Der Klassiker or Borussia Dortmund – Bayern Munich. Where was the rivalry born?

Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund are the two most successful football teams in Germany. Together they have collected 24 of the last 28 Bundesliga titles. Where was their rivalry born?

It is often said that there is no great rivalry between Borussia and Bayern. In terms of history, you won’t really find any rivalry or hatred, it was only born in recent years when the two teams started competing for the league title.

For Dortmund, the biggest rival is Schalke 04, Revierderby has a really great history. Bayern, on the other hand, had a history of rivalry with Nuremberg, and in the seventies there was animosity with Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Yet Der Klassiker is the most watched game in Germany. They are, after all, the two most successful teams of recent years, and at the start of the last decade they fought a thrilling title battle. In recent years, however, Bayern have completely dominated Germany and have regularly been able to take on both Borussia and the entire league.

Historically, the two teams met for the first time on 16 October 1965. Borussia beat Bayern 2-0 in Munich. Although Bayern is historically more successful and boasts more trophies, Borussia was the first to start Germany’s glory in Europe.

In the 1965/66 season, Dortmund won the Cup Winners’ Cup, becoming the first German side to win a European Cup. Bayern won the same competition the following season.

In 1971, Bayern defeated Borussia 11-1, its highest Bundesliga win and Dortmund’s second highest defeat.

The rivalry between the two clubs began to grow stronger in the 1990s, at the same time as Borussia grew as a club. The latter wanted to attack Bayern, having won two consecutive titles in 1995 and 1996.

In 1996, Bayern captain Lothar Matthäus accused Dortmund player and German national teammate Andreas Möller of being a cry baby as he wiped imaginary tears from his face. Möller’s reaction? He slapped Matthäus.

At the end of that season, Möller enjoyed a sweet reward. For Borussia had won the Champions League and the final was played at the Olympiastadion, Bayern Munich’s home ground.

In 1998, the rivalry flared even more when Bayern poached successful coach Ottmar Hitzfeld from Dortmund. Subsequent matches were quite acrimonious, with Bayern goalkeeper Oliver Kahn first attempting a kung-fu kick on Chapuisat, later biting the ear of Heiko Herrlich.

At the start of the new century, both teams remained quite successful. Bayern won the Champions League in 2001, while Dortmund dominated the Bundesliga in the 2001/02 season, plus the UEFA Cup. 2001 saw the wildest encounter, with 10 yellow cards and three red cards, a Bundesliga record.

But Dortmund subsequently fell into huge debt, which Bayern helped them out of. In 2004, the Bavarian giant lent Borussia €2 million, which was the main reason why the Westphalian outfit did not go bankrupt.

After problems caused by lack of finances, Borussia started to claw its way back to the top around 2010. The young coach Jürgen Klopp put together a very strong team around Marco Reus, Robert Lewandowski, Matts Hummels or Mario Götze and started to dominate the Bundesliga.

Borussia won the league title in both 2011 and 2012 and won the hearts of millions of fans around the world with their attractive approach to the game. In the 2011/12 season Borussia completed their first ever double over Bayern, beating them 5-2 in the DFB-Pokal final, with a hat-trick by Lewandowski.

The 2012/13 season confirmed the dominance of German football. Borussia Dortmund went past Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals, Bayern Munich demolished Barcelona. In the final played at Wembley, Bayern were the lucky ones, as Robben scored with a minute to go to make it 2-1.

The spring of 2013 was also marked by one piece of news. Rising superstar of German football and golden child of Borussia Dortmund Mario Götze is transferring to Bayern Munich, who paid his buyout clause.

A year later, another blow came for Borussia fans. At the end of the season, Robert Lewandowski’s contract expired and he went to Bayern Munich for free.

Two years later, in 2016, he completed Bayern’s “robbery hat trick”. From Borussia they had already acquired a striker, a midfielder and still needed a defender. The route Signal Iduna Park – Allianz Arena was completed by Borussia captain Mats Hummels.

In recent years, Borussia have had their problems and the rivalry has waned. Since 2013, nobody but Bayern has won the Bundesliga, Borussia usually pulls the short end of the stick in their matches.

Source: Wikipedia