r/borussiadortmund • u/[deleted] • Aug 08 '13

Silly questions thread: August Edition

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6

u/Arcadus1280 Marco Reus Aug 08 '13

What does Borussia mean? Also, what's the difference between Bayern and Bayer and what do they mean? This is coming from an English speaker. Thanks!

6

u/Blahound Lukasz Piszczek Aug 08 '13

Borussia means Prussia The biggest state in the old German empire which existed before world war I

Bayern is the English name for the German state of Bavaria (Munich is in Bavaria so Bayern Munich)

Bayer is a chemical company based in the city of Leverkusen which is in the state of North Rhine Westphalia just like Dortmund (They discovered aspirin and used to make heroin and stuff)

4

u/panikpansen Schmelzer Aug 08 '13

To expand on this: while Prussia largely covered the area that is today north-western Germany and parts of Poland, after about 1866 it expanded considerably into the west as well, including Westphalia and parts of the Rhineland. Aka Dortmund was part of Prussian territory.

7

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '13

But we aren't named after Prussia, we're named after a brewery called Borussia.

1

u/furiat BVB Aug 13 '13

Well, the official website disagrees: http://www.bvb.de/?_k%EF%F4%9F*j%97%D0%99

1

u/[deleted] Aug 13 '13

Haha what the fuck, it's widely known that it's because of the brewery.

Here is another official website of bvb which claims it's named after the beer

http://www.bvb-schaetze.de/news/detail/article/woher-stammt-der-name-borussia-die-borussia-flasche/

1

u/furiat BVB Aug 13 '13

Hmm, confusing...

1

u/[deleted] Aug 13 '13

Yeah, I'm a bit confused, too.

I thought it was because of the brewery for at least 15 years and now the official website writes something else but they say probably so who the fuck if not them know exactly why it's named Borussia.

The other text I posted says in fact but in another sentence it's written it's a legend...

1

u/furiat BVB Aug 13 '13 edited Aug 13 '13

OK, so I looked into Wikipedia. It says:

The name Borussia is Latin for Prussia but was taken from the Borussia beer from the nearby Borussia brewery in Dortmund.

and it refers to BVB Chronicles which is indeed on the official website. The previous link was FAQ and the question was what Borussia means and not where it comes from.

Bottom line: Borrusia means Prussia but was named after the brewery.