Economy
Cologne plays a paramount role in Germany's television industry. It is home to Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)
- the biggest branch of ARD, the syndicate of German public broadcasters. Cologne is also home to the private broadcaster
RTL, as well as a large number of smaller media, television and film production companies.
Cologne has a well-respected
gay community and has long been known for its easy-going and tolerant attitudes. The city is a stronghold of Germany's gay
movement and harbours the headquarters of Germany's largest homosexual lobby group.
Cologne is well known for its beer,
called Kölsch. Kölsch is also the name of the local dialect. This has led to the common joke that Kölsch is the only language
you can drink.
One of Cologne's largest companies is the European headquarters of the Ford Motor Company with large
administrative, technical and production departments.
Cologne is also famous for Eau de Cologne. At the beginning of the 18th century, Italian expatriate Johann Maria Farina (1685-1766)
created a new fragrance and named it after his hometown Cologne, Eau de Cologne (Water from Cologne). In the course of the
18th century the fragrance became increasingly popular. Eventually, Cologne merchant Wilhelm Mülhens secured the name Farina,
which at that time had become a household name for Eau de Cologne, under contract and opened a small factory at Cologne's
Glockengasse. In later years, and under pressure from court battles, his grandson Ferdinand Mülhens chose a new name for the
firm and their product. It was the house number that was given to the factory at Glockengasse during French occupation of
the Rhineland in the early 19th century, number 4711. In 1994, the Mülhens family sold their company to German Wella corporation.
Today, original Eau de Cologne (German: Kölnisch Wasser) still is produced in Cologne by both the Farina family (Farina gegenüber
since 1709), currently in the eighth generation, and by Procter & Gamble who took over Wella in 2003.
[edit]
History
Main
article: History of Cologne
[edit]
Roman Cologne
The first urban settlement on the grounds of what today is the
center of Cologne was Oppidum Ubiorum, which was founded in 38 B.C. by the germanic tribe Ubii. Cologne became acknowledged
as a city by the Romans in 50 A.D. by the name of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (CCAA). In 310 Constantine built a bridge
over the Rhine at Cologne.
Maternus, who was elected as bishop in 313 was the first known bishop of Cologne. In 785,
Cologne became the seat of an archbishop.
[edit]
Middle Ages
Cologne Cathedral
Ulrepforte city gate (MHG
for "Potter's Gate"): part of the mediaeval city wallDuring the time of the Holy Roman Empire the Archbishop of Cologne was
one of the seven Electors and one of the three ecclesiastical electors. He ruled a large area as a secular lord in the Middle
Ages, but in 1288 he was defeated in the battle of Worringen by the Cologne citizens and forced to move to Bonn. Cologne's
location at the intersection of the river Rhine with one of the major trade routes between East and West was the basis of
Cologne's growth. Cologne was a member of the Hanseatic League and became an Imperial Free City officially in 1475. Interestingly
the archbishop nevertheless preserved the right of capital punishment. Thus, the municipal council (though in strict political
opposition towards the archbishop) depended upon him in all matters concerning criminal jurisdiction. This included torture,
which sentence was only allowed to be handed down by the Episcopal judge, the so-called "Greve". This legal situation lasted
until the French conquest of Cologne.
Besides its economic and political significance
Cologne also became an outstanding centre of medieval pilgrimage, when Cologne's Archbishop Rainald of Dassel gave the relics of
the Three Wise Men to Cologne's cathedral in 1164 (after they in fact had been captured from Milano). Besides the three magi
Cologne preserves the relics of Saint Ursula and Albertus Magnus.
The economic structures of medieval and early modern
Cologne were characterized by the town's status as a major harbour and transportation hub upon the Rhine. Craftsmanship was
organized by self-administrating guilds, some of which were exclusive to women.
As a free city Cologne was an estate
within the Holy Roman Empire and as such had the right (and obligation) of maintaining its own military force. Wearing a red
uniform these troops were known as the Rote Funken (red sparks). These soldiers were part of the Army of the Holy Roman Empire
("Reichskontingent") and fought in the wars of the 17th and 18th century including the wars against revolutionary France,
where the small force almost completely perished in combat. The tradition of these troops is preserved as a military persiflage
by Cologne's most outstanding carnival society, the Rote Funken [3].
The free city of Cologne must not be confused
with the Archbishops of Cologne. The latter were an estate of their own within the body of the Holy Roman Empire. Since the
second half of the 16th century the archbishops were taken from the Bavarian dynasty Wittelsbach. Due to the free status of
Cologne, the archbishops usually were not allowed to enter the town. Thus they took residence in Bonn and later on in Brühl
on Rhine. As members of an influential and powerful family and supported by their outstanding status as electors the archbishops
of Cologne repeatedly challenged and threatened the free status of Cologne during the 17th and 18th century, resulting in
complicated affairs, which were handled by diplomatic means and propaganda as well as by the supreme courts of the Holy Roman
Empire.
[edit]
19th and 20th century
Cologne lost its status as a free city during the French period. According
to the Peace Treaty of Lunéville (1801) all the territories of the Holy Roman Empire on the left bank of the Rhine were officially
incorporated into the French Republic (which already had occupied Cologne in 1798). Thus, this region later became part of
Napoleon's Empire. Cologne was part of the French Département Roer (named after the River Roer, German: Rur) with Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle)
as its capital. The French modernised public life by introducing the Code Napoleon as civil code and removing the old elites
from power, to cite two examples. The Code Napoleon was in use in the German territories on the left bank of the Rhine until
the year 1900, when for the first time the German Empire passed a nationwide unique civil code ("Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch").
In 1815, at the Congress of Vienna, Cologne was made part of the kingdom of Prussia.
The permanent tensions between
the Catholic Rhineland and the overwhelmingly Protestant Prussian state repeatedly escalated with Cologne being in the focus
of the conflict. In 1837 the archbishop of Cologne Clemens August von Droste-Vischering was arrested and imprisoned for two
years after a dispute over the legal status of marriages between Protestants and Catholics ("Mischehenstreit"). In 1874 during
the Kulturkampf archbishop cardinal Paul Melchers was arrested and imprisoned. He fled to the Netherlands and was searched
for like an ordinary criminal by a warrant of apprehension. These conflicts alienated the Catholic population from Berlin
and contributed to a deeply felt anti-Prussian resentment, which was still significant after World War II, when the former
mayor of Cologne Konrad Adenauer became the first West German chancellor.
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,
Cologne incorporated numerous surrounding towns, and by the time of World War I had already grown to 600,000 inhabitants.
Industrialization changed the city and spurred its growth. Especially booming branches were vehicle construction and engine
building. Heavy industry was less ubiquitous as opposed to the Ruhr Area. The cathedral, started in 1248 but abandoned around
1560, was eventually finished in 1880 not only as a religious building but also as a German national monument celebrating
the newly founded German empire as well as the continuity of the German nation since the Middle Ages. Sometimes urban growth
happened very much at the expense of the town's historic heritage with many buildings being broken down (e.g. the city walls
or the surroundings of the cathedral) or replaced by contemporary constructions. On the other side Cologne was turned into
a heavily armed fortress (opposing the French and Belgian fortresses of Verdun and Liège) with two fortified belts surrounding
the town, the relics of which can be seen until today. The military demands of what finally turned out to be Germany's largest
fortress meant a huge obstacle to urban development, as forts, bunkers and dugouts with a vast and plain shooting field before
them completely encircled the town and prevented any expansion beyond the fortified line, resulting in a very dense built-up
area within town itself.[4]
After WWI, during which several minor air raids had targeted the city, Cologne was occupied
by British Forces under the terms of the armistice and the subsequent Versailles Peace Treaty. The occupation lasted until
1926. In contrast to the harsh measures of French occupation troops in the Rhineland the British acted much more tactfully
towards the local population. The mayor of Cologne (the future West German chancellor) Konrad Adenauer paid them respect for
their political significance, as the British withstood the French ambitions for a permanent Allied occupation of the Rhineland.
In 1919 the University of Cologne (which had been closed by the French in 1798) was refounded. It was meant as a substitute
for the German University of Strasbourg which had become French in 1918/19. The era of the Weimar Republic (1919 - 1933) rendered
very prolific for Cologne. Many improvements were made under the guidance of Mayor Konrad Adenauer, especially as far as public
governance, housing, planning and social affairs are concerned. Large public parks were created, in particular the two "Grüngürtel"
(green belts), which were planned on the areas of the former fortifications. They had been dismantled according to the de-militarization
of the Rhineland under the terms of the peace treaty, albeit this project was unfinished until 1933. Public housing was executed
in a way that it became exemplary all over Germany. As Cologne competed for hosting the Olympics a modern stadium was erected
in Müngerdorf. By the end of the British occupation German civil aviation was readmitted over
Cologne and the airport of Butzweilerhof soon became an outstanding hub of national and international air traffic, second in Germany
only to Berlin-Tempelhof. By 1939 the population had risen to 772,221. Compared to other major cities the Nazis didn't gain
decisive support in Cologne and the votes casted for the NSDAP at the election for the Reichstag always accounted below the
average result of the Reich.[5]
Devastation of Cologne in 1945In World War II, Cologne endured exactly 262 air
raids by the Western Allies, which caused approximately 20,000 civilian casualties and completely wiped out the centre of
the city. During the night of May 31, 1942, Cologne was the site of "Operation Millennium", the first 1,000 bomber raid by
the Royal Air Force in World War II. 1,046 heavy bombers attacked their target with 1,455 tons of explosive. This raid lasted
about 75 minutes, destroyed 600 acres of built-up area, killed 486 civilians and made 59,000 people homeless. By the end of
the war, the population of Cologne was reduced by 95%. This loss was mainly caused by a massive evacuation of the people to
more rural areas, as was the same as in many other German cities in the last two years of war. At the end of 1945, the population
had already risen to about 500,000 again.
By that time, essentially all of Cologne's pre-war Jewish population of 20,000
had been annihilated. Some 11,000 are believed to have been murdered by the Nazis. The synagogue, originally built between
1895 and 1899 by architects Wilhelm Schreiterer and Bernhard Below, was severely damaged during the pogrom of November 9,
1938 (Kristallnacht) and finally destroyed during Allied air raids between 1943 and 1945. It was reconstructed in the 1950s.
The Cologne synagogue was the stage of a historic event in 2005, when the German-born pope Benedict XVI was the second pope
ever to visit a synagogue.
