Between football home and industrial romance – get to know Dortmund
The largest city in the Ruhr region is particularly well known among sports enthusiasts: after all, it is home to Borussia Dortmund rel=‘noopener’>Borussia Dortmund, one of Germany’s most successful football clubs, is based here, and the Signal Iduna Park stadium, with around 81,000 seats, is the largest football stadium in the country. In addition, the German Football Museum opened in 2015 directly opposite Dortmund Central Station, where visitors can discover the most important moments in German football history.
But Dortmund is also a multifaceted city that has undergone structural change from a coal and steel metropolis to a service and technology hub, and is now considered a centre for the insurance sector and retail trade. The traces of the former mining industry are now impressive sites of industrial culture. Among other things, the LWL Industrial Museum is located in the Zeche Zollern, while several other important points on the Route der Industriekultur are located within the city limits of Dortmund. A visit to the site therefore offers an opportunity in many ways to learn more about the history and identity of the Ruhr area.