Koelns Weg in die Gegenwart: Vom Ende des Kaiserreichs bis ins 21. Jahrhundert

After the wealth of the Empire, with which Cologne had transformed itself into a modern city, the city lived through the two lost world wars. A difficult passage into the present, marked by political and economic crises, begins. The only city in Germany that is not the state capital is now considered poor but happy, one likes to live here. Until 1933, Konrad Adenauer was the personality who actively shaped Cologne’s shape and history. The contours and accents that emerge from his initiative still shape Cologne to this day: in the Cologne urban landscape in particular the green belt, in the economy the exhibition grounds, for traffic the motorway to Bonn, the Deutzer and the planning of the Mulheimer Bridge and the airport Butzweilerhof, in the Cologne industry the profit of the Ford plants for Cologne. He is responsible for the information age with the takeover of the future WDR from Munster to Cologne and the founding of the university. In 1933 Konrad Adenauer was expelled from office by the Nazis. The rule of National Socialism led to the second world war, also in Cologne, to the expulsion and murder of the Jews, and finally to the devastation of the city and to the reconstruction since the 1950s. Cologne is becoming a vibrant city of culture, and is also a vibrant city of culture - from the Werkbund exhibition in 1914 to the heyday of the art city of Cologne in the 70s and 80s of the 20th century to the present day.