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Cologne is one of the five governmental districts of the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located in the south-west of that state and covers the hills of the Eifel as well as the Bergisches Land. It was created on 30 April 1815, as district of the province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, when Prussia reorganised its internal ...
- 7,364.71 km² (2,843.53 sq mi)
- Cologne
Cologne (/ k ə ˈ l oʊ n / ⓘ kə-LOHN; German: Köln ⓘ; Kölsch: Kölle ⓘ) is the largest city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and over 3.1 million people in the Cologne Bonn urban region.
- 37 m (121 ft)
- Germany
- 38 BCE
- North Rhine-Westphalia
- Demographic History of Cologne
- Early History
- Cologne in The Holy Roman Empire
- Cologne as Free Imperial City
- Early Modern Period
- Modern History
- See Also
- Further Reading
- External Links
In the time of Roman Late antiquity, the cultural development in northwestern Europe west of the Rhine was embodied by a network of urban settlements. Most important towns in the Rhineland were Trier, which served as imperial residence of the Western Roman Emperor from 293 to 395, and Cologne, where five Roman trunk roads intersected with the Rhine...
Roman period
In 39 BC the Germanic tribe of the Ubii entered into an agreement with the forces of the Roman General Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and settled on the left bank of the Rhine. Their headquarters was Oppidum Ubiorum (settlement of the Ubii) and at the same time an important Roman military base. In 50 AD the Cologne-born Agrippina the Younger, wife of the Emperor Claudius, asked for her home village to be raised to the status of a colonia — a city under Roman law. It was then renamed Colonia Claudia...
Frankish rule
Colonia was pillaged several times by the Franks in the 4th century. Two lavish burial sites located near the Cathedral date from this period. In 355 AD the Alemanni tribes besieged the town for 10 months, finally taking and plundering it. At the time, the garrison of Colonia Agrippina was under the generalship of Marcus Vitellus. The Romans re-occupied the city several months afterwards by Julian. The city finally fell to the Ripuarian Franksin 462 AD. Cologne served as a base for the Caroli...
Later Middle Ages
Cologne's first Christian bishop was Maternus. He was responsible for the construction of the first cathedral, a square building erected early in the 4th century. In 794, Hildebald (or Hildebold) was the first Bishop of Cologne to be appointed archbishop. Bruno I (925–965), younger brother of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, founded several monasteries here. The dynasty of the Ezzonids, later Counts of Berg, counted 7 archbishops during that period and consolidated the powers of the archbishopric...
Cologne Diocesan Feud
A dispute between Archbishop Ruprecht of the Palatinate and the chapter of Cologne cathedral eventually evolved into a war with international involvement in 1474, known as the Cologne Diocesan Feud. This plunged the city of Cologne into an existential crisis. Since the archbishop refrained to abide by the financial agreements he had entered into when elected in 1463, the cathedral chapter appointed Landgrave Hermann IV of Hesse as diocesan administrator in 1473. Perceived as insubordination,...
Steelyard for English trade
Traditionally, the most important stronghold for Cologne's long-distance commerce was the Steelyard (Stalhof) in London. This prestigious trading post, endowed with trading privileges, allowed Cologne merchants to dominate English trade along the Rhine. The status of the steelyard was the cause of the Anglo-Hanseatic War in 1469, which was not settled until 1474. This dispute was primarily fought as a privateer war. Cologne however remained neutral adhering to its special relations with the E...
Presence of emperor and king
Between 1484 and 1531, emperors and kings often spent time in Cologne, enabling Cologne patricians a welcome proximity to Habsburg dynasty. As an indirect result of the Cologne Diocesan Feud, in 1477 heir Maximilian of Austria had married Maria, Duchess of Burgundy, thus enabling Habsburg access to the rich Burgundian lands of Flanders and the Netherlands. To secure this inheritance as a permanent possession, the royal presence in the region proofed to be beneficial. In 1484 Maximilian was cr...
In the beginning of Early modern period, Reformation continuously tempted the leading classes of Cologne. In 1582, Archbishop Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg converted to the Reformed faith and attempted to reform practices in the city's churches. This was violently opposed by the Wittelsbachs, leading to the Cologne War. The city's population, foll...
Napoleonic and Prussian period
The French Revolutionary Wars resulted in the occupation of Cologne and the Rhineland in 1794. In the following years the French consolidated their presence. In 1798 the city became an arrondissement in the newly created Département de la Roer. In the same year the University of Cologne was closed. In 1801 all citizens of Cologne were granted French citizenship. In 1804 Napoléon Bonaparte visited the city together with his wife Joséphine de Beauharnais. The French occupation ended in 1814, wh...
Weimar Republic
From the end of World War I until 1926, Cologne was occupied by the British Army of the Rhine under the terms of the armistice and the subsequent Peace Treaty of Versailles. In contrast to the harsh measures taken by French occupation troops, the British acted with more tact towards the local population. Konrad Adenauer, mayor of Cologne from 1917 until 1933 and a future West German chancellor, acknowledged the political impact of this approach, especially that the British opposed French plan...
Nazi Germany
At the beginning of Nazi Germany, Cologne was considered difficult by the Nazis because of deep-rooted communistand Catholic influences in the city. The Nazis were always struggling for control of the city. Local elections on 13 March 1933 resulted in the Nazi Party winning 39.6% of the vote, followed by the catholic Zentrum Party with 28.3%, the Social Democratic Party of Germany with 13.2%, and the Communist Party of Germanywith 11.1%. One day later, on 14 March, Nazi followers occupied the...
Cologne colonial history[de]"Cologne", The Rhine from Rotterdam to Constance, Leipsic: Karl Baedeker, 1882, OCLC 7416969"Cologne" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 697–699."Cologne", The Rhine, including the Black Forest & the Vosges, Leipzig: Karl Baedeker, 1911, OCLC 21888483Apr 27, 2024 · Cologne is the seat of a university and the see of a Roman Catholic archbishop. Its cathedral, the largest Gothic church in northern Europe, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996; it is the city’s major landmark and unofficial symbol. Area 156 square miles (405 square km).
The Cologne Bonn Region (German: Region Köln/Bonn) is a metropolitan area in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany, covering the cities of Cologne, Bonn and Leverkusen, as well as the districts of Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis, Oberbergischer Kreis, Rhein-Erft-Kreis and Rhein-Sieg-Kreis.
Since the last administrative reform in 1975, the City of Cologne is made up of nine Stadtbezirke and 86 Stadtteile. Stadtbezirk literally translates as city district, which are further subdivided into Stadtteile (city parts).
Cologne is the largest city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and over 3.1 million people in the Cologne Bonn urban region.
