Dortmund is a city located in Germany, specifically within the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It serves as the largest city in both Westphalia and the Ruhr region. Geographically, it lies on the Emscher and Ruhr rivers within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region, which ranks as the second-largest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union.
The city is the ninth-largest in Germany and the third-largest in North Rhine-Westphalia, following Cologne and Düsseldorf. It functions as a primary administrative, commercial, and cultural center for the eastern Ruhr. Additionally, Dortmund is recognized as the second-largest city in the Low German dialect area, surpassed only by Hamburg.