Before there was Knight Rider, there was Eintracht Frankfurt and West Germany playmaker Jürgen Grabowski. 

Harald “Toni” Schumacher wasn’t the brute he was made out to be but a pensive literate intellectual who enjoyed his spare time in the passenger seat with a good book.  

Frank Lippmann, the man who fled East Germany and left his family behind in 1986.  The former Dynamo Dresden player left his team after a match Cup Winners Cup quarter final  against Bayer Uerdingen and vowed in a press conference in the west to never return.  He later played for Nürnberg and Waldhof Mannheim.

This week marks the 40th anniversary of West Germany’s historic 3-1 win at Wembley against England in the quarter finals of the 1972 European Championship.  To this day many still consider that Germany’s greatest ever National side. 

The last time a team other than Bayern München won Bundesliga titles back to back was Borussia Dortmund in 1995 and 1996.  Above Matthias Sammer and Stefan Reuter celebrate one of those titles.  

Former teammates at Rot Weiss Ahlen and Dortmund teammates come the 2012/13 season, Marco Reus and Kevin Grosskreutz.  

One of the earliest encounters between Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Mönchengladbach, the first Bundesliga match in fact, took place in September 1965.  It remains to this day one of the best between the two.  A crazy back and forth finished 5-4 in Dortmund’s favor.  Günter Netzer scored twice for Gladbach while Dortmund striker Lothar Emmerich netted a hattrick. 

One of Borussia Mönchengladbach’s biggest wins in Dortmund was in March 1997, beating the defending champions 3-1 at the Westfalenstadion.  Above Dortmund’s Stephane Chapuisat struggles against Gladbach captain Stefan Effenberg. 

Real Madrid’s Zinedine Zidane against Bayern München captain Stefan Effenberg in the 2001/02 Champions League semi final.  

With their 1-0 win against Bayern on Matchday 30 of the 2011/12 season, Borussia Dortmund became only the second side to beat Bayern München four times in a row in the league.  The last was Werder Bremen under Otto Rehhagel between 1991 and 1993.  Lewandowski’s backheel flick was the match winning goal in this top of the table clash.