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The current season could hardly be better for Borussia Dortmund. Undefeated, coach Lucien Favre is at the end of the 13th day with seven points ahead of the first of the table, nine points in front of Bayern. In the Champions League, the BVB has already qualified for the last 16 games before the last group match.
Progress in the top clbad is also badured by FC Schalke, otherwise it is moving this season but not in Gelsenkirchen. Started as a finalist of the season, the club is difficult to climb the table and is currently ranked 12th, three points in front of the place of relegation.
Although the season has varied between the two clubs, with Saturday's match (15:30, live broadcast SPIEGEL ONLINE, TV: Sky), the ranking of the previous season can change significantly. Because the Revierderby is much more than a normal Bundesliga match for both clubs. Dortmund against Schalke, it's the biggest rivalry of German football. No meeting electrifies as many fans as this game.
Learn more about friendships and rivalries in German football in our Fanatlas.
Compared to other world football competitions, this duel has a relatively short history. For a long time, the matches of both clubs were not tied, Schalke had one of the best teams in the country much earlier. It was only after the end of the Second World War that Borussia slowly developed into a serious competitor. Since then, the question arises for generations of football fans from the Ruhr region: Schalke or Dortmund?
Thus, they will be Saturday in the pubs of Moers in Hagen and Essen in Recklinghausen and will sing optional songs in black and yellow or in royal blue. But even in Münster, Aachen and Bonn, harsh discussions are inevitable. Because the question of the club to which the heart belongs divides not only families and friends, but the whole region.
Borussia Dortmund dominates the eastern district and extends its influence to the Rhineland. In East Westphalia, the club is decisive. Schalke has his fans mostly in the western regions of the Ruhr area. The influence extends to the northwest until the border with the Netherlands. But the fans are not limited to North Rhine-Westphalia.
Schalke and Dortmund are among the most successful German football clubs and have fans well beyond the borders of their own pool. Although the BVB has more supporters in Germany as a whole, especially since the successes of the mid-90s, there are also many areas in which fans of Schalke dominate. There are many miners in the region between Nuremberg and Stuttgart and in southern Baden-Württemberg.
Both clubs are also closely linked to other German football clubs. It is known from the BVB that fans have maintained friendly contacts over the years with different clubs, such as Hamburger SV, SC Freiburg or 1 FC Cologne. Some have fallen asleep, others still exist. The Gelsenkirchen are less busy: it is an intimate friendship with 1. FC Nuremberg.
However, it is also interesting to note that the sympathies of the members of the TSG Hoffenheim are even more evident in Schalke than in those of Nuremberg. Indeed, some club fans consider the BVB as sympathetic, while Hoffenheimer explicitly hates black and yellow.
The fanatlas show: Schalke 04 against Borussia Dortmund is a game that moves not only fans of both clubs or the Ruhr area, but also football in Germany.
Learn more about friendships and rivalries in German football in our Fanatlas.
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