Dortmund, Arnsberg Region, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

🇩🇪 Dortmund is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the largest city of the Ruhr, Germany's largest urban area, as well as the largest city of Westphalia. Dortmund is situated on the Emscher and Ruhr rivers, it lies in the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region and is considered the administrative, commercial, and cultural centre of the eastern Ruhr. Dortmund is also the second-largest city in the Low German dialect area.

Founded around 882, Dortmund became an Imperial Free City. Throughout the 13th to 14th centuries, it was the "chief city" of the Rhine, Westphalia, and the Netherlands Circle of the Hanseatic League. During the Thirty Years' War, the city was destroyed and decreased in significance until the onset of industrialization. The city then became one of Germany's most important coal, steel and beer centres. Dortmund consequently was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany during World War II. The devastating bombing raids of 12 March 1945 destroyed 98% of buildings in the inner city center. These bombing raids, with more than 1,110 aircraft, hold the record to a single target in World War II.

The region has adapted since the collapse of its century long steel and coal industries and shifted to high-technology biomedical technology, micro systems technology, and also services. Dortmund was classified as a Node city in the Innovation Cities Index published by 2thinknow, ranked among the twelve innovation cities in European Union and is the most sustainable and digital city in Germany. Other key sectors include retail, leisure and the visitor economy, creative industries, and logistics. With its central station and airport, the third-busiest airport in North Rhine-Westphalia, Dortmund is an important transport junction, especially for the surrounding Ruhr area as well as Europe (Benelux countries), and with the largest canal port in Europe it has a connection to important seaports on the North Sea.

Dortmund is home to many cultural and educational institutions, including the Technical University of Dortmund and Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts, International School of Management and other educational, cultural and administrative facilities with over 49,000 students, many museums, such as Museum Ostwall, Museum of Art and Cultural History, German Football Museum, as well as theatres and music venues like the Konzerthaus or the Opera House of Dortmund. Nearly half the municipal territory consists of waterways, woodland, agriculture and green spaces with spacious parks such as Westfalenpark and Rombergpark. This stands in a stark contrast with nearly a hundred years of extensive coal mining and steel milling in the past. Borussia Dortmund is one of the most successful German football clubs.

Economy Dortmund has adapted since the collapse of its century long steel, coal and beer industries. The region has shifted to high technology, robotics, biomedical technology, micro systems technology, engineering, tourism, finance, education, services and is thus one of the most dynamic new-economy cities in Germany. In 2009, Dortmund was classified as a Node city in the Innovation Cities Index published by 2thinknow.

Hundreds of SMEs are still based in and around Dortmund (often termed Mittelstand). Dortmund is also home to a number of medium-sized information technology companies, many linked to the local university TU Dortmund at the first technology centre in Germany named "Technologiepark Dortmund" opened in the 1980s. With around 280 companies like Boehringer Ingelheim and Verizon Communications and more than 8,500 employees, TechnologiePark Dortmund is one of the most successful technology parks in Europe. The city works closely with research institutes, private universities, and companies to collaborate on the commercialisation of science initiatives. Furthermore, 680 IT and software companies with 12,000 employees are based in Dortmund, making the city one of Germany's biggest software locations. Two of the top 10 IT service provider in Germany are based in Dortmund – adesso SE and Materna Group.

Dortmund is home to many insurance companies e.g. Signal Iduna, Continentale Krankenversicherung, Bundesinnungskrankenkasse Gesundheit (BIG direkt) and Volkswohl Bund. In recent years a service sector and high-tech industry have grown up. Some of its most prominent companies of these sectors include Amprion and RWE-Westnetz (Electricity), Rhenus Logistics (Logistics), Wilo, KHS GmbH, Elmos Semiconductor, ABP Induction Systems, Nordwest Handel AG – all of whom have their headquarters here. Companies with operations in or around Dortmund include Zalando, Daimler AG: EvoBus, RapidMiner, Gap Inc. and ThyssenKrupp.

Dortmund is also the headquarter of Century Media Records, a heavy metal record label with offices in the United States and London. In August 2015, Century Media was acquired by Sony Music for US$17 million.

Tourist Industry Tourism in Dortmund is a fast-growing economic factor every year: new overnight records can be announced, new hotels open and new visitor magnets are added. Starting in the mid-1990s, Dortmund, formerly an industrial centre, saw rapid development that expanded its cultural and tourism possibilities, and transformed it into a newly vibrant city. An important strategic step was the start of construction the new Konzerthaus Dortmund, the reuse of vacant old industrial buildings like the Zollern II/IV Colliery, Kokerei Hansa, Dortmund U-Tower and the strategic reorientation of the Dortmund Christmas market with over 300 stalls packed around a gigantic Christmas tree creation that stands 45 metres tall – reputed to be the biggest in the world. A new Tourist Information centre right next to the U-Tower, gives visitors a quick overview of the tourist attractions in the City and Ruhr Area. Today Dortmund is with more than 1.450.528 (2017) overnight stays one of the most popular destinations in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The majority of tourists are domestic visitors, coming from Germany. International travellers arrive from the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland. Dortmund also draws business tourism, having been equipped with facilities like WILO, Amprion next to Westfalenhallen and football tourism with Fans of Borussia Dortmund. The top 5 most visited attractions were the Christmas market, with more than three and a half million visitors, Signal Iduna Park, Deutsches Fußballmuseum, Dortmund U-Tower, Zollern II/IV Colliery and Westfalenpark.

Retail The Westenhellweg is a popular shopping destination and with nearly 13,000 visitors per hour it was Germany's most frequented shopping street in 2013. During the Middle Ages, Dortmund was the only free imperial city in Westphalia, having already been regarded as an important centre of trade. Today some of the most reputed shops, department stores have stores here. It is a pedestrian-only area and is bordered by the Reinoldikirche in the east and U-Tower in the west. The Westenhellweg has one of the highest rents for retail and office space in North Rhine-Westphalia. 85 percent of the shops are retail chains such as H&M, Saturn, Esprit, Zara or NewYorker. In 2009 a new shopping mall named Thier-Galerie opened, with nearly 100 stores and chains, including; Armani, Adidas, Diesel and Hollister. Three more shopping malls occupy the Thier-Galerie; Galeria Kaufhof and Karstadt, as well as large fashion retail clothing stores from Peek & Cloppenburg and C&A. During the month before Christmas, the extended pedestrian-only zone is host to Dortmund Christmas Market, one of the largest and oldest Christmas markets in Germany. With more than 3.5 million visitors and 300 stalls around a gigantic Christmas tree that stands 45 metres tall, it is one of the most visited and popular market in the world.

In close proximity to the Dortmund concert hall lies the Brückstraßenviertel – a quarter hub especially for young people. The "Rue de Pommes Frites", which is what the Dortmund citizens have called the Brückstraße, has turned into a modern shopping promenade, geared towards a younger market.

For a long time, the Kampstraße had a shadowy existence as a parallel street to the Westenhellweg and Ostenhellweg, but it has become a grand boulevard containing specialist stores. Right next to the Kampstraße is the Kleppingstraße – a shopping street with a high concentration of gastronomy and expensive, prestigious shops like van Laack, Lindner Fashion, Marc Cain. It is located between the Ostenhellweg and Neutor to Wallring.

Port and logistics Dortmund is one of the most important logistic hubs in Germany, more than 900 companies working in logistics, as well as nationally and internationally recognised scientific institutes. Dortmund Port which terminates the Dortmund-Ems Canal connecting Dortmund to the North Sea is the biggest European canal port with 10 docks and a pier length of 11 km. The variety of different activities taking place at the Fraunhofer Institute Material Flow and Logistics (Fraunhofer Society) has, over the past few years, led to a bundling of skills in the areas of logistics and digitalisation in the city. Industry-based initiatives and pilot projects, such as the Hybrid Services in Logistics innovation lab, the efficiency cluster LogistikRuhr, Industrial Data Space, the Dortmund Mittelstand 4.0 Centre of Excellence, and the enterprise labs. The Digital Hub for Logistics of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy is based in Dortmund and twinned with Hamburg.

Companies with big logistic hubs for Germany and Europe in Dortmund include: • Amazon • IKEA • Decathlon • Rhenus Logistics • Schenker AG.

Fairs Dortmund is home to Germany's twelve biggest exhibition centre, Halls of Westphalia which lies near the city centre next to Dortmund Airport. With around 77.000 visitors each year, Jagd & Hund is by far the largest event held there. Other important fairs open to consumers include "Intermodelbau", the world's biggest consumer fair for model making, and one of the leading fairs for youth culture "YOU". Important fairs restricted to professionals include "D.I.M" (Deutsche Immobilienmesse, German property fair), 


Federal Agency and public organisations Dortmund is home of the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the National Material Testing Office of North Rhine-Westphalia material and the main customs office.