Myth or Reality of the Revier Derby? Schalke 04 versus Borussia Dortmund (1947-2007)

For the Ruhr district, an urban area in the North-West of Germany, the meeting of the two most popular and successful football clubs in the region, Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund, has for years been a polarising, emotional and sensational sporting event. No where else in the country and in no other sport more than in football is the rivalry between the football clubs and its fans so strong still today. Is this so called Revier derby a constructed myth or real history? Considering the derbies in the regional print media with the help of a content analysis and facing them with sport and regional history show at least two things: from the 1930s till the 1970s a long period of friendly partnership existed between the two clubs. Later, the emotional derby character of the match increased while a general regional identity developed in the Ruhr district since the 1980s, and even more since the 1990s. The socio-economical crisis in the mining industry and the increasing violence in the football stadiums supported this trend. The claim of a 'historical' existence of the Revier derby traced back till the early period of the Revier football is hence a media-prone, artificially created myth.