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Rivalries

What is Der Klassiker, and how did it become German football's biggest match?

Bayern against Dortmund is not a local derby — it is a rivalry built on two decades of title races, contested transfers and one European final.

By MiaSanMia Editorial · Last updated

Accuracy note. The running head-to-head totals are not listed here because they change with every meeting and are easy to publish wrongly. The landmark matches below are documented results.

The landmarks

Biggest Bayern win

11–1

Bundesliga, November 1971

Champions League final

2–1

Wembley, 25 May 2013

Distance apart

~600 km

Munich to Dortmund

Consecutive Bayern titles

11

2012-13 to 2022-23

How the rivalry developed

Der Klassiker is a modern invention. The clubs are around 600 kilometres apart and share no local history, and the name was coined for international audiences in the 2010s — which is precisely when the fixture started deciding titles.

The heat came from three things happening at once. Dortmund, under Jürgen Klopp, won the Bundesliga in 2011 and 2012 and beat Bayern 5–2 in the 2012 cup final. Bayern responded by winning the treble in 2013 and by signing Dortmund's players: Mario Götze in 2013, Mats Hummels in 2016, and Robert Lewandowski on a free transfer in 2014. Each deal was legal, well-timed and deeply resented.

The result is a rivalry that runs one way emotionally. For Dortmund it is the defining fixture; for Bayern it is the biggest of many. That asymmetry is the most misunderstood thing about it in English coverage.

The matches that defined it

The 11–1 in November 1971 remains Bayern's record Bundesliga win and Dortmund's heaviest defeat. The 2012 cup final, won 5–2 by Dortmund, was the high point of Klopp's side. Then came Wembley in 2013: the first all-German European Cup final, settled 2–1 by an Arjen Robben goal in the 89th minute, with Bayern completing the treble days later.

Other historic rivalries

TSV 1860 München

The original Munich rivalry. 1860 were the city's leading club when the Bundesliga launched in 1963 — Bayern were left out — and won the title in 1966. The clubs have not met in the top flight since 2004.

Borussia Mönchengladbach

The defining rivalry of the 1970s, when the two clubs shared almost every league title of the decade and represented opposite ideas of how football should be played.

Real Madrid

The most frequent pairing in European Cup history. Bayern's record against them in Munich was strong enough that the Spanish press called the club Real's bestia negra.

Look up individual results in the archive →