FC Bayern München was founded on 27 February 1900 in Munich, Bavaria, when 11 dissatisfied members of the MTV München gymnastics club broke away to form a football-only organisation under the leadership of Franz John. Bayern's first decades were modest by Bavarian standards — overshadowed locally by 1860 München — but the club's red-and-white identity took root early. The move to the Olympic Stadium for the 1972 Munich Olympics, then to the Allianz Arena in 2005, traces Bayern's rise from regional curiosity to global powerhouse.
Bayern's first European triumph came in 1966-67 (Cup Winners' Cup) but the truly defining era was the mid-1970s, when the legendary side of Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller, Sepp Maier, Paul Breitner and Uli Hoeneß won three consecutive European Cups (1974, 1975, 1976) under Udo Lattek and Dettmar Cramer. Beckenbauer's "Libero" reinvented the central defensive role; Müller's 365 Bundesliga goals remain a club record. The Klaus Augenthaler-Lothar Matthäus generation of the late 1980s and the trio of Oliver Kahn, Stefan Effenberg and Mehmet Scholl carried the club to a fourth Champions League in 2001, when Bayern defeated Valencia in Milan on penalties.
The modern era of total Bundesliga dominance is unprecedented in European football. Bayern have won 12 consecutive Bundesliga titles from 2012-13 to 2023-24, plus 33 league titles in total — by far the most in Germany. Jupp Heynckes' historic 2012-13 Treble (Bundesliga + DFB-Pokal + UEFA Champions League — the latter against Borussia Dortmund at Wembley) was followed by Hansi Flick's 2019-20 Sextuple — winning every available competition including a 8-2 demolition of Barcelona en route to the Champions League title — only the second European club ever to do so. Stars including Robert Lewandowski, Manuel Neuer, Thomas Müller, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm, David Alaba and Joshua Kimmich have defined this period. The Allianz Arena's red-glowing facade has become a Munich landmark. Der Klassiker against Borussia Dortmund is the modern Bundesliga's biggest fixture.