How can a football club tell its club history as vividly as possible? With worship pieces that make fan hearts beat faster. With multimedia stations that encourage active engagement with the team. And with exhibits that originate from the fans themselves.
All of this is offered by the Borusseum in the Dortmund Signal Iduna Park, the club museum of the Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. (short: Borussia Dortmund, even shorter: BVB). It presents itself with a yellow thread in the exhibition setup, opening showcases, a digital photo wall for souvenir pictures, as well as a sound space for the roaring of fan chants, acting as an interactive striker on the museum player field.
Guests exploring the permanent exhibition opened in 2008 discover a circuit diagram of the former ticket and seating management, where the once favorite seat can be easily identified with a bit of patience. They stop in front of the original jersey of Felipe Santana to remember the glorious moments of the center-back in the Champions League quarter-finals in 2013 against FC Malaga. Aspiring BVB cultists already succumb to the black-yellow football fever in the entrance area of the Borusseum. The large BVB-09 logo points the way like a North Star. It leads guests past giant images of the fan stand (then and now) as well as the names of supporters and sponsors.
Upon arriving in the exhibition area, individual memorabilia shine as they are placed in their historical football context: Among them is a commemorative plate with signatures of the squad that was issued for the German Championship in 1963, or the first jersey of Borussia – blue-white striped, with a red sash. Unimaginable today! Families stop in front of the portrait of the founder Franz Jacobi and the first chairman Heinrich Unger to engage more closely with the football personalities and their achievements. It’s clear that the club pioneers are represented at this point.
Even better, the fan culture in the museum is not neglected: A multimedia room with a monitor wall and the fan chant line "… together through the valley of tears, hand in hand…" sets the motto for the further visit... Fan coats line up next to each other, small artworks and self-knitted fan scarves are displayed in showcases here.
Guests learn during their approximately one and a half hour tour – between moments of astonishment – that the south stand, as the home of BVB fans, is just as much a melting pot of emotions as it is a place of impressive fan actions. With space for around 25,000 people, it is the metronome of the cheering in the stadium, as impressive images even prove to skeptics. More can ultimately be read in the museum’s own BVB chronicle, which can also score with illustrious stories such as the "breast holder affair" in the museum game.
