Germany, Dortmund

Dortmund is a city in Germany, located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 587,830 (20 June 2005) makes it the largest city in the region, 7th-largest in Germany, and 34th-largest in the European Union.

Dortmund is known as Westphalia's "green metropolis". Nearly half the municipal territory consists of waterways, woodland, agriculture and green spaces with spacious parks such as Westfalenpark and the Rombergpark. This contrasts with nearly a hundred years of extensive coal mining and steel milling within the city limits.

History

The history of Dortmund goes back as far as 880 to 885, when the city was first mentioned in official documents as Throtmanni. It was a small village at that time. In 1152 Emperor Frederick Barbarossa came to the region and rebuilt the town, which had been destroyed in a fire shortly before.

Dortmund was an Imperial Free City in the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle until 1802, when it became an exclave of the Principality of Orange-Nassau. In 1806 it became part of the Grand Duchy of Berg. After the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815 during the Napoleonic Wars, Dortmund was included within the Prussian Province of Westphalia.

Today the city is a centre for hi-tech industry. It is also one of the greenest cities in Westphalia, with extensive parks and gardens laid out in the reconstruction period after the World War II.

Sports

Dortmund is home of the sport club Borussia Dortmund which won the UEFA Champions League and the Intercontinental Cup in 1997, as well as the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup against Liverpool in 1966.

Borussia Dortmund also has a women's handball team playing in the first Bundesliga, while the table tennis team and the basketball team SVD 49 Dortmund play their respective second national divisions.

Transportation

Dortmund Airport is a medium-sized, but quickly growing airport 13 km (8 miles) east of the city centre at the city limit to Holzwickede.

The central train station (Dortmund Hauptbahnhof) is the third largest long distance traffic junction in Germany. Dortmund Harbour (Hafen) is the largest canal harbour in Europe; almost as large as the harbour on the Rhine River at Duisburg, the world's largest inland port.