Working with Eurocities
For Dortmund, Eurocities provides valuable opportunities to exchange expertise, develop practical solutions and strengthen European cooperation.
Through the CONNECTION project, Dortmund worked with Athens, Stockholm and Cluj-Napoca to develop one-stop shops for migrant integration. This exchange supported the creation of the city’s Service Centre for Migration and Integration, MigraDo. Dortmund is now building on this work through the EU-funded CONSOLIDATE project, which runs until 2027.
The city also contributes to Eurocities’ advocacy by participating in the Pulse Mayors Survey and supporting joint positions on issues such as the future EU budget and solidarity with Ekrem İmamoğlu, Mayor of Istanbul.
The greatest value of membership is the direct access it provides to colleagues across Europe. Eurocities helps Dortmund share challenges, learn from other cities and build partnerships that turn ideas into practical local solutions.
What people need to know about the city
Dortmund is the 8th largest city in Germany and a vibrant centre within the Ruhr metropolis, centrally located in North-Rhine Westphalia. In the course of its history, Dortmund has had many titles – Free Imperial City, Hanseatic City, centre of industry, football capital – but one thing has remained constant: its function as a driver of change across the region.
With its strong industrial core, Dortmund is now a city of medium-sized companies and an important reference for technology, digitisation, education and services. It has transformed from a ‘city of coal, steel and beer’ into a high-technology location, which people from many different cultures like to call home. Dortmund is known today for its lively multicultural community, its start-ups, and its innovative entrepreneurs.
The city has embraced its industrial heritage and made it an integral part of its attractiveness. Visitors can discover the Zeche Zollern, a model colliery, take a walk along the Skywalk above the redeveloped Phoenix West site, where the old disused blast furnace sits alongside new technology and a service location gasometer, or stop by the Borussia Dortmund, also known as the ‘BVB’.
The history of Dortmund’s higher education is recent, the first of its seven universities dating back to 1968, and the city is already recognised as one of the leading scientific locations in Germany with over 50,000 students enrolled in Dortmund’s universities. The city has developed a unique innovation ecosystem that brings together diverse stakeholders from civil society, science, business, culture, and politics and was therefore named European Capital of Innovation in 2021, becoming the first German city to receive the award.
While keeping a strong link with its past, the city now focuses on mitigating climate change and promoting sustainability. It has been awarded the prize for Germany’s most sustainable city in 2014, and with 63% of the city made up of green areas, Dortmund is one of the greenest large cities in Germany. Thanks to the participation in urban development projects such as Phoenix Lake, the city’s inhabitants enjoy an attractive mix of green areas, commercial and leisure areas, and residential spaces.
Dortmund has one more passionate interest: football. It boasts Germany’s largest stadium, the Signal Iduna Park, and has a dedicated German Football Museum.
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Photo of the Mayor by Roland Gorecki.
