History of the city of Cologne

The article History of the City of Cologne presents its course from prehistory to the present .

City arms of Cologne

Pre-Roman Cologne

First evidence of human life in the city of Cologne is classified as belonging to the Paleolithic ; Finds of a core stone in Dellbrück and a hand ax in the Königsforst , each estimated to be around 100,000 years old, as well as finds from Cologne-Worringen suggest this. The first indications of settlement and cultivation of the fertile loess soils between Aachen and Cologne date from around 5300 BC. BC, when the favorable terrain, the mild climate and the abundance of water attracted farmers from the Rhine-Main area . The important find of a band ceramics settlement from the Neolithic Age was made in Lindenthal in 1929 and investigated until 1934, when more than 100 house floor plans were discovered. The Lindenthaler village, which extends oval-shaped between Hohenlind and the Stüttgenhof on the Frechener Bach , was built between the end of the 5th and the beginning of the 4th millennium BC. Colonized several times in BC and abandoned again - the cause was probably extensive shifting cultivation , which regularly forced the residents to leave their settlements until the depleted soil had recovered. The settlement was rarely protected by a surrounding moat for the time. Remains of another ceramic band settlement were also found in Mengenich .

Beginning of the 4th millennium BC BC members of the Michelsberg culture settled in the Cologne region. Archaeological findings are in the area around the cathedral, in Niehl and possibly between Merheim and Brück in the area around the Merheimer Fliehburg . The bell beaker culture , the first metalworking culture in the Rhineland , settled after 2000 BC. BC throughout Western Europe and left stone and copper tools behind. References to this culture can be found particularly in the area of ​​the Fühlinger See . From the 12th century BC A cemetery was found in the south of Cologne near the Bonntor, a culture known as urn field culture , which is characterized by a change from body to cremation. Evidence of yet another Iron Age burial culture - barrows - was found primarily in Dellbrück on the right bank of the Rhine, but also in Lindenthal, Müngersdorf , Riehl , Longerich and Worringen on the left bank of the Rhine . In 1949 the verifiable number in Dellbrück was 685, the original burial ground is estimated at 1200 graves in total.

Traces of Celtic settlement during the La Tène period can also be found in Cologne, most of the known examples on the left bank of the Rhine; from the first century BC Chr. Z. B. also on the south side of Cologne Cathedral . Of the craftsmanship that is characteristic of the Celts, an extraordinary unique piece has been found in Cologne southeast of the Roman city ​​wall , a handle attaché (attached vessel handle) about the size of a palm, shaped as a three-horned head . According to Caesar, the area of ​​Cologne belonged to the tribal area of ​​the Celtic Eburones .

Roman Cologne

See also : Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium

Around 55 BC As governor of Gaul , Caesar had conquered the areas up to the Rhine. An uprising of the Eburones in 54 BC BC was put down a year later and the tribe that lived on the left bank of the Rhine between the Meuse , Rhine and the Ardennes was exterminated. During the fighting, Caesar met the Germanic tribe of the Ubier , who settled on the right bank of the Rhine , from which some warriors served as scouts for him. Praised by Caesar as “more cultivated than other Germanic peoples”, they were fought by their neighboring tribes on the right bank of the Rhine because of their friendliness to the Romans and finally withdrew to the now largely uninhabited areas west of the Rhine. Tacitus reports that the Ubier soon submitted to Agrippa and thus to the Roman Empire. Other reports speak of an alliance treaty that the Ubians concluded with the Romans, in which extensive areas on the left bank of the Rhine were transferred to them. No exact date is given in either of the traditions.

COLONIA CLAUDIA ARA AGRIPPINENSIUM - Roman Cologne, ideal image of the late ancient city, Roman-Germanic Museum, Cologne

The year 38 BC is usually the year of foundation for the oppidum Ubiorum , the first urban settlement on the soil of what will later become Cologne. Called BC. The fact is that Agrippa traveled to the Rhine twice during this period: in the years 40–38 BC. BC and around 20/19 BC BC, so that it can only be said with certainty that the capital of the Ubier population was no later than 19 BC. Was founded. The urban settlement was conveniently located at the intersection of two important trade routes. It was already fortified by the Ubi, but the Romans soon used it as a garrison and religious center. Similar to Lyon for Gaul, an altar was built here for the patron goddess of Rome, after which the city was also called Ara Ubiorum . This altar has not yet been located. It is mentioned for the first time in connection with the Varus battle in 9 AD at Tacitus.

Model of the Praetorium (seat of the Roman emperors), view from the east / from the Rhine

Original remains of the praetorium: accessible via the “archaeological zone / Jewish museum” under the town hall

When Rome gave up its plans to conquer Germania east of the Rhine around 17 AD, the Ubier settlement consolidated in the Roman border area. Agrippina the Younger , who later became the wife of the Roman Emperor Claudius and mother of Nero , was born here as early as 15 or 16 AD . Due to their influence, the oppidum Ubiorum received the status of a Roman colony and was henceforth called Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium or CCAA for short . The name of the city contained both the name of Agrippina or that of her father as well as that of the emperor Claudius, the Ara refers to the Roman altar in the city. Of the 150 or so Roman colonies , it is Cologne alone that derives its current name from this designation for the highest Roman city law. The city charter was officially granted on July 8th, 50 AD.

Römerturm : One of the towers of the Roman city wall (between St.-Apern-Straße and Am Römerturm )

The greatest expansion of the Roman Empire at the death of Emperor Trajan (117 AD)

With the construction of the stone city wall, which is 2.5 meters thick and 8 meters high, with nine gates and 19 round towers, one of which is well preserved from the 3rd century, the eastern side was already built at the end of the 1st century AD . began; work on the fortification was probably not completed until the 3rd century. In 68, the year Nero died and the associated state crisis in Rome, the Batavians and tribes allied with them besieged the city and initially achieved the task of the population. However, the Agrippinese refused the requested removal of the fortifications and soon returned under the protection of the Romans.

When the military district around Cologne was elevated to the Roman province of Lower Germany ( Latin Germania inferior ) from 81 AD , the CCAA, located on the Roman Rhine Valley Road , received the status of a provincial capital in 89. Around this time, the city's water supply was improved by one of the longest aqueducts in the Roman Empire, the Eifel aqueduct .

The reign of Trajan from the year 98 marks the beginning of a heyday for the entire Roman Empire; In the CCAA, too, a 150-year period of peace led to an upswing in the economy and construction. A new praetorium for the provincial administration was created around 180 . The remains of the foundation walls were uncovered in 1953 when the Spanish building of today's town hall was built. Manufactory works from Cologne, especially glass and ceramics, were delivered throughout the Roman Empire and beyond.

Postumus

In the years 259/60, after a dispute with Saloninus , the son of Emperor Gallienus , the military commander Postumus took the side of insurgent border troops and was proclaimed emperor of an Imperium Galliarum by them . Postumus conquered CCAA and killed Saloninus - Cologne became the capital of the new empire, to which Gaul, temporarily Spain and probably also Britain belonged. Only in the year 274 did this “Sonderreich”, which stands for another golden age in CCAA, end with the reconquest by Emperor Aurelian . High-quality gold coins with the image of Postumus were minted in the mints of Cologne at this time. In the year of the reconquest, however, Cologne was attacked and devastated by Teutons for the first time.

Emperor Constantine then ordered the construction of the Castellum Divitia ( Deutz Castle ) on the right bank of the Rhine to protect the city , which was connected to the city through the construction of the first permanent Rhine bridge , a wooden structure on stone river pillars.

The population of Cologne is estimated at around 15,000 people for the third and fourth centuries; there were also about 5000 in the surrounding area. There was a diversity of religions and cultures; In addition to the original Roman deities, gods and goddesses from the Germanic and other religions of the Roman Empire were worshiped. In 1882, for example, an Isis figure was found in the north wall of the Ursulakirche ; there are other finds in the Roman-Germanic Museum, e.g. B. for the mother goddesses ( matrons ), usually shown in threes . The Mithras cult was also quite widespread in Cologne .

After the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem and the associated dispersion ( diaspora ) of the Jews, there is evidence of a Jewish community in Cologne. In 321, Emperor Constantine approved the settlement of a Jewish community with all the freedom of Roman citizens. Although little is known about the location of the municipality in Cologne - it is assumed that it was located near the Marspforte within the city wall - the Cologne municipality is the oldest documented history in Germany (→ Jewish history in Cologne ).

Medieval depiction of the martyrdom of St. Ursula of Cologne

There is evidence of a Christian community in Cologne from the beginning of the fourth century. The first known Cologne bishop is Maternus in 313; the first written evidence of a church dates back to 355, but its location is unknown. A hall was built on the northern cemetery, where, according to later legend, a group of Christian girls fell victim to the last persecution of Christians - this is where the origins of the later cult of " Ursula and the 11,000 virgins " can be found.

Since the Germanic raid in 274, the city has faced further Germanic attacks; especially the Franks pushed across the Rhine. In November / December 355 they succeeded in conquering and sacking Cologne, taking advantage of the turmoil after the murder of the opposing emperor Silvanus by Ursicinus in the Praetorium. A few months later the city was recaptured by the Caesar (in late antiquity : lower emperor) Julian , who was later elevated to emperor ( Augustus ). At the beginning of the 5th century, however, the end of Roman rule in Gaul and thus also in Lower Germany became apparent: Cologne survived the advance of the Teutons to the west relatively unscathed. A short recapture by the Western Roman army master Flavius ​​Aëtius in the period from 435 to 446 was accompanied by a victory against the Huns king Attila (the Huns' march past Cologne provided further legendary material on the history of Saint Ursula). At the latest when Aëtius was murdered in 454, this also meant the end of Roman rule in the region; the Franks conquered Cologne and made the city an outpost of one of their " Gaue ", the later Kölngau .

Franconian Cologne

At the beginning of the Franconian rule in the former Roman area on the Rhine and Moselle in the 5th century, the Franconian tribe was still divided into subgroups. Several small kings ruled in the northern Gaulish and Rhenish regions , including the Merovingian Childerich I in Tournai , after his death in 481/82 his son Clovis I , who quickly expanded his domain. At that time, Sigibert , King of the Ripuarian Franks and a cousin of Clovis , ruled Cologne . Clovis put an end to the Ripuarian kingship by first getting Sigibert's son to have his father murdered and then having him slain by his own messengers. When Clovis moved into Cologne, he is said to have rejected responsibility for the murders and offered the citizens his protection - whereupon they should have cheered him in St. Gereon as their ruler and thus king of all Franks. The historian Gregory of Tours reported this in his Historiae , but for the time of Clovis he had only uncertain information.

At the time of the Franks, Cologne was home to a mixture of Franks, other Teutons and Romans, i.e. the population who lived before the arrival of the Franks, with a wide variety of religions. The Romanesque city population still spoke Latin in the 6th century. Despite the increasing Christianization of the Merovingian Empire after the baptism of Clovis and the status of Cologne as a bishopric, there were also non-Christian places of worship until at least the sixth century.

The Franks, a warrior and peasant people, used the Roman infrastructure that had been preserved in Cologne despite the conquest, especially the praetorium , in which the kings resided, as well as the bridge and city wall. They also built on Roman foundations in agriculture and handicrafts; For example, the numerous Roman manors around Cologne and the military facilities gradually developed into Franconian villages and court settlements. Although the population had declined sharply in Franconian times, trade and handicrafts were still at a high level, although export trade was no longer as pronounced in the sixth century.

A threat to the city in 557 by the Saxons , who were able to penetrate to the Deutz Castle , was averted. Cologne was repeatedly involved in the bloody power struggles that the descendants of Clovis fought. After the battle of Toul in 612 , Theudebert fled from Toul to Cologne before his brother Theuderich . When the latter defeated him in another battle, Theuderich moved into Cologne and was proclaimed the new king by Theudebert's remaining supporters.

The quarrels in the royal family led to an increase in power for the Franconian nobles - the housekeepers - who took government work out of their hands; In 687 the Carolingian Pippin the Middle took over all Frankish caretaker offices. He stayed in Cologne for longer periods of time, his residence was probably near the current church of St. Maria in the Capitol . But even among his successors there was no calm: Pippin's stepson Karl Martell finally forced Plektrudis , his father's widow, who resided in Cologne, to give up her power and to go to the monastery in the church of St. Maria im, which she founded according to high medieval sources Capitol.

The final takeover of power by the Carolingians in the Franconian Empire by Martell's son Pippin the Younger in 751 meant the end of the Merovingian rule in Franconia and the end of Cologne's role as royal seat (the Carolingians resided in Aachen ).

The Cologne bishops played an important role in the Franconian period . The most important among them is Kunibert of Cologne , who worked around 625 and who was already used by King Dagobert III. and his son Sigibert III. who had run government business. According to legend, Kunibert also consecrated the oldest still preserved church bell in Cologne , the Saufang . The Clemenskirche, in which Kunibert was buried after his death in 663, was henceforth called Kunibertskirche .

Carolingian Cologne

During the Saxon wars under Charlemagne , Cologne regained political and cultural influence; Hildegar is the first Carolingian bishop who was killed around 753 in a battle against the Saxons near the Iburg . Since that time Cologne has venerated many Christian martyrs , collected their relics in valuable shrines and built many churches for them. A new liturgical facility, a Schola Cantorum, was installed in the late Merovingian cathedral .

Pope Zacharias planned to appoint Boniface Archbishop of Cologne in order to promote the conversion of the Saxons and Frisians from Cologne. The plan initially failed due to the resistance of the local bishops and nobles, and Cologne only became an archbishopric in 795. As early as 787, Karl had installed the priest Hildebold as bishop of Cologne when the Cologne residents could not agree on a new bishop themselves. In 795 Hildebold consequently also became Cologne's first archbishop; he served until his death in 818, four years after Charlemagne died.

After the death of Charlemagne, another dispute broke out over the Frankish Empire. Due to the Treaty of Verdun 843 Cologne initially belonged to the so-called middle kingdom between East and West Francia , whose ruler the grandson of Charlemagne I. Lothar was. Later this area was also called Lotharingien and ruled by Lothar II , the son of Lothar I and great-grandson of Charlemagne. His divorce and remarriage, which was supported by the Archbishop of Cologne Gunthar , led to the excommunication of Gunthar in 863 , but Gunthar remained in office in Cologne until 866. He protested against the separation of Bremen from its metropolitan association through the establishment of the Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen in 848. This initially led to a standstill. But when Gunthar was excommunicated because of Lothar II's divorce, Pope Nicholas I issued the founding bull for the Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen on May 31, 864 . Gunthar's successor Willibert consecrated the church in 873, which is considered the Old Cathedral - the forerunner of Cologne Cathedral . Its construction probably began around 850; but because Gunthar appeared unpopular as a builder, it was later attributed to its more famous predecessor, which is why it was long called Hildebolddom .

After Lothar's death, Cologne fell to the East Franconian Empire of King Ludwig the German in 876 .

Due to the inner Franconian fighting, the empire was weakened to the outside world so that in the winter of 881/882 Danish Vikings were able to advance on their raids in the Rhineland up the Rhine to Cologne and Bonn. Under the leadership of their chiefs Godefried and Sigifrid, they plundered and plundered the cities, and according to historical reports, only the cathedral and the churches of St. Severin and St. Gereon remained in Cologne , all other buildings and churches as well as the city wall burned down. Then the Vikings moved up the Moselle to Trier . The city's clergy had fled to Mainz with the most important church treasures before the Norman invasion. The great destruction of this time has not yet been proven archaeologically and may also have been exaggerated in some cases, especially since only one historical source reports on this event in the form of the Fulda Annals . While the secular buildings had already been rebuilt after two years, Archbishop Hermann I asked Pope Stephan V for relics to be sent to replace the burnt church treasures in the city in 891 .

In 882 the Cologne people fortified their city walls again and strengthened them, which turned out to be very useful, because when the Vikings came back in 883, Cologne was spared thanks to the wall, unlike Bonn and Andernach, which burned again. In the year 891 Cologne received important relics for the rebuilt churches from Pope Stephan V under its Archbishop Hermann .

At the beginning of the 10th century, the rule changed in Cologne for the penultimate time in the Carolingian era: In East Franconia, Konrad I was elected king, which caused the Lorraine princes to split off and brought them into the sphere of influence of the Carolingian West Franconia . This phase was finally ended by the Saxon Heinrich I , who brought Lorraine back to Eastern Franconia with a few conquests. In 925 Lorraine - and thus Cologne - belonging to the East Franconian Empire was confirmed by the princes and the Archbishop of Cologne.

The high medieval Cologne

Ottonian time

Archbishop Brun , the brother of the future Emperor Otto I , had been elected spiritual head of Cologne in 953. After an uprising in Lorraine against her brother Duke Heinrich I was put down under his leadership , Otto I made the archbishop Duke of all of Lorraine and thus secular prince in Cologne. This gave him jurisdiction as well as market and mint sovereignty in the city - this marked the beginning of a period of archbishopric power in Cologne, which lasted until the Battle of Worringen in 1288.

Brun left a lasting mark on the city. Under his rule, the old cathedral was expanded, several monasteries and monasteries (e.g. the forerunner of today's church Groß St. Martin ) were founded and around 950 the settlements of the Rhine suburbs, which until then lay outside the city walls, moved into the city incorporated (the area around today's Alter Markt and Heumarkt ). He probably had a palace built near the cathedral for the emperor's visits to Cologne .

Shortly after Otto I. visited the Archbishop in Cologne with his family in 965, Brun died at the age of 40 on a diplomatic mission in Reims . He was buried in the St. Pantaleon monastery church in Cologne .

Otto II and his wife Theophanu, crowned and blessed by Christ; Ivory relief tablet, around 982/983, Milan (?), Museum Cluny, Paris

After Brun's successor, Folcmar , who was only briefly in office, Archbishop Gero appeared from 969 . He traveled to Constantinople in 971 to look for a wife for Otto II . The marriage of the emperor's son with the daughter of the Eastern Roman emperor was planned ; Gero finally brokered the marriage with his niece Theophanu in 972. After Otto II's death in 983, the empress led six and a half years for her underage son Otto III. the reign. She died in 991; however, the Byzantine influence on German art and culture can be traced back to them and their large entourage. After she was buried like Brun in St. Pantaleon, her compatriots, craftsmen and artists settled around this church - which is reflected in Cologne street names such as Greeks Market.

According to tradition, the Gero cross in the old cathedral, which is important in terms of art history and iconography, was commissioned and erected by Gero after 970. After his death it was placed on his sarcophagus in the cathedral. Gero's successor, Archbishop Everger , who had been the cathedral treasurer at the time of Gero's cathedral, is reported in Thietmar von Merseburg's chronicle that he had both Gero and his successor Warin apparently buried dead in order to take over their office. Everger's successor was Archbishop Heribert . He ruled from 999 to 1021 and founded Deutz Abbey in 1003 . During his tenure, the people of Cologne had to struggle with several famines and droughts. His prayers are said to have led to the longed-for rain, so that he was canonized after his death in 1147.

Salian time

Heribert's successor in office Pilgrim carried through the coronation of Henry III. and his mother Gisela to the permanent right of the Archbishops of Cologne to be allowed to perform coronations in Aachen. In addition, he was appointed Arch Chancellor for Italy in 1031 , an honorary position held after him by all Cologne Archbishops of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.

The Archbishop of Cologne received the right to mint in 1039 and the Cologne mark began its triumphal march on the Lower Rhine. In the following year (1040) the first verifiable synagogue was built in Cologne. Queen Richeza of Poland was buried in Cologne in 1061.

In 1074 there was a rebellion of the citizens of Cologne against their liege lord, the Archbishop Anno II. As Anno in the Cologne harbor had seized a merchant ship, the son of the wealthy merchant resisted this encroachment. Anno was only just able to get to safety from the murderous population and flee the city. A few days later he returned with armed groups, the city surrendered, and the ringleaders were punished severely.

In 1096 the assembly point for the crusaders from the Lower Rhine was located in Cologne . The crusaders plundered and pillaged the Jewish quarter . In the course of the conflict between Emperor Heinrich IV and his son Heinrich V , new fortifications were built in 1106. Cologne took the side of Henry IV. With this second city ​​expansion , the walls now covered an area of ​​203.6 hectares . On August 25, 1128, a fire caused by lightning struck Deutz on the right bank of the Rhine in ruins. Numerous buildings were destroyed. The Cologne town hall was first mentioned in a document in 1135.

Staufer time

The large Cologne city seal is documented for the first time in 1149; its actual time of origin is disputed. Around 1140, an estimated 20,000 citizens lived in the city. Cologne was hit by a great fire and plague in 1150 .

The Archbishop of Cologne, Rainald von Dassel , brought the remains of the Three Kings to Cologne on July 23, 1164. As a result, Cologne became one of the most important places of pilgrimage in Christian Europe and attracted large numbers of pilgrims and kings on a healing tour to Cologne. Also because of the 1,121 found and since then venerated relics of St.. Gereon and his companions as well as the found in the 12th century remains of the legendary Saint Ursula and her according to legend, 11,000 attendants Cologne, together with Rome and Santiago de Compostela one of the three major pilgrimage sites of Late Middle Ages. Cologne's reliquary is said to have contained objects from more than 800 saints.

The Hahnentorburg , which has been preserved to this day, is one of originally twelve gate castles in the eight kilometer-long medieval city wall of Cologne. Colored photo around 1900.

In May 1169, on the occasion of a dispute between the burgrave and the bailiff of Cologne, Philip confirmed an old wisdom in which their official position and the scope of their powers and rights as well as the freedoms of the Cologne citizens were recorded. In 1171, the senators of the city of Cologne renewed the customs privileges for the merchants of Dinant, which had already been granted to them by Archbishop Friedrich I († 1131). In 1174 Archbishop Philip I von Heinsberg loaned 1000 marks from the city of Cologne for the purpose of a campaign to Italy and seized the right to coin money for it.

On July 27, 1180, Archbishop Philipp compared the city fortifications against his ban that the status quo with regard to fortifications, houses and porches could remain in exchange for a payment of 2000 marks and a basic interest rate. This sanctioned the construction of the city fortifications. The contract was confirmed by Emperor Friedrich I on August 11th. The great medieval city wall was built over the next six decades. The area of ​​the city grew from 203.6 hectares to 402.6 hectares. After completion, the wall with 52 towers and 12 gates was the largest fortification in Europe. The leprosy of Cologne, conveniently located in Melaten on Cologne-Aachener Strasse, was first mentioned in 1180 on the map of the shrines of the parish of St. Aposteln. The destroyed infirmary was first mentioned in a document on April 25, 1243 as hoping to buy Malaten Colne .

The Council of the City of Cologne appears for the first time in 1216 in the traditional documents. The entry of the future Empress and English Princess Isabella of England in 1235 on her journey to her wedding in Worms with Emperor Frederick II was one of the “greatest social events of the High Middle Ages” . Isabella was received with all honors and stayed in Cologne for six weeks. Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden laid the foundation stone for the new Cologne Cathedral on August 15, 1248 . During his time in Cologne, the church doctor Albertus Magnus played an outstanding role in the disputes between the city and the archbishop. In the Small Arbitration of April 17, 1252 and in the Large Arbitration of June 28, 1258 he appraised the dispute between the city and the bishop. With the Great Arbitration, supreme judicial authority and supreme power were assigned to the archbishop. At the same time, the verdict also confirmed the municipality's right to self-administration. The consequence was that Konrad von Hochstaden could not enforce the desired sovereignty over Cologne and had to be content with the supervisory authority.

Late medieval Cologne

Cologne joined the Rhenish Association of Cities in July 1254, which comprised 59 cities and territorial princes and existed until 1257. The motive for the foundation was the insecurity in the Holy Roman Empire at the time of the interregnum . The Rheinische Städtebund demanded the abolition of the 30 or so Rhine tariffs that severely hindered trade. He turned against feuds and established rules for conflict cases.

Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden granted the city of Cologne stacking rights on May 7, 1259 . After that, all the merchants traveling to and from Cologne had to “stack” their goods and offer them for sale. In Cologne, goods have always been reloaded from the larger Dutch Aaken to the Oberland , which could be grained on the Middle Rhine. The stacking right was decisive for the development of Cologne to the European economic metropolis of the late Middle Ages. Archbishop Engelbert II. Von Falkenburg assured the Jews of the city his protection in 1266. In the dispute between the citizens and the archbishop, there was a fight at the Ulrepforte in October 1268 . The conflict was depicted in Gottfried Hagen's rhyming chronicle .

Albertus Magnus died in Cologne on November 15, 1280 . The citizens of Cologne won their freedom from the archbishopric rule in the battle of Worringen on June 5, 1288. In the conflict between Siegfried von Westerburg , Archbishop of Cologne , and Duke Johann I of Brabant , the city of Cologne sided with the Duke. The archbishop was captured. As a result, the city of Cologne de facto achieved the status of a Free Imperial City , although de jure recognition was still a long way off in 1475.

The choir of the new Gothic cathedral was consecrated on September 27, 1322. The relics of the Magi, a magnet for numerous pilgrims, were transferred to the new cathedral. Around 1324, Meister Eckhart was head of the Studium generale in Cologne. He was denounced in 1325 by confreres to the Archbishop of Cologne, Heinrich II. Von Virneburg , Archbishop of Cologne, for allegedly heretical statements of faith and died either in 1327 or 1328 in Cologne or in Avignon .

The carnival was mentioned for the first time in an entry in the oath book of the Cologne Council on March 5, 1341 . In the summer of 1349 the plague claimed more than a hundred victims every day. On the night of August 23rd to 24th, 1349, a plague pogrom broke out in which the Cologne Jewish community was wiped out. A meeting of the Hanseatic cities met on November 19, 1367 in the “Hansasaal” of Cologne's town hall and formed the confederation against the Danish King Waldemar IV.

The disputes between the patricians who dominated the council and the Richerzeche and the up-and-coming guilds reached their first climax in the so-called Cologne weavers' revolt . Towards the end of the 14th century there were around 300 weaver workshops in Cologne with up to 6,000 employees. Up to 20,000 bales (1.60 meters wide and 25 meters long) were produced each year. At that time, the Cologne garment tailor Wilhelm Wavern exported 10,000 pairs of trousers a year. Back then, a journeyman weaver earned around 8 shillings a day at the following cost of living: a rooster 3 shillings, 25 eggs 25 shillings, a fish 2 shillings, a pair of trousers 32 shillings, 1 pair of shoes 10 shillings. The weaver revolt was intended to take account of the immense economic importance of the weavers' guilds. It began at Whitsun 1369 and ended in the bloody weavers 'battle on November 20, 1371 on the Waidmarkt with a severe defeat of the weavers' guild, which was then severely punished. The patrician families were able to restore their power temporarily. The Richerzeche was restituted, but finally abolished in 1396.

In 1374 the highest (ice-free) flood ever reached in Cologne occurred . After melting snow and days of rain in large parts of the Rhine catchment area, a water level of around 13.30 m was reached on February 11th. During the peak wave, boats could drive over the city wall on the Rhine side. It was a unique event documented by numerous contemporary sources. From April 1375 to the conclusion of peace on February 16, 1377 there was a severe trial of power between the city of Cologne and Archbishop Friedrich von Saar Werden in the so-called jury war. The occasion was a dispute over competence in connection with the lay judges who ate or represented the archbishop burgrave at the high court. During the war of lay judges, Emperor Karl IV imposed the imperial ban on Cologne, and heavy damage was done in the Cologne area, especially in Deutz.

The Old University of Cologne was founded on May 21, 1388 by the Cologne citizenship and by the Roman Pope Urban VI. approved. The opening took place on Epiphany in 1389. The founding rector was Hartlevus de Marca , who opened the teaching business with a disputation with the theology professor Gerhard Kikpot von Kalkar on Isaiah 60.1 ("the glory of the Lord shone upon you"). The university had its predecessors in the general studies of the Mendicant Orders, especially those of the Dominicans, which Albertus Magnus had established in 1248. The University of Cologne was the fourth university to be founded in the Holy Roman Empire after the Charles University in Prague (1348), the University of Vienna (1365) and the Ruprecht-Karls University of Heidelberg (1386). The Old University was closed on April 28, 1798 by the French who moved to Cologne in 1794, as were the universities in France and the University of Mainz in 1795, when it was converted into a central school for the Département de la Roer , known as the “Université de Cologne”.

On November 6, 1395, a severe earthquake shook the city of Cologne at 3 o'clock in the morning, after hail showers with grains the size of chicken eggs had frightened the people eight days earlier.

The composite letter of 1396

Excerpt from the Kölner Verbundbrief (Kölner Stadtmuseum)

In 1396 the patrician rule in Cologne was finally ended by a bloodless revolution. It was replaced by an estates constitution based on the organization of the gaffs . This was preceded by years of disputes within the council and the patriciate that constituted it.

On July 8, 1391, Hilger Quattermart von der Stesse , the leader of the patrician Greifen party, eliminated the aldermen of the high court. On August 11, 1391, the right to elect mayor passed from the rich corporation Richerzeche to the council. On July 17, 1394, the council decided on the "eternal banishment" of Heinrich von Staves, one of Hilger Quattermart's uncle, because of his activities in the Deutz customs area. On December 26, 1395, in a stormy council meeting, Hilger Quattermart deleted the exile decree against Heinrich von Staves from the council book; This was followed by a provocative appearance by Heinrich von Stave in the city. On January 4, 1396, the party of the "Griffins" with its leader Hilger Quattermart was ousted by the party of the party of the "Friends" founded the day before under the leadership of Constantine von Lyskirchen.

Hilger Quattermart fled. His relative Heinrich von Stave was executed on January 11, 1396 on Neumarkt , many of the "griffins" were sentenced to life imprisonment. On June 18, 1396, Constantine von Lyskirchen tried to restore old patrician rights. The artisans and merchants' guilds protesting against this were sent home by him "from a high horse". The guilds then captured the "friends" in their meeting room. The "griffins" were released. On June 24, 1396, a 48-strong provisional council of merchants, landowners and craftsmen met.

The town clerk Gerlach von Hauwe then formulated the so-called Verbundbrief , which was signed and put into effect on September 14, 1396 by the 22 so-called Gaffels. The gaffs were composed heterogeneously, in them the disempowered patricians, offices, guilds and individuals were summarized, but not the numerically very strong clergy; every citizen of Cologne had to join one of the gaffs. The Verbundbrief constituted a 49-member council; 36 councilors from the Gaffeln and 13 infirmaries were appointed to it. It remained in force until the end of the Free Imperial City in 1797. On April 14, 1397 the council confirmed the guild letters of the yarn makers, silk makers and gold spinners analogous to other guild regulations. In economic terms, the women of Cologne achieved freedom in the late Middle Ages like nowhere else in the German Empire. Women acted independently and were largely competent.

The Free Imperial City of Cologne

Cologne around 1411

Around 1400, an estimated 40,000 citizens lived in the city. This made Cologne the largest city in the Holy Roman Empire at that time . After Ruprecht of the Palatinate was elected as the opposing king of King Wenceslas in 1400, Aachen, on the initiative of Cologne, refused the opposing king to move into the city.

On January 6, 1401, Ruprecht of the Palatinate was coronated as German king in Cologne Cathedral , and on July 6, 1402, the "English marriage" between Blanca of England , daughter of Henry IV. , And Ludwig III. , the son of King Ruprecht, closed. It had come about through the mediation of negotiators from the Cologne Council. In 1403 the council forbade any masking. on Shrove Tuesday.

The town hall tower was completed in 1414, it was used as an archive , armory and fire station. In the same year, the rule of Archbishop Dietrich II. Von Moers (1414–1463) began, at 49 years the longest government of an Archbishop of Cologne. The Cologne Jews were expelled after their resettlement of 1,372 in 1424 finally out of town. The synagogue was converted into the council chapel of St. Maria in Jerusalem , and the Cologne mikvah was filled. This ended the tradition of one of the oldest and most important settlements of Jews on German soil.

The first Cologne begging order is dated to 1435 and was included in the Cologne statutes from 1437. It stipulates that healthy people have to work for a living or leave the city and that beggars are not allowed to publicly display their wounds and ailments so that the "good citizens" are not harassed. The begging order was also aimed specifically at foreign beggars. Stefan Lochner completed the altarpiece Altar des Stadtpatrone around 1445 , which reflects the self-confidence of the Free Imperial City and is exhibited in the cathedral today. In the same year, on June 11th, the council issued the order that all piglets - with the exception of those of bakers, brewers and farmers - were to be abolished within the city. This and numerous similar, presumably just as unsuccessful, decrees of the council cast a harsh light on the hygienic conditions in the city center. Wilhelm Roggelin and Peter Puckgassen were the first officially appointed garbage collectors in the city on August 16, 1448.

The Gürzenich , the council's ballroom and dance hall, was built from 1441 to 1447 by city architect Johann van Bueren . On February 26, 1446, the first documented witch trial took place in Cologne. After swearing the original feud , the accused was released. In 1449 the city council forbade the importation of foreign beer into Cologne, and if they did not do so, the importers could face imprisonment. In 1466, the first known Cologne book printing (Liber Johannis Chrysostomi super psalmo quinquagesimo) was published in Ulrich Zell's printer . Zell had probably learned his trade from the Mainz book printers Peter Schöffer and Johannes Fust ; a decade later there were already 10 printing works in Cologne. In 1469 Heinrich van Beeck wrote a comprehensive history of the city of Cologne, the universal chronicle Chronica coloniensis called Agrippina . It describes the history of the city from its beginnings to 1419. In addition to the chronicle, the manuscript also includes a document section.

View of "Agrippina or Cologne" from Die Cronica van der Hilliger Stat van Coellen , printed in 1499 by Johann Koelhoff the Elder. J.

Emperor Friedrich III. in the course of the Cologne collegiate feud in 1475 officially confirmed the status of a free imperial city that had practically existed since 1288; the Hanseatic League, led by Cologne, acquired the Stalhof in London as an office . Four years later in 1479 received the University of Cologne from Emperor Friedrich III. the right to dissect corpses. In 1481/82, an attempt to overthrow the so-called small consignment against the financial conduct of the council failed because the majority of the gaffs sided with it. A dying man reported in 1484 about homosexual practices in Cologne. When a major investigation revealed that over 200 respected citizens were involved, the results of the investigation were swept under the rug.

At the Reichstag in Cologne in 1505, the Roman-German King and later Emperor Maximilian I decided the Landshut War of Succession with the establishment of the Duchy of Palatinate-Neuburg (so-called Cologne Spruch ). The Dominican Jakob van Hoogstraten († 1527), in 1504 in Cologne as Dr. theol. doctorate and since 1505 the Cologne religious school, in 1510 became prior of the Cologne Dominican monastery and as such held the office of papal inquisitor for the church provinces of Cologne, Mainz and Trier. He had Reuchlin's books burned in Cologne .

The civil uprising of 1512/13, in which three mayors and seven councilors were killed, led to the resolution of the Transfix letter of December 15, 1513, which contained additions to the network letter of 1396 and took account of the tensions between the council and the community that had grown over decades. In the Transfix letter, which together with the Verbundbrief formed the Cologne constitution until 1797 , the rights of the community were expanded and updated, in particular the inviolability of people and homes. In addition, the power of the gaffs should be strengthened, the misappropriation of city funds prevented and the favoritism of the council stopped.

Cologne 1531

Albrecht Dürer visited his cousin Niklas in Cologne in 1520. Martin Luther's writings were burned in the cathedral courtyard . The two Protestant "heretics" Adolf Clarenbach and Peter Fliesteden were burned on Melaten in 1529 . The Cologne Stock Exchange was founded in 1553. In a ferry accident on the Rhine in 1559, over 50 people drowned. Construction work on Cologne Cathedral was stopped in 1560 for financial reasons.

Since the High Middle Ages, the people of Cologne had observed with concern that the Rhine began to look for another river bed on the right bank of the Rhine near Poll. Floods and ice drifts favored these changes. In order to prevent the Rhine from breaking through to the east between Poll and Deutz, Cologne wanted to fortify the bank with the so-called bollard heads , but it was not until 1557 that the council was able to agree on the measures with the archbishop. The major project was tackled in 1560 and continued for over 250 years. A total of three heavy bank reinforcements ("heads") were created. In addition to hundreds of ships laid ashore, willow plantings and groynes were introduced to prevent deviations in the course of the river. Weighted down with lumps of basalt, iron-reinforced oak trunks - connected by heavy cross beams - were driven into the river bed. The northern head is said to have had a length of 1500 meters.

Since 1577, Cologne was connected to the European main postal rate , the Dutch postal rate, from Brussels via Augsburg to Innsbruck , Trento and Italy by means of a branch from Wöllstein . At first there was a foot messenger post; however, it was converted into a riding post in 1579 by postmaster Jacob Henot .

The Archbishop of Cologne, Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg , renounced the Catholic Church in 1582 and married the Protestant canoness Agnes von Mansfeld , but did not resign as Archbishop. Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg was excommunicated in 1583 and the reliable Catholic Ernst von Bayern appointed his successor, among other things because a Protestant Archbishop of Cologne would have cost the Catholic majority in the electoral college. It came to the Cologne War (also Truchsessischer Krieg ), which lasted until 1588. Deutz , Bonn and Neuss were devastated. In 1609, the council forbade women to wear men's clothing even at Carnival. The first tobacco dealer opened his shop in Cologne in 1620.

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Reconstruction of the city of Cologne in the 17th century

Katharina Henot , daughter of Jacob Henot, was burned as a witch on Melaten in 1627. Christina Plum first accused herself of witchcraft in spring 1629 and initially denounced ten respected citizens during an interrogation in April 1629. After further denunciations, several executions took place, including that of Christina Plum on January 16, 1630. It was not until the second half of 1630 that the persecution of witches was suspended in Cologne. Because of syphilis , the public bathhouses were closed in 1631. With the weekly postal newspapers , the first newspaper appeared in Cologne in 1632. The city council banned smoking inside the city walls in 1659. In 1655 Enn Lennartz was beheaded as a witch and burned. She was the last victim of the Cologne witch hunt. In total there were 96 witch trials on record during the time of the witch hunt (1435–1655) , in which 37 accused were sentenced to death. At the meeting on June 28, 2012, the City Council of Cologne unanimously approved a socio-ethical rehabilitation of the victims of the Cologne witch trials.

Cologne around 1646 by Matthäus Merian

During the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) Cologne behaved neutrally and was not drawn into it for a long time, although the war damaged the economy. On December 21, 1632, the Swedish general Baudissin attacked Deutz because he assessed its fortification by the Free Imperial City of Cologne as a breach of neutrality and demanded free religious practice for Protestants in Cologne. However, the strong resistance from Cologne forced him to retreat the next day. From then on Cologne assumed a more loyal position to the emperor, but continued to strive for good relations with the Protestant Netherlands. The equestrian general Jan von Werth († 1652) became a folk hero a little later in Cologne when he liberated the Ehrenbreitstein fortress from the French. It was from him that the legend of the maid Griet became famous.

On September 6, 1680, Nikolaus Gülich (* 1644) presented a complaint against urban grievances. A commission of inquiry was set up, but Gülich was then taken prisoner. August 1682 he was released again under pressure from the gaffs. Again and again he complained against clique and mismanagement. In the summer of 1683 Gülich tried to dissolve the council, but the trial against him was soon opened, mainly because of economic failure. In 1685 he was summoned before the imperial court by Emperor Leopold I as a peace-breaker. On February 23, 1686 he was sentenced to death by the sword and executed. His column of shame had been in the paved area of ​​his house for a hundred years.

Johann Valentin Reinhardt - Cologne city map from 1752

Cologne took part in the last Hanseatic Day in Lübeck in 1669 . Giovanni Battista Farina founded what is now the world's oldest perfume factory in 1709. In 1716 he began exporting his Eau de Cologne . In 1714, the city council introduced a compulsory registration for Protestants. In 1734 Jean Ignace Roderique founded the Gazette de Cologne . The French-language newspaper was distributed throughout Europe in the 18th century , alongside the Gazette d'Amsterdam , the Gazette d'Utrecht and the Gazette de la Haye (The Hague) . Along with Prague, Vienna, Antwerp, Rome and Venice, Cologne was one of the most important cities where news was collected because of its convenient transport connections. The Gazette de Cologne had spread because of their timeliness thousands of recipients and was at the courts across Europe. In 1735 the newspaper received imperial privilege .

After the city gates were closed in the evening in 1736, you could only enter the city after paying a gate fee. Giacomo Casanova visited the city of Cologne in 1760. After the harsh winter of 1783/84 , pack ice on the Rhine and the flooding caused by it caused great damage in February 1784 , over 60 people drowned. For Cologne it was the worst flood ever recorded with a record level of 13.55 meters.

The occupation of the city by the French revolutionary army in 1794 brought the end of the previous council rule. The city council was dissolved on May 28, 1796 - 400 years after the Verbundbrief , the old Cologne constitution, came into force . The council was replaced by a municipal administration based on the French model.

The modern age in Cologne up to National Socialism

The French Cologne

See also : Canton of Cologne

On October 6, 1794, French troops occupied the imperial city of Cologne, which was sealed by the symbolic handover of the city key. For better orientation, the French abolished the names of the houses that had been used up until then and introduced house numbers in 1795 - thanks to house number 4711 one of the most cited measures of that time, which gave the fragrance brand its name. As a result, Cologne became part of the Rur département founded in 1798 . In the same year the French dissolved the University of Cologne , and many churches and monasteries in Cologne and the Rhineland fell under secularization .

From 1797 both Jews and Protestants had citizenship. In 1798, Joseph Isaak, the first Jew since 1424, returned to the city. In the same year the guilds were dissolved; from then on there was freedom of trade in Cologne . The most drastic economic measure, however, was the relocation of the French customs border to the Rhine, also in 1798.

During the French occupation, numerous works of art were looted and many irreplaceable items destroyed, such as the flag wagon of the defeated archbishop from the Battle of Worringen in 1288. It was thanks to the last rector of the old university, Ferdinand Franz Wallraf , that the city of Cologne made irreplaceable items Works of art, archives and document holdings were preserved. In the 1801 Concordat between Napoleon and the Catholic Church, the Archbishopric of Cologne was abolished. Aachen took its place as a new diocese.

In 1801, the left bank of the Rhine, and with it Cologne, became part of the French national territory according to the Treaty of Lunéville . All Cologne citizens received French citizenship. Emperor Napoleon and his wife Josephine visited the city for the first time from September 13-17, 1804. Cologne was a stop on Napoleon's long journey through the conquered areas on the left bank of the Rhine shortly after his elevation to emperor on May 18, 1804. On the evening of September 13, Napoleon had arrived in Cologne and with the thunder of cannons and bells through the Eigelstein gate to his accommodation on Neumarkt drove.

During the French era, the Cologne Chamber of Industry and Commerce was also founded (1803), the first chamber of industry and commerce on German soil, and the Cologne Hännesche Theater (1802). In 1804 all parish cemeteries were closed, they were replaced by a central cemetery, which was created on the site of the old infirmary in Melaten and opened in 1810.

The French had to leave the city on January 14, 1814 because of the approaching Prussian troops. The Prussian occupation immediately followed the French occupation.

Prussian Cologne

See also : Colonial history of the city of Cologne

Cologne around 1840

In its final act signed on June 9, 1815, the Congress of Vienna provided for the occupation of Cologne by Prussian troops. The city fell to the Kingdom of Prussia , but the Cologne residents kept the French currency until 1848. In 1815, the future Prussian Prime Minister and Minister of War, General Ernst von Pfuel , became the city's commander . The city became the seat of a district and itself a district-free city . In 1819 the Rhenish Court of Appeal was set up in Cologne. In 1823, at the insistence of the Prussian administration, the Cologne Carnival Festival Committee was founded as a “determining committee” and organized the first controlled Cologne Carnival Monday procession . The first Cologne Sparkasse was opened in 1826 . In 1837 the Archbishop of Cologne, Clemens August Droste zu Vischering, was arrested because of the question of mixed marriages. In 1842 Karl Marx became editor-in-chief of the Rheinische Zeitung .

After the rediscovery of the facade plans of Cologne Cathedral at the beginning of the 19th century, public interest arose in the continued construction of the cathedral, which became a symbol of the German national movement. Joseph Görres and Sulpiz Boisserée were the driving forces behind the completion, so that on September 4, 1842, the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV and the later Archbishop Johannes von Geissel laid the foundation stone for the further construction of Cologne Cathedral. In 1863 the interior of the cathedral was completed. In 1868 the old cathedral crane , which had been a landmark of the city for half a millennium, was demolished. The partition between the choir, consecrated in 1322, and the nave was torn down after 560 years. On October 15, 1880, after 632 years of construction, the completed cathedral was completed with the cathedral construction festival. The cathedral festival was overshadowed by the effects of the Kulturkampf , which led to the arrest of the Archbishop of Cologne, Paulus Melchers, by the Prussian-Protestant authorities in 1874 .

In 1816, the English “Defiance” was the first steamship to reach the city. In 1826, the Preussisch-Rheinische Dampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft (PRDG) was founded in Cologne, which later became Cologne Düsseldorfer (KD). With the paddle steamers "Friedrich Wilhelm" and "Concordia" the first regular steamboat trip between Cologne and Mainz was started. With the Rhine Shipping Act of 1831, the Cologne stacking right was finally repealed. In 1835 the Rheinische Eisenbahngesellschaft was founded. In 1839 the first train rolled from Thürmchenswall to Müngersdorf. In 1841 the line to Aachen was completed. The expansion of the Rhine-Weser railway connection began in 1844. In 1848, in the wake of the March Revolution, there was a workers' demonstration and the so-called Cologne Lintel . In 1849 Adolph Kolping founded the Cologne journeyman's association. From 1855 to 1859 the first permanent bridge over the Rhine since Roman times, the cathedral bridge , was built. The port of Cologne became the end point of the Rhine-See shipping. In 1859 Cologne Central Station was inaugurated and the railway line on the left bank of the Rhine from Cologne to Bingerbrück was completed. On July 22nd, 1860, at the instigation of Caspar Garthe, the Cologne Zoo was opened with a ceremony .

Postcard: The first breach in the old city wall at Gereonshof at the beginning of the city expansion in 1880

At the end of the 19th century, after the construction of the outer fortress ring, the overcrowded city was able to expand into the rayon by buying and razing the city wall, ramparts and bastions . The medieval wall ring from 1180, which could never be surmounted, was laid down from 1881 to 1896 with the exception of a few remains, such as the most representative archways . Urban planning architect Josef Stübben created today's rings, Cologne's splendid boulevard, in their place. Nevertheless, Cologne still remained a fortress: New, modern bunkers and detached belt forts (outer forts or Biehler forts ) were built within a radius of 15 kilometers to replace the outdated fortifications. The inner fortress was completed in 1863 and the outer fortress ring in 1880 .

The population of Cologne increased by leaps and bounds during this time. In 1822 an estimated 56,000 citizens lived in the city, in 1837 there were over 72,000 inhabitants, in 1855 107,000 inhabitants, in 1888, after the incorporation of several suburbs, already 250,000. On May 22, 1911, the new Hohenzollern Bridge was inaugurated in the presence of Kaiser Wilhelm II . By 1913 the population continued to grow to 640,731. In 1914, further districts on the right bank of the Rhine came to Cologne.

After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871, Cologne also experienced a great economic and industrial boom. The volume of goods traffic on the left bank of the Rhine was 954,728 tons in 1885/86 and 413,573 tons on the right bank of the Rhine. In 1886, 4859 loaded ships with 4,656,561 quintals called at the Cologne port, 3190 loaded ships with 2,626,841 quintals left it. In addition, 138,742 quintals were moved downhill as rafts.

As in many other German cities, cycling was banned in Cologne until 1894 . In 1898 the Rheinauhafen was put into operation. In 1900 the city took over the tram network and electrified it. In 1906, to document this rapid development for the Prussian Rhine Province and Westphalia , the Rheinisch-Westfälische Wirtschaftsarchiv was founded in Cologne , which has since been part of the Cologne Chamber of Commerce . The first permanent cinema opened in 1906.

After the end of the First World War, troops of the German Army returned via the Deutz suspension bridge to the bank on the right bank of the Rhine , November 1918

The mobilization for the First World War in the summer of 1914 was first received with jubilation in Cologne, as in other cities (→  August experience ), but since 1916 the supply problems got worse and worse. In the spring of 1917 the city had to issue emergency money. On September 18, 1917, Konrad Adenauer was unanimously elected Lord Mayor by the city council, which was made possible by the cooperation of the German Center Party and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Adenauer's collaboration with the social democratic journalist and politician Wilhelm Sollmann shaped city politics in the years to come. The first bombardment of Cologne took place on March 24, 1918. In accordance with the Compiègne armistice , Cologne was occupied by British troops on December 6, 1918, immediately after the end of the war. (→  Allied occupation of the Rhineland ) Belonging to the new Free State of Prussia and thus to the German Empire of the Weimar Republic were not affected, but the exercise of German or Prussian sovereignty rights and the activities of the Prussian administration were sometimes overlaid by occupation measures. With the Rhineland Agreement between the German Reich and the victorious powers of June 28, 1919, the modalities of the occupation were defined in more detail and monitored by the Inter-Allied Rhineland Commission as the highest administrative authority.

Cologne in the Weimar Republic

In the elections for the constituent national assembly on January 19, 1919, in which women were also able to participate for the first time, the majority in Cologne voted for the German Center Party (40.8% - Reich: 19.7%) before the SPD (38.6%) - Reich: 37.9%) and the German Democratic Party (11.0% - Reich: 18.5%). On February 1, 1919, the spelling Cöln, imposed by the Prussian Ministry of the Interior since October 30, 1900, ended . The University of Cologne was reopened on June 12, 1919 after being closed for 121 years.

On August 1, 1920, the bridge fee ( toll to cross the Rhine bridges) was abolished. According to the Treaty of Versailles , the razing of the fortress rings began in 1921 and, from 1922, the green belts were laid on their rayons . In 1922, further districts on the left bank of the Rhine were incorporated in the north (for details, see the table of incorporations ). In 1923 the first Müngersdorfer stadium was completed, in 1924 the shell of the tallest skyscraper of its time in Europe, the later Hansa high-rise . The Cologne fair opened its doors on May 11th . On 30 November, with the Peter Bell , the largest with around 24 tonnes of free-swinging bell in the world dedicated läutbare of Cologne Cathedral. In 1925, the Tietz department store put Germany's first escalator into operation.

The Hansahochhaus, built in 1924/25, was the tallest building in Europe at the time of completion

Dedication card from Lord Mayor Adenauer

The occupation ended in January 1926 with the withdrawal of British troops (see Allied occupation of the Rhineland # evacuation ). In the same year, the forerunner of the WDR, Westdeutsche Funkstunde AG (Wefag), moved from Münster to Cologne and went on air as "Westdeutsche Rundfunk AG" (Werag). With a water level of 10.69 m, a heavy Rhine flood hit the city of Cologne in January 1926 without ice drift . The city invested 1.6 million Reichsmarks in the former Butzweilerhof military airfield . Scheduled air traffic began there on July 26, 1926. Due to its central location, the Butzweilerhof quickly developed into the second largest German airport. The Rhineland Hall was opened on October 10, 1928 . The Mülheim Bridge was put into operation on October 13, 1929. On October 2, 1930, Henry Ford came to Cologne-Niehl to lay the foundation stone of the new plant of the Ford Motor Company AG, which had been based in Berlin until then ( Ford-Werke since 1939 ).

Cologne was an important music city during the Weimar Republic. Well-known conductors such as Otto Klemperer worked at the Cologne Opera . There has been a radio orchestra since 1926 . In 1929/30 there were a total of 15 houses in Cologne with permanent or temporary variety programs and revues. With the Kaiserhof , Cologne received an international variety show in September 1931 (at the time of the Great Depression and the German banking crisis ). In December 1929 Konrad Adenauer was elected Lord Mayor for a further 12 years. The opening of Kraftwagenstrasse Cologne-Bonn as the first Reichsautobahn route took place on August 6, 1932.

Politically, the increasing radicalization, especially since Black Friday (1929) , was also reflected in Cologne in increasingly unrestrained clashes between National Socialists and Communists; In mid-1932 - before the Reichstag elections on July 31, 1932 - they reached a high point. Between 1930 and 1933 there were 19 deaths. On November 6, 1932 there was another Reichstag election.

Cologne in the time of National Socialism

Glockengasse synagogue in Cologne around 1861, destroyed during the November pogroms in 1938

In 1925 the NSDAP structured itself and divided the Reich into 31 party districts. The NSDAP gave the districts the name Gau and each named a capital in the Gau. Until 1931 Cologne belonged to the "Gau Rheinland-Süd"; from then on to the NSDAP district Cologne-Aachen. Since 1935 Cologne had the addition of the Hanseatic City to its name .

On January 4, 1933 - just four weeks before the takeover of the Nazi regime - met Adolf Hitler and Franz von Papen in Cologne (at Villa Schröder , Stadtwaldgürtel 35) to forge an alliance, the government Kurt von Schleicher's overthrow and to prepare the takeover of power ( meeting Papen with Hitler in the house of the banker Schröder ). The NSDAP won the local elections on March 12, 1933, the next day Adenauer was on leave, and on July 17, 1933, he was dismissed as mayor. On May 17, 1933, there were staged book burnings in front of the university . In the summer the terror began by the Secret State Police , which were initially located in the police headquarters , then in the Zeughausgasse and in the EL-DE-Haus (now the NS Documentation Center of the City of Cologne).

On March 7, 1936, Wehrmacht troops marched into demilitarized Cologne (" Rhineland occupation "). During the November pogroms in Cologne in 1938 , the synagogues in Roonstrasse , the ones in Glockengasse and Körnerstrasse ( Cologne-Ehrenfeld ) were burned down, and the synagogues in St.-Apern- Strasse, Deutz and Mülheim were devastated. The organized mob also demolished countless homes and businesses belonging to Jewish citizens. From 1938 onwards, the Cologne Jews, who became increasingly impoverished as a result of the Aryanization process, were called upon to do a closed “work assignment” in order to increase the pressure to emigrate.

In the “Greater German Reich” , Cologne was in fifth place in the list of the largest German cities in May 1939 with more than 772,000 inhabitants , including Vienna .

1939 to 1944

Cologne city center after an air raid in 1942

Melaten cemetery: graves of the bomb victims in the air raid of March 13, 1942

From September 1939 the Jews were concentrated in so-called “ Jewish houses ” - one room per family, from where they were later deported . From 1939 to 1945, foreign workers from the occupied territories were increasingly used as replacements for the Cologne workers who were doing military service for forced labor . In 1940/41 over 2000 Sinti and Roma were deported from Cologne. In October 1941, the deportation of Cologne Jews began, who were deported to the concentration camps in the east in trains with 1000 victims each . More than 7000 murdered Jews are known by name; the fate of numerous victims is unclear. As of the beginning of 2017, there are 2164 brass memorial plates on the floor in Cologne, so-called stumbling blocks , which remember individual victims by name (see list of stumbling blocks in Cologne ).

Area bombing destroyed large parts of the city during World War II . On May 12, 1940 (two days after the start of the western campaign ) British bombers flew the first air raid. The construction of large public bunkers and underground bunkers began in 1941. Hitler had this for about 60 cities on October 10, 1940 ordered . During excavations for the construction of the Dombunker (Roncalliplatz 4), the Dionysus mosaic (today the Roman-Germanic Museum) was uncovered in 1941. In June 1941, Cologne was attacked for the first time since the beginning of the war on five consecutive nights.

On 14 February 1942, the issued British Air Ministry , the area bombing directive ; it said that the attacks should be concentrated on the morale of the enemy civilian population - especially on the industrial workers (" morale bombing "). On the night of May 31, 1942, the Royal Air Force flew the first thousand-bomber attack ; it caused 480 deaths, 5,000 injuries and 45,000 homeless people. Two thirds of the 1,455 tons dropped were incendiary bombs; the majority of the damage caused was fire damage.

Cologne was defended from anti-aircraft positions ; they stood in Cologne's green belt and on bunkers in the city center. In the Cologne Bay there was a 32 km wide gap in the anti-aircraft and anti-aircraft floodlight bar in front of the Ruhr area and in front of the defended area around Koblenz . The gap, the so-called Cologne Hole , was used by many allied bomber groups as a loophole for the entry into Germany. That is why there were air alarms particularly frequently in Cologne .

1945

The last of a total of 262 air raids on the almost deserted Cologne should break on March 2, 1945 possible last resistance (see also Volkssturm ) before the capture. At the end of the war, 95% of the old town had been destroyed. On March 1, 1945, US forces began Operation Lumberjack . The 1st US Army crossed the Erft , reached Euskirchen on March 4th and parts of Cologne on March 5th.

At noon on March 6, 1945, German pioneers blew up the Hohenzollern Bridge , the last intact Rhine bridge in Cologne . Previously, the last German units had withdrawn to the right bank of the Rhine. On the same day, US troops advanced into the city center. There were only occasional exchanges of fire. A German tank that had previously destroyed a US tank was set on fire in front of the cathedral (see picture). The troops also released political prisoners from prisons.

On April 11, 1945, US Army tank tops that had crossed the Rhine near Remagen (Remagen Bridge ) reached Cologne-Porz . On April 14, 1945 the districts on the right bank of the Rhine were completely occupied. The US Army crossed the Rhine with the help of a pontoon bridge between the districts of Poll and Bayenthal .

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  Cologne 1945

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  Warning notice in front of the cathedral in 1945

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  Cologne, destroyed city center in 1948

Cologne after the war

politics

Cologne showed itself to the advancing US liberation troops as a dead city in ruins. On March 9, 1945, the US military government was established in Cologne. On May 4th, Konrad Adenauer resumed his official duties as Lord Mayor. As early as the early summer of 1945, the people of Cologne returned to the city in droves. On June 21, 1945, the Americans were replaced by the British military government. She dismissed Adenauer on October 6th and appointed Hermann Pünder Mayor on November 20, 1945 . On October 10th, the Millowitsch-Theater played again with the three-act play "Das Glücksmädel". The university reopened on December 10th .

On February 18, 1946 Archbishop Joseph Frings was appointed by Pope Pius XII. appointed cardinal . Based on the British model, the Cologne City Constitution of 1946 was introduced on March 7, 1946 , which provided for a division of the city tour between the Lord Mayor as Council Chairman and City Director as Head of Administration. The first free city council election of the post-war period took place on October 13, 1946 ( CDU 53.4%, SPD 34.6%, KPD 9.3%). Cologne came to the newly formed state of North Rhine-Westphalia . Cologne's historical importance was brought back to consciousness through the cathedral festival from August 14th to 22nd, 1948, marking the 700th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone. From 1948 the provisionally prepared Hohenzollern Bridge could be used again by trains; in the same year the newly built Deutz bridge was opened.

The first Photokina took place in Cologne in 1950 . On 1st / 2nd In October 1955 the Cologne Gürzenich was inaugurated. Hundreds of thousands came to Cologne for the Catholic Day from August 29 to September 2, 1956. In 1957 the first self-service supermarket opened in Cologne with a sales area of ​​over 2000 m². In the same year, the city hosted the Federal Garden Show for the first time . On November 7, 1959, Cologne saw the inauguration of the Severinsbrücke in the presence of Cardinal Frings and Federal Chancellor Adenauer .

At 266 meters, the Colonius is the highest telecommunications tower in North Rhine-Westphalia and the seventh-highest telecommunications tower in Germany.

Since August 31, 1962, the north-south route has been continuously passable. A week later, on September 5, the French President Charles de Gaulle visited the city. In 1963 the American President John F. Kennedy was a guest. In 1968 the KVB opened the first underground section of the Stadtbahn on the Friesenplatz-Hauptbahnhof section .

After the Chancellor and former Mayor Adenauer died, Archbishop Joseph Cardinal Frings celebrated the pontifical office with a requiem in the cathedral on April 25, 1967 as part of a splendid state funeral.

In Cologne Braunsfeld the "command abducted on September 5, 1977 Siegfried Hausner " the RAF in Vincenz-Statz -Straße the employer president Hanns Martin Schleyer from his vehicle out and murdered his four companions. The Schleyer kidnapping was the central event of the so-called " German Autumn ". On April 25, 1990, Oskar Lafontaine was assassinated in the Mülheim town hall . Because of the Second Gulf War , the Cologne Rose Monday procession was officially canceled in 1991 ; Nevertheless, the revelers went on a “ ghost train ” through the city.

In November 1980, attended Lew Kopelew the Nobel Prize for Literature and an honorary citizen (1982) Heinrich Böll in his apartment. In the same year the 243.3 meter high telecommunications tower " Colonius " was completed. In 1980 and 1987 Pope John Paul II came to the city; on his second visit he beatified Edith Stein in the Müngersdorfer stadium . From 16. – 21. August 2005 his successor Benedict XVI stayed. as part of the XX. World Youth Day in the city. 1999 both met World Economic Summit of the G8 and the European Council in Cologne. In 2003 the first black - green coalition in a major German city was formed in Cologne . On October 17, 2015, the mayor candidate Henriette Reker , who was later elected by a majority , was seriously injured in a knife attack right at the polling booth in Cologne-Braunsfeld, as were some election workers.

Culture

The university resumed operations as early as 1945 . From 1951 Cologne became a stronghold of electronic music when the studio for electronic music was founded here. Many avant-garde composers, including Karlheinz Stockhausen (who lived near Cologne all his life), produced their works here. In 1956 the Cologne Cathedral was reopened on the occasion of the Catholic Day. The new opera house was inaugurated in 1957 and opened on May 18, 1957. In the post-war period, numerous new museums were founded, such as the Römisch-Germanisches Museum in 1974 , the Museum of East Asian Art in 1977 , the Wallraf-Richartz Museum and the Museum Ludwig in 1986, and finally the Chocolate Museum in 1993 . In 1986 the Philharmonie was opened. Cologne developed as a media location. In 1964 the first edition of EXPRESS appeared . In 1987 RTL opened its new administration in the city.

In the early 1990s, strangers stole irreplaceable pieces from the treasury of Cologne Cathedral . At the request of clergymen ( Cologne Cathedral Chapter ), the local underworld, under the leadership of Schäfers Nas, recovered part of the booty - whereupon the cathedral provost read a thank-you mass in his honor.

In 1992 the big concert Ass huh, Zäng ussenander against rights violence took place on Chlodwigplatz . In 2004, UNESCO raised an objection to the planned construction of the 103-meter-high office tower " Kölntriangle " in Deutz , which, from their point of view, disrupts the view of the cathedral. It threatened to withdraw its status as a world cultural heritage ; the tower was built anyway.

On March 3rd, 2009 the historical archive of the city of Cologne collapsed during the construction of the north-south light rail .

On May 25, 2009, the city received the title “ Place of Diversity ” awarded by the federal government .

Sports

In 1952 the scandal surrounding the boxer Peter Müller ("De Aap") shook the city. In 1962 1. FC Köln became German football champions for the first time, in 1964 the first German champions in the history of the Bundesliga , and then again in 1978. In 1968, 1977, 1978 and 1983 the club also won the DFB Cup .

Area and population development

→ Main article : Population development in Cologne

With the territorial reform in North Rhine-Westphalia carried out by the Cologne Act , the urban area grew to 42,995 hectares on January 1, 1975. At the same time, the Cologne district was dissolved. In addition to West Berlin , Hamburg and Munich , Cologne was now Germany's fourth metropolis, but only for 18 months: after a successful lawsuit against the Cologne Act before the Münster Higher Administrative Court , Wesseling left the structure created by the municipal reorganization on July 1, 1976 . The code-dependent part of the city was essentially from the previous circuits Bergheim (Erftstadt) and Cologne formed Erftkreises . This reduced the population of Cologne by a good 27,000 people and the area by 2,480 hectares. Since 2010, Cologne has over a million inhabitants again.

Incorporations

Formerly independent cities and municipalities or districts that were incorporated into the city of Cologne:

date	places	Increase in ha	Total area in ha
April 1, 1888	Bayenthal , Marienburg , Arnoldshöhe, Raderberg with Raderthal , Zollstock , Sülz , Klettenberg , Kriel and Lind , Lindenthal , Longerich , Melaten, Braunsfeld , Müngersdorf , Ehrenfeld , Bickendorf , Ossendorf , Bocklemünd , Mengenich , Volkhoven , Nippes , Mauenheim , Merheim / left bank of the Rhine ( after 1945 renamed Weidenpesch ) , Riehl , Niehl , Poll and Deutz with the Humboldt Colony	10.100	11,135
April 1, 1910	Kalk with Vingst and Gremberg	599	11,734
April 1, 1914	Mülheim am Rhein with Buchheim and Buchforst , Merheim with Stammheim , Flittard , Dünnwald , Dellbrück , Rath , Brück , Ostheim and Holweide	7,968	19,702
April 1, 1922	Mayor's office Worringen with Weiler, Merkenich, Langel, Feldkassel, Rheinkassel, Fühlingen, Roggendorf and Thenhoven	5,393	25,095
1st January 1975	Porz, Wesseling, Rodenkirchen (with Sürth, Weiß, Hahnwald, Meschenich, Godorf, Hochkirchen, Immendorf and Rondorf), Lövenich with Weiden, Marsdorf, Junkersdorf and Widdersdorf as well as Pesch, Esch, Auweiler and various smaller areas	17,900	42,995
June 1, 1976	Outsourcing of Wesseling	- 2,480	40,515

See also

• List of Cologne mayors
• Cologne city view from 1570
• Urban development in Cologne
• Fortis Colonia

literature

Source editions

• Wolfgang Rosen, Lars Wirtler (ed.): Sources for the history of the city of Cologne. Volume I: Antiquity and the Middle Ages from the beginning to 1396/97. JP Bachem-Verlag, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-7616-1324-5 .
• Joachim Deeters, Johannes Helmrath (ed.): Sources for the history of the city of Cologne. Volume II: Late Middle Ages and early modern times (1396–1794). JP Bachem Verlag, Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-7616-1285-0 .
• Heinrich Gottfried Philipp Gengler : Regests and documents on the constitutional and legal history of German cities in the Middle Ages . Erlangen 1863, pp. 515-598 (online) .
• Gottfried Hagen: rhyming chronicle of the city of Cologne. ed. v. Kurt Gärtner, Andrea Rapp, Désirée Welter, Manfred Groten. (= Publications of the Society for Rhenish History , 74). Droste, Düsseldorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-7700-7627-7 .
• Annales Colonienses maximi . (Kölner Königschronik) In: Georg Heinrich Pertz u. a. (Ed.): Scriptores (in Folio) 17: Annales aevi Suevici. Hanover 1861, pp. 723–847 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
• Dat nuwe Boych. Guilds and brotherhoods. (Book Cologne 14th century, Cologne 1360-1396) In: Leonard Ennen, Gottfried Eckertz: Sources for the history of the city of Cologne. Volume I, Cologne 1860, pp. 422-444. (online: Bonn Early New High German Corpus Text 151) .
• The Cronica van der hilliger Stat va Coelle. [Johann Koelhoff: Chronicle, Cologne 1499], Cologne 1499, printing: Johann Koelhoff d. J. (Reprographischer Reprint, Cologne 1972). (online: Bonner early New High German corpus text 153) .
• JJ Hässlin (ed.): The book Weinsberg . From the life of a Cologne councilor. Stuttgart 1961. (online: The autobiographical notes of Hermann Weinsberg - digital complete edition) .

Representations

General

• Historical society Cologne (Hrsg.): History of the city of Cologne. 13 volumes planned. Cologne 2004 ff., ISBN 3-7743-0360-6 .
  • Published so far:
  • Volume 1: Werner Eck : Cologne in Roman times. History of a city under the Roman Empire. Edited by Hugo Stehkämper. Greven Verlag , Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-7743-0357-6 .
  • Volume 3: Hugo Stehkämpler / Carl Dietmar: Cologne in the High Middle Ages. 1074 / 75-1288. Greven Verlag, Cologne 2016, ISBN 978-3774304420 .
  • Volume 6: Hans-Wolfgang Bergerhausen : Cologne in an iron age 1610–1686 . Greven Verlag, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-7743-0448-2 .
  • Volume 7: Gerd Schwerhoff : Cologne in the Ancien Régime . Greven Verlag, Cologne 2017, ISBN 978-3774304505 .
  • Volume 8: Klaus Müller: Cologne from French to Prussian rule 1794–1815. Greven Verlag, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7743-0374-6 .
  • Volume 9: Jürgen Herres: Cologne in Prussian times 1815–1871. Greven Verlag, Cologne 2012, ISBN 978-3-7743-0452-9 .
  • Volume 10: Thomas Mergel : Cologne in the Empire 1871–1918. Greven Verlag, Cologne 2018, ISBN 978-3774304543 .
  • Volume 12: Horst Matzerath : Cologne in the time of National Socialism 1933–1945. Greven Verlag, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-7743-0429-1 .
• Heiner Jansen et al. (Ed.): The historical atlas Cologne. 2000 years of city history in maps and pictures. Emons, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-89705-265-2 .
• History in Cologne. In: magazine for town and regional history. SH-Verlag, Cologne 1.1978.1 ff. ISSN  0720-3659
• Gerd Biegel : Money from Cologne. Sources on city history. Cologne 1979.
• Carl Dietmar: The Chronicle of Cologne. Chronik Verlag, Dortmund 1991, ISBN 3-611-00193-7 .
• Carl Dietmar, Werner Jung : Small illustrated history of the city of Cologne. JP Bachem Verlag, Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-7616-1482-9 .
• Carl Dietmar, Werner Jung: Cologne: The great city history. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8375-1487-2 .
• Barbara and Christoph Driessen : Cologne. A story . Greven, Cologne 2015, ISBN 3774306532
• Josef Dollhoff: The Cologne Rhine Shipping. From Roman times to the present. Bachem, Cologne 1980, ISBN 3-7616-0528-5 .
• Irene Franken : Women in Cologne. The historical city guide. JP Bachem Verlag, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-7616-2029-8 .
• Leonard Ennen : History of the city of Cologne. People's edition in one volume. Düsseldorf 1880.
• Hermann Kellenbenz (Ed.): Two millennia Cologne economy. 2 volumes, Cologne 1975.
• Elisabeth Mick: Cologne in the Middle Ages. Greven Verlag, Cologne 1990.
• Elisabeth Mick: With the mouse through Cologne. 2000 years of city history for children. 2nd Edition. JP Bachem Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-7616-1914-6 .
• Irene Franken, Ina Hoener: Witches. The persecution of women in Cologne. Cologne 1987.
• Stefan Pohl, Georg Mölich: Cologne on the right bank of the Rhine: Its history from antiquity to the present. Winand, Cologne 1994.
• Andreas Rutz, Tobias Wulf (eds.): O felix Agrippina nobilis Romanorum Colonia. New studies on Cologne's history - Festschrift for Manfred Groten on his 60th birthday. (= Publications of the Cologne History Association , 48). Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-89498-198-3 .
• Arnold Stelzmann, Robert Frohn: Illustrated history of the city of Cologne. 11th edition. Bachem, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-7616-0973-6 .

Antiquity

• Sebastian Ristow : Cologne. In: Real Lexicon for Antiquity and Christianity . Volume 21, Hiersemann, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-7772-0620-2 , Sp. 176-216.

middle Ages

• Carl Dietmar: Medieval Cologne. 2nd Edition. JP Bachem Verlag, Cologne 2004.
• Franz Irsigler , Arnold Lassotta: beggars and jugglers, prostitutes and executioners. Outsider in a medieval city. Cologne 1300–1600. Greven Verlag, Cologne 1984.
• Peter Fuchs (Hrsg.): Chronicle of the history of the city of Cologne. Volume 1: From the beginning to 1400th 3rd edition. Greven Verlag, Cologne 1999.
• Norbert Trippen (Ed.): History of the Archdiocese of Cologne. Volume 2: Wilhelm Janssen: The Archdiocese of Cologne in the late Middle Ages (1191-1515). 2 volumes. Bachem, Cologne 1995/2003, DNB 941400395 .
• Ulrike Kaltwasser: Holy Cologne - sinful Cologne: glamorous Middle Ages. Greven, Cologne 1985, ISBN 3-7743-0218-9 .
• Yvonne Leiverkus: Cologne, pictures of a late medieval city. Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-412-23805-8 .
• Anton Legner: Cologne saints and sanctuaries. A millennium of European reliquary culture. Greven Verlag, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-7743-0335-5 .
• Matthias Schmandt: Judei, cives et incole. Studies on the Jewish history of Cologne in the Middle Ages , Hanover 2002.
• Eduard Hegel (Hrsg.): History of the Archdiocese of Cologne. Volume 1: The Diocese of Cologne from the beginning to the end of the 12th century. 2nd Edition. reworked v. Friedrich Wilhelm Oediger. Bachem, Cologne 1971.

Early modern age

• Hansgeorg Molitor : The Archdiocese of Cologne in the Age of Faith Struggles 1515–1688 . In: History of the Archdiocese of Cologne, Volume 3 . Bachem, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-7616-1346-7 ( Molitor, Hansgeorg, The Archdiocese of Cologne in the Age of Faith Struggles (1515-1688) ( Memento from August 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive )).

Modern

• Jürgen Herres: Cologne in Prussian times 1815–1871. (= History of the City of Cologne , Volume 9). Greven Verlag, 2012, ISBN 978-3-7743-0452-9 .
• Volker Standt: Cologne in the First World War. Optimus Wissenschaftsverlag, Göttingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-86376-074-8 reading sample (also dissertation Bonn 2013).
• Peter Fuchs (Hrsg.): Chronicle of the history of the city of Cologne. Volume 2: From 1400 to the present. 2nd Edition. Greven Verlag, Cologne 1993.
• Werner Schäfke: Cologne after 1945: The history of our present . Regionalia, Rheinbach 2017.
• Hans Hesse, Elke Purpus: memorial guide Cologne. A guide to Cologne monuments commemorating persecution and resistance under National Socialism. (= Series of publications of the Art and Museum Library of the City of Cologne. Volume 4). Klartext , Essen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8375-0168-1 .
• Reinhard Matz , Konrad Vollmer: Cologne before the war. Life, Culture, City 1880–1940 . Greven Verlag, Cologne 2012, ISBN 978-3-7743-0623-3 .
• Martin Rüther: Cologne in the Second World War. Everyday life and experiences between 1939 and 1945. Representations - pictures - sources. (= Writings of the NS Documentation Center of the City of Cologne . Volume 12). Emons, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-89705-407-8 .
• Marcel Albert, Reimund Haas (Ed.): Stay with the people. Cologne pastor and the end of the Second World War . EOS Verlag, Sankt Ottilien 2012, ISBN 978-3-8306-7549-5 .
• Ulrich Helbach , Joachim Oepen : Small illustrated history of the Archdiocese of Cologne . JP Bachem Verlag, Cologne 2013, ISBN 978-3-7616-2702-0 .
• History of the Archdiocese of Cologne. Volume 4: Eduard Hegel , Norbert Trippen: The Archdiocese of Cologne between the Baroque and Enlightenment from the Palatinate War to the end of the French era. Bachem, Cologne 1979, ISBN 3-7616-0389-4 .
• Eduard Hegel, Norbert Trippen: The Archdiocese of Cologne between the restoration of the 19th century and the restoration of the 20th century. (= History of the Archdiocese of Cologne. Volume 5). Bachem, Cologne 1987, ISBN 3-7616-0873-X .

Web links

Wikisource: Cologne  - sources and full texts

• Edicts of the Electorate of Cologne (with Duchy of Westphalia, Vest Recklinghausen) (1461–1816) (Scotti online collection)
• Statute of the city of Cologne - manuscript from the middle of the 15th century
• Digitization of the image in the photo archive of older original documents from the Philipps University of Marburg Certificate from the city of Cologne (mayor and aldermen) from 1159, with a reproduction of the city seal.
• Summary of the history of Cologne
• NS Documentation Center of the City of Cologne
• Portal Rhenish History of the Rhineland Regional Association
• Colonia Agrippina (Present-Day Cologne) Accurately Described in the Year 1571. Description of Colonia Agrippina from 1571. In: Website of the Library of Congress in Washington, DC (English, Latin)
• Historical Archive Cologne: Cologne in the Middle Ages (with works by the Cologne artist Siegfried Glos)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Carl Dietmar, Werner Jung : Cologne: The great city history. P. 11.
2. ^ Carl Dietmar, Werner Jung: Cologne: The great city history. P. 17f.
3. ^ Carl Dietmar, Werner Jung: Cologne: The great city history. Pp. 14-17.
4. ↑ Caesar: De bello gallico. V 24
5. ↑ Tac. ann. 1. 57.2; explained by: Rosen / Wirtler (ed.): Sources for the history of the city of Cologne Volume I. Cologne 1999, p. 1 f.
6. ^ Biegel: Money from Cologne. P. 19 ff.
7. ^ Carl Dietmar, Werner Jung: Cologne: The great city history. P. 51f.
8. ^ Carl Dietmar, Werner Jung: Cologne: The great city history. P. 72f.
   Jennifer Striewski: Vikings on the Middle Rhine - The Battle of Remich. In: rheinische-geschichte.lvr.de . Retrieved June 12, 2020.
9. ↑ Report on it in: Rudolf Buchner (Ed.): Lampert von Hersfeld: Annalen . Darmstadt 4th edition 2000.
10. ↑ Theodor Joseph Lacomblet (ed.): Document book for the history of the Lower Rhine . tape 1 . Düsseldorf 1840, p. 302 ff ., urn : nbn: de: hbz: 5: 1-207 .
11. ^ Leonard Ennen, Gottfried Eckertz (ed.): Sources for the history of the city of Cologne . tape 1 . DuMont-Schauberg, Cologne 1860, p. 563 f . ( Digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.ub.uni-koeln.de%2Fcdm4%2Fdocument.php%3FCISOROOT%3D%2Frheinmono%26CISOPTR%3D1222%26REC%3D3~GB%3D~ IA% 3D ~ MDZ% 3D% 0A ~ SZ% 3D ~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D [accessed on February 11, 2019]).
12. ^ Leonard Ennen, Gottfried Eckertz (ed.): Sources for the history of the city of Cologne . tape 1 . DuMont-Schauberg, Cologne 1860, p. 570 f . ( Digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.ub.uni-koeln.de%2Fcdm4%2Fdocument.php%3FCISOROOT%3D%2Frheinmono%26CISOPTR%3D1222%26REC%3D3~GB%3D~ IA% 3D ~ MDZ% 3D% 0A ~ SZ% 3D ~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D [accessed on February 11, 2019]).
13. ^ Leonard Ennen, Gottfried Eckertz (ed.): Sources for the history of the city of Cologne . tape 1 . M. DuMont Schauberg, Cologne 1860, documents and files in chronological order , p. 582-585 ( digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.ub.uni-koeln.de%2Fcdm4%2Fdocument.php%3FCISOROOT%3D%2Frheinmono%26CISOPTR%3D1222%26REC%3D3~GB%3D~ IA% 3D ~ MDZ% 3D% 0A ~ SZ% 3D ~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D [accessed January 18, 2019]).
14. ^ Leonard Ennen, Gottfried Eckertz (ed.), Sources for the history of the city of Cologne, 1st volume, Cologne 1860, p. 585 f.
15. ↑ Wolfgang Rosen, Lars Wirtler (ed.): Sources for the history of the city of Cologne. Volume I. Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-7616-1324-5 , p. 154 ff.
16. ↑ GH Klöverkorn: Leprosy in Cologne. Leverkusen 1966, DNB 457232900 .
17. ^ Sources on the history of the city of Cologne. Volume 1, No. 30, p. 163 f.
18. ^ Wording in: Rosen / Wirtler (Ed.): Sources for the history of the city of Cologne. Volume I. Cologne 1999, p. 173 ff.
19. ↑ Award certificate of the stacking right at Rosen / Wirtler (ed.): Sources for the history of the city of Cologne. Volume I. Cologne 1999, p. 215 ff.
20. ↑ Kaltwasser, Heiliges Köln, pp. 70 ff.
21. ↑ Histoire des Institutions. In: linternaute.com. Archived from the original on September 3, 2011 ; Retrieved September 10, 2019 (in French, see 1257 - Robert de Sorbon fonde un collège and 1795 - Naissance des premières écoles centrales ). 
22. ^ Edition with explanatory text: Sources on the history of the city of Cologne II, ed. Joachim Deeters and Johannes Helmrath, Bachem, Cologne 1996, No. 1, p. 10.
23. ^ Dietmar: Chronicle of Cologne. P. 126.
24. ↑ Kaltwasser: Holy Cologne. P. 32 ff. The capable Cologne women. P. 72.
25. ↑ Walther Holtzmann: The English marriage of Count Palatine Ludwig III. In: Journal for the history of the Upper Rhine. NF 43 (1930), pp. 1-22.
26. ↑ Kaltwasser: Holy Cologne. P. 50.
27. ↑ Matthias Schmandt: Judei, cives et incole: studies on the Jewish history of Cologne in the Middle Ages, Hannover of 2002.
28. ↑ Fundamental to the urban lower classes in Cologne: Franz Irsigler , Arnold Lassotta: beggars and jugglers, prostitutes and hangmen. Outsider in a medieval city. Cologne 1300–1600. 9th edition. Munich 2001, p. 26 f. (To the begging order)
29. ↑ Kaltwasser: Holy Cologne. P. 47 f.
30. ↑ Franken / Hoerner: Witches. P. 14.
31. ^ Johann Jakob Merlo: Contributions to the history of the Cologne book printers and booksellers of the 15th and 16th centuries. In: Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine , Volume 19. 1868, p. 59.
32. ↑ Complete print in: Robert Meier: Heinrich van Beeck and his "Agrippina". A contribution to the Cologne Chronicle of the 15th Century. (Kölner Historische Abhandlungen, Volume 41). Böhlau, Cologne 1998.
33. ↑ Bernd-Ulrich Hergemöller: The "unspeakable dumb sin" in Cologne files of the late Middle Ages. In: History in Cologne. No. 22 (1987), pp. 5-51; Extensive online documentation: Sources on the persecution and everyday history of the "Sodomites" (homosexuals) in the late Middle Ages and the early Reformation period ( Memento from July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
34. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz:  Jakob von Hoogstraaten. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 2, Bautz, Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-032-8 , Sp. 1042-1045.
35. ^ Deeters / Helmrath (ed.): Sources for the history of the city of Cologne. Volume II, p. 1 ff. And p. 238 ff.
36. ^ Stelzmann, Frohn: Illustrated history of the city of Cologne. 11th edition. Cologne 1990.
37. ↑ Low water makes it possible - discovery on the banks of the Rhine in Cologne. In: German Foundation for Monument Protection (Ed.): Monuments online. May 2006.
38. ↑ See, for example, Ernst-Otto Simon: The postal course from Rheinhausen to Brussels over the centuries. In: Archive for German Postal History. 1/1990, pp. 34-35.
39. ^ Deeters / Helmrath: Sources on the history of the city of Cologne. Volume II, p. 220 ff.
40. ↑ Franken / Hoerner: Witches. Pp. 41-48.
41. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Siebel: The witch hunt in Cologne. Dissertation. Bonn 1959, pp. 64–75, statistics pp. 152–153.
42. ↑ Franken / Hoerner: Witches. P. 25f.
43. ^ Witch trials in Cologne. A chronological list of the names of those persecuted and executed. (PDF; 19.1 kB) In: anton-praetorius.de . Hartmut Hegeler , accessed on April 3, 2020.
44. ^ Chronicle of Cologne. P. 198 f.
45. ↑ Astrid Küntzel: Johann Maria Farina - Perfumer (1685–1766). In: Portal Rhenish History . LVR Institute for Regional Studies and Regional History. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
46. ^ Deeters / Helmrath: Sources on the history of the city of Cologne. Volume II. P. 258 ff.
47. ^ Carl Dietmar, pp. 217, 219.
48. ↑ Peter Fuchs (ed.): Chronicle of the history of the city of Cologne. Volume 2, p. 113.
49. ↑ Klara van Eyll : Cologne from the French occupation to the end of the First World War (1794 to 1918), in: Peter Fuchs (ed.): Chronicle of the history of the city of Cologne. Volume 2, p. 106.
50. ^ Hermann Keussen : Wallraf, Ferdinand Franz. In: ADB Volume 40, Leipzig 1896.
51. ↑ ^{a b} Stelzmann / Frohn: Illustrated history of the city of Cologne. Cologne 11th edition 1990, p. 240 ff.
52. ↑ Klara van Eyll: Cologne from the French occupation to the end of the First World War (1794 to 1918), in: Peter Fuchs (ed.): Chronicle of the history of the city of Cologne. Volume 2, p. 107.
53. ^ Paul Clemen (Ed.): The Cologne Cathedral (= The Art Monuments of the Rhine Province. Volume 6, Part III). Reprint Düsseldorf Schwann 1980.
54. ^ Stelzmann / Frohn: Illustrated history of the city of Cologne. Cologne 11th edition 1990, p. 288 ff.
55. ↑ Joseph Hoff Doll: The Cologne Rheinschiffahrt, Bachem Cologne 1980, p 59, p.79..
56. ^ Dietmar: Chronicle of Cologne. 3. Edition. Gütersloh / Munich 1997, p. 237.
57. ^ Stelzmann / Frohn: Illustrated history of the city of Cologne. Cologne 11th edition 1990, pp. 279f.
58. ↑ Joseph Hoff Doll: The Cologne Rheinschiffahrt, Bachem Cologne 1980 - port, p 87; Shipping, p. 93.
59. ^ The third Cologne "Festungsring" or the New Prussian city fortifications. In: ag-festung-koeln.de. Cologne Fortress Working Group, archived from the original on September 30, 2009 ; accessed on November 12, 2018 .  
60. ^ Stelzmann / Frohn: Illustrated history of the city of Cologne. Cologne 11th edition 1990, p. 293.
61. ↑ Cologne. In: festungsbauten.de. Retrieved December 8, 2018 (based on Ernst Zander: Cologne as a fortified city and military location , 1941).  
62. ^ Dietmar: Chronicle of Cologne. 3. Edition. Gütersloh / Munich, p. 316f.
63. ^ Meyers Konversationslexikon Leipzig and Vienna, 4th edition. 1885-1892, IX, p. 948.
64. ↑ Klara van Eyll: Cologne from the French occupation to the end of the First World War (1794 to 1918), in: Peter Fuchs (ed.): Chronicle of the history of the city of Cologne. Volume 2, p. 109.
65. ^ Carl Dietmar, Werner Jung: Cologne: The great city history. P. 350f.
66. ↑ Weimar Republic 1918–1933 - Prussian state elections - Cologne-Aachen constituency. In: wahlen-in-deutschland.de . Retrieved June 16, 2020.
67. ^ Dietmar: Chronicle of Cologne. 3. Edition. Gütersloh / Munich, p. 341 f.
68. ↑ In addition: Heike Müller: The Cologne City Garden. (PDF; 236 kB) Abstract of the diploma thesis. In: prostadtgarten.de. Retrieved April 29, 2020 . 
69. ^ Cologne Bonn Airport - Insight history. (PDF; 379 KB) (No longer available online.) In: Website of Cologne-Bonn Airport. March 2009, archived from the original on October 25, 2010 ; accessed on July 8, 2020 . 
70. ^ Horst Matzerath: Cologne in the Weimar Republic. In: Peter Fuchs (Hrsg.): Chronicle of the history of the city of Cologne. Volume 2, p. 192.
71. ↑ "Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome ..." In: koeln-magazin.info. February 5, 2008, accessed April 14, 2019 . 
72. ^ Stelzmann / Frohn: Illustrated history of the city of Cologne. Cologne 11th edition 1990, p. 317.
73. ^ Horst Matzerath: Cologne in the Weimar Republic. In: Peter Fuchs (Hrsg.): Chronicle of the history of the city of Cologne. Volume 2, p. 191.
74. ^ Stelzmann / Frohn: Illustrated history of the city of Cologne. Cologne 11th edition 1990, p. 318.
75. ^ Hans Jürgen Küsters: Konrad Adenauer - Mayor of Cologne 1917–1933. In: konrad-adenauer.de. Retrieved on July 9, 2018 (see last section: Impeachment by National Socialists ): “On March 13, 1933, Adenauer left Cologne early in the morning for Berlin, the town hall was occupied and District President Elfgen put him on leave. In April 1933 Adenauer was temporarily suspended from work [...] The criminal proceedings against him were discontinued on June 4, 1934 in Adenauer's favor. " 
76. ↑ Horst Matzerath: Cologne in the time of National Socialism. In: Peter Fuchs (Hrsg.): Chronicle of the history of the city of Cologne. Volume 2, p. 222 f.
77. ↑ Peter Fuchs (ed.): Chronicle of the history of the city of Cologne. Volume 2, p. 238.
78. ↑ Horst Matzerath: Cologne in the time of National Socialism. In: Peter Fuchs (Hrsg.): Chronicle of the history of the city of Cologne. Volume 2, p. 225 ff.
79. ↑ Internet presence of the NS Documentation Center of the City of Cologne. In: museenkoeln.de. Retrieved October 20, 2018 . 
80. ^ Campaign Diary - The Battle of France (May-June 1940). In: raf.mod.uk. Archived from the original on December 7, 2008 ; accessed on August 4, 2019 : "12/13 May - 12 aircraft (6 each of Wellingtons and Whitleys) bomb road junctions between the Rhine and Dutch border." 
81. ↑ 1941
82. ↑ 1941 - “The entire population is gradually losing its nerve”. (No longer available online.) In: jugend1918-1945.de. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013 ; accessed on May 21, 2020 . 
83. ↑ 1940 - "Belief in Germany's mission". on: jugend1918-1945.de
84. ^ Lee Miller - Cologne, March 1945 . Greven Verlag 2013, ISBN 978-3-7743-0618-9 (with 96 photographs). Miller (* 1907) was a well-known US photographer.
85. ↑ Pictures of merciless sobriety (Kölner Stadtanzeiger)
86. ↑ Poller story / n. In: poller-heimatmuseum.de. Retrieved October 10, 2019 (see section Bridges ). 
87. ^ Stelzmann / Frohn: Illustrated history of the city of Cologne. Cologne 11th edition 1990, p. 331.
88. ↑ Internet presence of the City of Cologne: Council since 1946
89. ^ ^{A b} Peter Fuchs (Ed.): Chronicle of the history of the city of Cologne. Volume 2, p. 262 ff.
90. ↑ Is the provost funny? , ZEIT-online / DIE ZEIT, 06/1996.
91. ^ Willy B. Wange: The sports city of Cologne. In: Peter Fuchs (Hrsg.): Chronicle of the history of the city of Cologne. Volume 2, p. 349 ff.
92. ↑ State history dissertations at the University of Bonn ( Memento from December 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive )