BV Borussia 09 - last updated on 1 June 2008
(Courtesy of Jakub Malicki)
Club name: Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund
Foundation: December 19th 1909
City: Dortmund
Colours: Yellow and black
Website: www.bvb.de
Honours:
German Champions - 6 (1955/56, 1956/57, 1962/63, 1994/95, 1995/96, 2001/02)
DFB Pokal (German Cup) - 2 (1964/65, 1988/99)
UEFA Champions League - 1 (1996/97)
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup - 1 (1965/66)
Intercontinental Cup - 1 (1997)
A bit of history:
Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. is one of the most successful clubs in German football, based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia.
The club was founded on December 19, 1909 by a group of young men unhappy with church-sponsored Trinity Youth, where they played football under the stern and unsympathetic eye of the local parish priest. Father Dewald was blocked at the door when he tried to break up the organizing meeting being held in a room of the local pub, Zum Wildschütz. The name Borussia is Latin for Prussia and was taken from the nearby Borussia brewery. The team began play in blue and white striped shirts with a red sash, and black shorts. In 1913, they donned the black and yellow strip so familiar today.
Over the next decades the club enjoyed only modest success playing in local leagues. They had a brush with bankruptcy in 1929 when an attempt to boost the club's fortunes by signing some paid professional footballers failed miserably and left the team deep in debt. They survived only through the generosity of a local supporter who covered the team's shortfall out of his own pocket.
The 30s saw the rise of the Third Reich which restructured sports and football organizations throughout the nation to suit the regime's goals. Borussia's president was replaced when he refused to join the Nazi party, and a couple of members who surreptitiously used the club's offices to produce anti-Nazi pamphlets were executed in the last days of the war. The club did have greater success in the newly established Gauliga, but would have to wait until after World War II to make a breakthrough. It was during this time that Borussia developed its intense rivalry with FC Schalke 04, the most successful side of the era. Like every other organization in Germany, Borussia was dissolved by the Allied occupation authorities after the war in an attempt to distance the country's institutions from the so-recent Nazi past. There was a short-lived attempt to merge the club with two others - Werksportgemeinschaft Hoesch and Freier Sportverein 98 – as Sportgemeinschaft Borussia von 1898, but it was as Ballspiel-Verein Borussia (BVB) that they made their first appearance in the national final in 1949 where they lost 2:3 to VfR Mannheim.
The Oberliga West, a first division league which included Borussia, dominated German football through the late 50s. The club claimed its first national title in 1956, followed up with another win the next season, and then made a losing appearance in the 1961 final.
Club crests: (roll on the crest to get more informations)
BV Borussia 09 -
Founded on December 19th 1909
