksbürgermeister). The district councils are advisory only.

Dortmund is often called the Herzkammer der SPD (roughly translated as "heartland of the Social democrats") after the politically dominant party in the city. During the Nazi era (1933–1945), mayors were installed by the Nazi Party. After World War II, the military government of the British occupation zone installed a new mayor and a municipal constitution modeled on that of British cities. The first major elected by the population of Dortmund was Fritz Henßler. Since the end of the war, the SPD has held a plurality in the city council, except for the period from 1999 to 2004.

Mayor

Results of the second round of the 2020 mayoral election

The current Mayor of Dortmund is Thomas Westphal of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), who was elected in 2020.

The most recent mayoral election was held on 13 September 2020, with a runoff held on 27 September, and the results were as follows:

City council

Results of the 2020 city council election

The Dortmund city council (Dortmunder Stadtrat) governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows:

Party		Votes	%	+/-	Seats	+/-
	Social Democratic Party (SPD)	63,096	30.0	8.2	27	9
	Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne)	52,241	24.8	9.4	22	7
	Christian Democratic Union (CDU)	47,405	22.5	4.7	20	6
	The Left (Die Linke)	11,825	5.6	1.2	5	1
	Alternative for Germany (AfD)	11,547	5.5	2.1	5	2
	Free Democratic Party (FDP)	7,345	3.5	1.0	3	1
	Die PARTEI (PARTEI)	5,851	2.8	2.6	3	3
	The Right (Die Rechte)	2,369	1.1	0.1	1	±0
	Human Environment Animal Protection (Tierschutz)	1,995	0.9	New	1	New
	Pirate Party Germany (Piraten)	1,848	0.9	1.5	1	1
	Alliance for Diversity and Tolerance (BVT)	1,737	0.8	New	1	New
	Citizens' List (Bürgerliste)	1,359	0.6	New	1	New
	Free Citizens' Initiative (FBI)	1,087	0.5	New	0	New
	Grassroots Democracy Now	560	0.3	New	0	New
	Digital Ecological Social (DOS)	219	0.1	New	0	New
	Heinz Augat – Together	53	0.0	New	0	New
	We in Dortmund	39	0.0	New	0	New
	German Communist Party (DKP)	16	0.0	0.1	0	±0
Valid votes		210,592	99.0
Invalid votes		2,047	1.0
Total		212,639	100.0		90	4
Electorate/voter turnout		451,925	47.1	2.2
Source: State Returning Officer Archived 27 June 2021 at the Wayback Machine

Twin towns – sister cities

Dortmund is twinned with:^[38]

Discover more about Government and politics related topics

Independent city

Independent city

An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity.

North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a state (Land) in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the most populous state of Germany. Apart from the city-states, it is also the most densely populated state in Germany. Covering an area of 34,084 square kilometres (13,160 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest German state by size.

Social Democratic Party of Germany

Social Democratic Party of Germany

The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.

Fritz Henßler

Fritz Henßler

Fritz Henßler was a German Social Democratic politician.

Christian Democratic Union of Germany

Christian Democratic Union of Germany

The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and liberal conservative political party in Germany. It is the major catch-all party of the centre-right in German politics.

Alliance 90/The Greens

Alliance 90/The Greens

Alliance 90/The Greens, often simply referred to as the Greens, is a green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens and Alliance 90. The Greens had itself merged with the East German Green Party after German reunification in 1990.

The Left (Germany)

The Left (Germany)

The Left, commonly referred to as the Left Party, is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of the merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative. Through the PDS, the party is the direct descendant of the Marxist–Leninist ruling party of the former East Germany, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. Since 2022, The Left's co-chairpersons have been Janine Wissler and Martin Schirdewan. The party holds 39 seats out of 736 in the Bundestag, the federal legislature of Germany, having won 4.9% of votes cast in the 2021 German federal election. Its parliamentary group is the smallest of six in the Bundestag, and is headed by parliamentary co-leaders Amira Mohamed Ali and Dietmar Bartsch.

Free Democratic Party (Germany)

Free Democratic Party (Germany)

The Free Democratic Party is a liberal political party in Germany.

Die PARTEI

Die PARTEI

Die Partei für Arbeit, Rechtsstaat, Tierschutz, Elitenförderung und basisdemokratische Initiative, or Die PARTEI, is a German political party. It was founded in 2004 by the editors of the German satirical magazine Titanic. It is led by Martin Sonneborn. In the 2014 European Parliament election, the party won a seat, marking the first time that a satirical party has won a seat to the European Parliament. With the 2019 European Parliament election the party gained a second seat, held by Nico Semsrott.

Independent politician

Independent politician

An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent.

Pirate Party Germany

Pirate Party Germany

The Pirate Party Germany, commonly known as Pirates, is a political party in Germany founded in September 2006 at c-base. It states general agreement with the Swedish Piratpartiet as a party of the information society; it is part of the international movement of pirate parties and a member of the Pirate Parties International. In 2011-12, the party succeeded in attaining a high enough vote share to enter four state parliaments and the European Parliament. However, their popularity rapidly declined and by 2017 they had no representation in any of the German state parliaments. Their one European MEP, Patrick Breyer, is in the Greens–European Free Alliance group. Together with Marcel Kolaja, Markéta Gregorová and Mikuláš Peksa from the Czech Pirate Party they build up the European Pirate Party team for the European Parliament in Brussels.

German Communist Party

German Communist Party

The German Communist Party is a communist party in Germany. The DKP supports left positions and was an observer member of the European Left. At the end of February 2016 it left the European party.

Dortmund with RWE-Tower and churches of Reinoldi, Petri and Marien on the right

Dortmund's city centre offers a picture full of contrasts. Historic buildings like Altes Stadthaus or the Krügerpassage rub shoulders with post-war architecture like Gesundheitshaus and concrete constructions with Romanesque churches like the Reinoldikirche and the Marienkirche. The near-complete destruction of Dortmund's city centre during World War II (98%) has resulted in a varied architectural landscape. The reconstruction of the city followed the style of the 1950s, while respecting the old layout and naming of the streets. The downtown of Dortmund still retains the outline of the medieval city. A ring road marks the former city wall, and the Westen-/Ostenhellweg, part of a medieval salt trading route, is still the major (pedestrian) street bisecting the city centre.

Thus, the city today is characterized by simple and modest post-war buildings, with a few interspersed pre-war buildings which were reconstructed due to their historical importance. Some buildings of the "Wiederaufbauzeit" (era of reconstruction), for example the opera house are nowadays regarded as classics of modern architecture.^[39]

Urban districts

Unlike the Dortmund city centre, much of the inner districts around the old medieval centre escaped damage in the second world war and post war redevelopment.

Kreuzviertel

Typical Wilhelminian style houses

The Kreuzviertel is characterised by old buildings, the majority of which come from the turn of the 20th century (1884 to 1908). Over 80% of all housing in this area was constructed before 1948, with the oldest building the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts still standing being from 1896. In the second World War, relatively few buildings were destroyed in comparison to other areas of the city. Today, Kreuzviertel forms a nearly homogeneous historic building area. Over 100 buildings remain protected as historic monuments, like the Kreuzkirche at Kreuzstraße and the first Concrete Church in Germany St.-Nicolai. Nowadays the Kreuzviertel is a trendy district with pubs, restaurants, cafés, galleries and little shops. Moreover, local efforts to beautify and invigorate the neighbourhood have reinforced a budding sense of community and artistic expression. The West park is the green lung of the Kreuzviertel and in the months between May and October a centre of the student urban life. The district has the highest real estate prices in Dortmund.^[40]

Even today many artists choose Kreuzviertel as their residence: Sascha Schmitz, Christina Hammer and players of Borussia Dortmund.

Nordstadt

Dockland – young restaurant and bars scene

The northern downtown part of Dortmund called Nordstadt, situated in a territory of 14.42 km² (5.57 sq mi) is shaped by a colorful variety of cultures. As the largest homogeneous old building area in Ruhr the Nordstadt is a melting pot of different people of different countries and habits just a few steps from the city center. The Nordstadt is an industrial urban area that was mainly developed in the 19th Century to serve the Westfalenhütte steelworks, port and rail freight depot. All of the residents live in a densely populated 300 hectare area (the most densely populated residential area in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with steelworks, port and railway lines acting as physical barriers cutting off the area from the city centre and other residential districts).^[41]

The area has been badly affected by the deindustrialisation of these heavy industries, with the target area developing a role as the home for growing numbers of immigrants and socially disadvantaged groups partly because of the availability of cheaper (although poor quality) accommodation.^[42] Nevertheless, two parks – Fredenbaumpark and Hoeschpark – are situated there. There is also much equipment for children to spend their free time. For example, the 35 meters high Big Tipi, which was brought in from the Expo 2000 in Hanover. All of that should attract families to settle in, but low prices of apartments and a variety of renting offers speak for the contrary. This developed into the youngest population of Dortmund is living and created a district with art house cinemas to ethnic stores, from exotic restaurants to student pubs.^[41]

The Borsigplatz is probably one of the best known squares in Germany. Ballspielverein Borussia Dortmund was founded nearby, north-east of the main railway station. The streets radiating outward to form a star shape, the sycamore in the middle of the square and the tramline running diagonally across the square give Borsigplatz its very own flair.^[43]

Kaiserviertel

Cherry Blossom Avenue

The Kaiserstraßen District is located east of the former ramparts of Dortmund and follows the course of the Westenhellweg. In this district numerous magnificent buildings from the 1900s and new buildings from the 1950s are located next to the heritage-protected State Mining Office Dortmund, several Courts, Consulate and the East Cemetery. The district is characterize by the employee of the Amtsgericht, Landgericht (the first and second instances of ordinary jurisdiction) and the Prison.

Today the historical Kaiserbrunnen and the entrance sign for Kaiserstraße are important starting points for a tour to the popular shopping district. The Moltkestreet also known as the Cherry Blossom Avenue, became famous after photographers started posting pictures of blooming trees. Every spring, usually in April, the street in the Kaiserstraßen district is booming with pink blossoms and attracts tourists.

Unionviertel

Rheinische Straße

The Union District is located west of the former ramparts of Dortmund and follows the course of the Westenhellweg. For a long time, the neighbourhood at the Dortmunder U and along the Rheinische Straße was marked by vacancy and social distortion due to structural change. Today it is developing an inspiring young artist scene, with more and more students thanks to cheaper apartments near the university and a vibrant gastronomy. This development benefits strongly from the new, widely visible beacon, the art and creative centre Dortmunder U, opened in 2010. Yet, for a time, it was mainly the Union Gewerbehof activists and other single stakeholders who initiated change.^[44]

Hörde on Lake Phoenix

Hörde castle

Hörde is borough in the south of the city of Dortmund. Originally Hörde was a separate town (until 1929) and was founded by the Counts of Mark in opposition to their principal enemy, the town of Dortmund. In 1388, the "Großen Dortmunder Fehde" (great feud of Dortmund) took place, where the city of Dortmund battled against the alliance of surrounding towns. The struggle ended in 1390, with defeat for Hörde and its allies of Herdecke, Witten, Bochum, Castrop, Lünen, Unna und Schwerte. Today Hörde is a part of Dortmund with restored old buildings combined with modern architecture. The Hörder Burg (Hörde castle) was built in the 12th century and is located in the east of the town, close to the Emscher and Lake Phoenix.

Lake Phoenix was one of the largest urban redevelopment projects in Europe. On the area of the former blast furnace and steel plant site of ThyssenKrupp newly formed and developed a new urban resident and recreational area 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the city centre of Dortmund. The development of the Phoenix See area cost €;170 million.^[45] The lake is 1.2 km long directed to east–west and 320 meters wide in north–south direction. The water surface area of 24 acres is larger than the Hamburg Alster. Lake Phoenix is a shallow water lake with a depth of 3 to 4 meters and a capacity of around 600,000 cubic meters. Attractive high priced residential areas were thus created on the southern and northern sides of the Lake. On the western lakeside, the existing district centre of Hörde is enlarged by a city port and a mixed functional urban area.

Companies with agencies and offices on the lakefront include:

• Zalando
• HSBC Trinkaus
• German Handball Association
• Handball-Bundesliga (HBL)
• Sparkassenakademie Nordrhein-Westfalen, a training organization of the Sparkassen
• Mircosonic

The finished sole is primarily fed by groundwater and unpolluted rainwater from the new building sites.^[46] The River Emscher flows through an embanked riverbed without direct link to the Lake. Together with the renatured Emscher, the Lake forms a water landscape of 33 hectares, which, as a linking area, is an important element of the Emscher landscape park. The renaturation of the Emscher River is managed by the public water board Emschergenossenschaft. The financial frame is 4.5 billion Euro and the aim is to finish the main work by 2020.^[47]

• 

  Oldtown Hörde

• 

  Lake Phoenix

• 

  Port Promenade

• 

  Kaiser Hill

Churches

Reinoldikirche and Marienkirche

• Reinoldikirche, a Protestant church (built in 1233–1450)
• Petrikirche [de], a now Protestant church (start of construction 1322). It is famous for the huge carved altar (known as "Golden Miracle of Dortmund"), from 1521. It consists of 633 gilt carved oak figures depicting 30 scenes about Easter.
• Marienkirche, a now Protestant church originally built in 1170–1200 but rebuilt after World War II. The altar is from 1420.
• Propsteikirche, Monastery of the Dominican Order in the city center (built in 1331–1353)
• St. Georg, Aplerbeck, the only Romanesque cross basilica of Dortmund
• Große Kirche Aplerbeck, a Gothic revival church
• St. Peter in Syburg suburb, the oldest church building in the city limits
• Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, a Protestant church (start of construction 1911)
• St.-Margareta Chapel, a Protestant chapel built in 1348

• 

  Reinoldikirche

• 

  Marienkirche

• 

  St. Johannes Baptist

• 

  St. Peter in Syburg suburb

Castles

• Haus Bodelschwingh (13th century), a moated castle
• Haus Dellwig (13th century), a moated castle partly rebuilt in the 17th century. The façade and the steep tower, and two half-timbered buildings, are original.
• Haus Rodenberg (13th century), a moated castle
• Altes Stadthaus, built in 1899 by Friedrich Kullrich
• Romberg Park Gatehouse (17th century), once a gatehouse to a moated castle. Now it houses an art gallery.
• Husen Castle, the tower house of a former castle, in the borough of Syburg.

• 

  Moated castle Bodelschwingh

• 

  Bodelschwingh garden

• 

  Bodelschwingh bridge

Industrial buildings

The most industrial building in Dortmund are part of the Industrial Heritage Trail (German: Route der Industriekultur). The trail links tourist attractions related to the industrial heritage in the whole Ruhr area in Germany.^[48] It is a part of the European Route of Industrial Heritage.

• U-Tower, former Dortmunder Union brewery, now a museum
• Zollern II/IV Colliery, now part of the Westphalian Industrial Museum and an Anchor Point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH)
• Hansa Coking Plant

• 

  Zollern II/IV Colliery

• 

  U-Tower

• 

  Phoenix-West coking plant

• 

  Port Authority

Cultural buildings

• Konzerthaus Dortmund
• Opernhaus Dortmund, opera house built in 1966 on the site of the old synagogue which was destroyed by the Nazis in 1938.
• The major art museums include the Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte and the more recent Museum Ostwall.
• DASA, Germany Occupational Health and Safety Exhibition (German: Deutsche Arbeitsschutzausstellung)
• Brewery Museum Dortmund
• Museum of Art and Cultural History
• German Football Museum

• 

  Opernhaus Dortmund

• 

  Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte

• 

  German Football Museum

• 

  DASA, Germany Occupational Health and Safety Exhibition

Other important buildings

• Florianturm, (television tower Florian)
• Westfalenstadion: Football ground of Borussia Dortmund, licensed until 2021 under the name Signal Iduna Park^[49]
• Close to Westfalenstadion are the Westfalenhallen, a large convention centre, the site of several major conventions, trade fairs, ice-skating competitions, concerts and other major events since the 1950s.
• Steinwache memorial

High-rise structures

Dortmund tallest structure is the Florianturm telecommunication tower at 266 m or 873 ft. Other tall buildings are the churches around the city centre. A selection of the tallest office buildings in Dortmund is listed below.

• RWE Tower (100 metre-high skyscraper)
• Westnetz Hochhaus Dortmund (100 metre-high skyscraper)
• Westfalentower (88 metre-high skyscraper)
• Harenberg City-Center (86 metre-high skyscraper)
• Sparkassen-Hochhaus (70 metre-high skyscraper)
• IWO-Hochhaus(70 metre-high skyscraper)
• Ellipson (66 metre-high skyscraper)
• Volkswohl Bund Hochhaus (60 metre-high skyscraper)

• 

  RWE Tower

• 

  HCC

• 

  IWO Tower

• 

  Ellipson

Discover more about Cityscape related topics

Altes Stadthaus, Dortmund

Altes Stadthaus, Dortmund

Altes Stadthaus in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, is an office block which was built in 1899, and was designed by "master builder" Friedrich Kullrich. It was built in the Renaissance Revival architecture (Neo-Renaissance) style. After the office block was severely damaged in World War II, it was rebuilt in a simplified form.

Marienkirche, Dortmund

Marienkirche, Dortmund

Marienkirche is a church in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia state, Germany, located in the inner city. Since the Reformation, it has been a Lutheran parish church of St. Marien. The church was destroyed in World War II, but rebuilt. It also serves as a concert venue for sacred music.

Hellweg

Hellweg

In the Middle Ages, Hellweg was the official and common name given to main travelling routes in Germany. Their breadth was decreed as an unimpeded passageway a lance's width, about three metres, which the landholders, through which the Hellweg passed, were required to maintain.

Kreuzviertel

Kreuzviertel

Kreuzviertel is a neighbourhood of Dortmund, Germany and it has about 15,885 inhabitants (2015). Along with the Nordstadt in the north and the Kaiserviertel in the east, it is part of Dortmund's dense inner city districts.

Christina Hammer

Christina Hammer

Christina Hammer is a Kazakhstani-born German boxer. As a professional, she has held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the WBO female middleweight title from 2010 to 2019, becoming the youngest boxer to win a WBO world title; the WBC female middleweight title between 2016 and 2018; and the WBO female super-middleweight title in 2013. She also challenged once for the WBO female light-middleweight title in 2014 and once for the undisputed female middleweight championship against Claressa Shields in 2019. In February 2021, she returned to the amateur ranks with the intention of competing at the Tokyo Olympics.

Borussia Dortmund

Borussia Dortmund

Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund, BVB, or simply Dortmund, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional football team, which plays in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. The club have won eight league championships, five DFB-Pokals, one UEFA Champions League, one Intercontinental Cup, and one UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.

Ruhr

Ruhr

The Ruhr, also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km2 and a population of over 5 million (2017), it is the largest urban area in Germany. It consists of several large cities bordered by the rivers Ruhr to the south, Rhine to the west, and Lippe to the north. In the southwest it borders the Bergisches Land. It is considered part of the larger Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region of more than 10 million people, which is the third largest in Europe, behind only London and Paris.

Urban area

Urban area

An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbanism, the term contrasts to rural areas such as villages and hamlets; in urban sociology or urban anthropology it contrasts with natural environment. The creation of earlier predecessors of urban areas during the urban revolution led to the creation of human civilization with modern urban planning, which along with other human activities such as exploitation of natural resources led to a human impact on the environment. "Agglomeration effects" are in the list of the main consequences of increased rates of firm creation since. This is due to conditions created by a greater level of industrial activity in a given region. However, a favorable environment for human capital development would also be generated simultaneously.

North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a state (Land) in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the most populous state of Germany. Apart from the city-states, it is also the most densely populated state in Germany. Covering an area of 34,084 square kilometres (13,160 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest German state by size.

Expo 2000

Expo 2000

Expo 2000 was a World Expo held in Hanover, Germany from 1 June to 31 October 2000. It was located on the Hanover Fairground, which is the largest exhibition ground in the world. Initially some 40 million people were expected to attend the exhibition over the course of months; however, eventually with less than half of this number, the Expo was a flop and turned out to be a financial failure.

Westenhellweg

Westenhellweg

Westenhellweg is the main shopping street in Dortmund, Germany. With nearly 13,000 visitors per hour it was Germany's most frequented shopping street in 2013.

Herdecke

Herdecke

Herdecke is a town in the district of Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It is located south of Dortmund in the Ruhr Area. Its location between the two Ruhr reservoirs Hengsteysee and Harkortsee has earned it the nickname Die Stadt zwischen den Ruhrseen.

Road transport

The Ruhrschnellweg Section East Dortmund

Dortmund also serves as a major European and German crossroads for the Autobahnsystem. The Ruhrschnellweg follows old Hanseatic trade routes to connect the city with the other metropolises of the Ruhr Area. It crosses the Dutch-German border as a continuation of the Dutch A67 and crosses the Rhine, leads through the Ruhr valley toward Bochum, becoming B 1 (Bundesstraße 1) at the Kreuz Dortmund West and eventually merging into the A 44 near Holzwickede. It has officially been named Ruhrschnellweg (Ruhr Fast Way), but locals usually call it Ruhrschleichweg (Ruhr Crawling Way) or "the Ruhr area's longest parking lot". According to Der Spiegel, it is the most congested motorway in Germany.

Connections to more distant parts of Germany are maintained by Autobahn routes A1 and A2, which traverse the north and east city limits and meet at the Kamener Kreuz interchange north-east of Dortmund. In combination with the Autobahn A45 to the west these form the Dortmund Beltway (Dortmunder Autobahnring).

Cycling

Cycling in Dortmund is supported by urban planners – an extensive network of cycle paths exists which had its beginnings in the 1980s. Dortmund was admitted to the German "Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle-Friendly Cities and Municipalities in NRW" (AGFS) on August 8, 2007. Dortumund is connected to a number of long-distance cycle paths and a Bike freeway called the Radschnellweg Ruhr (Ruhr Area Fast Cycle Path).

Rail transport

Dortmund central railway station

As with most communes in the Ruhr area, local transport is carried out by a local, publicly owned company for transport within the city, the DB Regio subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn for regional transport and Deutsche Bahn itself for long-distance journeys. The local carrier, Dortmunder Stadtwerke (DSW21), is a member of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr (VRR) association of public transport companies in the Ruhr area, which provides a uniform fare structure in the whole region. Within the VRR region, tickets are valid on lines of all members as well as DB's railway lines (except the high-speed InterCity and Intercity-Express networks) and can be bought at ticket machines and service centres of DSW21, all other members of VRR, and DB.

The central train station (Dortmund Hauptbahnhof) is the third largest long-distance traffic junction in Germany. Dortmund has a railway service with Deutsche Bahn InterCity and ICE-trains stopping at Dortmund Hauptbahnhof (Dortmund Main Station). ICE and TGV Thalys high-speed trains link Dortmund with Amsterdam, Brussels (in 2h 30) and Paris (in 3h 50). There are frequent ICE trains to other German cities, including Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and other cities in the Rhein-Ruhr Region.

Public transportation

For public transportation, the city has an extensive Stadtbahn and bus system. The Stadtbahn has eight lines (U41 to U47 and U49) serving Dortmund and the large suburb of Lünen in the north. The trains that run on the line are in fact lightrails as many lines travel along a track in the middle of the street instead of underground further from the city centre. The minimum service interval is 2.5 minutes, although the usual pattern is that each line runs at 5 to 10 minute intervals. On Sundays the trains run at a 15 minute interval. In April 2008, the newly constructed east–west underground light rail line was opened, completing the underground service in the city centre and replacing the last trams on the surface.^[50]

A number of bus lines complete the Dortmund public transport system. Night buses replace Stadtbahn services between 1:30 am and 7:30 am on weekends and public holidays. The central junction for the night bus service is Reinoldikirche in the city centre, where all night bus lines start and end.

The H-Bahn at Dortmund University of Technology is a hanging monorail built specifically to shuttle passengers between the university's two campuses,^[51] which are now also flanked by research laboratories and other high-tech corporations and startups. A nearly identical monorail system transfers passengers at Düsseldorf Airport.^[52]

Air transport

Dortmund Airport is a medium-sized, but fast growing airport 13 km (8.1 mi) east of the city centre at the city limit to Holzwickede.^[53] The airport serves the area of the Ruhrgebiet, Sauerland, Westphalia and parts of the Netherlands and features flights to Munich, London, Vienna, Porto and a lot of eastern European city and leisure destinations. The airport is served by an express bus to Dortmund main station, a shuttle bus to the nearby railway station Holzwickede/Dortmund Flughafen, a bus to the city's metro line U47, as well as a bus to the city of Unna.

In 2019, the airport served 2,719,563 passengers^[54] mainly used for low-cost and leisure charter flights. The closest intercontinental airport is Düsseldorf Airport.

Water transport

Dortmund Harbour (Hafen) is the largest canal harbour in Europe and the 11th fluvial harbour in Germany.

• Transport in Dortmund
• 

  Interchange station Möllerbrücke

• 

  ICE 3 on the Dortmund Hauptbahnhof

• 

  Stadtbahnwagen B Light Rail Vehicle

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  Bombardier Flexity Classic tram

• 

  Metropolrad Ruhr, City Bike

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  Hörde Bahnhof – second biggest in Dortmund

• 

  Dortmund Airport – Main Terminal (T2)

Discover more about Transportation related topics

Bundesautobahn 40

Bundesautobahn 40

Bundesautobahn 40, is one of the most used Autobahns in Germany. It crosses the Dutch-German border as a continuation of the Dutch A67 and crosses the Rhine, leads through the Ruhr valley toward Bochum, becoming B 1 (Bundesstraße 1) at the Kreuz Dortmund West and eventually merging into the A 44 near Holzwickede.

A67 motorway (Netherlands)

A67 motorway (Netherlands)

The A67 motorway is a motorway in the Netherlands. It is located in the Dutch provinces of North Brabant and Limburg.

Bochum

Bochum

Bochum is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 364,920 (2016), is the sixth largest city of the most populous German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the 16th largest city of Germany. On the Ruhr Heights (Ruhrhöhen) hill chain, between the rivers Ruhr to the south and Emscher to the north, it is the second largest city of Westphalia after Dortmund, and the fourth largest city of the Ruhr after Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg. It lies at the centre of the Ruhr, Germany's largest urban area, in the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region, and belongs to the region of Arnsberg. Bochum is the sixth largest and one of the southernmost cities in the Low German dialect area. There are nine institutions of higher education in the city, most notably the Ruhr University Bochum, one of the ten largest universities in Germany, and the Bochum University of Applied Sciences.

Bundesstraße 1

Bundesstraße 1

The Bundesstraße 1 is a German federal highway running in an east-west direction from the Dutch border near Aachen to the Polish border at Küstrin-Kietz on the Oder River.

Holzwickede

Holzwickede

Holzwickede is a municipality in the district of Unna in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

Bundesautobahn 1

Bundesautobahn 1

Bundesautobahn 1 is an autobahn in Germany. It runs from Heiligenhafen in Schleswig-Holstein to Saarbrücken, a distance of 749 km (465 mi), but is incomplete between Cologne and Trier. B 207 continues north from Heiligenhafen to Puttgarden, at the end of the island of Fehmarn, with a ferry to Rødby, Denmark.

Bundesautobahn 2

Bundesautobahn 2

Bundesautobahn 2 is an autobahn in Germany that connects the Ruhr area in the west to Berlin in the east. The A 2 starts at the junction with the A3 near the western city of Oberhausen, passes through the north of the Ruhr valley, through the Münsterland and into Ostwestfalen, crossing the former inner German border and continuing through the Magdeburger Börde to merge into the Berliner Ring shortly before reaching Berlin. Major cities such as Magdeburg, Braunschweig, Hannover and Dortmund are situated very close to the A 2. The A 2 is one of the most important autobahns, connecting several large industrial areas with each other.

Kamener Kreuz

Kamener Kreuz

The Kamener Kreuz was formerly a full cloverleaf interchange near Dortmund in North Rhine-Westphalia Germany where the Autobahnen A1 and A2 meet. It lies between the towns of Kamen and Bergkamen in the west and the city of Hamm and the municipality Bönen in the east. The Kamener Kreuz, opened in 1937, was the second interchange between two Reichsautobahnen, the first one being the Schkeuditzer Kreuz. It is used by 160,000 vehicles per day.

Bundesautobahn 45

Bundesautobahn 45

Bundesautobahn 45 is an autobahn in Germany, connecting Dortmund in the west with Aschaffenburg in the southwest. It is colloquially known as the Sauerlandlinie as it runs through the hilly, rural Sauerland region between Hagen and Siegen. The A45 has many bridges to cross valleys, the highest of which is the Sichter Valley bridge between Lüdenscheid and Meinerzhagen at 530 metres above mean sea level. It is mostly two lanes each way with frequent climbing lanes between Dortmund-Hafen and the Gambacher Kreuz intersection. In March 2013 30 people were injured in a pile-up on the A45.

DB Regio

DB Regio

DB Regio AG is a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn which operates regional and commuter train services in Germany. DB Regio AG, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. It is a 100% subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn Group and there part of the DB Regio business segment, which also includes DB Regionnetz Verkehrs GmbH and other independent subsidiaries.

Deutsche Bahn

Deutsche Bahn

The Deutsche Bahn AG is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company (AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder.

Dortmunder Stadtwerke

Dortmunder Stadtwerke

Dortmunder Stadtwerke AG is a municipal services and public transport company in Dortmund, wholly owned by the city of Dortmund. It is operating under the brand DSW21 since 2005. The number in the acronym refers to the 21st century.

Central business district "Wallring"

Central Business District "Rheinlanddamm"

Future location Lake Phoenix and Phoenix-East

Dortmund has adapted since the collapse of its century long steel, coal and beer industries. The region has shifted to high technology, robotics, biomedical technology, micro systems technology, engineering, tourism, finance, education, services and is thus one of the most dynamic new-economy cities in Germany. In 2009, Dortmund was classified as a Node city in the Innovation Cities Index published by 2thinknow.^[5]

Hundreds of SMEs are still based in and around Dortmund (often termed Mittelstand). Dortmund is also home to a number of medium-sized information technology companies,^[55] many linked to the local university TU Dortmund at the first technology center in Germany named "Technologiepark Dortmund" opened in the 1980s. With around 280 companies like Boehringer Ingelheim and Verizon Communications and more than 8,500 employees, TechnologiePark Dortmund is one of the most successful technology parks in Europe. The city works closely with research institutes, private universities, and companies to collaborate on the commercialisation of science initiatives.^[56] Furthermore, 680 IT and software companies with 12,000 employees are based in Dortmund, making the city one of Germany's biggest software locations. Two of the top 10 IT service providers in Germany are based in Dortmund – adesso SE and Materna Group.^[57]

Dortmund is home to many insurance companies e.g. Signal Iduna, Continentale Krankenversicherung, Bundesinnungskrankenkasse Gesundheit (BIG direkt) and Volkswohl Bund. In recent years a service sector and high-tech industry have grown up. Some of its most prominent companies of these sectors include Amprion and RWE-Westnetz (Electricity), Rhenus Logistics (Logistics), Wilo, KHS GmbH, Elmos Semiconductor, ABP Induction Systems, Nordwest Handel AG – all of whom have their headquarters here. Companies with operations in or around Dortmund include Zalando, Daimler AG: EvoBus, RapidMiner, Gap Inc. and ThyssenKrupp.

Dortmund is also the headquarter of Century Media Records, a heavy metal record label with offices in the United States and London. In August 2015, Century Media was acquired by Sony Music for US$17 million.^[58]

Tourism

Cityring Concert, Freedom Square

Tourism in Dortmund is a fast-growing economic factor every year: new overnight records can be announced, new hotels open and new visitor magnets are added.^[59] Starting in the mid-1990s, Dortmund, formerly an industrial centre, saw rapid development that expanded its cultural and tourism possibilities, and transformed it into a newly vibrant city. An important strategic step was the start of construction the new Konzerthaus Dortmund, the reuse of vacant old industrial buildings like the Zollern II/IV Colliery, Kokerei Hansa, Dortmund U-Tower and the strategic reorientation of the Dortmund Christmas market with over 300 stalls packed around a gigantic Christmas tree creation that stands 45 metres tall – reputed to be the biggest in the world. A new Tourist Information center right next to the U-Tower, gives visitors a quick overview of the tourist attractions in the City and Ruhr Area.^[60] Today Dortmund is with more than 1.450.528 (2017) overnight stays one of the most popular destinations in North Rhine-Westphalia.^[61]

The majority of tourists are domestic visitors, coming from Germany. International travellers arrive from the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland. Dortmund also draws business tourism, having been equipped with facilities like WILO, Amprion next to Westfalenhallen and football tourism with Fans of Borussia Dortmund.^[62] The top 5 most visited attractions were the Christmas market, with more than three and a half million visitors, Signal Iduna Park, Deutsches Fußballmuseum, Dortmund U-Tower, Zollern II/IV Colliery and Westfalenpark.^[63]

Shopping

Westenhellweg

The Westenhellweg is a popular shopping destination and with nearly 13,000 visitors per hour it was Germany's most frequented shopping street in 2013.^[64] During the Middle Ages, Dortmund was the only free imperial city in Westphalia, having already been regarded as an important centre of trade. Today some of the most reputed shops, department stores have stores here. It is a pedestrian-only area and is bordered by the Reinoldikirche in the east and U-Tower in the west. The Westenhellweg has one of the highest rents for retail and office space in North Rhine-Westphalia.^[65] 85 percent of the shops are retail chains such as H&M, Saturn, Esprit, Zara or NewYorker. In 2009 a new shopping mall named Thier-Galerie opened, with nearly 100 stores and chains, including; Armani, Adidas, Diesel and Hollister.

Three more shopping malls occupy the Thier-Galerie; Galeria Kaufhof and Karstadt, as well as large fashion retail clothing stores from Peek & Cloppenburg and C&A. During the month before Christmas, the extended pedestrian-only zone is host to Dortmund Christmas Market, one of the largest and oldest Christmas markets in Germany. With more than 3.5 million visitors and 300 stalls around a gigantic Christmas tree that stands 45 metres tall, it is one of the most visited and popular market in the world.^[66]

In close proximity to the Dortmund concert hall lies the Brückstraßenviertel – a quarter hub especially for young people. The "Rue de Pommes Frites", which is what the Dortmund citizens have called the Brückstraße, has turned into a modern shopping promenade, geared towards a younger market.

For a long time, the Kampstraße had a shadowy existence as a parallel street to the Westenhellweg and Ostenhellweg, but it has become a grand boulevard containing specialist stores. Right next to the Kampstraße is the Kleppingstraße – a shopping street with a high concentration of gastronomy and expensive, prestigious shops like van Laack, Lindner Fashion, Marc Cain. It is located between the Ostenhellweg and Neutor to Wallring.

Port and logistics

Logistic Hub Harbour

Dortmund is one of the most important logistic hubs in Germany, more than 900 companies working in logistics, as well as nationally and internationally recognised scientific institutes. Dortmund Port which terminates the Dortmund-Ems Canal connecting Dortmund to the North Sea is the biggest European canal port with 10 docks and a pier length of 11 km. The variety of different activities taking place at the Fraunhofer Institute Material Flow and Logistics (Fraunhofer Society) has, over the past few years, led to a bundling of skills in the areas of logistics and digitalisation in the city. Industry-based initiatives and pilot projects, such as the Hybrid Services in Logistics innovation lab, the efficiency cluster LogistikRuhr, Industrial Data Space, the Dortmund Mittelstand 4.0 Centre of Excellence, and the enterprise labs. The Digital Hub for Logistics of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action is based in Dortmund and twinned with Hamburg.

Companies with big logistic hubs for Germany and Europe in Dortmund include:

• Amazon
• IKEA
• Decathlon
• Rhenus Logistics
• Schenker AG
• TEDi GmbH & Co. KG

Fairs

Dortmund is home to Germany's twelve biggest exhibition centre, Halls of Westphalia which lies near the city center next to Dortmund Airport. With around 77.000 visitors each year, Jagd & Hund is by far the largest event held there. Other important fairs open to consumers include "Intermodelbau", the world's biggest consumer fair for model making, and one of the leading fairs for youth culture "YOU". Important fairs restricted to professionals include "D.I.M" (Deutsche Immobilienmesse, German property fair), Creativa (Hobby) and InterTabac (Tabaco).^[67]

• 

  Messe Dortmund logo

• 

  Main Hall

• 

  Rosenterassen south entrance

• 

  Headquarter

Federal Agency and public organisations

Dortmund is home of the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the National Material Testing Office of North Rhine-Westphalia material and the main customs office.

Consulates

As a profoundly international city, Dortmund hosts diplomatic missions (consulates and consulates-general) of Italy,^[68] Greece,^[69] Bangladesh,^[70] Ghana,^[71] South Africa,^[72] the Czech Republic,^[72] and Slovenia.^[73]

Courts

Several courts are located in Dortmund, including:

• Landgericht Dortmund (Regional Court Dortmund)
• Amtsgericht Dortmund (Local Court Dortmund)
• Sozialgericht Dortmund (Social Court Dortmund)
• Arbeitsgericht Dortmund (Employment Court Dortmund)

Media

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (July 2022)

Harenberg City Center

Newspapers

Two important daily newspapers are published in and around Dortmund. The conservative Ruhr Nachrichten, also known as RN, was founded in 1949. The RN has a circulation of over 225,000 copies daily. The other important newspaper, the Westfälische Rundschau, was first published in 1945 and has a daily circulation of over 181,000. The WR is published by Germany's third largest newspaper and magazine publisher Funke Mediengruppe.

Magazines

Several magazines also originate from Dortmund. The Rock Rock hard (magazine) is a metal and hard rock magazine, with subsidiaries in various countries worldwide, including France, Spain, Brazil/Portugal, Italy and Greece.Visions is a German music magazine with a circulation of approximately 35,000.

Radio and TV

Westfalentower, regional studio of Sat.1

The Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR, West German Broadcasting Cologne has a sizable studio in Dortmund, which is responsible for the east Ruhr area. Each day, it produces a 30-minute regional evening news magazine (called Lokalzeit Ruhr), a 5-minute afternoon news programme, and several radio news programmes. A local broadcasting station called Radio 91.2 went "on-the-air" in the early 1990s. Sat.1 have a regional studio in Dortmund. The City stands alongside London and Paris as one of the three head offices of Global Tamil Vision and GTV-Deutschland.^[74]

Two big Radio Channels of Westdeutscher Rundfunk are sending from Dortmund.

• WDR 2, featuring adult-oriented popular music, focuses strongly on national and regional news, current affairs, and sport.
• WDR 4 (motto: Meine Lieblingshits, "my favourite hits") is a channel aimed chiefly towards an older audience.^[75] Its focus is on tuneful music – in particular, oldies and classic hits:^[76] popular music of the 1960s to the 1980s or later – with more specialized programming (operetta, country, folk) in the evenings. Around 30–40% of WDR 4's musical output is made up of German-language songs.

Other radio broadcasters include Radio NRW and eldoradio*.

Film

The films Trains'n'Roses, Bang Boom Bang, Oi! Warning, Do Fish Do It?, If It Don't Fit, Use a Bigger Hammer, Guys and Balls, Goldene Zeiten, Marija and television series Tatort, Balko, Helden der Kreisklasse and more German movies like The Crocodiles [de], Die Libelle und das Nashorn, Ein Schnitzel für alle, Young Light [de] and Radio Heimat [de] were filmed in the city.

Discover more about Economy related topics

Robotics

Robotics

Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrates fields of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, information engineering, mechatronics engineering, electronics, biomedical engineering, computer engineering, control systems engineering, software engineering, mathematics, etc.

Biomedical technology

Biomedical technology

Biomedical technology is the application of engineering and technology principles to the domain of living or biological systems, with an emphasis on human health and diseases.

Service (economics)

Service (economics)

A service is an act or use for which a consumer, firm, or government is willing to pay. Examples include work done by barbers, doctors, lawyers, mechanics, banks, insurance companies, and so on. Public services are those that society as a whole pays for. Using resources, skill, ingenuity, and experience, service providers benefit service consumers. Services may be defined as intangible acts or performances whereby the service provider provides value to the customer.

Mittelstand

Mittelstand

Mittelstand commonly refers to a group of stable business enterprises in Germany, Austria and Switzerland that have proved successful in enduring economic change and turbulence. The term is difficult to translate and may cause confusion for non-Germans. It is usually defined as a statistical category of small and medium-sized enterprises with annual revenues up to 50 million Euro and a maximum of 500 employees.

Germany

Germany

Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second-most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between the Baltic and North seas to the north, and the Alps to the south; it covers an area of 357,022 square kilometres (137,847 sq mi), with a population of around 84 million within its 16 constituent states. Germany borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the west. The nation's capital and most populous city is Berlin and its main financial centre is Frankfurt; the largest urban area is the Ruhr.

Boehringer Ingelheim

Boehringer Ingelheim

C.H. Boehringer Sohn AG & Co. KG is the parent company of the Boehringer Ingelheim group, which was founded in 1885 by Albert Boehringer (1861–1939) in Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany. As of 2018, Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, and the largest private one. Headquartered in Ingelheim, it operates globally with 146 affiliates and more than 47,700 employees. Unlike most large pharmaceutical companies which are listed, the company is private and fully owned by the Boehringer, Liebrecht and von Baumbach families. The company's key areas of interest are: respiratory diseases, metabolism, immunology, oncology and diseases of the central nervous system. Boehringer Ingelheim is a full member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). The corporate logo of Boehringer Ingelheim depicts a stylized rendition of the central section of the imperial palace of Charlemagne.

Amprion

Amprion

Amprion GmbH is one of the four transmission system operators for electricity in Germany with approx. 950 employees.

RWE

RWE

RWE AG is a German multinational energy company headquartered in Essen. It generates and trades electricity in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the United States. The company is the world's number two in offshore wind power and Europe's third largest company in renewable energy. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, RWE Group was ranked as the 297th-largest public company in the world.

Rhenus (company)

Rhenus (company)

The Rhenus Group is a German logistics company with operations in Europe, Asia and North and South America. It is a subsidiary of the Rethmann Group.

KHS GmbH

KHS GmbH

KHS GmbH is a supplier of filling and packaging systems based in Dortmund, Germany. The company offers filling lines for glass and PET bottles, kegs, and cans for the beverage, food, and non-food industries, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Salzgitter Klöckner-Werke GmbH, a member of Salzgitter AG.

Elmos Semiconductor

Elmos Semiconductor

Elmos Semiconductor SE is a German manufacturer of semiconductor products headquartered in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Elmos supplies automotive application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs).

ABP Induction Systems

ABP Induction Systems

ABP Induction Systems is a global industrial firm that develops and integrates induction-related equipment and services for foundries, forges, tube and pipe producers, general manufacturers using heating equipment, and manufacturers of microelectronics. With foundry headquarters in Dortmund, Germany, induction heating headquarters in Brookfield, WI United States, and operations in China, Sweden, Thailand, Russia, Mexico, India, Japan, and Brazil, ABP operates worldwide.

Dortmund has 160 schools and 17 business, technical colleges teach more than 85,000 pupils. The city has a 4-year primary education program. After completing primary school, students continue to the Hauptschule, Realschule, Gesamtschule or Gymnasium (college preparatory school). The Stadtgymnasium Dortmund which was founded in 1543 as Archigymnasium is one of the oldest schools in Europe.^[77] The Leibniz Gymnasium, a bilingual public school located in the Kreuzviertel district, is particularly popular with children of the English-speaking expatriate community. The school is an International Baccalaureate school.^[78] The Goethe-Gymnasium was founded in 1867 as the first school offering higher education to girls in the city. It has been a NRW Sportschule, focused on sports, from 2009.

Higher education

TU Dortmund (Technical University of Dortmund) was founded in 1968 and is located in the southern part of the city. It has about 30,000 students and offers a wide range of subjects in of physics, electrical engineering, chemistry, spatial planning and economics. The university has a dedicated railroad station at the campus's main gate, the journey from the city center lasting merely seven minutes. The university is highly ranked in terms of its research performance in the areas of physics, electrical engineering, chemistry and economics.^[79] The university's most noticeable landmark is the H-Bahn, a monorail train which connects the north and south campuses.

Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts is a Fachhochschule with 12,300 students, and 669 staff, 232 of which are professors. The Fachhochschule was created by a merger of several institutions of higher learning in 1971. Owing to its history as separate institutions, it consists of three campuses in different parts of Dortmund. The departments of mechanical and electrical engineering are located at Sonnenstraße near the city center. The department of design has its own campus at Max-Ophüls-Platz while the departments of social work, economics, computer science and architecture are housed in several buildings next to the Technical University of Dortmund campus in the suburb of Eichlinghofen. Additional offices in the city centre are used for administrative purposes.

The city is the site of several other universities, colleges and academies, which attract about 45,000 students.^[35] Among them there are:

• FOM Hochschule für Oekonomie & Management, Standort Dortmund: Academy for management, founded in 1993.
• Fachhochschule für öffentliche Verwaltung Nordrhein-Westfalen: Academy for public administration.
• International School of Management: Private academy focussing on management and economics, founded in 1990.
• IT-Center Dortmund: Private college founded in 2000.
• International University of Applied Sciences Bad Honnef – Bonn: is a private, state-recognised university of business and management

• 

  TU Dortmund

• 

  Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts

• 

  Department of at Design Max-Ophüls-Platz

• 

  Department of Architecture

Research

The city has a high density of internationally renowned research institutions, such as the Fraunhofer Society, the Leibniz Association and the Max Planck Society, which are independent of, or only loosely connected to its universities.^[80]

Discover more about Education related topics

List of oldest schools

List of oldest schools

This is a list of extant schools, excluding universities and higher education establishments, that have been in continuous operation since founded. The dates refer to the foundation or the earliest documented contemporaneous reference to the school.

Goethe-Gymnasium, Dortmund

Goethe-Gymnasium, Dortmund

The Goethe-Gymnasium is a gymnasium and secondary school in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded as a school for girls in 1867, as the first school offering higher education to girls in the city. It was later named after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It has been a NRW Sportschule, focused on sports, from 2009.

Physics

Physics

Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. Physics is one of the most fundamental scientific disciplines, with its main goal being to understand how the universe behaves. A scientist who specializes in the field of physics is called a physicist.

Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the latter half of the 19th century after commercialization of the electric telegraph, the telephone, and electrical power generation, distribution, and use.

Chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science under natural sciences that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, structure, properties, behavior and the changes they undergo during a reaction with other substances. Chemistry also addresses the nature of chemical bonds in chemical compounds.

Spatial planning

Spatial planning

Spatial planning mediates between the respective claims on space of the state, market, and community. In so doing, three different mechanisms of involving stakeholders, integrating sectoral policies and promoting development projects mark the three schools of transformative strategy formulation, innovation action and performance in spatial planning

Economics

Economics

Economics is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.

H-Bahn

H-Bahn

The H-Bahn in Dortmund and Düsseldorf is a driverless passenger suspension railway system. The system was developed by Siemens, who call the project SIPEM.

Monorail

Monorail

A monorail is a railway in which the track consists of a single rail or a beam.

Fachhochschule

Fachhochschule

A Fachhochschule, abbreviated FH, is a university of applied sciences (UAS), in other words a German tertiary education institution that provides professional education in many applied sciences and applied arts, such as engineering, technology, business, architecture, design, and industrial design.

Technical University of Dortmund

Technical University of Dortmund

TU Dortmund University is a technical university in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany with over 35,000 students, and over 6,000 staff including 300 professors, offering around 80 Bachelor's and master's degree programs. It is situated in the Ruhr area, the fourth largest urban area in Europe. The university is highly ranked in terms of its research performance in the areas of physics, electrical engineering, chemistry and economics. The university pioneered the Internet in Germany, and contributed to machine learning.

Fraunhofer Society

Fraunhofer Society

The Fraunhofer Society is a German research organization with 76 institutes spread throughout Germany, each focusing on different fields of applied science. With some 29,000 employees, mainly scientists and engineers, and with an annual research budget of about €2.8 billion, it is the biggest organization for applied research and development services in Europe.

Dortmund is one of the least stressful cities in the world.

In November 2017, according to a study by data of the German National Statistics Office, the National Employment Agency, Mercer, Handelsblatt, Numbeo and Immowelt, Dortmund was ranked on position seven of the most livable cities in Germany for expats.^[81] In September 2017, The New York Times praised the city of Dortmund, which has been adapting since the collapse of its century-old steel and coal industries and has shifted to high technology biomedical technology, micro systems technology and other services, as the hidden star of structural change providing a good quality of life for employees.^[82] According to the 2017 Global Least & Most Stressful Cities Ranking Dortmund is one of the least stressful cities in the world. It's ranked 27th out of 150, between Copenhagen and Vancouver, and is highly ranked in the categories traffic & public transport, gender equality and debt per capital.^[83]

Like a Phoenix Rising from the Ashes and exemplary for structural transformation – This was the title of an article in the online version on Neue Zürcher Zeitung of the urban livability and new exceptional architecture in Dortmund.^[84]

In a 2015/2016 survey centred on student life in Germany, Dortmund ranked as seventh-best.^[85]

In a 2012 study of the most livable biggest cities in Germany, Dortmund ranked on position ten between Nuremberg and Stuttgart and first of all large cities in Germany due to sport, gastronomy and shopping opportunities.^[86]

In 2009, Dortmund was classified as a Node city in the Innovation Cities Index published by 2thinknow^[5] and in 2014 acclaimed as the most sustainable city in Germany.^[7]

Discover more about Livability and quality of life related topics

Mercer (consulting firm)

Mercer (consulting firm)

Mercer is an American consulting firm founded in 1945. It is one of the four operating subsidiaries of global professional services firm Marsh McLennan. Mercer is headquartered in New York City with offices in 43 countries and operations in 130 countries. The company primarily provides human resources and financial services consulting services to its clients.

Handelsblatt

Handelsblatt

The Handelsblatt is a German-language business newspaper published in Düsseldorf by Handelsblatt Media Group, formerly known as Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt.

Numbeo

Numbeo

Numbeo is a Serbian crowd-sourced global database of perceived consumer prices, crime rates, quality of health care, among other statistics. Data on Numbeo is not peer-reviewed, and could be inserted or altered by anyone accessing the website. It has been criticized for its inaccuracy due to its ease of statistics misuse and general disinformation.

The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times, also referred to as the Gray Lady, is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2022 to comprise 740,000 paid print subscribers, and 8.6 million paid digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as The Daily. Founded in 1851, it is published by The New York Times Company. The Times has won 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national "newspaper of record". For print, it is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the United States. The newspaper is headquartered at The New York Times Building in Times Square, Manhattan.

Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of around 1.4 million in the urban area, and more than 2 million in the wider Copenhagen metropolitan area. The city is on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the Øresund strait. The Øresund Bridge connects the two cities by rail and road.

Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The Greater Vancouver area had a population of 2.6 million in 2021, making it the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada. Greater Vancouver, along with the Fraser Valley, comprises the Lower Mainland with a regional population of over 3 million. Vancouver has the highest population density in Canada, with over 5,700 people per square kilometre, and fourth highest in North America.

Neue Zürcher Zeitung

Neue Zürcher Zeitung

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung is a Swiss, German-language daily newspaper, published by NZZ Mediengruppe in Zürich. The paper was founded in 1780. It was described as having a reputation as a high-quality newspaper, as the Swiss-German newspaper of record, and for objective and detailed reports on international affairs.

Nuremberg

Nuremberg

Nürnberg is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest city in Germany. On the Pegnitz River and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it lies in the Bavarian administrative region of Middle Franconia, and is the largest city and the unofficial capital of Franconia. Nuremberg forms with the neighbouring cities of Fürth, Erlangen and Schwabach a continuous conurbation with a total population of 800,376 (2019), which is the heart of the urban area region with around 1.4 million inhabitants, while the larger Nuremberg Metropolitan Region has approximately 3.6 million inhabitants. The city lies about 170 kilometres (110 mi) north of Munich. It is the largest city in the East Franconian dialect area.

Stuttgart

Stuttgart

Stuttgart is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the Stuttgarter Kessel and lies an hour from the Swabian Jura and the Black Forest. Stuttgart has a population of 635,911, making it the sixth largest city in Germany. 2.8 million people live in the city's administrative region and 5.3 million people in its metropolitan area, making it the fourth largest metropolitan area in Germany. The city and metropolitan area are consistently ranked among the top 20 European metropolitan areas by GDP; Mercer listed Stuttgart as 21st on its 2015 list of cities by quality of living; innovation agency 2thinknow ranked the city 24th globally out of 442 cities in its Innovation Cities Index; and the Globalization and World Cities Research Network ranked the city as a Beta-status global city in their 2020 survey. Stuttgart was one of the host cities for the official tournaments of the 1974 and 2006 FIFA World Cups.

Germany

Germany

Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second-most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between the Baltic and North seas to the north, and the Alps to the south; it covers an area of 357,022 square kilometres (137,847 sq mi), with a population of around 84 million within its 16 constituent states. Germany borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the west. The nation's capital and most populous city is Berlin and its main financial centre is Frankfurt; the largest urban area is the Ruhr.

The new opera house is one of the biggest theaters in Germany.

The Konzerthaus Dortmund is one of the most outstanding concert halls in Europe.

The city has a long tradition of music and theatre. The orchestra was founded in 1887 and is now called Dortmunder Philharmoniker. The first opera house was built in 1904, destroyed in World War II and opened again in 1966 as Opernhaus Dortmund. It is operated by Theater Dortmund together with other locations, including (since 2002) the Konzerthaus Dortmund. The Konzerthaus Dortmund is listed in the ECHO list as one of the 21 most outstanding concert halls in Europe.^[87]

The Domicil Jazz Club is one of the "100 best jazz venues world wide" according to the American jazz magazine DownBeat.^[88]

The Dortmund U-Tower, which was once a brewery, is now European centre for creative economy and the Museum am Ostwall. The area around the U-Tower called "Union Viertel" is part of the Creative.Quarters Ruhr and are rooted in the European Capital of Culture RUHR.2010.

Dortmund leading cabaret-stage is the Cabaret Queue, which is located next to Lake phoenix. Some other famous cabaret-stages are the Fletch Bizzel and the theatre Olpktetal. The most important cabaret event is the RuhrHOCHdeutsch, which is one of the most successful cabaret festivals in Germany. It features artists from around the world.

Dortmund is also famous for its Christmas market, which draws well over three and a half million visitors to its 300 stalls around a gigantic Christmas tree creation that stands 45 metres tall. The market is famous for its handmade ornaments and delicacies.

Recreation

Botanischer Garten Rombergpark

Florianturm, Westfalenpark

Juicy Beats Festival, Westfalenpark

The Botanischer Garten Rombergpark, or informally Rombergpark, is an extensive municipal arboretum and botanical garden located in the south of the city center of Dortmund. With its total area of 65 hectares the Rombergpark is one of the largest botanical gardens in the world. The garden was established in 1822 as the Romberg family's English landscape park. In 1927–1929 it was acquired by the city and under city planning director Richard Nose enhanced by a small herb garden. The park and castle were badly damaged in World War II, but starting in 1950 director Gerd Krüssmann rebuilt it as an arboretum, adding some 4,500 species to the park. Today the garden contains a historic English landscape park with monuments; an arboretum containing thousands of species of woody plants, including some of the largest trees in North Rhine-Westphalia; a terrace with palm trees; and four greenhouses (1,000 m² total area) for cactus and succulents, ferns, tropical plants, and camellias, jasmine, and lemons.

The Dortmund Zoo is the zoological garden with 28 hectares next to the Rombergpark and was founded 1953. With 1,800 animals belonging to 250 species, the Dortmund Zoo is the second largest in the Ruhr Valley. It is specialized in the keeping and breeding of South American species and is leading in the breeding of the giant anteater, the tamandua and the giant otter.^[89]

The Westfalenpark is Dortmunds's most popular inner-city park. The park is 72 hectares in size and is one of the largest urban gardens of Germany. It was first opened in 1959 as the second Bundesgartenschau (abbr. BUGA) in North Rhine-Westphalia. With the National Rosarium with 3,000 different rose varieties, theme gardens, an environmental protection centre, the German Cookbook Museum, a geological garden, cafés and recreation areas, it provides numerous opportunities for a day of diverse activities. Dortmund's Westfalenpark is also a popular location for events in the Ruhr area- with parties, festivals, events, theatre, music, and flea and garden markets. One of the best views across the whole Ruhr valley is offered by the visitors platform and the revolving restaurant in the 209-metre-high Florian tower. Another summer attraction is the chair lift, which opened in 1959 and runs on Sundays between a "Mountain" and "Valley" station 500 metres apart.^[90]

Museums

With more than 20 museums, Dortmund has one of the largest variety of museums in the Ruhr Valley, one of which, the LWL Industrial Museum Zollern II/IV Colliery, is an anchor point on the European Route of Industrial Heritage.^[91]

Museum of Art and Cultural History

The Museum am Ostwall (known as Museum am Ostwall until 2010) is a museum of modern and contemporary art. It was founded in the late 1940s, and has been located in the Dortmund U-Tower since 2010. The collection includes paintings, sculptures, objects and photographs from the 20th century, plus over 2,500 graphics, spanning Expressionism through classic modern art to the present day. At the heart of the collection are works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Otto Mueller, Emil Nolde and graphics by Pablo Picasso from the 1940s and '50s, plus others by Joan Miró, Marc Chagall and Salvador Dalí.

The German Football Museum (German: Deutsches Fußballmuseum) aka DFB-Museum is the national museum for German football. It is located close to the Dortmund Hauptbahnhof and is part of an art and culture mile between the creative center Dortmund U-Tower and the Theater Dortmund, founded to preserve, conserve and interpret important collections of football memorabilia. In its permanent exhibition, the Museum presents the history of Germany national football team and the Bundesliga.

Germany Occupational Health and Safety Exhibition

The Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte or MKK (Museum of Art and Cultural History) is a municipal museum located in an Art Deco building which was formerly the Dortmund Savings Bank. The collection includes paintings, sculptures, furniture and applied art, illustrating the cultural history of Dortmund from early times to the 20th century. There are regular temporary exhibitions of art and culture, as well as a permanent exhibition on the history of surveying, with rare geodetic instruments.^[92]

The Steinwache is a memorial museum of the exhibition Widerstand und Verfolgung in Dortmund 1933–1945 ("Resistance and Persecution in Dortmund 1933–1945"), which demonstrates the persecution under National Socialism with many photographs, short texts and sometimes with reports from contemporary witnesses. The museum is located in an old prison and had a reputation as Die Hölle von Westdeutschland ("The hell of western Germany"). Between 1933 and 1945 more than 66,000 people were imprisoned in the Steinwache prison.

Other important museums in Dortmund are:

• DASA – Arbeitswelt Ausstellung (Germany Occupational Health and Safety Exhibition)
• Architecture Archive North Rhine-Westphalia
• Borusseum (Museum of Borussia Dortmund)
• LWL Industrial Museum Zollern II/IV Colliery (Germany's first technical building monument of international importance)
• Museum of natural history Dortmund
• Brewery museum
• HOESCH Museum

Not directly located in Dortmund but important for the city history:

• Henrichenburg boat lift (Is a popular destination for cyclists along the canals of the northern Ruhr area.)

Festivals and nightlife

Mayday 2009 Westfalenhallen

Dortmund offers a variety of restaurants, bars and clubs. Clubs concentrate in and around the city centre (Wallring) and in the Kreuzviertel district. After the Molotov in Hamburg and the Berghain in Berlin, the FZW (Freizeitzentrum West) in the Union district is one of the three best clubs in Germany. With 307 events in 2015, including concerts, parties, festivals, readings and football public viewings have strengthened the FZW's reputation as an "it club" in the Ruhr region.^[93]

Furthermore, Dortmund is one of the main centres of the Electronic dance music and techno subculture. With the Mayday and Syndicate festivals, the Westfalenhalle Arena has become one of the most important techno strongholds in Europe. After negotiations with several German cities, it was announced that the Love Parade would move to the Ruhr Area for five years (2007–2012). After Essen in 2007 the festival took 2008 place on the Bundesstraße 1 under the motto Highway of Love. The event was planned as a "Love Weekend", with parties throughout the region. For the first time the Turkish electronic scene was represented by its own float, called "Turkish Delights". The official estimate is that 1.6 million visitors attended, making it the largest parade to date.^[94]

Every year, the Juicy Beats music festival turns the Westfalenpark into a huge festival ground for pop, rap, electro, indie, alternative, reggae and urban beats – most recently with over 50,000 visitors.

Cuisine

Traditional bakery for Dortmunder Salzkuchen

Dortmunder Export

Panhas

Traditional meals in the region are Pfefferpotthast (A form of Goulash, though containing more beef), Balkenbrij, Heaven and Earth (Himmel und Äd; black pudding with stewed apples mixed with mashed potatoes), Currywurst and Pumpernickel with Griebenschmalz (German lard with crispy pieces of pork skin).

In summer the people like to eat a Dortmunder Salzkuchen (Bread buns with caraway fruits, salt, meat and onions). Also a special meal in the winter is Reibekuchen (fried potato pancake served with apple sauce).

Dortmund had more than 550 years of brewing tradition, some of the oldest breweries in Westphalia are founded around the Old Market in Dortmund. Dortmund is known for its pale lager beer called Dortmunder Export or Dortmunder, it became popular with industrial workers and was responsible for Dortmunder Union becoming Germany's largest brewery and Dortmund having the highest concentration of breweries in Germany. Popular and traditionally beer brands are Dortmunder Actien Brauerei, Bergmann Bier, Kronen, Union, Brinkhoff's, Dortmunder Hansa, Hövels, Ritter, Thier and Stifts.^[95]

"Stösschen" is a beer in a small glass "Stösschen" 0.2 litres and can be drunk in about two draughts. The idea of a Stößchen came about in the 19th century when people would have to wait at the level crossing to cross the Nordstadt Railway Line that divided the city centre from the Nordstadt district. A local innkeeper saw the potential of serving quick drinks to people waiting, and a Dortmund tradition began.^[96]

The Dortmunder Tropfen Schnaps is a type of liqueur that is flavored with herbs or spices and traditionally drunk neat as a digestif.^[97]

Discover more about Culture related topics

Theater Dortmund

Theater Dortmund

Theater Dortmund is a theatrical organization that produces operas, musicals, ballets, plays, and concerts in Dortmund, Germany. It was founded as the Stadttheater Dortmund in 1904. Supported by the German Government, the organization owns and operates several performance spaces.

Dortmunder Philharmoniker

Dortmunder Philharmoniker

The Dortmunder Philharmoniker are a German symphony orchestra based in Dortmund. The orchestra of the Theater Dortmund performs opera in the Opernhaus Dortmund and concert in the Konzerthaus Dortmund. The orchestra was founded in 1887 and has been shaped by conductors such as Wilhelm Schüchter, Marek Janowski, Moshe Atzmon and Jac van Steen.

Opernhaus Dortmund

Opernhaus Dortmund

Opernhaus Dortmund is the opera house of Dortmund, Germany, operated by the Theater Dortmund organisation. A new opera house opened in 1966, replacing an earlier facility which opened in 1904 and was destroyed during World War I. It was built on the former site of the Old Synagogue, which was demolished by the Nazi local government in the 1930s.

DownBeat

DownBeat

DownBeat is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois. It is named after the "downbeat" in music, also called "beat one", or the first beat of a musical measure.

Fletch Bizzel

Fletch Bizzel

Fletch Bizzel is a theatre in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

Florianturm

Florianturm

The Florianturm is a telecommunications tower and landmark of Dortmund (Germany). It is named after St. Florian, the patron saint of gardeners.

Botanischer Garten Rombergpark

Botanischer Garten Rombergpark

Botanischer Garten Rombergpark, or informally Rombergpark, is an extensive municipal botanical garden and arboretum in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With its total area of 68 hectares the Rombergpark is one of the largest botanical gardens in the world. It is always freely open.

Arboretum

Arboretum

An arboretum in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arboreta are in botanical gardens as living collections of woody plants and is intended at least in part for scientific study.

Botanical garden

Botanical garden

A botanical garden or botanic garden is a garden with a documented collection of living plants for the purpose of scientific research, conservation, display, and education. Typically plants are labelled with their botanical names. It may contain specialist plant collections such as cacti and other succulent plants, herb gardens, plants from particular parts of the world, and so on; there may be greenhouses, shadehouses, again with special collections such as tropical plants, alpine plants, or other exotic plants. Most are at least partly open to the public, and may offer guided tours, educational displays, art exhibitions, book rooms, open-air theatrical and musical performances, and other entertainment.

North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia

North Rhine-Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a state (Land) in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the most populous state of Germany. Apart from the city-states, it is also the most densely populated state in Germany. Covering an area of 34,084 square kilometres (13,160 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest German state by size.

Greenhouse

Greenhouse

A greenhouse is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic conditions are grown.These structures range in size from small sheds to industrial-sized buildings. A miniature greenhouse is known as a cold frame. The interior of a greenhouse exposed to sunlight becomes significantly warmer than the external temperature, protecting its contents in cold weather.

Cactus

Cactus

A cactus is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word cactus derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek word κάκτος (káktos), a name originally used by Theophrastus for a spiny plant whose identity is now not certain. Cacti occur in a wide range of shapes and sizes. They are native to the Americas, ranging from Patagonia in the south to parts of western Canada in the north, with the exception of Rhipsalis baccifera, which is also found in Africa and Sri Lanka. Cacti are adapted to live in very dry environments, including the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on Earth. Because of this, cacti show many adaptations to conserve water. For example, almost all cacti are succulents, meaning they have thickened, fleshy parts adapted to store water. Unlike many other succulents, the stem is the only part of most cacti where this vital process takes place. Most species of cacti have lost true leaves, retaining only spines, which are highly modified leaves. As well as defending against herbivores, spines help prevent water loss by reducing air flow close to the cactus and providing some shade. In the absence of true leaves, cacti's enlarged stems carry out photosynthesis.

Headquarters of the Borussia Dortmund sports club (BVB)

Headquarter DHB

Dortmund calls itself Sportstadt (City of Sports). The city is the home of the biggest handball association in the world the German Handball Association (German: Deutscher Handballbund) (DHB) and the German professional handball league Handball-Bundesliga (HBL). Furthermore, Dortmund is home of the Olympic centre of Westphalia.

The city is home of many sports clubs, iconic athletes and annually organises several world-renowned sporting events, such as the Ruhrmarathon and the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting.

Football

Signal Iduna Park, the home stadium of Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, is the biggest stadium in Germany.

Dortmund is home to the sports club Borussia Dortmund, one of the most successful clubs in German football history. Borussia Dortmund are former Bundesliga champions most recently in 2011–12.^[98] Borussia Dortmund won the UEFA Champions League and the Intercontinental Cup in 1997, as well as the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1966. 'Die Borussen' are eight-time German Champions and have won five German Cups. Borussia Dortmund play at Westfalenstadion, currently known as Signal Iduna Park. It was built for the 1974 FIFA World Cup and also hosted some matches of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. It is Germany's largest football stadium with a maximum capacity of 81,359 spectators.^[99]

Stadion Rote Erde

Handball

Borussia Dortmund has a women's handball team playing in the first Bundesliga.

Table tennis

Borussia Dortmund also has a table tennis team, playing in the second Bundesliga.

American football

The Dortmund Giants, established on 22 May 1980, is an American football team from Dortmund. The official name of the club is 1. Dortmunder Footballclub Dortmund 1980 "Giants" e.V. The club spent the 1994 season in the 2. Bundesliga before dropping for two seasons to the third tier Regionalliga West. Five more 2. Bundesliga seasons followed from 1997 to 2001, the final one in a combined team with the Bochum Cadets as the Dortmund B1 Giants.^[100] After a five-season spell in the Regionalliga the club finished the 2014 season without a win and had to return to the Oberliga once more.^{[100][101][102]}

Eissportzentrum Westfalenhallen

Ice hockey

Eisadler Dortmund is the city's ice hockey club that plays in Eissportzentrum Westfalenhallen an indoor sporting arena at the Strobelallee. They played in 2016/17 in the Oberliga, the third level of ice hockey in Germany.

Basketball

The city's basketball club is SVD 49 Dortmund basketball team plays in its respective second national divisions.

Baseball

The city's baseball club Dortmund Wanderers plays in the first Bundesliga

Other sports

The Sparkassen Chess-Meeting has been hosted in Dortmund since 1982.

Besides, Dortmund owns an all-weather racecourse named Galopprennbahn Dortmund.

Discover more about Sports related topics

German Handball Association

German Handball Association

The German Handball Association (DHB) is the national Handball association of Germany. DHB organizes team handball within Germany and represents German handball internationally. The association has been a member of the International Handball Federation (IHF) since 1950, and also of the European Handball Federation (EHF) since 1991 just after the unification of the country. The DHB headquarters are in Dortmund.

Handball-Bundesliga

Handball-Bundesliga

The Handball-Bundesliga (HBL) is the top German professional handball league. From 2007 onwards, the league was sponsored by Toyota and has officially been called the Toyota Handball-Bundesliga. This lasted until 2012 when the Deutsche Kreditbank AG (DKB) became the new sponsor. The official name has consequently been changed to LIQUY MOLY Handball-Bundesliga. The winners of the respective season are the official German handball champions. HBL is headquartered in Dortmund.

Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting

Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting

The Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting is an elite chess tournament held every summer in Dortmund, Germany. Dortmund is an invite-only event, with the exception that one slot at Dortmund is awarded to the winner of the annual Aeroflot Open in Moscow.

Bundesliga

Bundesliga

The Bundesliga, sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga or 1. Bundesliga, is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary football competition. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Bundesliga. Seasons run from August to May. Games are played on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. All of the Bundesliga clubs take part in the DFB-Pokal cup competition. The winner of the Bundesliga qualifies for the DFL-Supercup.

Borussia Dortmund

Borussia Dortmund

Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund, BVB, or simply Dortmund, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional football team, which plays in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. The club have won eight league championships, five DFB-Pokals, one UEFA Champions League, one Intercontinental Cup, and one UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.

Association football

Association football

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel a ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is to score more goals than the opposite team by moving the ball beyond the goal line into a rectangular-framed goal defended by the opposing side. Traditionally, the game has been played over two 45-minute halves, for a total match time of 90 minutes. With an estimated 250 million players active in over 200 countries and territories, it is considered the world's most popular sport.

DFB-Pokal

DFB-Pokal

The DFB-Pokal (German: [ˈdeː ʔɛf beː poˈkaːl] is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association. Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered the second-most important club title in German football after the Bundesliga championship. Taking place from August until May, the winner qualifies for the DFL-Supercup and the UEFA Europa League unless the winner already qualifies for the UEFA Champions League in the Bundesliga.

1974 FIFA World Cup

1974 FIFA World Cup

The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the tenth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the first time that the current trophy, the FIFA World Cup Trophy, created by the Italian sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga, was awarded. The previous trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, had been won for the third time by Brazil in 1970 and awarded permanently to the Brazilians. This was the first out of three World Cups to feature two rounds of group stages.

2006 FIFA World Cup

2006 FIFA World Cup

The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six populated continents participated in the qualification process which began in September 2003. Thirty-one teams qualified from this process along with hosts Germany for the finals tournament. It was the second time that Germany staged the competition and the first as a unified country along with the former East Germany with Leipzig as a host city, and the 10th time that the tournament was held in Europe.

Dortmund Giants

Dortmund Giants

The Dortmund Giants are an American football team from Dortmund, Germany. The official name of the club is 1. Dortmunder Footballclub Dortmund 1980 "Giants" e.V..

American football Regionalliga

American football Regionalliga

The American football Regionalliga is the third tier of American football in Germany, below the German Football League and the German Football League 2.

EHC Dortmund

EHC Dortmund

EHC Dortmund Die Elche (Elks) was an ice hockey team in Dortmund, Germany. The club was founded in 1996 after the financial collapse of the Club ERC Dortmund 1990.

Dortmund is twinned with:

Discover more about Twin towns – sister cities related topics

List of twin towns and sister cities in Germany

List of twin towns and sister cities in Germany

This is a list of municipalities in Germany which have standing links to local communities in other countries, or in other parts of Germany, known as "town twinning" or "sister cities".

Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is governed by a metropolitan borough named after the city, the wider county having devolved powers. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines.

France

France

France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. It also includes overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, giving it one of the largest discontiguous exclusive economic zones in the world. Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea; overseas territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean. Its eighteen integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 km2 (248,573 sq mi) and had a total population of over 68 million as of January 2023. France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre; other major urban areas include Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille, Bordeaux, and Nice.

Amiens

Amiens

Amiens is a city and commune in northern France, located 120 km (75 mi) north of Paris and 100 km (62 mi) south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of Amiens was 135,429. A central landmark of the city is Amiens Cathedral, the largest Gothic cathedral in France. Amiens also has one of the largest university hospitals in France, with a capacity of 1,200 beds. The author Jules Verne lived in Amiens from 1871 until his death in 1905, and served on the city council for 15 years. Incumbent French president Emmanuel Macron was born in Amiens.

Russia

Russia

Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering 17,098,246 square kilometres (6,601,670 sq mi), and encompassing one-eighth of Earth's inhabitable landmass. Russia extends across eleven time zones and shares land boundaries with fourteen countries. It is the world's ninth-most populous country and Europe's most populous country, with a population of over 147 million people. The country's capital and largest city is Moscow. Saint Petersburg is Russia's cultural centre and second-largest city. Other major urban areas include Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, and Kazan.

Rostov-on-Don

Rostov-on-Don

Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, 32 kilometers (20 mi) from the Sea of Azov, directly north of the North Caucasus. The southwestern suburbs of the city lie above the Don river delta. Rostov-on-Don has a population of over one million people, and is an important cultural centre of Southern Russia.

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York and the seat of Erie County. It lies in Western New York, at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, on the United States border with Canada. With a population of 278,349 according to the 2020 census, Buffalo is the 78th-largest city in the United States. Buffalo and the city of Niagara Falls together make up the two-county Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which had an estimated population of 1.1 million in 2020, making it the 49th largest MSA in the United States.

Israel

Israel

Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in Western Asia. Situated in the Southern Levant, it is bordered by Lebanon to the north, by Syria to the northeast, by Jordan to the east, by the Red Sea to the south, by Egypt to the southwest, by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and by the Palestinian territories — the West Bank along the east and the Gaza Strip along the southwest. Tel Aviv is the economic and technological center of the country, while its seat of government is in its proclaimed capital of Jerusalem, although Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem is unrecognized internationally.

Netanya

Netanya

Netanya is a city in the Northern Central District of Israel, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It is 30 km (18.6 mi) north of Tel Aviv, and 56 km (34.8 mi) south of Haifa, between Poleg stream and Wingate Institute in the south and the Avihayil stream in the north. Netanya was named in honor of Nathan Straus, a prominent Jewish American merchant and philanthropist in the early 20th century who was the co-owner of Macy's department store.

Novi Sad

Novi Sad

Novi Sad is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. Novi Sad is home for 367,121 inhabitants. It is located in the southern portion of the Pannonian Plain on the border of the Bačka and Syrmia geographical regions. Lying on the banks of the Danube river, the city faces the northern slopes of Fruška Gora.

Germany

Germany

Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second-most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between the Baltic and North seas to the north, and the Alps to the south; it covers an area of 357,022 square kilometres (137,847 sq mi), with a population of around 84 million within its 16 constituent states. Germany borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the west. The nation's capital and most populous city is Berlin and its main financial centre is Frankfurt; the largest urban area is the Ruhr.

China

China

China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land, the most of any country in the world, tied with Russia. With an area of approximately 9.6 million square kilometres (3,700,000 sq mi), it is the world's third largest country by total land area. The country consists of 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two special administrative regions. The national capital is Beijing, and the most populous city and largest financial center is Shanghai.

Born before 1900

Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus

Wilhelm Canaris 1940

Marco Reus

• Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus (1772–1823), publisher, founder of the publishing house "F. A. Brockhaus" and editor of Brockhaus Encyclopedia
• William Middendorf (1793–1853), theologian and educator
• Emil Anneke (1823–1888), revolutionary and American journalist and lawyer
• Wilhelm Lübke (1826–1893), art historian
• Henry C. Berghoff (1856–1925), lawyer, businessman, and politician
• Adolf Schmal (1872–1919), Austrian sportsman
• Wilhelm Canaris (1887–1945), admiral and chief of the military intelligence service
• Richard Drauz (1894–1946), executed as a war criminal, headed up the NSDAP in the Heilbronn district
• Friedrich Schubert, (1897–1947), World War II Nazi war criminal; executed

Born 1901–1950

• Walter Haenisch (1905–1938), author, communist, victim of Stalinism
• Walter Blume (1906–1974), lawyer and SS officer
• Fritz Henle (1909–1993), photographer
• Albrecht Brandi (1914–1966), naval officer
• Heinz Stahlschmidt (1919–2010), sergeant and fire fighter
• Dieter Wellershoff (1933–2005), admiral, Inspector General of the Bundeswehr
• Gerhard Cyliax (1934–2008), football player
• Elga Andersen (1935–1994), actress and singer
• Hans Tilkowski (1935–2020), football goalkeeper and coach
• Dieter Fenske (born 1942), inorganic chemist
• Christine Haidegger (1942–2021), Austrian writer
• Annegret Richter (born 1950), sprinter
• Hermann Spieckermann (born 1950), Protestant theologian

Born after 1950

• Klaus Niedzwiedz (born 1951), racing driver and television presenter
• Beate West-Leuer (born 1951), professor, psychotherapist, consultant and coach
• Eve Stratford (born 1953), Playboy Club Bunny and victim of unsolved murder in London in 1975
• Ulla Burchardt (born 1954), politician (SPD)
• Klaus Segbers (born 1954), political scientist and professor
• Antony Theodore (born 1954), poet, educator and social worker
• Susanne Kippenberger (born 1957), journalist and writer
• Achim Peters (born 1957), obesity specialist
• Barbara Havliza (born 1958), politician (CDU) and judge
• Dietmar Bär (born 1961), actor
• Stefan Heinig (born 1962), director and shareholder
• Martin Zawieja (born 1963), weightlifter
• Ralf Husmann (born 1964), writer, producer and author
• Vincent Mennie (born 1964), Scottish footballer
• Matthias Kohring (born 1965), media and communications scientist
• Marco Werner (born 1966), racing driver
• André Erkau (born 1968), director and screenwriter
• Florian Schwarthoff (born 1968), hurdler, bronze medallist in 110m hurdles at the 1996 Olympic Games
• Yasemin Şamdereli (born 1973), film director and screenwriter
• Kevin Grosskreutz (born 1988), football player
• Marco Reus (born 1989), football player

Discover more about Notable people related topics

Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus

Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus

Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus was a German encyclopedia publisher and editor, famed for publishing the Conversations-Lexikon, which is now published as the Brockhaus encyclopedia.

Emil Anneke

Emil Anneke

Emil Anneke was a German revolutionary and Forty-Eighter and American journalist, lawyer and politician. From 1863 until 1866 he served as Michigan Auditor General, the first Republican serving in that position. Emil was the younger brother of U.S. colonel and former German revolutionary commander Fritz Anneke, his sister-in-law was the famous German-American writer, college founder, abolitionist and suffragette Mathilde Anneke.

Henry C. Berghoff

Henry C. Berghoff

Henry Carl Berghoff was a German-American politician, lawyer, and businessman who cofounded the Herman Berghoff Brewing Company and served as the 19th Mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana from May 9, 1901 to January 10, 1906.

Adolf Schmal

Adolf Schmal

Felix Adolf Schmal was an Austrian fencer and racing cyclist. He was born in Dortmund and died in Salzburg. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.

Friedrich Schubert

Friedrich Schubert

Friedrich "Fritz" Schubert was a Greek-speaking German NCO Oberfeldwebel (Sergeant) of the Nazi Wehrmacht. As head of the Jagdkommando Schubert, a semi-independent paramilitary force he terrorized the civilian population during the Nazi occupation of Greece in World War II and he committed numerous atrocities in Crete and Macedonia.

Fritz Henle

Fritz Henle

Fritz Henle was a German-born photographer, known as "Mr. Rollei" for his use of the 2.25" square format film used in the Rolleiflex camera. Called, "the last classic freelance photographer" by photohistorian, Helmut Gernsheim, he had a career spanning more than 60 years, during which he amassed an archive of more than 110,000 negatives, representing images of Europe, India, Japan, Hawai, the United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean.

Albrecht Brandi

Albrecht Brandi

Albrecht Brandi was a German U-boat commander in Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. Together with Wolfgang Lüth, he was the only Kriegsmarine sailor who was awarded with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds. The Knight's Cross, and its variants were the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. Brandi is credited with the sinking of eight merchant ships for a total of 25,879 gross register tons (GRT), one auxiliary warship of 810 GRT, and three warships of 5,000 long tons.

Dieter Wellershoff

Dieter Wellershoff

Dieter Wellershoff was a German admiral and Chief of Federal Armed Forces Staff from 1986 until 1991.

Gerhard Cyliax

Gerhard Cyliax

Gerhard Cyliax was a German footballer who played as a defender for Borussia Dortmund.

Elga Andersen

Elga Andersen

Elga Andersen was a German actress and singer. She starred in more than one dozen French films in the 1950s and 1960s and also debuted as a recording artist in the 1950s. She performed the songs "Treu sein" and "Sündenlied" in the 1961 film The Guns of Navarone, and co-starred in the 1971 Steve McQueen film Le Mans. Together with her second husband, Peter Gimbel, she embarked on a 1981 diving expedition of the sunken SS Andrea Doria.

Hans Tilkowski

Hans Tilkowski

Hans Tilkowski was a German footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He played for West Germany, and was a member of the team that lost the 1966 World Cup final to England.

Dieter Fenske

Dieter Fenske

Dieter Fenske is a German inorganic chemist.