Der Klassiker: Bayern, Dortmund and Germany's biggest clash

Der Klassiker pits two very different footballing identities against each other. Bayern Munich are the establishment — Germany's dominant, serially successful, financially imposing superclub. Borussia Dortmund cast themselves as the challenger with soul: younger, bolder, backed by a vast and passionate support. The fixture works because it frames a familiar football tension — the machine against the insurgents — on the grandest German stage.

Unlike derbies rooted in a shared city, Der Klassiker is a rivalry of the modern era, forged when Dortmund rose to genuinely challenge Bayern's supremacy with an exciting, high-energy team. That period turned occasional meetings into a defining fixture, and the name itself — borrowed from the idea of a 'classic' showpiece — signalled its arrival as the game the whole country stops to watch.

The rivalry reached the pinnacle of the club game when the two met in an all-German Champions League final at Wembley, with Bayern edging it in a tight and dramatic contest. That night announced German football's strength to the world and cemented the pair as its two defining forces. It also sharpened the domestic edge: for Dortmund, coming so close made every subsequent meeting matter more.

Part of what fuels the rivalry is the flow of talent. Bayern's habit of signing Dortmund's best players over the years has bred lasting resentment, casting the superclub as a rival who does not just beat you but weakens you. That dynamic — the giant absorbing the challenger's stars — adds a bitter, personal edge to a fixture already defined by the gap in power the two sides are forever contesting.