The German Football Museum (German: Deutsches Fußballmuseum) aka DFB-Museum is the national museum for German football in Dortmund, Germany. It opened on 23 October 2015.^[2]

After the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, the German Football Association (German: Deutscher Fußball-Bund [ˈdɔʏtʃɐ ˈfuːsbalˌbʊnt]; DFB [ˌdeːʔɛfˈbeː]) decided to finance the establishment of a national German soccer museum. In May 2007, the DFB Presidium shortlisted the cities of Cologne, Oberhausen, Gelsenkirchen and Dortmund from the 14 cities that had applied as a location for the football museum, locating museum in the most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia. At a Bundestag of the DFB on 24 April 2009, the delegates decided on a location close to the city center south of Dortmund's Central Station, which had been previously used as a bus station. The area is part of an art and culture mile between the Dortmund U creative center and the Theater Dortmund concert hall.^{[citation needed]}

The German Football Museum is intended to be a living place of remembrance and experience of German football history. The focus is on information about historical football events and the development of sport in all its facets as well as social and societal issues relating to football. "The museum should be designed specifically to be visitor-oriented and strive for a high quality of experience and attractiveness. It should inform, stimulate thought, surprise, touch, inspire - in one word: entertain. To do this, it uses the most modern exhibition concepts and media. "The museum is intended to serve as a" forum for encounters and discussions for [...] fans and clubs, friends and supporters, partners and sponsors ". "Events such as galas and receptions, award ceremonies and press conferences".^[10] Exhibits include the shoe Mario Götze used scored the decisive goal in the 2014 World Cup final against Argentina. An unknown donor gave the maximum amount of two million euros on the evening of 6 December 2014. Götze also gave the museum his award for the goal of the decade which he scored in the 2014 World Cup final.^[11] The cultural and event program of the German Football Museum ANSTOSS deepens topics from the museum's permanent exhibition as well as from the daily debates with different formats from film and song evenings to discussion groups and readings.^[12] In February 2017, professional football manager and former player Thomas Tuchel and humanities scholar Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht lead a philosophical discussion about the beauty of the game.^[13] Since the 2017/18 season, the draws for the DFB-Pokal have been broadcast from the football museum on the Sunday after the respective cup round.^[14]

• 2017: European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA) – Nominee^[25]
• 2017: Luigi Micheletti Award und DASA Award der European Museum Academy (EMA) – Nominee^[26]
• 2017: Location Award, Kategorie Kultur-Location für Events – Nominee^[27]
• 2018: Location Award, Kategorie Eventlocations für Incentives – Nominee^[28]

The Association of Taxpayers Germany criticized the use of public funds for a museum classing the expenditure as "too much tax money for a minor matter".^[29]

In his review Christian Wacker wrote that "most of the objects are copies, facsimiles or second objects". He also criticized the insufficient involvement of the visitors with the words "Like a provincial museum from the eighties".^[30] Alison Smale, chief correspondent of The New York Times, criticized some exhibits showing periods of German history for not providing complete perspective on certain subjects noting: "The national team from 1941 is shown with Nazi salute before the game against Sweden. A notorious propaganda film from 1944 shows the Jewish inmates in the Nazi ghetto Theresienstadt [...] playing football and allegedly leading a relaxed life. In reality, most of them were deported to Auschwitz".^[31]

High ticket prices for the museum has been the cause of complaints from fans and is cited as a contributing reason as to why the expected number of 300,000 visitors per year has not been reached.^[32][33]

• Manuel Neukirchner (Hrsg.): Mehr als ein Spiel. Das Buch zum Deutschen Fußballmuseum. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8375-0973-1
• Manuel Neukirchner: Wembley 1966: Der Mythos in Momentaufnahmen. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2016, ISBN 978-3-8375-1622-7
• Manuel Neukirchner: Herbergers Welt der Bücher – Die unbekannten Seiten der Trainer-Legende. Verlag Die Workstatt, Göttingen 2017, ISBN 978-3-7307-0340-3
• Jochen Hieber, Manuel Neukirchner (Hrsg.): Fundstücke aus dem Deutschen Fußballmuseum. Auftaktband der Reihe Kleine Fußball-Bibliothek in der Edition Deutsches Fußballmuseum, Dortmund 2017, ISBN 978-3-00-057313-2