Lindenthal district, Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Lindenthal is the district 3 of the city of Cologne. It includes the districts of Braunsfeld, Junkersdorf, Klettenberg, Lindenthal, Lövenich, Müngersdorf, Sülz, Weiden and Widdersdorf. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, it is the most populous of the nine districts of Cologne.

Cologne Lindenthal is characterized as an urban, but green living space. The University of Cologne and the Melaten cemetery are in Lindenthal. The Aachen and Düren street in the district Lindenthal and Berrenrather and the Luxemburger Straße in the district Sülz are among the largest and most important roads in the district, where many shops, businesses and schools are.

Districts in the city district are Klettenberg, Sülz, Lindenthal, Braunsfeld, Müngersdorf, Junkersdorf, Lövenich, Weiden and Widdersdorf. The districts within the motorway ring have been part of Cologne since the city was expanded in 1888. The districts outside the motorway ring were incorporated in 1975.

For centuries, Lindenthal’s appearance was determined by hamlets, farms and small villages. At no point was it an industrial location. Magnificent villas, small canals, lots of park areas and even an inner-city forest are witnesses of this today. The villas are house university institutes and so a student flair permeates them the Cologne Lindenthal district, which is particularly noticeable in the numerous cafés and pubs.

A wide variety of population groups meet in Lindenthal. Students, retirees or the self-employed as well as civil servants, academics and artists live side by side. An interesting mix of young and old is characteristic of this district. So even the little ones don’t miss out: In addition to a wealth of private, church and public kindergartens, there are even forest kindergarten groups in the middle of Cologne. Dürener Strasse, lined with well-tended linden trees, is particularly inviting for strolling, strolling and feasting: there are restaurants and cafés, but also many owner-managed, individual retail stores.

Green Space
Lindenthal zoo: The Lindenthal zoo is located on Kitschburger Strasse. Admission to the zoo is free, and it is financed through the feeding machines, animal sponsorships and donations. The opening times vary between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. in the morning and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the evening. So it’s best to inform in advance. You can see highland cattle, donkeys, fallow deer, sheep, goats and a number of bird species, some of which are free winners, such as the Nile ducks.

The city fores: There is a nice mix of forest, grassy areas and water. One possible walking route is as follows: With line 1 to (H) Clarenbachstift, then via Vogteistraße to the city forest. Continue straight ahead and then take a detour to the right at the level crossing over the railway tracks (on which, among other things, lignite from the opencast mines is transported by train to the Cologne Rhine ports) until you come across a larger open area with a few benches to relax. You continue by crossing the railroad tracks again, almost completely circling the Stadtwaldweiher once to the left and then turning left to continue following the canal (straight ahead to the Lindenthaler Tierpark). Then once over the Kitschburger Straße, which is already closed on weekends, to the Kahnweiher. There are – on the lake corner, as well as at the hotel – beautiful corners, that invite you to take a break, with a view of the lake (especially at sunset). Then back to the city with lines 7 or 136 – or you can stroll a bit through Lindenthal.

The Lindenthal Canalcreate a green connection between the outer green belt (via the city forest) and the inner green belt at the Aachen pond. They were completed in 1925; Above all, the Clarenbach Canal invites you to relax on its south side, which is car-free.

The Melaten cemetery: The Melaten cemetery is the most famous and also the most beautiful cemetery in Cologne. The name of the cemetery, laid out as a park and landscape protection area, comes from its function as a former leprosy asylum (“Malade” = sick), which has been documented since the 12th century; The 435,000 m² cemetery is the oldest and central burial place in Cologne. It was created against the background of the knowledge of modern hygiene at the time and after a decree of the French Emperor Napoleon. The cemetery was inaugurated on June 29, 1810. You can see the graves of numerous famous sons and daughters of the city, e.g. Nicolaus August Otto (1832 – 1891), co-inventor of the Otto engine, or those of the actors René Deltgen, Willy Birgel and Willy Millowitsch and also the deceased carnivalists of the city. The cemetery is also important as a habitat for a wide variety of bird and animal species.

Outer Green Belt: The section of the Outer Green Belt in Lindenthal with the Decksteiner Weiher. Along the canal-like section there is a beautiful avenue of chestnut trees, and in the northwest corner there is a pedal boat rental, a mini golf course and the Haus am See restaurant Directions (from north to south): Line 7 to Stüttgenhof (1.1 km walk), bus line 146 to Deckstein (850m walk), bus line 978 to Rheinenergie Sportpark (500m walk), line 18 to Klettenbergpark (1.4 km walk). There are few parking spaces on Stüttgenweg, along the military ring road, and a little further away at the P + R car parks Haus Vorst and Stadion, but due to the parking situation, we recommend using public transport.

Klettenberg park: The Klettenbergpark in Klettenberg, which was laid out from 1905 to 1907. It is located on the site of a former gravel pit, which explains the striking difference in altitude. In the middle there is a small lake, and the area is modeled on various forms of landscape occurring in the Rhineland (heather, forest, bank zone with water lilies and an artificial “stream landscape” with a waterfall). In the eastern corner there is a symmetrically laid out rose garden and several arcades.

Shopping
The shopping streets in the Sülz district are Sülzburgstrasse and Berrenrather Strasse. Both intersect at right angles, and around this intersection is the highest density of shops, including two organic supermarkets (Alnatura and Naturata, Berrenrather Strasse 240 and 201), several opticians and smaller restaurants. In the east, the shopping area ends on Berrenrather Straße with the Asian grocery store Seoul and the catering service Zimt und Rosen.

To the south of Sülzburgstrasse, Gottesweg joins in the Klettenberg district. There are more shops there, but mainly Italian restaurants. The company Odenkirchen auf dem Gottesweg is one of the ecologically conscious butchers. As a former civil servants’ quarter, Klettenberg itself is rich in residential buildings but poor in shops.

There are three larger supermarkets in the Karrée, of which the Rewe in Sülzburgstrasse is open the longest, namely until midnight. The others are Rewe in Klettenberg (Luxemburgstrasse 299) and Edeka in Sülz (Berrenrather Strasse 339). In the Rennebergstr. 5 opened in 2013 with Bild & Rahmen Werkladen GmbH, Germany’s largest specialist framing shop.

The contact point for these shopping miles is the Sülzburgstraße subway station (line 18). From there, everything can be hiked on foot within half an hour.

Gourmet
The Petersberger Hof is located in Klettenberg’s center (corner of Siebengebirgsallee / Petersbergstrasse). At the northern end of Klettenberg on Luxemburgerstrasse, Cologne’s traditional restaurant Zum Unkelbach awaits; both restaurants have popular beer gardens in summer. The Gottesweg cuts through Klettenberg and offers, in addition to the ABS, a combination of restaurant, pub and disco, other bars and several Italian restaurants and pizza services in Italian hands. The wood-fired pizzas from Pizza-Pizza (Gottesweg 147) are cheap and good, and the topped ciabattas and antipasti in the Italian delicatessen shop Lo Sfizio (corner Luxemburgerstraße) are delicious.

Around the corner, a few houses to the east on Luxemburgerstrasse, is the traditional Osterspey café (family business with excellent pastries and its own pastry shop until 2012). The Café Melange Orange on Sülzburgstraße offers a small selection of home-baked goods and a large selection is offered by Café Weyer on Berrenratherstraße. The Weyer family roasts the coffee itself. Here, normal filter coffee, preferably without milk, is the crowning glory of the taste and cappuccino is an espresso contaminated with milk foam. The Merzenich bakery chain on the corner of Luxemburgerstrasse and Sülzburgstrasse also has fresh bread on Sundays and is a popular place to have breakfast and watch the hustle and bustle of the busy intersection.

Subdivisions
Lindenthal consists of 9 Stadtteile (city parts):

Braunsfeld district
The Braunsfeld district looks back on a comparatively young history. With the construction of the first brickworks in the corner of Aachener Strasse, Kitschburger Strasse and Schinkelstrasse by the Cologne haulage contractor Ferdinand Braun in 1862, the foundation stone was laid for a rapidly developing local structure in the area around Braun’s Feld.

Simple residential buildings were soon built for the workers in the rapidly expanding company along newly laid streets that were named appropriately for the area. Today’s Hermann-Pflaume-Strasse was called “Thonstrasse” and today’s Christian-Gau-Strasse was called “Ziegelstrasse”. In Braunsfeld there are still many buildings from the Wilhelminian era and the 1920s that shape many a street scene. The district was incorporated in 1888 as part of the city expansion to Cologne. Even before that, the suburb was connected to the city center by the extension of the Cologne-Melaten horse-drawn tram line that went into operation in 1885 to Müngersdorf.

The establishment of the city forest from 1895 to 1898 resulted in a fundamental structural change in the place after the turn of the century. Newly opened upscale restaurants with garden bars became popular excursion destinations. Wealthy citizens were also drawn to the countryside, so that new residential areas were created around the recreation area. During the Second World War, however, large parts of Braunsfeld were destroyed because, like Lindenthal, it was in the approach path of British bombers.

The northern part of the district intersected by Aachener Strasse is characterized by an industrial area that extends to the Cologne-Aachen federal railway line. It was created, among other things, in connection with the north-south freight line of the Cologne-Frechen-Benzelrath Railway. A modern service and administration center has been developing in the former industrial area since the late 1980s (Technologiepark Köln, BIOCenter Cologne), which continues to grow due to the establishment of new industries.

Sights
Aachener Strasse as a historical arterial and popular shopping street, Abraham-Frank-Haus, Lindenthal district town hall, Benderstift / Peter-von-Fliesteden-Haus, Clarenbach Church with Campanile, Deutsche Krankenversicherung AG – head office, Deutsche Post – directorate, Dreifaltigkeitskrankenhaus, Haus Marienbild, Hältzplatz, Kölner Verkehrs-Betriebe AG, Pauliplatz with the Pan-Fountain, Sankt Joseph and Cologne Technology Park

There is a Protestant church in the district, the Clarenbach Church, consecrated in 1951. It is named after Adolf Clarenbach, who was executed on Melaten in 1529 because of his failed attempt to introduce the Reformation in the city of Cologne.

There is also a Catholic church in the district: St. Joseph, whose predecessor fell victim to the Second World War in 1944. St. Joseph was built in the mid-1950s according to a design by the architect Rudolf Schwarz. In addition, the Catholic Church of Christ Resurrection, a building consecrated in 1971 by Gottfried Böhm, is now a branch church of the Braunsfeld pastoral care area; but it is located in the Lindenthal district.

Junkersdorf district
Numerous finds from Roman and Franconian times suggest that the Junkersdorf area has been continuously populated since Roman times. Junkersdorf is first mentioned in a document in 962, when Archbishop Bruno of Cologne donated land in Guntheresthorp to the women’s monastery of Saint Cecilia in Cologne. Until the French occupation in 1798, the “Herrlichkeit Junkersdorf” formed a free rule in the archbishopric of Cologne, which belonged to the respective owners of the governor’s court, since 1472 it was the Antonites.

The hamlet of Marsdorf, first mentioned in documents in 1157, consisted of three manors and a rural property until the end of the 19th century. In addition to the construction of new courtyards away from the old settlement core, the establishment of a freight railway connection from the Frechen brown coal mines and factories to the Deutsche Reichsbahn in Ehrenfeld in 1891 represented the most radical change in the development of the area. Two years later, a passenger train also ran on a shared track system. With the electrification of the line in 1914, the tracks were moved south to the current route.

While the surrounding villages changed a lot in the 19th century, the appearance of Junkersdorf, which still existed in the old borders around 1900, changed only slowly due to its location away from the main traffic routes. The still existing Hofgüter and the village church of Junkersdorf are still attractive ensembles, which reveal a rural character.

The expansion of the place as a “garden city” did not begin until the late 1920s with the construction of the first elegant single-family houses. The establishment of the Outer Green Belt made the Junkersdorfer fields interesting for exclusive building in green surroundings, and from 1930 onwards several garden city-like settlement projects, in particular the “Garden City Stadium”, emerged.

Junkersdorf, which belongs to the municipality of Lövenich, was incorporated into Cologne in 1975 as part of the municipal reorganization. The neighboring Marsdorf, which had previously belonged to Frechen, came to Cologne in 1975 and has been part of Junkersdorf ever since.

In Marsdorf, an industrial area has been created on both sides of Dürener Strasse since 1960, which has grown continuously and prospered thanks to the settlement of many new industries. This includes, for example, Toyota Motorsport GmbH, which has its German headquarters in Marsdorf. The Toyota Racing racing team took part in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship from 2002 to 2009.

Sights
Aachener Strasse, old village church Am Schulberg, Bodenhof with court cross, Brennerscher Hof, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Church, Esserhof, Fronhof with Marienkapelle, Junkersdorfer Hof, VIVO project on the site of the former barracks Haelen, Sankt Pankratius, Stadthalter Hof with holy houses, Stüttgenhof with Half-timbered barn, RWE Power administration building and forest laboratory

At the end of the 1920s, elegant Bauhaus style single-family houses were built in Junkersdorf. In the subsequent 1930s, the Outer Cologne Green Belt was created, making the Junkersdorfer fields interesting for exclusive living in green surroundings. Some garden city-like settlements emerged there.

Klettenberg district
The Klettenberg district was laid out at the beginning of the 20th century “from a single source” as an extension of the Sülz district, with which it remained structurally and functionally connected. The area was largely undeveloped and characterized by the sand and gravel pits created in the course of the 19th century. Only the Hofgut Klettenberg had to give way to the new building. It was mentioned for the first time in 1225 and belonged to the property of the St. Pantaleon Monastery. Even today, Klettenberg, located between Gottesweg, Luxemburger Straße, motorway and railway line, is characterized by curved streets and a strong green area.

The Luxemburger Straße once led as a Roman arterial road via Zülpich to Reims. Until it was incorporated into Cologne in 1883, it served as the border between the mayor’s offices of Efferen and Rondorf, which were established in the French era, and still separates the two districts of Sülz and Klettenberg. The foothills of the Cologne-Bonn Railway, which opened in 1898, provided good transport links from the start.

In the years 1905 to 1907, the Klettenbergpark was built according to a design by garden director Fritz Encke, in the middle of which a pond fed by the Duffesbach was created. Today nothing can be seen of the Duffesbach. It ekes out a pipe existence, set in concrete under the route of the light rail on Luxemburger Straße. However, those in search of relaxation can still enjoy the Klettenbergpark today. The various Rhenish landscapes should be presented here to walkers. Accordingly, the park was laid out in a sequence of the most diverse forest, meadow and bank areas as well as typical rock formations.

The often cooperative residential buildings from the 1920s and 1930s are dominated by the parish church of St. Bruno, which was built between 1924 and 1926. There were also residential buildings south of Siebengebirgsallee in the 1950s and 1960s. At the beginning of the 20th century, a seven-hectare gravel pit, no longer in use, was planned for a park on Luxemburger Straße:

Sights
Carréefest Klettenberg-Sülz, Honnefer Platz, Klettenbergpark, Komarhof, Luxemburger Straße as a historical arterial and popular shopping street, Siebengebirgsallee 17-29 (row of houses by Jacob Koerfer) and Sankt Bruno

Directly on the embankment along Rhöndorfer Straße there is a narrow strip of allotment gardens belonging to the railway, which extend from Geisbergstraße over a large part of the site to the military ring and Luxemburger Straße. Beyond the military ring there are forests, meadows and two sports fields.

The 6 hectare Klettenbergpark in the Schenkel between Siebengebirgsallee, Nassestraße and Luxemburger Straße, laid out by Fritz Encke from 1905 to 1907, was laid out as a high altitude and nature park on a 10 m deep gravel pit. In the middle of it is the 0.9 hectare pond with typical bank vegetation, which was formerly from the diverted Duffesbach and is now irrigated with tap water, a flower meadow with rock stream sections and waterfall, a heathland and a network of circular trails.

Lindenthal district
The name “Lindenthal” is derived from the old part of an arm of the Rhine and from the village name Lind, which means something like field. Cologne University was founded in 1388. Pope Urban VI. gave the Council of the Free City of Cologne the rights to do so The university was dissolved in 1798 under French occupation. A central school ” Université de Cologne ” was set up in the French times. After this was also dissolved, Cologne received an independent commercial college in 1901 as a forerunner of the university. With the approval of the Prussian government, the University of Cologne was finally re-established in 1919.

The “Herrlichkeit Kriel” was the most important village settlement. The sphere of influence of his parish church, the Krieler Dom, which reached as far as Klettenberg, included the Stüttgenhof, the Kitschburg estate, the 16th century estate “Tönnishäuschen”, which has been known as Lindenburg since 1815, and the surrounding villages of Deckstein and Lind (later Hohenlind).The extent to which Linde gave its name to the Lindenthal district, which was incorporated into Cologne in 1888, is controversial. Lindenthal had only developed into a closed suburb since the middle of the 19th century. Its history, however, like that of no other district of Cologne, is shaped by the multitude of farms and villages that were once on its territory.

The Melatenfriedhof was laid out in the 19th century. The impetus was provided by Napoleon’s “decree on burials” of June 12, 1804, which prescribed the burial of the dead outside the cities. For many Cologne residents, the Melatenfriedhof is not just a place of burial, but a place of rest and relaxation as well as being amazed at the impressive tombs. However, the eventful history of the site is far less inviting, because before it was used as a cemetery, the Melaten (malade = sick) was used as a place of execution or a place of refuge for lepers. The leprosy institute is mentioned in documents as early as 1180.

With the laying of the foundation stone of the new university building in 1929 in the inner green belt, the current university quarter was created in Lindenthal at the same time. This includes various new buildings in and on the green belt, such as the old cafeteria from the 1950s or the Philosophikum from the 1970s, as well as buildings or villas along the Weyertal that have been converted into institutes. With the settlement of the university, Lindenthal received a new character, which had a lasting effect on its structure.

Not far from the Melatenfriedhof, on the corner of Aachener Strasse and Oskar-Jäger-Strasse, the new Lindenthal district town hall has recently been built. On an area of around 7,000 square meters, the seven-storey building not only offers space for the district office of the city district 3, but also office and business space for tradespeople, doctors and lawyers.

Sights
Aachener Straße as a historical arterial and popular shopping street, Adenauerweiher, Lindenthal district town hall, Deckstein district sports facility, Christ’s Resurrection, rock garden at Fort VI (Deckstein), Geusenfriedhof, Karl-Schwering-Platz with rose garden, Kitschburg, Krieler Dömchen, Lindenthaler canals, Lortzingplatz, postal settlement Hohenlind, Frechener Platz settlement, urban forest with tennis courts, zoo and pond, Sankt Laurentius, Theresienstraße 36-40 (villa development), university clinics, University of Cologne and Konrad Adenauer’s houses

Former Adenauer’s house
Settlement construction experienced a real boom in Cologne in the twenties: Whole districts were built by housing cooperatives mostly according to the urban planning ideals of the time and often according to the principles of the garden city. Adenauer’s conception as GAG chairman ensured that Cologne operated one of the most efficient housing construction policies of all cities in the Weimar Republic. Relative to the number of residents, a particularly large number of high-quality apartments were built, which also led to social housing construction in Cologne being assigned the characteristics of “light, air and trees”.

The buildings of Wilhelm Riphahn in Birresborner and Bitburger Strasse, which are still largely preserved, are characteristic of the architectural style of the thirties. With the planned expansion of the open spaces still available, typical rows of houses were built according to the taste of the building companies, for example in Kerpener, Mommsen- and Krieler Straße. Multi-storey three- and four-window houses, such as those in downtown Cologne or quite typical for Ehrenfeld, were also built in Bachemer, Theresienstrasse or Wittgensteinstrasse. For the most part, however, people stayed true to their preference for living in the countryside. Beautiful front gardens, magnificent mansions embedded in parks, ponds and artificially created canals – all of these were liked and could be afforded.

In 1925, the Lindenthal Canal, a connection from the inner green belt at the Aachener Weiher to the urban forest area in the outer Cologne green belt, was created along the Rautenstrauchstrasse and Clarenbachstrasse with water surfaces and playgrounds. In addition, Lindenthal had and still has an abundance of green spaces through the parks of the monasteries and the sometimes quite large gardens of the hospitals.

University of Cologne
The new university was also an example of the New Objectivity architectural style; it was built in the style of the Werkbund. The foundation stone was laid in 1929, and in November 1934 the university was able to move into a functionally simple new building in the inner green belt near the medical faculty, built by the architect and city director in Cologne Adolf Abel. It remained a municipal university until 1953 and then became the sponsorship of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Today it is one of the largest universities in Germany with more than 43,000 students.

Lövenich district
Lövenich, whose name is derived from “Luviniacum”, a Celtic estate, is mentioned for the first time in 1028. At that time, Ezzo, the Count Palatine of Lorraine, is said to have transferred his possessions there to the Brauweiler Abbey, which he founded. Other court estates and the right to name the new pastor were owned by knights and citizens of Cologne. The almost square clustered village of Lövenich consists of the northern part of the village with farm workers’ and residential houses and the southern part of the large courtyards. Both areas are connected by the Romanesque gem, the Church of St. Severinus, and the abandoned old cemetery.

In a document from May 1361, the Archbishop of Cologne confirmed the patronage of the Order of St. John in Lövenich. Little by little the Johanniter increased their land holdings, so that by the end of the 14th century they had more than half of the Lövenich lands. Through an exchange of goods, the order received from the Brauweiler Abbey all of its sovereign and judicial rights in the village and in the Lövenich parish and the properties there. The sovereignty of the Cologne Johanniterkommende ended in 1798. The mayor’s office Lövenich, founded in 1802, consisted of Weiden, Üsdorf, Junkersdorf and Groß- und Kleinkönigsdorf (today Frechen) in addition to the village Lövenich.

Lövenich grew continuously in the 19th century and got its own train station in 1870. Since the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, two-story suburban terraced houses and residential groups with front gardens have been built in the vicinity. Due to the preservation of all important courtyards and the associated village structure, the structural and social structure of a village has been preserved in a unique way. It was not until after 1945 that larger new building areas emerged. Lövenich was incorporated into Cologne in 1975 during the municipal reorganization.

Sights
Aachener Straße as a historical arterial and popular shopping street, brick houses, industrial area Lövenich, Gut Köza, Mertenshof, Odemshof and Sankt Severin. Like many other Cologne districts, Lövenich has forests, meadows, many companies and commercial properties, restaurants and pubs, a football hall, an indoor play park, several discount stores and a gas station.

St. Severin
St. Severin is a Roman Catholic church in Cologne-Lövenich in North Rhine-Westphalia. It is essentially a Romanesque pillar basilica. The side aisles of the flat-roofed, three-aisled Romanesque pillar basilica were lengthened to the east and the apses were laid down. The former arched choir yoke was designed with an open roof truss as an additional nave yoke, to which a neo-Romanesque choir with choir yoke was added. At the same time, most of the exterior of the old tuff stone masonry was removed and replaced with brick, so that the original structure of the church, which is now plastered, can hardly be seen.

Rhein-Center Cologne
The Rhein-Center Cologne, even Rhein-Center Köln-Weiden or Rhein Center Weiden, is a shopping center in Cologne District Lindenthal in the district Weiden, Aachener Strasse no. 1253. It was the beginning of the 1970s built and was the fourth in his opening large shopping center of its kind in the Federal Republic of Germany. At that time, pastures were hardly built on, so that the image of today’s district was dominated by fields and meadows. “Where the sheep grazed just under a year ago, the shopping center is opening today,” he wroteKölner Stadt-Anzeiger on March 9, 1972. Nevertheless, the location was economically promising, as it was about to develop from a village to a populous suburb of Cologne. The ECE Projektmanagement GmbH, then as now, operators of the Rhine Center, invested 50 million DM in the project.

Müngersdorf district
Müngersdorf has a long history of settlement. Archaeological finds from the 5th millennium BC as well as from Roman and Franconian times on both sides of Aachener Straße point to the settlement core of Müngersdorf. A manor from the second half of the third century AD with associated grave facilities, found next to the manor complex at the Rheinenergie Stadium on Stolberger Strasse, brought rich grave goods to light. The first written mention of it dates from October 25th 980. In a document from Archbishop Warin, which contains a donation to Saint Ursula, “Mundestorp” is mentioned for the first time.

Through the construction of the fortress belt in 1870/1880, Müngersdorf was closely connected to the city of Cologne and finally incorporated into the municipality in 1888. Significant structural extensions did not take place until 1900 in the area around Eupener Straße, near the industrial settlements in Braunsfeld, away from the old town center. The creation of the city forest from 1895 to 1898 then led to a fundamental structural change in Müngersdorf after the turn of the century.

The construction of the outer green belt initiated villa construction in the 1920s. Between 1921 and 1926, sports facilities, playgrounds and swimming pools were laid out as a sports park along the Outer Green Belt. The Jahnwiese with the monument to the gymnastics father Jahn, inaugurated in 1928, borders directly on the city forest with the Adenauer pond.

At the end of 1921 the construction of the Müngersdorfer Stadium began. The opening took place on September 16, 1923. The second “German Combat Games” took place there in 1926, the World Cycling Championship in 1927 and the 14th German Gymnastics Festival in 1928 with 300,000 participants. For a long time the old “main arena” was considered one of the most beautiful and functionally best sports facilities in Europe. In order to meet the increased requirements, various sports facilities were added. In addition to the swimming stadium, the sports facilities of the Rot-Weiß tennis and hockey club and the Cologne athletic sports club have established themselves. After the Second World War, the German Sport University moved from Berlin to the sports park.

In 1975 the new Müngersdorf stadium was opened. In accordance with modern requirements and with a view to the stadium’s need for renovation, the decision was made to convert the arena into a “pure football stadium”. The Rheinenergie Stadium, which opened on March 31, 2004, meets all the requirements of international football matches. The highlight so far was the five soccer World Cup matches in the summer of 2006. The village, dominated by agriculture, remained almost unchanged until the beginning of the 20th century.

Sights
Aachenerstraße as historical default and popular shopping street, German Sport University with national training centers, Freiluga (outdoor and gardening school), School of Public Administration, “gas houses” Vitalisstraße 330-362, House Fenger-Schöngen, Jahnwiese (Football – Training) Marienhof, Rheinenergie Stadion, Petershof, Albert Richter Bahn (bicycle racing track), riding and jumping arena, Sidol-Werke Siegel & Co., Müngersdorf swimming center / outdoor swimming pool / stadium, Sankt Vitalis and Technologie Park

The neo-Romanesque brick basilica St. Vitalis was built by the architect Theodor Kremer in 1889/90. Until 1888, the former parish church, founded by the St. Apostles monastery at the beginning of the 13th century, stood in the same place. The interior was redesigned in 1960 by the architect Rudolf Schwarz.

The Evangelical Clarenbach parish looks after the believers in the Müngersdorf and Braunsfeld districts. Services are held in the more than 50-year-old Clarenbach Church at Aachener Strasse 458.

Sülz district
The name Sülz goes back to the Fronhof, first mentioned in 1145 as Sulpece and named Sulpze in 1181, which belonged to the estates of the Benedictine Abbey of Sankt Pantaleon. Like all other buildings, it was laid down at the gates of Cologne in 1474 during the Neuss War, together with the St. Nicholas pilgrimage chapel. From 1487 the monastery courtyard was rebuilt as “Neuenhof” south of the old village center on Berrenrather Straße. The “Neuenhöfer Allee” keeps the memory of this courtyard alive, which was still there at the beginning of the 20th century. The “Weisshaus”, the summer residence of the Abbots of Sankt Pantaleon on Luxemburger Strasse, formed an economic unit with the Neuenhof.

In 1845 the foundation stone for a new Sülz was laid on the Aegidiusstrasse. By 1900, a roughly right-angled street grid between Zülpicher Strasse and Berrenrather Strasse was filled up to Sülzburgstrasse. Sülz owes its development to a suburb to the intensive use of sand and gravel pits and the establishment of numerous brick factories. In the area of Zülpicher and Berrenrather Strasse, small businesses and factories soon set up. In this way, the coexistence of living and working, which is so typical for the core area of Sülz, developed. From around 1900, further urban residential areas near the center were built on Luxemburger, Berrenrather and Zülpicher Strasse.

A special feature of the subsequently rapidly growing suburb are the recreational areas that characterize the cityscape. Such green city squares include De-Noël-Platz (from 1904), Münstereifeler Platz (1905 to 1910) and Manderscheider Platz (from 1911).

In the 1970s and 1980s, major construction projects were carried out on the site of the former Cologne-Bonn Railway station on Luxemburger Strasse: the district and regional court, the Cologne public prosecutor, the employment office, the headquarters of the General German Automobile Club (ADAC) and others. The historical archive of the city of Cologne will also be rebuilt nearby. Luxemburger Strasse, which separates the districts of Sülz and Klettenberg, is one of Cologne’s major arterial roads, which is particularly popular at peak times.

Sights
Outer green belt with the domicile of 1. FC Cologne, Beethovenpark, Decksteiner Weiher with Geißbockheim and sports field of 1. FC Cologne, De-Noel-Platz, Heckmannshof, high-rise buildings “Am Justizzentrum” (Cologne public prosecutor’s office, district and regional court, labor administration and job center), Luxemburger Strasse as a historic arterial and popular shopping street, Manderscheider Platz, Münstereifeler Platz, Weißhaus, Sülz allotment garden colony, Roman water pipe, Roman mud trap, St. Nicholas, the former Silberberg & Mayer straw hat factory and the Uni-Center

Traditional events are the Veedelszoch on Carnival Tuesday, numerous church festivals such as the ecumenical parish fair around the Nikolauskirche and the Corpus Christi procession through Sülzburgstrasse to the so-called God’s Way. The interest group of business people from Sülz organizes the “Carreéfest” on the 1st weekend in September, and in November it makes its shop windows available to artists for a week as part of “Art in the Carrée”. Raffael Becker, who has lived in Sülz since the mid-1950s, is one of the better-known artists, and the draftsman Wilhelm Schlote has also lived and worked since June 2011here. Artists resident in the Veedel as well as the atelier communities Agidiusstrasse and Lichthof (in the former straw hat factory Silberberg & Mayer) take part in the “Open Atelier Days” in November.

Weiden district
Until the end of the 19th century, Weiden was a pure street village on both sides of Aachener Straße. This lifeline of the village also formed the administrative border. While the southern part was directly subordinate to the Königsdorf office, the northern part belonged to the Lövenich glory. With the introduction of the administrative reform valid in France in 1798, Weiden became the capital of the ” Canton de Weyden “, which included the municipalities of Lövenich, Widdersdorf, Junkersdorf, Müngersdorf as well as Melaten and Kriel belonging to the Lindenthal district. In 1802, the cantons were dissolved and the large number of small municipalities were combined to form major mayors.

The Cologne – Aachen railway line, which was built in 1840/1841 and whose high embankment cut the historic land connection between Weiden and Lövenich, caused a decisive change in the appearance of the town. The opening of the train station in 1870 ended the dependence on Aachener Straße as a traffic route and led to an expansion of the village in the direction of the railway facilities. At the beginning of the 20th century, both a new settlement area along Bahnstrasse and Goethestrasse and Schillerstrasse were developed for the construction of a villa colony.

The Cologne building contractor and architect August Jäger was the first to acquire land for the Clarenhof. Between 1905 and 1913 he built single-family houses of high standards on the east side of the street, which he grouped into groups of different sizes and designs.

This is due to the intensive development of the Üsdorfer fields in the 1960s in favor of a denser development and the widening of Aachener Straße at the beginning of the 1970s, which fell victim to the last buildings in the historic town center on the south side of the street, including the Clarenhof Today’s image of Weiden is characterized by the high-rise area “Weiden-Süd” and the shopping center “Rhein-Center”, which was built between 1966 and 1970. In the course of the local reorganization, Weiden was incorporated into Cologne in 1975.

Just in time for the soccer World Cup in Germany, the inauguration of the tram stop, the S-Bahn station and an attached Park & Ride area on the outskirts of Weiden took place on June 1, 2006. With “Weiden West” a real milestone was created for local public transport in Cologne, which also represented the largest transport policy measure of all twelve FIFA World Cup cities. The cities of Cologne and Frechen as well as the Rhein-Erft district are jointly developing the Rhine / Erft green axis. The plan is to connect the two Cologne green belts to the Kottenforst-Ville Nature Park through three corridors in the northern, southern and western Cologne urban area, thus realizing Konrad Adenauer’s vision and creating a coherent system of green spaces.

Sights
Aachener Straße as a historical arterial and popular shopping street, Emil-Schreiterer-Platz / Goethestraße, Heilig-Geist-Kirche, Jochen-Klepper-Haus, Rhein-Center Aachener Straße 1253, Roman burial chamber, school and sports center Weiden, Sankt Marien, Üsdorfer St. Stephen’s Chapel, Weiden villa colony and Weidenhof residence

Because of its numerous clubs and gyms at the three schools in the Cologne district, Weiden has a wide range of sports on offer. With the redesign of the fortress belt to the outer green belt in the 1920s, a large sports center was created at the intersection of the green belt with Aachener Straße. Until the construction of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, it was the largest sports facility in Germany.

In addition to the central stadium, initially called the main arena, today RheinEnergieStadion, there were and are numerous other sports facilities (view from Aachener Straße as the main entrance): Left and right of the main arena are two smaller stadiums, the east and west arena. Immediately to the right of the Westkampfbahn is the sports university stadiumadded. To the left of the Ostkampfbahn a large outdoor pool was built, which was recently supplemented by an indoor pool. A little further to the east is the club’s own training ground for ASV Köln, a traditional athletics club. In front of the stadiums is the cycling track on the right. Today’s track, named after the 1932 world champion Albert Richter, is a new construction from the 1990s.

To the left of the stadiums are the Rot-Weiß Köln hockey and tennis courts, multiple German hockey champion and home club of the first German Wimbledon winner, Cilly Aussem. In front of and behind the stadiums, there are large lawns on which other football pitches are sometimes marked. Large gymnastics festivals used to take place there. On the other side of Aachener Straße there was originally a riding stadium, today there is a baseball field. An efficient tram stop was also part of the sports center from the start. The free area west of the sports park was used for the settlement of the German Sport University after the war. Except for the facilities of the sports university and those of the two clubs ASV and Rot-Weiss, the entire site is owned by the city.

The main arena, with its four characteristic towers, is the third building at this point. While the two previous buildings (inaugurated in 1923 and 1975) were multi-purpose stadiums with a running track, today’s RheinEnergieStadion (inaugurated in 2004) is a pure football stadium, which is used almost exclusively by 1. FC Köln. There are also occasional international football matches or open-air concerts. It is also the permanent venue for the women’s DFB Cup final. The audience capacity fell with each new building from 80,000 to 60,000 to 50,000, whereby the proportion of seats compared to standing room was significantly increased. 1. FC Köln is thinking about buying the stadium from the city and expanding it to 75,000 seats. There will be stadium tours offered with different focuses.

Widdersdorf district
Archaeological finds from the Neolithic and early Middle Ages show that Widdersdorf, which was incorporated into Cologne in 1975, has been settled for a very long time. Until the 1960s, the village had largely retained its rural character, which was characterized by agricultural use. In the last few decades it has expanded towards Bocklemünd with new residential areas. Widdersdorf was first mentioned in a document in 1109. In the Middle Ages, the town center consisted of three large courtyards, all three of which were owned by the church (Cologne women’s monastery Sankt Maria im Kapitol and Dominican convent Sankt Gertrud).

After the place was initially assigned to the canton of Weiden in French times in 1798, Widdersdorf was later assigned to the newly established ” Mairie de Frermersdorf “. Together with Brauweiler, Dansweiler, Freimersdorf, Sinthern and Vogelsang, Widdersdorf was also part of the mayor’s office or municipality of Freimersdorf, which became the municipality of Brauweiler in 1927, even in Prussian times.

Due to the preservation of all important courtyards and the associated village structure, the structural and social structure of the former clustered village of Widdersdorf has been preserved in a unique way. Its historical core extends along the main street. With the dominant castle courtyard, the church and the old distillery, the structural focus of the place is in the west. In the eastern hallway are the Rather Hof and the Neu-Subbelrather Hof.

In the first half of the 19th century, the development within the old settlement area was densified and in the second half the settlement was expanded along the streets leading away from the town center. 1959 began the expansion of Widdersdorf in the east north and south of the main road. With the construction of new residential areas since the 1970s until today, Widdersdorf was and is particularly attractive for young families who want to live in the countryside but still close to the city.

Sights
Old distillery, Burghof, Rath House, Max Planck Institute, Mertenshof, Neu-Subbelrather Hof, Sankt Jakobus, Tilmeshof and Turmhof

Every year, in addition to various other festivals (May festival, flea market, district festival, tulip festival, etc.) there is also a carnival parade. Widdersdorf also has a large sports club: SV Lö / Wi (Lövenich-Widdersdorf) and an equestrian center: the Burghof. In addition, a tennis club St. Antonius and a public golf club.