Borussia Dortmund came away from snow swept SC Freiburg with a 2-0 victory, their first triumph in three Bundesliga matches, while FC Schalke 04 are four points behind leaders FC Bayern München after beating 1. FC Nürnberg.

After a 1-1 draw with Hannover 96 and defeat in last week's Revierderby, champions Dortmund were eager to stop the rot. A goalless first 45 minutes brought fears of an October without a top-flight win, but centre-back Neven Subotić settled the nerves by heading in Marco Reus' free-kick. Mario Götze then finished off Robert Lewandowski's pass seven minutes from time.

Huub Stevens' Schalke kept the pressure on Bayern with a narrow win at Nürnberg, Jefferson Farfán landing the decisive blow 13 minutes from time to lift his side above Eintracht Frankfurt into second place.

Elsewhere, Ádám Szalai scored all three goals as 1. FSV Mainz 05 beat TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 3-0, a Bas Dost double helped VfL Wolfsburg to a 4-1 defeat of Fortuna Düsseldorf 1895 and bottom-of-the-table SpVgg Greuther Fürth held SV Werder Bremen 1-1.