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TFU · THE LEDGER · FOUNDED · 2026-09-15

A Priest Tried To Stop Borussia Dortmund Existing | FOUNDED Ep. 7

REEL · ENTRY OF 174 · ARCHIVE OF RECORD

Dortmund, 19 December 1909. A group of young men break away from their parish youth association to form a football club — and their chaplain tries to stop the meeting before it starts.

THE DESK — NOTES & REMARKS

Seventh entry in the FOUNDED series. Companion films: Inter, Newcastle, Chelsea, and the Manchester derby two-parter, all on the channel.

THE LOWDOWN — THE FULL HISTORY

THE MEETING

Dortmund, 19 December 1909. The Zum Wildschütz pub. A group of young men gather to break away from their parish youth association — and when their chaplain, Hubert Dewald, arrives to stop the meeting, he is refused entry. The meeting goes ahead. Borussia Dortmund is born.

THE NINETEENTH MAN

Eighteen founders are officially credited. But the club's own museum also credits a nineteenth: a travelling waiter who helped make it happen and never became a member.

THE NAME

Borussia is traced to a local brewery that had already gone bankrupt eight years before the club existed.

THE COLOURS

Not black and yellow at first — blue and white with a red sash, until 1913.

THE ARC

From one pub room to the Champions League and the Yellow Wall.

Borussia DortmundBundesliga

MORE FROM FOUNDED

THE TERRACES — DISCUSSION

The argument also lives in the YouTube comments ↗.

THE FOOTBALL UNIVERSE — EVERY REEL. EVERY STORY. ENTERED, DATED, KEPT.