Humanity prevails as fans stand together in Dortmund

On the morning after the night on which the Borussia Dortmund team bus was hit by three explosions, shocking this Ruhr district city, the fans were not about to let the incident intimidate them.

Instead, what could have been a frightening situation was made much calmer by countless shows of humanity and hospitality by Dortmund fans towards their guests from Monaco.

Amid the police sirens that have become almost normal in the last several hours, the simple gesture of giving a fellow football fan and complete stranger a roof over their head, some food - and often a few beers - has underlined the best side of humanity.

Fans come together

Football fans have come together and demonstrated that society will not accept such acts of terror.

Kevin Correa, a Monaco fan from Paris, traveled to Dortmund for the game and, like thousands who made the journey from France, was among those left stranded with nowhere to stay.

"I was standing outside the away entrance at Signal Iduna Park waiting to enter the stadium when the announcement was made that the game had been canceled," Correa told DW.

 

"My friend and I were a little bit worried. We were thinking that we have traveled nine hours from France to be at the game and now we have nowhere to stay. What are we going to do? Then a Dortmund fan came from nowhere and asked us if we needed somewhere to stay for the night. That was at least half an hour before the #bedforawayfans hashtag even started to trend on Twitter and Instagram," Correa stressed.

"I was a little shocked that he offered but I know German people and Dortmund fans are very nice and generous people. We saw that when the team played games against Liverpool and St. Etienne."

'He even has Dortmund wallpaper!'

"It was very spontaneous and we said yes immediately. We traveled with him by train to Düsseldorf and he had a very nice house! We slept on the sofa and he gave us somewhere to shower, something to eat and even some beer. It was amazing," the Monaco fan said.

"He is a season-ticket holder on the Südtribune and a passionate Dortmund fan. He even has Dortmund wallpaper!"

These kinds of stories are not isolated. Borussia Dortmund's official Twitter feed, which did a great job of calmly informing fans of the facts and ensuring false rumors didn't spread on Tuesday night, promoted the #bedforawayfans hashtag. It is thought that hundreds of Monaco fans were offered a place to stay.

 

AS Monaco have also been praised for their speedy gesture of offering all traveling fans 80 euros ($84.50) to help with accommodation costs in the city. The hotels in Dortmund were heavily booked and the offer of financial assistance was another symbolic gesture that showed that the football clubs and fans were helping each other through a difficult moment.

As the Kevin Correa put it: "We have values that are stronger than those who want to hurt us."

Nowhere has this been shown to be more true than in Dortmund over the past 24 hours. With the police presence visibly stepped up as federal investigators took over the investigation, all indications are that we can expect the football community to stand up again on Wednesday night, when the game finally goes ahead at 18:45 local time.