Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the
German state of
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...
and the
fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and over 3.1 million people in the
Cologne Bonn urban region. Cologne is also part of the
Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region
The Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region () is the largest metropolitan region in Germany, with over ten million inhabitants. A polycentric conurbation with several major urban concentrations, the region covers an area of , entirely within the feder ...
, the
second biggest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union. Centered on the
left (west) bank of the Rhine, Cologne is located on the River
Rhine
The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...
(
Lower Rhine), about southeast of the North Rhine-Westphalia state capital
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
and northwest of
Bonn
Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...
, the former capital of
West Germany
West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
.
The city's medieval
Cologne Cathedral () was the
world's tallest building from 1880 to 1890 and is today the
third-tallest church and tallest cathedral in the world. It was constructed to house the
Shrine of the Three Kings and is a globally recognized landmark and one of the most visited sights and pilgrimage destinations in Europe. The cityscape is further shaped by the
Twelve Romanesque churches of Cologne
The twelve Romanesque architecture, Romanesque churches of Cologne are twelve landmark churches in the Innenstadt, Cologne, Old town ''(Altstadt)'' of Cologne, Germany. All twelve churches are Catholic Church, Catholic.
The reason for the large n ...
. Cologne is famous for
Eau de Cologne
Eau de Cologne (; German: ''Kölnisch Wasser'' ; meaning "Water from Cologne") or simply cologne is a perfume originating in Cologne, Germany. Originally mixed by Johann Maria Farina (Giovanni Maria Farina) in 1709, it has since come to be a gene ...
, which has been produced in the city since 1709; "cologne" has since come to be a generic term.
Cologne was founded and established in Germanic
Ubii
350px, The Ubii around AD 30
The Ubii were a Germanic tribe first encountered dwelling on the east bank of the Rhine in the time of Julius Caesar, who formed an alliance with them in 55 BC in order to launch attacks across the river. They were ...
territory in the 1st century CE as the Roman , hence its name.
was later dropped (except in Latin), and became the name of the city in its own right, which developed into modern German as . , the French version of the city's name, has become standard in English as well. Cologne functioned as the capital of the Roman province of and as the headquarters of the Roman military in the region until occupied by the
Franks
file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty
The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...
in 462. During the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
the city flourished as being located on one of the most important major
trade routes
A trade route is a Logistics, logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. The term can also be used to refer to trade over land or water. Allowing Good (economics and accounting ...
between eastern and western Europe (including the
Brabant Road,
Via Regia and Publica). Cologne was a
free imperial city of the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
and one of the major members of the trade union
Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...
. It was one of the largest European cities in medieval and renaissance times.
Prior to
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the city had undergone occupations by the French (1794–1815) and the British (1918–1926), and was part of
Prussia
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
beginning in 1815. Cologne was one of the most
heavily bombed cities in Germany during World War II. The bombing reduced the population by 93% mainly due to evacuation, and destroyed around 80% of the millennia-old city center. The post-war rebuilding has resulted in a mixed cityscape, restoring most major historic landmarks like city gates and churches (31 of them being
Romanesque). The city nowadays consists of around 25% pre World War II buildings and boasts around 9,000 historic buildings.
[https://zensus2011.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/Publikationen/Aufsaetze_Archiv/2015_12_NI_GWZ_endgueltig.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=4 ]
Cologne is a major cultural center for the
Rhineland
The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...
; it hosts more than 30 museums and hundreds of galleries. There are many institutions of higher education, most notably the
University of Cologne, one of Europe's oldest and largest universities;
the
Technical University of Cologne, Germany's largest university of applied sciences; and the
German Sport University Cologne. It hosts three
Max Planck science institutes and is a major research hub for the aerospace industry, with the
German Aerospace Center and the
European Astronaut Centre
The European Astronaut Centre (EAC) (German: Europäisches Astronautenzentrum, French: Centre des astronautes européens), is an establishment of the European Space Agency and home of the European Astronaut Corps. It is near to Cologne, Germany, ...
headquarters.
Lufthansa
Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...
, Europe's largest airline, have their main corporate headquarters in Cologne. It also has a significant chemical and automobile industry.
Cologne Bonn Airport is a regional hub, the main airport for the region being
Düsseldorf Airport. The
Cologne Trade Fair hosts a number of
trade shows.
History
Roman Cologne
The first urban settlement on the grounds of modern-day Cologne was ''Oppidum Ubiorum'', founded in 38 BCE by the
Ubii
350px, The Ubii around AD 30
The Ubii were a Germanic tribe first encountered dwelling on the east bank of the Rhine in the time of Julius Caesar, who formed an alliance with them in 55 BC in order to launch attacks across the river. They were ...
, a
Cisrhenian Germanic tribe. In 50 CE, the Romans founded
Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium
Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium was the Roman colony in the Rhineland from which the city of Cologne, now in Germany, developed.
It was usually called ''Colonia'' (colony) and was the capital of the Roman province of Germania Inferior and ...
(Cologne) on the river Rhine,
a
colonia which was named after Emperor
Claudius
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; ; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54), or Claudius, was a Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusus and Ant ...
and his wife, who was born here,
Agrippina the Younger
Julia Agrippina (6 November AD 15 – 23 March AD 59), also referred to as Agrippina the Younger, was Roman empress from AD 49 to 54, the fourth wife and niece of emperor Claudius, and the mother of Nero.
Agrippina was one of the most prominent ...
. In 85 CE the city became the provincial capital of
Germania Inferior
''Germania Inferior'' ("Lower Germania") was a Roman province from AD 85 until the province was renamed ''Germania Secunda'' in the 4th century AD, on the west bank of the Rhine bordering the North Sea. The capital of the province was Colonia Cl ...
.
It was also known as . Considerable Roman remains can be found in present-day Cologne, especially near the wharf area, where a 1,900-year-old Roman boat was discovered in late 2007. From 260 to 271, Cologne was the capital of the
Gallic Empire under
Postumus,
Marius, and
Victorinus. In 310, under emperor
Constantine I
Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...
, a bridge was built over the Rhine at Cologne. Roman imperial governors resided in the city and it became one of the most important trade and production centers in the Roman Empire north of the Alps.
Cologne is shown on the 4th century
Peutinger Map.
Maternus, who was elected as bishop in 313, was the first known bishop of Cologne. The city was the capital of a Roman province until it was occupied by the
Ripuarian Franks
The Rhineland or Ripuarian Franks, also often referred to using the Latin plurals ''Ribuarii'', or ''Ripuarii'', were the Franks who established themselves in and around the formerly Roman city of Cologne, on the Rhine river in what is now Germa ...
in 462. Parts of the original Roman sewers are preserved underneath the city, with the
new sewerage system having opened in 1890.
After the destruction of the
Second Temple
The Second Temple () was the Temple in Jerusalem that replaced Solomon's Temple, which was destroyed during the Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC), Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. It was constructed around 516 BCE and later enhanced by Herod ...
in the
Siege of Jerusalem and the associated
dispersion (diaspora) of the Jews, there is evidence of a Jewish community in Cologne. In 321 CE, Emperor Constantine approved the settlement of a Jewish community with all the freedoms of Roman citizens. It is assumed that it was located near the Marspforte within the city wall. The Edict of Constantine to the Jews is the oldest documented evidence in Germany.
Middle Ages
Early medieval Cologne was part of
Austrasia
Austrasia was the northeastern kingdom within the core of the Francia, Frankish Empire during the Early Middle Ages, centring on the Meuse, Middle Rhine and the Moselle rivers. It included the original Frankish-ruled territories within what had ...
within the
Frankish Empire. Cunibert, made bishop of Cologne in 623, was an important advisor to the Merovingian King Dagobert I and served with domesticus Pepin of Landen as tutor to the king's son and heir Siegebert III, the future king of Austrasia. In 716,
Charles Martel
Charles Martel (; – 22 October 741), ''Martel'' being a sobriquet in Old French for "The Hammer", was a Franks, Frankish political and military leader who, as Duke and Prince of the Franks and Mayor of the Palace, was the de facto ruler of ...
commanded an army for the first time and suffered the only defeat of his life when
Chilperic II
Chilperic II ( 672 – 13 February 721) was King of the Franks from 715 until his death.
He was a son of Childeric II and his half-cousin wife, Bilichild, both of whom were assassinated, along with their eldest son Dagobert, in 675. Still a ...
, King of
Neustria
Neustria was the western part of the Kingdom of the Franks during the Early Middle Ages, in contrast to the eastern Frankish kingdom, Austrasia. It initially included land between the Loire and the Silva Carbonaria, in the north of present-day ...
, invaded Austrasia and the city fell to him in the
Battle of Cologne. Charles fled to the
Eifel
The Eifel (; , ) is a low mountain range in western Germany, eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Com ...
mountains, rallied supporters and took the city back that same year after defeating Chilperic in the
Battle of Amblève. Cologne had been the seat of a bishop since the Roman period; under
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...
, in 795, bishop
Hildebold was promoted to
archbishop
In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...
.
In the 843
Treaty of Verdun
The Treaty of Verdun (; ), agreed to on 10 August 843, ended the Carolingian civil war and divided the Carolingian Empire between Lothair I, Louis the German, Louis II and Charles the Bald, Charles II, the surviving sons of the emperor Louis the ...
Cologne fell into the dominion of
Lothair I
Lothair I (9th. C. Frankish: ''Ludher'' and Medieval Latin: ''Lodharius''; Dutch and Medieval Latin: ''Lotharius''; German: ''Lothar''; French: ''Lothaire''; Italian: ''Lotario''; 795 – 29 September 855) was a 9th-century emperor of the ...
's
Middle Francia
Middle Francia () was a short-lived Frankish kingdom which was created in 843 by the Treaty of Verdun after an intermittent civil war between the grandsons of Charlemagne resulted in division of the united empire. Middle Francia was allocated ...
– later called
Lotharingia (
Lower Lorraine).
In 953, the archbishops of Cologne first gained noteworthy secular power when bishop
Bruno was appointed as duke by his brother
Otto I,
King of Germany
This is a list of monarchs who ruled over East Francia, and the Kingdom of Germany (), from Treaty of Verdun, the division of the Francia, Frankish Empire in 843 and Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire in ...
.
In order to weaken the secular nobility, who threatened his power, Otto endowed Bruno and his archiepiscopal successors with the prerogatives of secular princes, thus establishing the
Electorate of Cologne, formed by the temporal possessions of the archbishopric and included in the end a strip of territory along the left Bank of the Rhine east of
Jülich, as well as the
Duchy of Westphalia on the other side of the Rhine, beyond
Berg and
Mark. By the end of the 12th century, the Archbishop of Cologne was one of the seven electors of the Holy Roman Emperor. Besides being prince elector, he was
Archchancellor of Italy as well, technically from 1238 and permanently from 1263 until 1803.
Following the
Battle of Worringen
The Battle of Worringen was fought on 5 June 1288 near the town of Worringen (also spelled Woeringen), which is now part of Chorweiler, the northernmost borough (Stadtbezirk) of Cologne. It was the decisive battle of the War of the Limburg Succe ...
in 1288, Cologne gained its independence from the archbishops and became a
Free City. Archbishop
Sigfried II von Westerburg was forced to reside in
Bonn
Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...
.
[Harry de Quetteville.]
History of Cologne
". ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'', 28 November 2009. The archbishop nevertheless preserved the right of capital punishment. Thus the municipal council (though in strict political opposition towards the archbishop) depended upon him in all matters concerning criminal justice. This included torture, the sentence for which was only allowed to be handed down by the episcopal judge known as the greve. This legal situation lasted until the French conquest of Cologne.
Besides its economic and political significance Cologne also became an important centre of medieval pilgrimage, when Cologne's archbishop,
Rainald of Dassel, gave the relics of the
Three Wise Men to Cologne's cathedral in 1164 (after they had been taken from
Milan
Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
). Besides the three magi Cologne preserves the relics of
Saint Ursula and
Albertus Magnus.
Cologne's location on the river Rhine placed it at the intersection of the major
trade route
A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. The term can also be used to refer to trade over land or water. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a singl ...
s between east and west as well as the main south–north Western Europe trade route, Venice to Netherlands; even by the mid-10th century, merchants in the town were already known for their prosperity and luxurious standard of living due to the availability of trade opportunities.
The intersection of these trade routes was the basis of Cologne's growth. By the end of the 12th century, Archbishop
Phillip von Heinsberg enclosed the entire city with
walls.
By 1300 the city population was 50,000–55,000. Cologne was a member of the
Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...
in 1475, when
Frederick III confirmed the city's imperial immediacy.
Cologne was so influential in regional commerce that its systems of weights and measurements (e.g. the
Cologne mark
The Cologne mark is an obsolete unit of weight (or mass) equivalent to 233.856 grams (about 3,609 grains). The Cologne mark was in use from the 11th century onward. It came to be used as the base unit for a number of currency standards, including ...
) were used throughout Europe.
Early modern history
The economic structures of medieval and early modern Cologne were characterised by the city's status as a major harbour and transport hub on the Rhine. Craftsmanship was organised by self-administering guilds, some of which were exclusive to women.
As a
free imperial city, Cologne was a self-ruling state within the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
, an
imperial estate
An Imperial Estate (; , plural: ') was an entity or an individual of the Holy Roman Empire with representation and the right to vote in the Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire), Imperial Diet ('). Rulers of these Estates were able to exercise signi ...
with seat and vote at the
Imperial Diet, and as such had the right (and obligation) to contribute to the defense of the Empire and maintain its own military force. As they wore a red uniform, these troops were known as the ''Rote Funken'' (red sparks). These soldiers were part of the Army of the Holy Roman Empire ("Reichskontingent"). They fought in the wars of the 17th and 18th century, including the wars against revolutionary France in which the small force was almost completely wiped out in combat. The tradition of these troops is preserved as a military persiflage by Cologne's most outstanding carnival society, the ''Rote Funken''.
The Free Imperial City of Cologne must not be confused with the
Electorate of Cologne, which was a state of its own within the Holy Roman Empire. Since the second half of the 16th century the majority of archbishops were drawn from the Bavarian
Wittelsbach dynasty. Due to the free status of Cologne, the archbishops were usually not allowed to enter the city. Thus they took up residence in
Bonn
Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...
and later in
Brühl on the Rhine. As members of an influential and powerful family, and supported by their outstanding status as
electors, the archbishops of Cologne repeatedly challenged and threatened the free status of Cologne during the 17th and 18th centuries, resulting in complicated affairs, which were handled by diplomatic means and propaganda as well as by the supreme courts of the Holy Roman Empire.
From the 19th century until World War I
Cologne lost its status as a
free city during the French period. According to the
Treaty of Lunéville
The Treaty of Lunéville (or Peace of Lunéville) was signed in the Treaty House of Lunéville on 9 February 1801. The signatory parties were the French Republic and Emperor Francis II, who signed on his own behalf as ruler of the hereditary do ...
(1801) all the territories of the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
on the left bank of the Rhine were officially incorporated into the
French Republic
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
(which had already occupied Cologne in 1794). Thus this region later became part of
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
's Empire. Cologne was part of the French
Département Roer (named after the river
Roer, German: Rur) with
Aachen
Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants.
Aachen is locat ...
(French: Aix-la-Chapelle) as its capital. The French modernised public life, for example by introducing the
Napoleonic code
The Napoleonic Code (), officially the Civil Code of the French (; simply referred to as ), is the French civil code established during the French Consulate in 1804 and still in force in France, although heavily and frequently amended since i ...
and removing the old elites from power. The Napoleonic code remained in use on the left bank of the Rhine until 1900, when a unified civil code (the ''
Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch
The ''Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch'' (, ), abbreviated BGB, is the civil code of Germany, codifying most generally-applicably private law. In development since 1881, it became effective on 1 January 1900, and was considered a massive and groundbr ...
'') was introduced in the
German Empire
The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...
. In 1815 at the
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon, Napol ...
, Cologne was made part of the
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...
, first in the
Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg and then the
Rhine Province
The Rhine Province (), also known as Rhenish Prussia () or synonymous with the Rhineland (), was the westernmost Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822 to 1946. ...
.
The permanent tensions between the Catholic
Rhineland
The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...
and the overwhelmingly Protestant Prussian state repeatedly escalated with Cologne being in the focus of the conflict. In 1837 the archbishop of Cologne,
Clemens August von Droste-Vischering, was arrested and imprisoned for two years after a dispute over the legal status of marriages between Catholics and Protestants (''Mischehenstreit''). In 1874, during the
Kulturkampf, Archbishop
Paul Melchers was imprisoned before taking asylum in the Netherlands. These conflicts alienated the Catholic population from Berlin and contributed to a deeply felt anti-Prussian resentment, which was still significant after World War II, when the former mayor of Cologne,
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman and politician who served as the first Chancellor of Germany, chancellor of West Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of th ...
, became the first West German chancellor.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, Cologne absorbed numerous surrounding towns, and by World War I had already grown to 700,000 inhabitants. Industrialisation changed the city and spurred its growth. Vehicle and engine manufacturing was especially successful, though the heavy industry was less ubiquitous than in the
Ruhr area. The
cathedral
A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...
, started in 1248 but abandoned around 1560, was eventually finished in 1880 not just as a place of worship but also as a German national monument celebrating the newly founded
German empire
The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...
and the continuity of the German nation since the Middle Ages. Some of this urban growth occurred at the expense of the city's historic heritage with much being demolished (for example, the city walls or the area around the cathedral) and sometimes replaced by contemporary buildings.
Cologne was designated as one of the
Fortresses of the German Confederation.
[United Services Magazine]
, December 1835 It was turned into a heavily armed fortress (opposing the French and Belgian fortresses of
Verdun
Verdun ( , ; ; ; official name before 1970: Verdun-sur-Meuse) is a city in the Meuse (department), Meuse departments of France, department in Grand Est, northeastern France. It is an arrondissement of the department.
In 843, the Treaty of V ...
and
Liège
Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...
) with two fortified belts surrounding the city, the remains of which can be seen to this day. The military demands on what became Germany's largest fortress presented a significant obstacle to urban development, with forts, bunkers, and wide defensive dugouts completely encircling the city and preventing expansion; this resulted in a very densely built-up area within the city itself.
During
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
Cologne was the target of several minor air raids but suffered no significant damage. Cologne was occupied by the
British Army of the Rhine until 1926, under the terms of the Armistice and the subsequent
Versailles Peace Treaty. In contrast with the harsh behaviour of the French occupation troops in Germany, the British forces were more lenient to the local population.
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman and politician who served as the first Chancellor of Germany, chancellor of West Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of th ...
, the mayor of Cologne from 1917 until 1933 and later a West German chancellor, acknowledged the political impact of this approach, especially since Britain had opposed French demands for a permanent Allied occupation of the entire Rhineland.
As part of the demilitarisation of the
Rhineland
The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...
, the city's fortifications had to be dismantled. This was an opportunity to create two green belts (''Grüngürtel'') around the city by converting the fortifications and their fields of fire into large public parks. This was not completed until 1933. In 1919 the
University of Cologne, closed by the French in 1798, was reopened. This was considered to be a replacement for the loss of the
University of Strasbourg on the west bank of the Rhine, which reverted to France with the rest of
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...
. Cologne prospered during the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...
(1919–33), and progress was made especially in public governance, city planning, housing and social affairs. Social housing projects were considered exemplary and were copied by other German cities. Cologne competed to host the Olympics, and a modern sports stadium was erected at Müngersdorf. When the British occupation ended, the prohibition of civil aviation was lifted and
Cologne Butzweilerhof Airport soon became a hub for national and international air traffic, second in Germany only to
Berlin Tempelhof Airport.
The democratic parties lost the local elections in Cologne in March 1933 to the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
and other extreme-right parties. The Nazis then arrested the
Communist
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
and
Social Democrats
Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...
members of the city assembly, and Mayor Adenauer was dismissed. Compared to some other major cities, however, the Nazis never gained decisive support in Cologne. (Significantly, the number of votes cast for the Nazi Party in
Reichstag elections had always been the national average.) By 1939, the population had risen to 772,221 inhabitants.
World War II

During World War II, Cologne was a Military Area Command Headquarters () for
Wehrkreis VI (headquartered at
Münster
Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a ...
). Cologne was under the command of Lieutenant-General Freiherr Roeder von Diersburg, who was responsible for military operations in
Bonn
Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...
,
Siegburg
Siegburg (; i.e. ''fort on the Sieg (river), Sieg river''; Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Sieburch'') is a city in the district of Rhein-Sieg-Kreis in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the banks of the rivers Sieg (river), Sieg ...
,
Aachen
Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants.
Aachen is locat ...
,
Jülich,
Düren
Düren (; Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: Düre) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, between Aachen and Cologne, on the river Rur (river), Rur.
History
Roman era
The area of Düren was part of Gallia Belgica, more specifically the ter ...
, and
Monschau. Cologne was home to the 211th Infantry Regiment and the 26th Artillery Regiment.
The Allies dropped 44,923.2 tons of bombs on the city during World War II, destroying 61% of its built up area. During the
Bombing of Cologne in World War II, Cologne endured 262 air raids by the Western
Allies, which caused approximately 20,000 civilian casualties and almost completely wiped out the central part of the city. During the night of 31 May 1942, Cologne was the target of "
Operation Millennium", the first 1,000 bomber raid by the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
in World War II. 1,046 heavy bombers attacked their target with 1,455 tons of explosives, approximately two-thirds of which were incendiary. This raid lasted about 75 minutes, destroyed of built-up area (61%), killed 486 civilians and made 59,000 people homeless. The devastation was recorded by
Hermann Claasen from 1942 until the end of the war, and presented in his exhibition and book of 1947 ''Singing in the furnace. Cologne – Remains of an old city''.
Cologne was taken by the American
First Army in early March 1945 during the
Invasion of Germany after a
battle
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force co ...
.
By the end of the war, the population of Cologne had been reduced by 95%. This loss was mainly caused by a massive evacuation of the people to more rural areas. The same happened in many other German cities in the last two years of war. By the end of 1945, however, the population had already recovered to approximately 450,000. By the end of the war, essentially all of Cologne's pre-war Jewish population of 11,000 had been deported or killed by the Nazis. The six synagogues of the city were destroyed. The
synagogue on Roonstraße was rebuilt in 1959.
Post-war and Cold War eras
Despite Cologne's status as the largest city in the region, nearby
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
was chosen as the political capital of the
federated state
A federated state (also State (polity), state, province, region, Canton (administrative division), canton, Länder, land, governorate, oblast, emirate, or country) is a territorial and constitutional community forming part of a federation ...
of
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...
. With
Bonn
Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...
being chosen as the provisional federal capital (''provisorische Bundeshauptstadt'') and seat of the government of the Federal Republic of Germany (then informally
West Germany
West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
), Cologne benefited by being sandwiched between two important political centres. The city became–and still is–home to a number of federal agencies and organizations. After reunification in 1990, Berlin was made the capital of Germany.
In 1945 architect and urban planner
Rudolf Schwarz called Cologne the "world's greatest heap of rubble". Schwarz designed the master plan for reconstruction in 1947, which included the construction of several new thoroughfares through the city centre, especially the ''Nord-Süd-Fahrt'' ("North-South-Drive"). The master plan took into consideration the fact that even shortly after the war a large increase in automobile traffic could be anticipated. Plans for new roads had already, to a certain degree, evolved under the Nazi administration, but the actual construction became easier when most of the city centre was in ruins.
The destruction of 95% of the city centre, including the famous
Twelve Romanesque churches such as
St. Gereon,
Great St. Martin,
St. Maria im Kapitol and several other monuments in World War II, meant a tremendous loss of cultural treasures. The rebuilding of those churches and other landmarks such as the Gürzenich event hall was not undisputed among leading architects and art historians at that time, but in most cases, civil intention prevailed. The reconstruction lasted until the 1990s, when the Romanesque church of
St. Kunibert was finished.
In 1959, the city's population reached pre-war numbers again. It then grew steadily, exceeding 1 million for about one year from 1975. It remained just below that until mid-2010, when it exceeded 1 million again.
Post-reunification
In the 1980s and 1990s Cologne's economy prospered for two main reasons. The first was the growth in the number of media companies, both in the private and public sectors; they are especially catered for in the newly developed Media Park, which creates a strong visual focal point in Cologne's city centre and includes the ''KölnTurm'', one of Cologne's most prominent high-rise buildings. The second was the permanent improvement of the diverse traffic infrastructure, which made Cologne one of the most easily accessible metropolitan areas in Central Europe.
Due to the economic success of the
Cologne Trade Fair, the city arranged a large extension to the fair site in 2005. At the same time the original buildings, which date back to the 1920s, were rented out to
RTL, Germany's largest private broadcaster, as their new corporate headquarters.
Cologne was the focus of the
2015-16 New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Germany, with over 500 women reporting that they were sexually assaulted by persons of African and Arab appearance.
Geography
The metropolitan area encompasses over , extending around a central point that lies at 50° 56' 33 latitude and 6° 57' 32 longitude. The city's highest point is
above sea level
Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...
(the
Monte Troodelöh) and its lowest point is above sea level (the
Worringer Bruch). The city of Cologne lies within the larger area of the
Cologne Lowland, a cone-shaped area of the central
Rhineland
The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...
that lies between
Bonn
Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...
,
Aachen
Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants.
Aachen is locat ...
and
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
.
Districts
Cologne is divided into 9 boroughs (''Stadtbezirke'') and 85 districts (''Stadtteile''):
Climate
Located in the
Rhine-Ruhr
The Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region () is the Metropolitan regions in Germany, largest metropolitan region in Germany, with over ten million inhabitants. A wikt:polycentric, polycentric conurbation with several major urban concentrations, the reg ...
area, Cologne is one of the warmest cities in Germany. It has a
temperate
In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ran ...
–
oceanic climate
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...
(
Köppen: ''Cfb'') with cool winters and warm summers. It is also one of the cloudiest cities in Germany, with just 1,567.5 hours of sun a year. Its average annual temperature is : during the day and at night. In January, the mean temperature is , while the mean temperature in July is . The record high temperature of happened on 25 July 2019 during the
July 2019 European heat wave in which Cologne saw three consecutive days over . Especially the inner urban neighbourhoods experience a greater number of hot days, as well as significantly higher temperatures during nighttime compared to the surrounding area (including the airport, where temperatures are classified). Still temperatures can vary noticeably over the course of a month with warmer and colder weather. Precipitation is spread evenly throughout the year with a light peak in summer due to showers and thunderstorms.
The progressing climate change can be seen by looking at the climate data of the previous decade with lower mean temperatures.
Flood protection
Cologne is regularly affected by flooding from the Rhine and is considered the most flood-prone European city.
A city agency (''Stadtentwässerungsbetriebe Köln'', "Cologne Urban Drainage Operations") manages an extensive flood control system which includes both permanent and mobile
flood walls, protection from rising waters for buildings close to the river banks, monitoring and forecasting systems, pumping stations and programmes to create or protect
floodplain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...
s, and river embankments.
The system was redesigned after a 1993 flood, which resulted in heavy damage.
Demographics
In the Roman Empire, the city was large and rich with a population of 40,000 in 100–200 AD.
The city was home to around 20,000 people in 1000 AD, growing to 50,000 in 1200 AD. The
Rhineland
The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...
metropolis still had 50,000 residents in 1300 AD.
Cologne is the fourth-largest city by population in Germany after
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, Hamburg and
Munich
Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
. As of 31 December 2021, there were 1,079,301 people registered as living in Cologne in an area of , which makes Cologne the third largest city by area. The population density was .
Cologne first reached the population of 1,000,000 in 1975 due to the incorporation of
Wesseling, however this was reversed after public opposition. In 2009 Cologne's population again reached 1,000,000 and it became one of the four cities in Germany with a population exceeding 1 Million. The metropolitan area of the
Cologne Bonn Region is home to 3,573,500 living on . It is part of the polycentric megacity region
Rhine-Ruhr
The Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region () is the Metropolitan regions in Germany, largest metropolitan region in Germany, with over ten million inhabitants. A wikt:polycentric, polycentric conurbation with several major urban concentrations, the reg ...
with a population of over 11,000,000 people.
There were 551,528 women and 527,773 men in Cologne. In 2021, there were 11,127 births in Cologne; 5,844 marriages and 1,808 divorces, and 10,536 deaths. In the city, the population was spread out, with 16.3% under the age of 18, and 17.8% were 65 years of age or older. 203 people in Cologne were over the age of 100.
According to the Statistical Office of the City of Cologne, the number of people with a migrant background is at 40.5% (436,660). 2,254 people acquired German citizenship in 2021.
In 2021, there were 559,854 households, of which 18.4% had children under the age of 18; 51% of all households were made up of singles. 8% of all households were single-parent households. The average household size was 1.88.
Residents with foreign citizenship
Cologne residents with a foreign citizenship as of 31 December 2021 is as follows:
Turkish community
Cologne is home to 90,000 people of Turkish origin and is the second largest German city with Turkish population after
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
. Cologne has a Little Istanbul in Keupstraße that has many Turkish restaurants and markets. Famous Turkish-German people like rapper
Eko Fresh and TV presenter
Nazan Eckes were born in Cologne.
Language
Colognian or Kölsch () (natively ''Kölsch Platt'') is a small set of very closely related dialects, or variants, of the
Ripuarian Central German group of languages. These dialects are spoken in the area covered by the Archdiocese and former
Electorate of Cologne reaching from
Neuss
Neuss (; written ''Neuß'' until 1968; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is on the west bank of the Rhine opposite Düsseldorf. Neuss is the largest city within the Rhein-Kreis Neuss district. It is primarily known for its ...
in the north to just south of
Bonn
Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...
, west to
Düren
Düren (; Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: Düre) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, between Aachen and Cologne, on the river Rur (river), Rur.
History
Roman era
The area of Düren was part of Gallia Belgica, more specifically the ter ...
and east to
Olpe in the North-West of Germany. Kölsch is one of the very few city dialects in Germany, which also include the
dialect
A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...
spoken in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, for example.
Religion
As of 2015, 35.5% of the population belonged to the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
, the largest religious body, and 15.5% to the
Protestant Church.
Irenaeus of Lyons
Irenaeus ( or ; ; ) was a Greek bishop noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christian communities in the southern regions of present-day France and, more widely, for the development of Christian theology by opposing Gnostic interpret ...
claimed that Christianity was brought to Cologne by Roman soldiers and traders at an unknown early date. It is known that in the early second century it was a bishop's seat. The first historical Bishop of Cologne was
Saint Maternus.
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...
studied in Cologne in 1244 under
Albertus Magnus. Cologne is the seat of the
Archdiocese of Cologne.
According to the 2011 census, 2.1% of the population was
Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...
, 0.5% belonged of an
Evangelical Free Church and 4.2% belonged to further religious communities officially recognized by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (such as
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination that is an outgrowth of the Bible Student movement founded by Charles Taze Russell in the nineteenth century. The denomination is nontrinitarian, millenarian, and restorationist. Russell co-fou ...
).
There are several mosques, including the
Cologne Central Mosque run by the
Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs. In 2011, about 11.2% of the population was
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
.
Cologne also has one of the oldest and largest Jewish communities in Germany. In 2011, 0.3% of Cologne's population was Jewish.
On 11 October 2021, the Mayor of Cologne,
Henriette Reker, announced that all of Cologne's 35 mosques would be allowed to broadcast the
Adhan (prayer call) for up to five minutes on Fridays between noon and 3 p.m. She commented that the move "shows that diversity is appreciated and loved in Cologne".
Government and politics
The city's administration is headed by the
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
and the three deputy mayors.
Political traditions and developments
The long tradition of a free imperial city, which long dominated an exclusively Catholic population and the age-old conflict between the church and the bourgeoisie (and within it between the patricians and craftsmen) have created its own political climate in Cologne. Various interest groups often form networks beyond party boundaries. The resulting web of relationships, with political, economic, and cultural links with each other in a system of mutual favours, obligations and dependencies, is called the 'Cologne coterie'. This has often led to an unusual proportional distribution in the city government and degenerated at times into corruption: in 1999, a "waste scandal" over kickbacks and illegal campaign contributions came to light, which led not only to the imprisonment of the entrepreneur Hellmut Trienekens, but also to the downfall of almost the entire leadership of the ruling Social Democrats.
Mayor
The incumbent
Lord Mayor of Cologne is
Henriette Reker. She received 52.66% of the vote at the municipal election on 17 October 2015, running as an
independent with the support of the
CDU,
FDP, and
Greens. She took office on 15 December 2015. Reker was re-elected to a second term in a runoff election on 27 September 2020, in which she received 59.27% of the vote.
The most recent mayoral election was held on 13 September 2020, with a runoff held on 27 September, and the results were as follows:
! rowspan=2 colspan=2, Candidate
! rowspan=2, Party
! colspan=2, First round
! colspan=2, Second round
, -
! Votes
! %
! Votes
! %
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Henriette Reker
, align=left,
Independent (
Green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...
/
CDU)
, 187,389
, 45.1
, 174,263
, 59.3
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left, Andreas Kossiski
, align=left,
Social Democratic Party
, 111,353
, 26.8
, 119,753
, 40.7
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left, Jörg Detjen
, align=left,
The Left
, 29,810
, 7.2
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left, Olivier Fuchs
, align=left,
Volt Germany
, 18,520
, 4.5
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left, Christer Cremer
, align=left,
Alternative for Germany
Alternative for Germany (, AfD, ) is a Far-right politics in Germany (1945–present), far-right,Far-right:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Right-wing populism, right-wing populist and National conservatism, national-conservative p ...
, 17,441
, 4.2
, -
,
, align=left, Nicolin Gabrysch
, align=left, Climate Friends
, 14,370
, 3.5
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left, Roberto Campione
, align=left,
Independent
, 14,122
, 3.4
, -
,
, align=left, Thor Zimmermann
, align=left, Good Cologne
, 8,613
, 2.1
, -
,
, align=left, Dagmar Langel
, align=left, We Are Cologne
, 4,464
, 1.1
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left, Robert Nussholz
, align=left,
Independent
, 4,044
, 1.0
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left, Sabine Neumeyer
, align=left,
Independent
, 2,547
, 0.6
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left, Rüdiger-René Keune
, align=left,
Ecological Democratic Party
, 2,336
, 0.6
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left, Martin Przybylski
, align=left,
Independent
, 924
, 0.2
, -
! colspan=3, Valid votes
! 415,933
! 98.7
! 294,016
! 99.1
, -
! colspan=3, Invalid votes
! 5,633
! 1.3
! 2,727
! 0.9
, -
! colspan=3, Total
! 421,566
! 100.0
! 296,743
! 100.0
, -
! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout
! 820,527
! 51.4
! 818,731
! 36.2
, -
, colspan=7, Source: City of Cologne
1st round
City council

The Cologne city council (''Kölner Stadtrat'') governs the city alongside the Mayor. It serves a term of five years.
The most recent city council election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows:
! colspan=2, Party
! Votes
! %
! +/-
! Seats
! +/-
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne)
, 118,997
, 28.5
, 9.0
, 26
, 8
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Social Democratic Party (SPD)
, 90,040
, 21.6
, 7.8
, 19
, 7
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
, 89,659
, 21.5
, 5.7
, 19
, 6
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
The Left (Die Linke)
, 27,044
, 6.5
, 0.4
, 6
, ±0
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Free Democratic Party (FDP)
, 21,965
, 5.3
, 0.2
, 5
, ±0
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Volt Germany (Volt)
, 20,783
, 5.0
, New
, 4
, New
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Alternative for Germany
Alternative for Germany (, AfD, ) is a Far-right politics in Germany (1945–present), far-right,Far-right:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Right-wing populism, right-wing populist and National conservatism, national-conservative p ...
(AfD)
, 18,272
, 4.4
, 0.8
, 4
, 1
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Die PARTEI
(''Party for Labour, Rule of Law, Animal Protection, Promotion of Elites and Grassroots Democratic Initiative''), or Die PARTEI (''The PARTY''), is a German political party. It was founded in 2004 by the editors of the German satirical magazine ...
(PARTEI)
, 10,261
, 2.5
, 2.4
, 2
, 2
, -
,
, align=left, Climate Friends (Klima Freunde)
, 8,383
, 2.0
, 0.0
, 2
, ±0
, -
,
, align=left, Good Cologne (GUT)
, 8,298
, 2.0
, 0.6
, 2
, ±0
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Free Voters Cologne (FWK)
, 2,501
, 0.6
, 0.2
, 1
, ±0
, -
, colspan=7 bgcolor=lightgrey,
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP)
, 374
, 0.1
, New
, 0
, New
, -
,
, align=left, We Are Cologne 2020 (Wir Sind Köln)
, 265
, 0.1
, New
, 0
, New
, -
,
, align=left, Independent A. Krause
, 107
, 0.0
, New
, 0
, New
, -
,
, align=left, Independent Neumeyer
, 72
, 0.0
, New
, 0
, New
, -
,
, align=left, Independent Weber
, 72
, 0.0
, New
, 0
, New
, -
,
, align=left, Independent R. Krause
, 71
, 0.0
, New
, 0
, New
, -
,
, align=left, Independent Schidlowsky
, 32
, 0.0
, New
, 0
, New
, -
,
, align=left, Party of Progress (PdF)
, 31
, 0.0
, New
, 0
, New
, -
! colspan=2, Valid votes
! 417,227
! 98.9
!
!
!
, -
! colspan=2, Invalid votes
! 4,596
! 1.1
!
!
!
, -
! colspan=2, Total
! 421,823
! 100.0
!
! 90
! ±0
, -
! colspan=2, Electorate/voter turnout
! 820,526
! 51.4
! 1.8
!
!
, -
, colspan=7, Source
City of Cologne
State Landtag

In the
Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia, Cologne is divided among seven constituencies. After the
2022 North Rhine-Westphalia state election, the composition and representation of each was as follows:
Federal parliament
In the
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...
, Cologne is divided among four constituencies. In the
20th Bundestag, elected
26 September 2021, the composition and representation of each was as follows:
Cityscape
The inner city of Cologne was largely destroyed during World War II. The reconstruction of the city followed the style of the 1950s, while respecting the old layout and naming of the streets. Thus, the city centre today is characterized by
modern architecture
Modern architecture, also called modernist architecture, or the modern movement, is an architectural movement and style that was prominent in the 20th century, between the earlier Art Deco and later postmodern movements. Modern architectur ...
, with a few interspersed pre-war buildings which were
reconstructed due to their historical importance. Some buildings of the "Wiederaufbauzeit" (era of reconstruction), for example, the opera house by
Wilhelm Riphahn, are nowadays regarded as classics of modern architecture. Nevertheless, the uncompromising style of the
Cologne Opera house and other modern buildings has remained controversial.
The districts outside the city center consist mostly of 19th and 20th century buildings.
Around 25% of Cologne was built before 1945.
Green areas account for over a quarter of Cologne, which is approximately of public green space for every inhabitant.
File:Kemmerlingshof, Köln-Junkersdorf Dürener Str 437.jpg, Junkersdorf old town
File:Köln Bayenthalgürtel 9.jpg, upArt Nouveau
Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...
villa on Bayenthal-gürtel, part of the Cologne Ring
File:Neptunbad, Köln-Ehrenfeld-8466.jpg, Gründerzeit building in Ehrenfeld, Cologne
File:Hansahochhaus Köln - Gesamtansicht (0308-10).jpg, Hansahochhaus, a building in the style of Brick Expressionism
Wildlife
The dominant wildlife of Cologne is insects, small rodents, and several species of birds. Pigeons are the most often seen animals in Cologne, although the number of birds is augmented each year by a growing population of
feral exotics, most visibly parrots such as the
rose-ringed parakeet. The sheltered climate in southeast
Northrhine-Westphalia allows these birds to survive through the winter, and in some cases, they are displacing native species. The plumage of Cologne's green parrots is highly visible even from a distance, and contrasts starkly with the otherwise muted colours of the cityscape.
Hedgehogs, rabbits and squirrels are common in parks and the greener parts of town. In the outer suburbs foxes and wild boar can be seen, even during the day.
Tourism
Cologne had 5.8 million overnight stays booked and 3.35 million arrivals in 2016.
Landmarks
Churches
*
Cologne Cathedral (German: ''Kölner Dom'') is the city's most famous monument and the Cologne residents' most loved landmark. It is a
Gothic church, started in 1248, and completed in 1880. In 1996, it was designated a
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
; it houses the
Shrine of the Three Kings, which supposedly contains the
relic
In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as a tangible memorial. Reli ...
s of the
Three Magi (see also). Residents of Cologne sometimes refer to the cathedral as "the eternal construction site" (''die ewige Baustelle'').
*
Twelve Romanesque churches: These buildings are outstanding examples of early medieval church architecture. The origins of some of these churches go back as far as
Roman times, for example
St. Gereon, which was originally a huge mausoleum in a Roman graveyard, or
St. Maria im Kapitol, built on the substructure of a Roman temple.
Great St. Martin Church stands on the site of Roman warehouses and previously a sports field with a swimming pool, the walls of which can be seen in the basement of the church. With the exception of St. Maria Lyskirchen all of these churches were very badly damaged during World War II. Reconstructions of the last ones were only finished in the 1990s.
Kdom.jpg, Cologne Cathedral
Cologne, Germany. Basilica of St. Gereon.jpg, St. Gereon's Basilica
Köln st maria im kapitol dreikonchenanlage 251204.jpg, St. Maria im Kapitol
Köln - Groß St. Martin vom Dom.jpg, Great St. Martin Church
Severeinskirche aus Severinstorburg 2009.jpg, Basilica of St. Severin
Koeln mariae himmelfahrt 001.jpg, Church of the Assumption
Trinitatiskirche Koeln2007.jpg, Trinity Church
Medieval houses
The Cologne City Hall (''Kölner Rathaus''), founded in the 12th century, is the oldest
city hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...
in Germany still in use. The Renaissance-style loggia and tower were added in the 15th century. Other famous buildings include the Gürzenich, Haus Saaleck and the Overstolzenhaus.
File:Keoln Maerz 2009 PD 20090327 028.JPG, Cologne City Hall
File:Köln gürzenich.jpg, Gürzenich
File:Overstolzenhaus-Rheingasse-Köln.JPG, Overstolzenhaus
Medieval city gates
Of the twelve medieval
city gate
A city gate is a gate which is, or was, set within a city wall. It is a type of fortified gateway.
Uses
City gates were traditionally built to provide a point of controlled access to and departure from a walled city for people, vehicles, goods ...
s that once existed, only the Eigelsteintorburg at Ebertplatz, the Hahnentor at Rudolfplatz and the Severinstorburg at Chlodwigplatz still stand today.
File:Köln eigelsteintorburg.jpg, Eigelsteintor
File:Hahnentorburg.jpg, Hahnentor
File:Severinstorburg Köln-0410.jpg, Severinstor
Streets
* The
Cologne Ring boulevards (such as ''Hohenzollernring'', ''Kaiser-Wilhelm-Ring'', ''Hansaring'') with their medieval city gates (such as ''Hahnentorburg'' on ''Rudolfplatz'') are also known for their night life.
*
Hohe Straße (literally: ''High Street'') is one of the main shopping areas and extends past the cathedral in an approximately southerly direction. The street contains many gift shops, clothing stores, fast food restaurants and electronic goods dealers.
*
Schildergasse – connects ''Neumarkt'' square at its western end to the ''Hohe Strasse'' shopping street at its eastern end and has been named the busiest shopping street in Europe with 13,000 people passing through every hour, according to a 2008 study by
GfK.
* Ehrenstraße – the shopping area around ''Apostelnstrasse'', ''Ehrenstrasse'', and ''Rudolfplatz'' is a little more on the quirky and stylish side.
Bridges

Several bridges cross the Rhine in Cologne. They are (from south to north): the
Rodenkirchen Bridge,
South Bridge (railway), ,
Deutz Bridge,
Hohenzollern Bridge (railway), (''Zoobrücke'') and
Mülheim Bridge. In particular the iron
tied arch Hohenzollern Bridge (''Hohenzollernbrücke'') is a dominant landmark along the river embankment. A Rhine crossing of a special kind is provided by the
Cologne Cable Car (German: ''Kölner Seilbahn''), a cableway that runs across the river between the
Cologne Zoological Garden in Riehl and the
Rheinpark in Deutz.
High-rise structures
Cologne's tallest structure is the
Colonius telecommunication tower at . The observation deck has been closed since 1992. A selection of the tallest buildings in Cologne is listed below. Other tall structures include the Hansahochhaus (designed by architect Jacob Koerfer and completed in 1925 – it was at one time Europe's tallest office building), the Kranhaus buildings at
Rheinauhafen, and the
Messeturm Köln ("trade fair tower").
Culture
Cologne has
numerous museums. The famous
Roman-Germanic Museum features art and architecture from the city's distant past; the
Museum Ludwig houses one of the most important collections of
modern art
Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradit ...
in Europe, including a
Picasso collection matched only by the museums in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
and
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
. The
Museum Schnütgen of religious art is partly housed in St. Cecilia, one of Cologne's
Twelve Romanesque churches. Many art galleries in Cologne enjoy a worldwide reputation like e.g.
Galerie Karsten Greve, one of the leading galleries for postwar and contemporary art.
Cologne has more than 60 music venues and the third-highest density of music venues of Germany's four largest cities, after Munich and Hamburg and ahead of Berlin.
Several orchestras are active in the city, among them the
Gürzenich Orchestra, which is also the orchestra of the
Cologne Opera and the
WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne (''German State Radio Orchestra''), both based at the Cologne Philharmonic Orchestra Building (
Kölner Philharmonie). Other orchestras are the
Musica Antiqua Köln, the
WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln and
WDR Big Band, and several choirs, including the
WDR Rundfunkchor Köln. Cologne was also an important hotbed for electronic music in the 1950s (Studio für elektronische Musik,
Karlheinz Stockhausen) and again from the 1990s onward. The public radio and TV station
WDR was involved in promoting musical movements such as
Krautrock
Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It originated among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electron ...
in the 1970s; the influential
Can was formed there in 1968. There are several centres of nightlife, among them the ''Kwartier Latäng'' (the student quarter around the Zülpicher Straße) and the nightclub-studded areas around
Hohenzollernring, Friesenplatz and Rudolfplatz.
The large annual literary festival with its features regional and international authors. The main literary figure connected with Cologne is the writer
Heinrich Böll, winner of the
Nobel Prize for Literature. Since 2012, there is also an annual international festival of philosophy called .
The city also has the most pubs per capita in Germany.
Cologne is well known for its beer, called
Kölsch.
Kölsch is also the name of the local dialect. This has led to the common joke of Kölsch being the only language one can drink.
Cologne is also famous for
Eau de Cologne
Eau de Cologne (; German: ''Kölnisch Wasser'' ; meaning "Water from Cologne") or simply cologne is a perfume originating in Cologne, Germany. Originally mixed by Johann Maria Farina (Giovanni Maria Farina) in 1709, it has since come to be a gene ...
(German: ''Kölnisch Wasser''; lit: "Water of Cologne"), a perfume created by Italian expatriate
Johann Maria Farina at the beginning of the 18th century. During the 18th century, this perfume became increasingly popular, was exported all over Europe by the Farina family and ''Farina'' became a household name for ''Eau de Cologne''. In 1803 Wilhelm Mülhens entered into a contract with an unrelated person from Italy named Carlo Francesco Farina who granted him the right to use his family name and Mühlens opened a small factory at Cologne's Glockengasse. In later years, and after various court battles, his grandson
Ferdinand Mülhens was forced to abandon the name ''Farina'' for the company and their product. He decided to use the house number given to the factory at Glockengasse during the French occupation in the early 19th century,
4711. Today, original Eau de Cologne is still produced in Cologne by both the
Farina family, in the eighth generation, and by
Mäurer & Wirtz who bought the 4711 brand in 2006.
Carnival
The
Cologne carnival is one of the largest street festivals in Europe. In Cologne, the carnival season officially starts on 11 November at 11 minutes past 11 a.m. with the proclamation of the new Carnival Season, and continues until
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday is a holy day of prayer and fasting in many Western Christian denominations. It is preceded by Shrove Tuesday and marks the first day of Lent: the seven weeks of Christian prayer, prayer, Religious fasting#Christianity, fasting and ...
. However, the so-called "Tolle Tage" (crazy days) do not start until ''Weiberfastnacht'' (Women's Carnival) or, in dialect, ''Wieverfastelovend'', the Thursday before Ash Wednesday, which is the beginning of the street carnival. Zülpicher Strasse and its surroundings, Neumarkt square, Heumarkt and all bars and pubs in the city are crowded with people in costumes dancing and drinking in the streets. Hundreds of thousands of visitors flock to Cologne during this time. Generally, around a million people celebrate in the streets on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday.
Rivalry with Düsseldorf
Cologne and
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
have a "
fierce regional rivalry",
which includes
carnival
Carnival (known as Shrovetide in certain localities) is a festive season that occurs at the close of the Christian pre-Lenten period, consisting of Quinquagesima or Shrove Sunday, Shrove Monday, and Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras.
Carnival typi ...
parades,
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
,
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
, and beer.
People in Cologne prefer
Kölsch while people in Düsseldorf prefer
Altbier ("Alt").
Waiters and patrons will "scorn" and make a "mockery" of people who order Alt beer in Cologne or Kölsch in Düsseldorf.
The rivalry has been described as a "love–hate relationship".
The Köln Guild of Brewers was established in 1396. The Kölsch beer style first appeared in the 1800s and in 1986 the breweries established an appellation under which only breweries in the city are allowed to use the term Kölsch.
Museums
*
Farina Fragrance Museum – birthplace of
Eau de Cologne
Eau de Cologne (; German: ''Kölnisch Wasser'' ; meaning "Water from Cologne") or simply cologne is a perfume originating in Cologne, Germany. Originally mixed by Johann Maria Farina (Giovanni Maria Farina) in 1709, it has since come to be a gene ...
*
Römisch-Germanisches Museum (Roman-Germanic Museum) – ancient Roman and Germanic culture
*
Wallraf-Richartz Museum – European painting from the 13th to the early 20th century
*
Museum Ludwig – modern art
*
Museum Schnütgen – medieval art
*
Museum für Angewandte Kunst –
applied art
The applied arts are all the arts that apply design and decoration to everyday and essentially practical objects in order to make them aesthetically pleasing."Applied art" in ''The Oxford Dictionary of Art''. Online edition. Oxford Univ ...
*
Kolumba Kunstmuseum des Erzbistums Köln (
art museum
An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although ...
of the Archbishopric of Cologne) – modern art museum built around medieval ruins of
St. Kolumba, Cologne, completed 2007
* Cathedral Treasury "Domschatzkammer" – historic underground vaults of the Cathedral
*
EL-DE Haus – former local headquarters of the
Gestapo
The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
houses a museum documenting
Nazi
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
rule in Cologne with a special focus on the persecution of political dissenters and minorities
* German Sports and Olympic Museum – exhibitions about sports from antiquity until the present
*
Imhoff-Schokoladenmuseum – Chocolate Museum
* Geomuseum of the University of Cologne – the exhibition includes fossils (such as dinosaur bones and the skeleton of an
Eryops),
stones
In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
and
minerals
In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): M ...
* Forum for Internet Technology in Contemporary Art – collections of Internet-based art, corporate part of (NewMediaArtProjectNetwork):cologne, the experimental platform for art and New Media
*
Flora und Botanischer Garten Köln – the city's formal park and main
botanical garden
A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...
*
Forstbotanischer Garten Köln – an
arboretum
An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...
and woodland
botanical garden
A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...
Music fairs and festivals
The city was home to the internationally famous
Ringfest, and now to the C/o pop festival.
In addition, Cologne enjoys a thriving Christmas Market (''Weihnachtsmarkt'') presence with several locations in the city.
Economy

As the largest city in the
Rhine-Ruhr
The Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region () is the Metropolitan regions in Germany, largest metropolitan region in Germany, with over ten million inhabitants. A wikt:polycentric, polycentric conurbation with several major urban concentrations, the reg ...
metropolitan region, Cologne benefits from a large
market structure
Market structure, in economics, depicts how firms are differentiated and categorised based on the types of goods they sell (homogeneous/heterogeneous) and how their operations are affected by external factors and elements. Market structure makes i ...
. In competition with
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
, the economy of Cologne is primarily based on insurance and
media industries, while the city is also an important cultural and research centre and home to a number of
corporate headquarters.
Among the largest media companies based in Cologne are
Westdeutscher Rundfunk,
RTL Television (with subsidiaries),
n-tv,
Deutschlandradio,
Brainpool TV and publishing houses like J. P. Bachem,
Taschen,
Tandem Verlag, and
M. DuMont Schauberg. Several clusters of media, arts and communications agencies, TV production studios, and state agencies work partly with private and government-funded cultural institutions. Among the insurance companies based in Cologne are Central, DEVK, DKV,
Generali Deutschland,
Gen Re,
Gothaer, HDI Gerling and national headquarters of
Axa
Axa S.A. is a French multinational insurance corporation headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It also provides investment management and other financial services via its subsidiaries. As of 2024, it is the fourth largest financi ...
Insurance,
Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group and
Zurich Financial Services.
The German flag carrier
Lufthansa
Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...
and its subsidiary
Lufthansa CityLine have their main corporate headquarters in Cologne.
The largest employer in Cologne is
Ford Europe
Ford of Europe GmbH is a subsidiary company of Ford Motor Company founded in 1967 in Cork (city), Cork, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with headquarters in Cologne, Germany.
History
Ford of Europe was founded in 1967 by the merger of Ford of Bri ...
, which has its European headquarters and a factory in
Niehl (
Ford-Werke GmbH).
Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG),
Toyota
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...
's official motorsports team, responsible for Toyota rally cars, and then
Formula One
Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...
cars, has its headquarters and workshops in Cologne. Other large companies based in Cologne include the
REWE Group
The REWE Group is a German diversified retail and tourism co-operative group based in Cologne, Germany. The name REWE comes from "Revisionsverband der Westkauf-Genossenschaften", meaning "Western Buying Co-operatives Auditing Association".
His ...
,
TÜV Rheinland,
Deutz AG and a number of
Kölsch breweries. The largest three Kölsch breweries of Cologne are Reissdorf, Gaffel, and Früh.
Historically, Cologne has always been an important trade city, with land, air, and sea connections.
The city has five Rhine ports,
the second largest
inland port in Germany and one of the largest in Europe.
Cologne Bonn Airport is the second largest freight terminal in Germany.
Today, the
Cologne trade fair (''Koelnmesse'') ranks as a major European trade fair location with over 50 trade fairs
and other large cultural and sports events. In 2008 Cologne had 4.31 million overnight stays booked and 2.38 million arrivals.
Cologne's largest daily newspaper is the ''
Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger''.
Cologne shows a significant increase in
startup companies, especially when considering digital business.
Cologne has also become the first German city with a population of more than a million people to declare climate emergency.
Transport
Roads

Road building had been a major issue in the 1920s under the leadership of mayor
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman and politician who served as the first Chancellor of Germany, chancellor of West Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of th ...
. The first German limited-access road was constructed after 1929 between Cologne and
Bonn
Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...
. Today, this is the
Bundesautobahn 555. In 1965, Cologne became the first German city to be fully encircled by a motorway ring road. Roughly at the same time, a city centre bypass (''Stadtautobahn'') was planned, but only partially put into effect, due to opposition by environmental groups. The completed section became ''Bundesstraße ("Federal Road") B 55a'', which begins at the ''Zoobrücke'' ("Zoo Bridge") and meets with
A 4 and
A 3 at the interchange Cologne East. Nevertheless, it is referred to as ''Stadtautobahn'' by most locals. In contrast to this, the ''Nord-Süd-Fahrt'' ("North-South-Drive") was actually completed, a new four/six-lane city centre through-route, which had already been anticipated by planners such as
Fritz Schumacher in the 1920s. The last section south of ''Ebertplatz'' was completed in 1972.
In 2005, the first stretch of an eight-lane motorway in
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...
was opened to traffic on
Bundesautobahn 3, part of the eastern section of the
Cologne Beltway between the interchanges Cologne East and Heumar.
Cycling
Compared to other German cities, Cologne has a traffic layout that is not very
bicycle-friendly. It has repeatedly ranked among the worst in an independent evaluation conducted by the
Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrrad-Club. In 2014, it ranked 36th out of 39 German cities with a population greater than 200,000.
Railway

Cologne has a railway service with
InterCity
InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the train categories in Europe, classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to InterRegio, regional train, r ...
and
ICE
Ice is water that is frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 ° C, 32 ° F, or 273.15 K. It occurs naturally on Earth, on other planets, in Oort cloud objects, and as interstellar ice. As a naturally oc ...
-trains stopping at
Köln Hauptbahnhof
Köln Hauptbahnhof () is the central station, central railway station of Cologne, Germany. The station is an important local, national and international transport hub, with many Intercity-Express, ICE, Eurostar and Intercity (Deutsche Bahn), Inter ...
(Cologne Main Station),
Köln Messe/Deutz and
Cologne/Bonn Airport. ICE and
TGV Thalys high-speed trains link Cologne with
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
, Brussels (in 1h47, 9 departures/day) and Paris (in 3h14, 6 departures/day). There are frequent ICE trains to other German cities, including
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
and Berlin. ICE trains to
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
via the
Channel Tunnel
The Channel Tunnel (), sometimes referred to by the Portmanteau, portmanteau Chunnel, is a undersea railway tunnel, opened in 1994, that connects Folkestone (Kent, England) with Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais, France) beneath the English Channel at ...
were planned for 2013.
The
Cologne Stadtbahn operated by
Kölner Verkehrsbetriebe (KVB) is an
extensive light rail
Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...
system that is partially underground and serves Cologne and a number of neighbouring cities. It evolved from the tram system. Nearby
Bonn
Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...
is linked by both the Stadtbahn and main line railway trains, with occasional recreational boats on the Rhine.
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
is also linked by
S-Bahn
The S-Bahn ( , ), , is a hybrid urban rail, urban–suburban rail system serving a metropolitan region predominantly in German language, German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit syst ...
trains, which are operated by .
The
Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn has 5 lines which cross Cologne. The S13/S19 runs 24/7 between Cologne Hbf and Cologne/Bonn airport.
Buses
There are frequent buses covering most of the city and surrounding suburbs, and
Eurolines coaches to London via
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
.
Water
Häfen und Güterverkehr Köln (Ports and Goods traffic Cologne, HGK) is one of the largest operators of
inland ports in Germany. Ports include Köln-Deutz, Köln-Godorf and Köln-Niehl I and II.
Air
Cologne's international airport is
Cologne/Bonn Airport (CGN). It is also called ''Konrad Adenauer Airport'' after Germany's first post-war Chancellor
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman and politician who served as the first Chancellor of Germany, chancellor of West Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of th ...
, who was born in the city and was
mayor of Cologne from 1917 until 1933. The airport is shared with the neighbouring city of
Bonn
Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...
. Cologne is headquarters to the
European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
Education
Cologne is home to numerous universities and colleges, and host to some 72,000 students.
Its oldest university, the
University of Cologne (founded in 1388)
is the largest university in Germany, as the
Cologne University of Applied Sciences is the largest
university of Applied Sciences
A vocational university or university of applied sciences (UAS), less commonly called a polytechnic university is an institution of higher education and increasingly research that provides applied professional education and grants academic de ...
in the country. The Cologne University of Music and Dance is the largest
conservatory in Europe. Foreigners can have German lessons in the VHS (Adult Education Centre).
Lauder Morijah School (), a Jewish school in Cologne, previously closed. After Russian immigration increased the Jewish population, the school reopened in 2002.
Media
Within Germany, Cologne is known as an important media centre. Several radio and television stations, including
Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR),
RTL and
VOX, have their headquarters in the city. Film and TV production is also important. The city is "Germany's capital of TV crime stories".
A third of all German TV productions are made in the
Cologne region.
Furthermore, the city hosts the
Cologne Comedy Festival, which is considered to be the largest comedy festival in mainland Europe.
Sports

Cologne hosts the football club
1. FC Köln,
who play currently in the
2. Bundesliga (second division). They play their home matches in
RheinEnergieStadion which also hosted five matches of the
2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...
.
The
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...
and the
International Association of Sports and Leisure Facilities gave RheinEnergieStadion a bronze medal for "being one of the best sporting venues in the world".
The city also hosts the two football clubs
FC Viktoria Köln and
SC Fortuna Köln, who play in the
3. Liga (third division) and the
Regionalliga West
The Regionalliga West is a German professional football division administered by the German Football Association#Western Germany, Western German Football Association based in Duisburg. It is one of the five German regional football associations. ...
(fourth division) respectively. Cologne's oldest football club
1. FSV Köln 1899 is playing with its amateur team in the
Verbandsliga (sixth division).
Cologne also is home of the ice hockey team
Kölner Haie, which is playing in the highest
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
league in Germany, the
Deutsche Eishockey Liga.
They are based at
Lanxess Arena.
Several horse races per year are held at
Cologne-Weidenpesch Racecourse
The Cologne-Weidenpesch Racecourse (''Galopprennbahn Köln-Weidenpesch'') is a horse racing track at Weidenpescher Park in Nippes, Cologne, Nippes, Cologne. As the only race course in Germany hosting more than one European pattern Group 1 races, ...
since 1897, the annual
Cologne Marathon was started in 1997 and the classic cycling race
Rund um Köln is organised in Cologne since 1908. The city also has a long tradition in
rowing, being home of some of Germany's oldest regatta courses and boat clubs, such as the
Kölner Rudergesellschaft 1891 or the
Kölner Ruderverein von 1877 in the
Rodenkirchen district.
Japanese automotive manufacturer
Toyota
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...
has their major
motorsport
Motorsport or motor sport are sporting events, competitions and related activities that primarily involve the use of Car, automobiles, motorcycles, motorboats and Aircraft, powered aircraft. For each of these vehicle types, the more specific term ...
facility known by the name
Toyota Motorsport GmbH, which is located in the Marsdorf district, and is responsible for Toyota's major motorsport development and operations, which in the past included the
FIA Formula One World Championship
Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one of the wor ...
, the
FIA World Rally Championship and the
Le Mans Series
The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the ...
. They are working on Toyota's team
Toyota Gazoo Racing which competes in the
FIA World Endurance Championship.
Cologne is considered "the secret golf capital of Germany".
The first golf club in
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...
was founded in Cologne in 1906.
The city offers the most options and top events in Germany.
The city has hosted several athletic events which includes the
2005 FIFA Confederations Cup, 2006 FIFA World Cup,
2007 World Men's Handball Championship,
2010
The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...
and
2017 Ice Hockey World Championships,
2024 FIFA European Championship and
2010 Gay Games.
Since 2014, the city has hosted
ESL One Cologne, one of the biggest
CS GO tournaments held annually in July/August at
Lanxess Arena.
Furthermore, Cologne is home of the
Sport-Club Colonia 1906, Germany's oldest boxing club, and the
Kölner Athleten-Club 1882, the world's oldest active weightlifting club.
Notable people
*
Leon Draisaitl, ice hockey player
*
Kim Petras, Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter
*
Paul-Jürgen Weber, visual artist and photographer
*
Udo Kier, German actor
*
Jean Bugatti, automotive designer and test engineer
*
Markus N. Beeko, human rights activist
*
Daniel Brühl, German actor
Twin towns – sister cities
Cologne is
twinned with:
*
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
, Spain (1984)
*
Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
, China (1987)
*
Bethlehem
Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...
, Palestine (1996)
*
Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...
, Romania (1976)
*
Corinto, Nicaragua (1988)
*
Cork, Ireland (1988)
*
Dnipro
Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...
, Ukraine (2024)
*
Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg (1958)
*
Indianapolis
Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...
, United States (1988)
*
Istanbul
Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
, Turkey (1997)
*
Katowice
Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...
, Poland (1991)
*
Kyoto
Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
, Japan (1963)
*
Liège
Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...
, Belgium (1958)
*
Lille
Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...
, France (1958)
*
Liverpool
Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
, England (1952)
*
Neukölln (Berlin), Germany (1967)
*
El Realejo, Nicaragua (1988)
*
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...
, Brazil (2011)
*
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...
, Netherlands (1958)
*
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
, Israel (1979)
*
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...
, Greece (1988)
*
Treptow-Köpenick (Berlin), Germany (1990)
*
Tunis
Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...
, Tunisia (1964)
*
Turin
Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...
, Italy (1958)
*
Turku
Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...
, Finland (1967)
Former twin towns
*
Volgograd, Russia (1988) - suspended in 2022
See also
*
Stadtwerke Köln, the municipal infrastructure company, operator of the city's railways, ports, and other utilities
*
New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Germany
*
Hänneschen-Theater
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Cities in North Rhine-Westphalia
Urban districts of North Rhine-Westphalia
Cologne (region)
Populated places on the Rhine
Rhineland
Catholic pilgrimage sites
Holy cities
Members of the Hanseatic League
Coloniae (Roman)
Roman towns and cities in Germany
Germania Inferior
Free imperial cities
Populated places established in the 1st century BC
30s BC establishments
38 BC
Burial sites of the Pippinids
Holocaust locations in Germany