Cologne

Basic data:

Geography:

Cologne is located in the valley between the steps of the Bergisches Land and the Eifel immediately after the Rhine emerges from the Rhenish Slate Mountains, also known as the Cologne Bay. The urban area is divided by the Rhine into two unequal parts (230.25 km² on the left bank of the Rhine, 174.87 km² on the right bank of the Rhine).

The greatest extension of the urban area is 28.1 km in a north-south direction and 27.6 km in an east-west direction. The highest point in the city is in the Königsforst at 118.04 m above sea level. NN, the lowest is in Worringer Bruch with 37.5 m meters above sea level. NN.

Climate:

The part of Cologne on the left bank of the Rhine lies in the rain shadow and is protected from westerly winds by the Eifel barrier, which can cause a foehn effect. The low air exchange with the surrounding area ensures air heating. Due to the inner-city overheating combined with the evaporation of the Rhine water, there is high humidity. Especially in summer, this is responsible for stressful, muggy weather and numerous thunderstorms.

July is the warmest month with an average of 18.7 °C, the coldest January with 2 °C. The month with the most rain on average is August with 81 mm, the month with the least rain is March with 41 mm.

City structure:

9 districts with 86 districts

District 1: Downtown
District 2: Rodenkirchen
District 3: Lindenthal
District 4: Ehrenfeld
District 5: Nippes
District 6: Chorweiler
District 7: Porz
Municipality 8: Lime
District 9: Mülheim

history:

The Germanic tribe of the Ubians founded the settlement oppidum oborium ("City of the Ubians") on the left bank of the Rhine after the arrival of the Romans 8 to 12 BC. At the request of his wife Agrippina, who was born in Cologne, Emperor Claudius granted the settlement Roman city rights in 50 AD. The city was given the name Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (CCAA). Thirty years later, the city received one of the longest Roman aqueducts ever, the Eifel aqueduct.

In the early Middle Ages, Cologne developed into a spiritual center. This was reinforced by the transfer of the bones of the "Three Kings" from Milan to Cologne in 1164.

From the 12th to the 15th century, Cologne was the most populous and one of the most prosperous cities in the German-speaking world. It bore the designation "Sancta" in the city name.

The foundation stone of the Gothic cathedral was laid in 1248. Forty years later, after a successful battle of citizens against Archbishop Siegfried`s troops, the city gained the status of a free city. In 1388 the citizens founded the first municipal university. The Gürzenich was built in Gothic style between 1441 and 1447 as a representation and dance hall for the citizens of Cologne.

In 1560, work on the cathedral came to a standstill due to lack of money.

After the discovery of the New World, the introduction of new forms of economy and trade routes and the emergence of nation states in Europe, Cologne experienced an economic decline up until the 19th century.

Political power was also rapidly declining. In 1794 Cologne lost its status as a free imperial city and became part of the French Republic and in 1798 it was incorporated into the Département de la Roer until 1815 when it was given to the Kingdom of Prussia by the Congress of Vienna.

In the course of the following decades, thanks to the Cologne banking houses, Cologne became the most important city in Prussia after Berlin.In 1880, at the instigation of the King of Prussia and German Emperor, the construction of Cologne Cathedral was completed.

Not least because of the commitment of the Cologne banks over the course of the following decades, Cologne became the most important city in Prussia after Berlin. In 1880, after 632 years, the construction of the Cologne Cathedral was completed at the instigation of the King of Prussia and German Emperor

With the industrial revolution, the chances of which the city recognized and used early on, with the gradual incorporation of large parts of the surrounding area, with prudent municipal policies towards Prussia and later the German Reich, a new, immense boom for the city began.

The overcrowded city expanded into the rayon after the construction of the outer fortress ring by buying and grinding down the city walls, ramparts and bastions. The settlement of the "Neustadt" (Cologne-Neustadt-North, Cologne-Neustadt-South) established contact with the rapidly growing surrounding communities and created the conditions for their incorporation.

In 1917 Konrad Adenauer became mayor of Cologne. After the end of the German Empire in 1918, he caused Cologne to be written with a "K" again.

During World War II, Cologne was over 70 percent destroyed. The number of inhabitants fell from formerly 800,000 to around 104,000 by the end of the war. It was not until 1959 that Cologne regained the population it had before the war.

In the reconstruction of the city, the creation of affordable living space was in the foreground. Architecturally unimportant, hastily erected apartment buildings emerged, which often made the cityscape of post-war Cologne appear very uniform.

After the sober concrete buildings of the 1960s and 1970s, Cologne began to think about upgrading the inner city with the construction of the Colonius telecommunications tower. Since 1986, the Ludwig Museum, the Philharmonie and the Rhine bank tunnel have linked the city to the Rhine again with an attractively framed promenade.

This was followed in the 1990s by the MediaPark on the premises of the freight station and the Cologne Arena. With the Musical Dome, Cologne`s Rhine promenade got a new landmark in 1996. At 103 meters high, the KölnTriangle, the tallest skyscraper in Cologne on the east bank of the Rhine, was inaugurated in 2004. It is the seat of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA),

Sights: