A crowdfunded film documenting the origins of Borussia Dortmund and the life of founding father Franz Jacobi premiered on Sunday night, with several BVB players among the audience of 600 at a local cinema.
In 2013, three Dortmund supporters -- Marc Quambusch, Gregor Schnittker, and Jan-Henrik Gruszecki -- started a crowdfunding campaign to fund a movie about Jacobi, one of the 18 founding fathers of the club in 1909.
Some 3,000 BVB fans donated to the movie as well as sponsors, the club and several supporters of other Bundesliga clubs. When the funding phase ended the filmmakers had a budget of over €250,000, making it the most successful crowdfunding campaign ever in Germany.
On Sunday, the film "Am Borsigplatz Geboren -- Franz Jacobi und die Wiege des BVB" (Born at the Borsigplatz -- Franz Jacobi and the cradle of BVB) premiered at a Dortmund cinema.
Impressionen von der @FranzJacobi1909-Filmpremiere #bvb pic.twitter.com/oriSzuay6l
- Borussia Dortmund (@BVB) March 15, 2015
"This movie reflects what Borussia Dortmund is all about. Tears well in my eyes," Dortmund-born BVB midfielder Kevin Grosskreutz told German paper Ruhr Nachrichten.
"[It is] a fantastic cinematic monument for BVB and the city of Dortmund," former captain Sebastian Kehl told the club's official website, while Dortmund president Reinhard Rauball noted that "without [Franz Jacobi] we all would not be here today."
Referring to the ageing protagonists of the movie, writer Quambusch said: "In 10 years' time we would not have been able to shoot that film."
Gruszecki wrote on Twitter following the premiere: "Thanks everyone. My life has had a purpose. Borussia Dortmund."