Episode 23 Good Afternoon Herr Oberbürgermeister - Guest Ulli Sierau Mayor of Dortmund 2009-2020

Thank you for your interest in the BvB London fan community podcast as every week the focus of the show will be on exploring a facet of B​orussia Dortmund's life by talking to experts and former participants of the club's life.

People like players, fans and journalists who have covered the club and decision-makers and experts who know the world of all our club well.

The aim of the podcast is to make this wonderful football club more accessible to non-German speakers. The podcast may also be of interest to German football fans who want to learn or practice English.

On today's show, the interview guest is the Lord Mayor of Dortmund, and a  life-long BVB supporter

Ulli Sierrau studied to be and worked as a town planner at the TU in Dortmund the technical university. He later joined the SPD social democratic party, similar to the Labour party in UK, and was elected mayor of the football city of Dortmund in 2009 and was reelected in 2014 to run the city of over 600,000 inhabitants.  

 

But Ulli is not originally from Dortmund, he was born in Halle in the Eastern part of Germany, his family left the former GDR whilst he was a teenager in the former communist era and moved initially to Wolfsburg where he finished his secondary education before he moved to Dortmund.

 

Following University Ulli worked in a range of departments of the city of Dortmund and was then elected mayor as a successor to Gerhard Langemeyer as mayor he oversaw many impressive developments including that of the Phoenixsee an artificial lake and waterside neighbourhood in the neighbourhood of Hoerde on the site of the former steel mill of Thyssen Krupp .

The project created housing investment worth hundreds of millions of euro and one of the Ruhr valleys most popular locations for cycling and water sports including sailing. 

 

During the 2000's Dortmund has continued it's advancement from former steel and coal-mining city also known of course for its many breweries to a city of high tech and financial services company including of course Signal Iduna. The city is also home to the DFB football museum and is a popular shopping destination and the Westfalenhalle is a very popular conference centre. Dortmund attracts over 1.7m overnight visitors per year including many who of course visit the games of Borussia Dortmund. 

 

1. Ulli's early life and move to Dortmund and university years including studies in Oxford and time working in London. How he came to be a BVB fan.  

 

3. Impressions of BVB including 1989, 95, 2002 the triumphs and the financial crisis of 2005 and the double. The people, the events that made the those special achievements. Stories about Sir Alec Ferguson, Boris Johnson. 

 

4. Mayor of Dortmund and the challenges of the job and achievements including the major development at the Phoenix Lake in Dortmund. 

 

5. The Klopp era, mayor and not a second too soon, overseeing a glorious era the celebrations, the parades and the stars. What's Klopp really like?  

 

6. BVB and Tourism how does the city benefit from football visitors, the UK military past in Dortmund, a connection with the UK that is enduring in the life of the region.

 

The Bergmann Brewery Kiosk bar is of course at Hoher Wall 36 in Dortmund.

 

We hope you enjoy the show, remember to send us your comments, share the show with friends and to apply for tickets contact the club via the website which is borussiadortmundlondon.co.uk or join the London BvB community at our online group at Facebook.com/borussiadortmundfanclubengland.

 

During the season you can also come to watch a game at our meet-up Stammtisch at the Naughty Bar, just off Oxford Street, in Cleveland street central London.

 

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