Ehrenfeld district, Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Ehrenfeld is a city district (Stadtbezirk) of the City of Cologne in Germany. It includes the seven quarters Bickendorf, Bocklemünd, Mengenich, Ehrenfeld, Neuehrenfeld, Ossendorf and Vogelsang. The district borders with the Cologne districts of Chorweiler to the North, Nippes and Innenstadt to the East and Lindenthal to the South-West.

Ehrenfeld is characterized by lively and popular residential areas and shopping streets, the media center “Coloneum” with the most modern production and movie studios and a large and vivacious free cultural scene with many artists’ studios, theatres and clubs. The Ehrenfeld district developed from the originally wide field in front of the Ehrentor, one of Cologne’s twelve late Romanesque city gates. Like the other areas in front of the city limits at that time, the area was only sparsely built up into the 19th century.

Cologne Ehrenfeld is a typical former industrial and working-class district: a colorful mix, multicultural and alternative. In terms of architecture, Ehrenfeld is exemplary for Cologne: stately tenement houses alternate with building sins from the 1960s and industrial monuments, the proportion of fancier residential areas is growing continuously.

The old factory buildings of the textile, metal and electrical industries offer space for living, working and culture. Rents in the mixed-development areas are relatively low, which is why many students, artists and migrants live here. This makes for a lively and colorful mix: Kebab stands, Asian small art shops and Italian restaurants characterize the district.

A landmark of Cologne Ehrenfeld is the imposing Hercules high-rise, which is called the Parrot High-rise or Villa Kunterbunt because of its colorful facade. The Heliosturm, in turn, resembles a lighthouse, but was never built as such. It was the hallmark of an electrical engineering company that was active here in the 19th century and is now a kind of landmark not only for Ehrenfeld, but also for industrial change.

History
The city district has its name in common with the Ehrenfeld district, which not only forms the center of the district due to the local town hall on Venloer Straße. In front of the Ehrenpforte, a former city gate of medieval Cologne, fields were largely used for agriculture until the 19th century. This is how the Ehrenfeld community, founded in 1867, got its name. In 1879 it received its own city rights before it was incorporated into Cologne as part of the city expansion in 1888. For many years afterwards, today’s districts such as Bickendorf and Ossendorf were really still villages, and their architecture is partly reminiscent of this today.

The modern Ehrenfeld encompasses residential areas, industrial monuments, shopping streets and new industrial areas with the settlement of television stations in Ossendorf. The Ehrenfeld train station offers a connection to the S-Bahn and the regional train network, and the city district is served by four partly underground light rail lines operated by the Cologne Transport Company (KVB).

Subdivisions
Ehrenfeld consists of 6 Stadtteile (city parts):

Bickendorf district
The beginnings of Bickendorf can be traced back to the 13th century, when monastery properties were documented in the area. It was settled here more than 1,000 years earlier, as archaeological finds prove. The chapel of Saint Roch, patron saint against the plague, was built as early as 1733. It is the oldest building in Bickendorf today. After the Mechternkirche in Ehrenfeld was demolished as a result of the secularization, a neo-Romanesque parish church was also dedicated to Saint Roch in 1869.

For centuries, Bickendorf was a tranquil farming village, which in the middle of the 19th century, when Ehrenfeld was founded, only had around 350 inhabitants. At that time, Bickendorf was temporarily the seat of the mayor’s office in Müngersdorf, to which the entire area around Ehrenfeld belonged in administrative terms. Bickendorf experienced a rapid upswing after the First World War. This development was due to the settlements of the Gemeinnützige Aktiengesellschaft für Wohnungsbau (GAG), which had started building 600 small apartments a few years earlier.

The plans, which the architects had characterized with the Cologne leitmotif “Lich, Luff un Bäumcher”, created the basis for further projects by the GAG as well as the non-profit housing association Kölner Gartensiedlung as well as other companies. The neat single-family houses, which were intended for large families with a low income, have been restored and embellished over the last few decades. They are the starting point for the extended living space in modern style around the fountain of the “Treuen Hussaren”.

In 1935 the city of Cologne set up the so-called “Gypsy camp Cologne-Bickendorf”, in which more than 500 people were forcibly resettled in barracks in order to keep them from wandering. In 1940 the camp was completely dissolved. The residents were deported to labor and concentration camps in eastern Poland. raids. Finally, a new, bright church was built on the rubble and rubble.

Well-preserved fragments of old farm estates and street names such as Rochusstraße, Sandweg, Teichstraße, Häuschenweg and Nagelschmiedgasse document the local history in Alt-Bickendorf.

Sights
Rochus Chapel, traces of 1,000 Roma and Sinti by the artist Günter Demnig as a reminder of the so-called “Gypsy camp”, St. Three Kings, St. Roch, Treuer-Husar-Brunnen and Wutzstock

From 1923 was under the aname “Bickendorf II” the so-called Rosenhof settlement in the rchitecture style of New Objectivity, designed by the architect Caspar Maria Grod and Wilhelm Riphahn as “remarkable example of the settlements of the 1920s” applies. The settlement with its center, the Catholic Church of St. Dreikönigen, is a bit more urban and more representative than the earlier built, rather rural GAG settlement Bickendorf I. Since 1996 it has been listed as an ensemble with the number 8024.

Around 1927, the architects created three painting studios for artist friends in the attic of the residential buildings as well as a sculptor’s studio in a planned passage on Akazienweg. A number of well-known artists worked here, including the Dadaist graphic artist Marta Hegemann and her husband Anton Räderscheidt, member of the group ” Kölner Progressive “.

Bocklemünd / Mengenich district
On the edge of the Ehrenfeld district, north of Venloer Strasse and the military ring, the Cologne district of Bocklemünd / Mengenich is located. The original twin village can look back on over a thousand years of history. Bocklemünd is also called Pocklemünd, Bugchilomunte, Buggilmonte or Buchelmundt in old documents, because the spelling has changed over time. The name probably comes from hump (hill) and mund (mouth). Massenich as a Celtic-Roman settlement takes its name from Magniniacum. That means “Settlement of Magninus”.

The name and parish of Bocklemünd are first attested in a document from 941, from which it emerges that Archbishop Wigfried of Cologne donated Bocklemünd to the nuns of Sankt Cäcilien. More than 900 years later, in 1888, the twin village of Bocklemünd / Mengenich was incorporated into the city of Cologne. The rapid development of the district from the 19th to the 21st century can be seen in the number of inhabitants: In 1885 Bocklemünd had 532 and Mengenich 217. Today around 11,000 people live here.

The long-time residents rightly point to the rich and long history that is documented in the numerous and dominating manors. But the new residents have also developed an awareness of history and are proud of what they have achieved: a modern district has emerged around the historic town centers.

On the one hand, the district has a rural and tranquil effect thanks to the remains of old farm estates in the center of Bocklemünd and Mengenich. On the other hand, the most fundamental change in its long history has occurred since the mid-1960s: modern, metropolitan buildings emerged that tower above the historical one and two-story buildings. This meant a turning point: the village idyll had to give way to new structures. After initial skepticism, the image of the new Cologne Veedel noticeably improved, not least due to the social commitment of the churches.

Sights
Arnoldshof, Fort IV, Görlinger Center, Jewish Cemetery, Church of the Nativity of Christ, Saint John and WDR production area

The summer entertainment show Hollymünd was conducted between June 21. The BioCampus Cologne biotechnology center has also shaped the image of the district since April 2002. The start-up center with a floor space of 254,000 m² uses the former premises of the Nattermann company and is developing into one of the largest biotechnology parks in Germany.

Ehrenfeld district
The Ehrenfeld district has fundamentally changed several times in the last 200 years: from almost undeveloped farmland in the first half of the 19th century to an industrial and working-class city in the west of Cologne to a residential area with an artistic and multicultural flair. The skyline is dominated by the Heliosturm and the Herkules residential tower, which stretches 31-storey in the east on the old Ehrenfeld soil. Traces of settlement on the site are much older: people settled here as early as ancient times, as the archaeological find of a Roman country villa near Sankt Mechtern shows. In 1840 32 people lived here in three groups of houses. Ehrenfeld was the original Cologne country of the “Kappesboore” (cabbage farmers). Their courts were owned by Cologne monasteries.

In the 19th century, a new, modern city on the western periphery of Cologne grew beyond the historic Hofgiebel. Ehrenfeld owes its existence to the advance of Cologne in front of the city gates, to the construction and industrial expansion into the “Ziegelfeld”. The basis for this was created by numerous companies in the fields of metal processing (Herbrand wagon factory, Horch automobile construction), chemistry (Herbol colors) and electrical engineering (Helios) as well as cosmetics (Ferdinand Mülhens, the producer of 4711, Cologne water).

In 1845 the impetus to found Ehrenfeld was given. On the basis of basic social ideas, inexpensive apartments were created for workers. At that time, Ehrenfeld was part of the Müngersdorf mayor’s office in the Cologne district. Ehrenfeld became an independent municipality in 1867, and town charter followed in 1879. In 1863 the “Marktkapellchen” was created. Ten years later the first service was celebrated in St. Joseph. Public institutions such as the post office and train station kept pace with the development.

Through hard work and citizenship, a town hall was built on Venloer Straße in 1880, which was considered an architecturally significant secular work of neo-Gothic in Cologne’s suburbs. Eight years later, Ehrenfeld was incorporated into Cologne. The young district continued to grow in the coming decades.

The Second World War put an abrupt end to this. The painful war era ended with the entry of American soldiers on Venloer Strasse on March 6, 1945. Just like the inner city of Cologne, large parts of the industrially shaped Ehrenfeld were also a heap of rubble. Ehrenfeld had to survive 55 Allied air raids.

But the citizens lend a hand: A vigorous quarter was created again. The vacant lots were closed by residential buildings. Mostly small and medium-sized companies from toolmaking, mechanical engineering and the food industry settled in the densely populated Ehrenfeld. In 1957 Germany’s first supermarket was opened in the former Helios production halls. Guest workers from Turkey and other southern European countries also came from the late 1960s and founded their own shops and tea rooms.

Since the 1970s, however, many companies closed their doors, which meant a structural change for Ehrenfeld. In the 1990s, artists discovered the fallow industrial buildings and set up their studios and workshops. A lively cultural scene emerged.

Sights
Old gas works, Barthonia Forum, bunker Ehrenfeld, Heliosturm, Neptunbad, Sankt Joseph and the central mosque

Related Post

Churches
The oldest existing church in Ehrenfeld is the St. Mary’s Assumption Market Chapel on the Geißelmarkt. The chapel was donated by Johann and Cäcillie Wahlen for the service of the Ehrenfeld Catholics and designed by Vincenz Statz in 1860. The sculptures attached to the gable depict Saint Anthony and John the Baptist.

Blue-gold tower
Ehrenfeld’s most famous industrial monument is certainly the Heliosturm on Heliosstrasse. This interior lighthouse, built in 1885, is often referred to as Ehrenfeld’s landmark. It has no function as a nautical mark, but belonged to Helios AG, which went out in 1930, which pioneered the field of electrical engineering and, among other things, also produced illuminants for beacons. The former administration building on Venloer Straße and the company’s large production hall also belong to this industrial monument. The latter served under the name “Rheinlandhalle” from 1928 for sports and entertainment events such as the Cologne six-day race, but was later also used for NSDAP propaganda events. Today the Helioswerke complex is used by two furniture stores, shops, a fitness club and doctors. After a reconstruction in 1996, the Heliosturm itself shines again with a permanent light, which is generated by fluorescent tubes.

The United German Metallwarenfabriken (VDM), which took over Bleiröhrenwerke Wilhelm Leyendecker & Cie in 1930, also left a striking industrial monument to Ehrenfeld: in today’s Leo-Amann-Park, behind the company’s former administration building (today: Citizens’ Center Ehrenfeld) is the former water tower of the Factory. It was built in the style of a tower, as one would expect in fortified or church buildings, and has battlements and corner towers. It is now called the Blue-Gold Tower, after the Ehrenfeld carnival society civil guard “blue-gold”, which took care of its restoration. It has a coach house, fund room, lounge and a roof terrace.

The old cemetery
The old Ehrenfeld cemetery on Weinsbergstrasse is still recognizable today as an independent complex that does not belong to the Melaten Central Cemetery, which is adjacent to the south. This is z. B. can be seen through the different path system and the separating wall. It was created around 60 years after Melaten, after the citizens of Ehrenfeld were not allowed by the Cologne city council to bury their deceased in their cemetery for a fee. The Ehrenfeld cemetery cannot be compared with Melaten, neither in terms of the number of graves nor in their design, but there are also remarkable grave monuments there that reflect the sepulchral culture and history of today’s Cologne district.

Culture space
With the Arkadas Theater, the Cologne Artist Theater, the TheaterHaus Köln and the Artheater, Ehrenfeld owns four independent stages. The art house cinema Cinenova offers 705 spectators in three halls. Numerous clubs and live stages have established themselves primarily in former factories – the best known include the former underground, the workshop, the sensor club, the live music hall and Herbrand’s in the former Herbrand car-making factory. Close to the train station is the Café Goldmund, the only gastronomic establishment in Cologne that is both an antiquarian and bookcrossing station.

Neuehrenfeld district
The center of Neuehrenfeld is the Lenauplatz, named after the Austrian poet Nikolaus Lenau. The so-called “Chinesen-Veedel” is not far from Lenauplatz. A quarter with a strong Cologne character with names that are reminiscent of an eventful history in the Far East.

A stately square of bright and light town houses and an old majestic group of trees give Hein Derichsweiler’s Max and Moritz fountain a worthy setting. The Büdchen – a kiosk – has been part of the image of Lenauplatz for a long time. The fountain sculpture is a foundation of the Cologne-Ehrenfeld citizens’ association and was inaugurated on July 23, 1960 by the then mayor Theo Burauen. While the quiet zone, which is embedded in beautiful green arrangements, is an attraction for older Ehrenfelderinnen and Ehrenfelder, kölsche Pänz splash around in the pool.

In Neuehrenfeld, social and cultural life and club life are in full bloom. For this purpose, among other things, the well-known organ concerts in Sankt Barbara as well as the quartet association Takuperle 1924, the carnival friends “Ihrfelder Chinese 1971 eV ” and the SC West Cologne 1900/11. A new Jewish welfare center was built on the site of the Israelitisches Asyl, a Jewish hospital with an old people’s home, from 1908 to 1942. In addition to the social services of the Jewish community, it houses a primary school, a day-care center, a multi-purpose hall and a synagogue.

Sights
Jewish welfare center, Lenauplatz with Max-und-Moritz-Brunnen, New Apostolic Church, Sankt Anna, Sankt Barbara and Takuplatz

Evangelical Church of Reconciliation
The construction of the church building in the form of a hexagon was started in 1963 according to the plans of the architects Dr.-Ing. F. W. Bertram and Dr.-Ing. Long started from Aachen. The church of the evangelical parish Ehrenfeld was inaugurated on May 31, 1964. The west window shows the message of the Apostle Paul, the universality of healing, it was designed by the Ehrenfeld artist Elfriede Fulda.

St. Peter
Located on Simarplatz on Subbelrather Straße, St. Peter is the Catholic parish church for a large part of Neuehrenfeld. The church was built from 1896 in the then popular neo-Gothic style, its architect was Theodor Roß. The landowner Anton Schlösser donated the property as well as money for the church tower (it should be higher than the neighboring tower of the St. Joseph Church in Ehrenfeld). consecrated was the three-nave neo-Gothic brick church on June 29, 1901. The church is also Ehrenfelder Dom called. The building was partially destroyed in 1944 and re-consecrated in 1948 after it was rebuilt. Glasswork from 1978 byHermann Josef Baum represent the four elements. The 62 meter high tower is one of the eye-catchers of the district. Since the war only slightly damaged the church, most of the furnishings from the time it was built have been preserved.

St. Barbara
With the construction of the settlement houses in the Chinatown, the previous parish church of St. Peter became too small for the increasing number of believers. Therefore, from 1927 to 1929, the church of St. Barbara was built according to a design by the architect Karl Colombo. The repair of war damage and the changed liturgical requirements after the 2nd Vatican Council led to extensive renovation measures between 1965 and 1976. Since then, the church has given the impression of a church building from the 1960s.

St. Anna
The Catholic Church of St. Anna was built in 1907 and 1908 as a three-aisled basilica according to the designs of Adolf Nöcker. After the church suffered severe damage except for the tower during World War II, the architects Gottfried Böhm and Dominikus Böhm planned the reconstruction of the church, which was completed in 1956.

The 56 m high, colorful west tower is reminiscent of the tower of Paderborn Cathedral. During the reconstruction, the entrance portal was relocated to the east side of Christine-Teusch-Platz and completely redesigned with large glass surfaces and a curved roof supported by two conical supports. The main portal is framed by masonry from the rubble stones of the old church. On March 16, 2012, a new bell with the strike tone c was cast to complete the bells.

Jewish Welfare Center
In 2004, the new one was in the former Jewish asylum at the Otto street in Cologne Neuehrenfeld Jewish Welfare Center opened, where a synagogue, a kindergarten, a primary school, a retirement home and the management of more than 5,000-member synagogue municipality of Cologne are housed.

Ossendorf district
Ossendorf is characterized by tradition and progress. On the one hand, typical Cologne life unfolds, club life and socializing are in full bloom. The remains of old farmsteads – such as those of the Frohnhof and Pisdorhof estate – bear witness to a long history. On the other hand, the “Coloneum” media center built in Ossendorf in the 1990s is equipped with the most modern production and film studios, which impressively demonstrate Cologne’s reputation as a media location.

Archaeological finds show that Ossendorf was a settlement in pre-Christian and Roman times. Farming families settled here 5,000 years ago. Traces of Neolithic cultures were unearthed and finds made from the epoch of the Lower Rhine burial mound cultures. Traces of late Iron Age settlement date from the 1st century BC. The time of the Romans is passed down through a number of finds of outstanding quality. But there are also typical plate graves from the Franconian period.

The oldest written evidence about Ossendorf comes from the year 980. Afterwards Archbishop Warinus donated a mansion to Ossendorf from the Cologne Cathedral property to the St. Ursula Monastery in Cologne, which was attested in 1198 as “Frohnhof”.

Agricultural structures were evident in Ossendorf well into the 20th century. The district has a settlement-related connection with Ehrenfeld. From the smallest of circumstances (1798: 160 inhabitants) it grew from 1930, with the beginning of settlement by the non-profit housing association Cologne-Ehrenfeld, to its present size: In 1925 there were 961, in 1946 already 3,358 and currently just under 10,000 people living in Ossendorf.

In 1911, Cologne’s first civil airport was built in Ossendorf. From the late 1920s until the Second World War, Butzweilerhof Airport developed into the “Air Cross of the West”. Germans, Australians, British, international stars, famous aviators, military commandos and air sportsmen took off and landed there. The aviation museum in the Butzweilerhof brings this era to life. On the areas that were formerly used by the airport, there is now an industrial area with companies that can mainly be assigned to the media industry.

Sights
Butzweilerhof with aviation museum, Coloneum, Frohnhof, correctional facility and Pisdorhof

On the site of the Butzweilerhof, Cologne-Butzweilerhof Airport, the first civil airport used in the first half of the 20th century, there is now an industrial area. Many companies from the media industry are located here, who operate their studios and production halls in Cologne-Ossendorf, for example the production company Endemol, the studio service provider Magic Media Company, on whose premises the studio with the television show Big Brother is located. The regional telecommunications service provider NetCologne has also had its headquarters at Butzweilerhof since 2006.

Vogelsang district
In 1931 Vogelsang was founded as a “suburban settlement” for the unemployed and poor, large families. By keeping small animals and growing vegetables, the residents should largely provide for themselves. The center of the village is still the Vogelsanger Markt, where the Catholic Church of St. Konrad is located. It was built in 1936 according to plans by Hans Peter Fischer, who a few years earlier had built the Church of St. Three Kings in Bickendorf.

Over the years, the functional buildings in the area, almost all of which were created through self-help and help from the neighborhood, have turned into pretty little houses. Together with a primary school and an inn, also built in the mid-1930s, Sankt Konrad forms an ensemble where time seems to have stood still in a positive sense.

In addition to the original development with its many extensions and conversions, numerous new homes were built on the other side of the Vogelsanger Markt in the 1960s. The core of the district, surrounded by greenery and house gardens, has retained a homely atmosphere into which the surrounding housing estates fit very well.

Sights
Sankt Konrad and Vogelsanger market

The district has been growing since 2000 through the expansion of Vogelsang-Nord with single-family houses and rental apartments. The development of Vogelsang from 1893 to 2010 has been shown in seven bronze reliefs by the Cologne -based designer, architectural model maker and artist Bernd Grimm since 2011. It is particularly about how the district has changed from arable land to the “Triotop” business park.

Aquarius Lake
The Wassermannsee even Wassermann Lake, is a gravel pit in the Cologne district of Vogelsang. The lake was created in the 1920s. The eponymous company Aquarius built there gravel from the millions of years ago an old arm of the Rhine had washed ashore. After the end of the gravel mining, the area grew undisturbed and over decades. Access to the lake and its partly very steep slope are largely closed. It can be used for fishing. The bank was reinforced with tall perennials and reeds. The lake has a length of almost 300 meters and a width of nearly 100 meters.

West Cemetery
The Westfriedhof is a municipal cemetery north of Venloer Straße in the Vogelsang district of Cologne in the Ehrenfeld district. It has an area of 523,000 m² (45,580 graves) and is one of the largest burial sites in the city. To this day, the Westfriedhof has the character of a park, typical of the larger Cologne municipal cemeteries, with wide avenues and extensive tree planting. There are also several sections with Roma graves and Muslim burials on the site of the cemetery. Immediately to the north of the Westfriedhof there is a forest area that was planned as a possible expansion area. The Jewish cemetery is located adjacent to the Westfriedhof.

Share
Tags: Germany