I wondered about this buffalo which looked a little lost when I saw it earlier, but Dortmund is twinned with Buffalo, New York (and indeed also with Leeds and some other cities around the world) and to mark 1,100 years of Dortmund the American city sent them this bronze bison.
It was installed here in 1982 and was meant to reflect the partnership between the two cities. The date of 882 is when the city was first mentioned and that is when it was referenced in the documents of Werden Abbey, although it’s thought that it had been going for longer than that. But, sometimes a line just has to be drawn in the sand.
The text reads:
“The Buffalo Bison. A gift from the citizens of the City of Buffalo for the 1100th anniversary of the City of Dortmund”
Incidentally, I note that Leeds didn’t send a statue of a Yorkshire terrier.