Editing History of Cologne (section)

==Modern history==
=== Napoleonic and Prussian period ===
[[File:Kdom.jpg|thumb|right|Archbishop Konrad of Hochstaden's<br />[[Cologne Cathedral]]]]
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 [[Roer (department)|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 [[Napoleon I of France|Napoléon Bonaparte]] visited the city together with his wife [[Joséphine de Beauharnais]]. The French occupation ended in 1814, when Cologne was occupied by [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussian]] and [[Russia]]n troops. In 1815 Cologne and the Rhineland were allocated to [[Prussia]].

=== 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]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080524105305/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,721598,00.html "Cologne Evacuated"], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', February 15, 1926</ref>

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 plans for a permanent Allied occupation of the Rhineland.

The demilitarization of the [[Rhineland]] required the fortifications to be dismantled. This was taken as an opportunity to create two green belts (''Grüngürtel'') around the city by converting the fortifications and their surroundings, which had been kept clear for artillery, into large public parks. This project was completed in 1933.

In 1919 Cologne University, closed by the French in 1798, was founded anew. It was considered a substitute for the German [[University of Strasbourg]], which became part of France along with the rest of [[Alsace]]. Cologne prospered during the [[Weimar Republic]] and progress was made especially in governance, city planning and social affairs. Social housing projects were considered exemplary and were copied by other German cities.

As Cologne competed to host the Olympics, a modern sports stadium was erected at Müngersdorf. Early in the 1920s civil aviation was permitted once more, and [[Cologne Butzweilerhof Airport]] soon became a hub for national and international air traffic, second in Germany only to [[Tempelhof International Airport|Berlin Tempelhof Airport]].

=== Nazi Germany ===
At the beginning of [[Nazi Germany]], Cologne was considered difficult by the [[Nazis]] because of deep-rooted [[communist]] and 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 [[Centre Party (Germany)|Zentrum Party]] with 28.3%, the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] with 13.2%, and the [[Communist Party of Germany]] with 11.1%. One day later, on 14 March, Nazi followers occupied the city hall and took over government. Communist and Social Democratic members of the city assembly were imprisoned, and Mayor Adenauer was dismissed.

When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the Jewish population of Cologne was about 20,000. By 1939, 40% of the city's Jews had emigrated. The vast majority of those who remained had been deported to [[concentration camp]]s by 1941. The trade fair grounds next to the Deutz train station were used to herd the Jewish population together for deportation to the death camps and for disposal of their household goods by public sale. On ''[[Kristallnacht]]'' in 1938, Cologne's [[synagogue]]s were desecrated or set on fire.<ref>Horst Matzerath: Köln in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus. In: Peter Fuchs (Hrsg.): Chronik zur Geschichte der Stadt Köln.</ref>

It was planned to rebuild a large part of the inner city, with a main road connecting the Deutz station and the main station, which was to be moved from next to the cathedral to an area adjacent to today's university campus, with a huge field for rallies, the Maifeld, next to the main station. The Maifeld, between the campus and the Aachener Weiher artificial lake, was the only part of this over-ambitious plan to be realized before the start of the war. After the war, the remains of the Maifeld were buried with rubble from bombed buildings and turned into a park with rolling hills, which was christened [[Hiroshima]]-[[Nagasaki, Nagasaki|Nagasaki]]-Park in August 2004 as a memorial to the victims of the nuclear bombs of 1945. An inconspicuous memorial to the victims of the Nazi regime is situated on one of the hills.

On the night of 30–31 May 1942, Cologne was the target for the [[Bombing of Cologne in World War II|first 1,000 bomber raid]] of the war. Between 469 and 486 people, around 90% of them civilians, were reported killed, more than 5,000 were injured, and more than 45,000 lost their homes. It was estimated that up to 150,000 of Cologne's population of around 700,000 left the city after the raid. The [[Royal Air Force]] lost 43 of the 1,103 bombers sent. By the end of [[World War II]], 90% of Cologne's buildings had been destroyed by [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] [[Aerial bombing of cities|aerial bombing]] raids, most of them flown by the RAF.
[[File:Wartime damage, Cologne 1984.JPG|thumb|Wartime damage still visible in 1984]]
On 10 November 1944, a dozen members of the anti-Nazi [[Ehrenfeld Group]] were hanged in public. Six of them were 16-year-old boys of the [[Edelweiss Pirates]] youth gang, including [[Barthel Schink]]; [[Fritz Theilen]] survived.

The bombings continued and people moved out. By May 1945 only 20,000 residents remained out of 770,000.<ref>Richard Overy, '' The Bombers and the Bombed: Allied Air War Over Europe 1940-1945'' (2014) p 304</ref>

The outskirts of Cologne were reached by US troops on 4 March 1945. The inner city on the left bank of the Rhine was captured in half a day on 6 March 1945, meeting only minor resistance. Because the [[Hohenzollernbrücke]] was destroyed by retreating German pioneers, the boroughs on the right bank remained under German control until mid-April 1945.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www1.wdr.de/themen/archiv/stichtag/stichtag808.html|title = Trotz Durchhalteparolen wenig Widerstand – Die US-Armee nimmt Köln ein|date = 7 March 2005|work = Sixty years ago [Vor 60 Jahren] on www.wdr.de|publisher = [[Westdeutscher Rundfunk]]|language = de|trans-title=Minor restistance despite rallying calls – the US-army captures Cologne|access-date = 29 October 2011}}</ref>

=== Postwar Cologne ===
Although Cologne was larger than its neighbors, [[Düsseldorf]] was chosen as the political capital of the newly established [[States of Germany|Federal State]] of [[North Rhine-Westphalia]], and Bonn as the (provisional) capital of the Federal Republic. Cologne benefited from being sandwiched between the two important political centers of [[West Germany]] by becoming home to a large number of federal agencies and organizations. After reunification in 1990, a new situation has been politically co-ordinated{{Clarify|date=November 2013}} with the new federal capital, [[Berlin]].

In 1945 architect and urban planner [[Rudolf Schwarz (architect)|Rudolf Schwarz]] called Cologne the "world's greatest heap of debris". Schwarz designed the 1947 reconstruction master plan, which called for the construction of several new thoroughfares through the downtown area, especially the ''Nord-Süd-Fahrt'' (North-South-Drive). The plan took into consideration that even shortly after the war a large increase in automobile traffic could be anticipated. Plans for new roads had already evolved to some extent under the Nazi administration, but construction became easier now that the majority of downtown lots were undeveloped. The destruction of the famous [[Twelve Romanesque churches of Cologne|twelve Romanesque churches]], including [[St. Gereon's Basilica]], [[Great St. Martin Church|Great St. Martin]], [[St. Maria im Kapitol]] and about a dozen others during World War II, meant a tremendous loss of cultural substance to the city. The rebuilding of these churches and other landmarks like the [[Gürzenich]] was not undisputed among leading architects and art historians at that time, but in most cases, civil intention{{Clarify|date=November 2013}} prevailed. The reconstruction lasted until the 1990s, when the Romanesque church of [[St. Kunibert (Cologne)|St. Kunibert]] was finished.

It took some time to rebuild the city. In 1959 the city's population reached pre-war numbers again. Afterwards the city grew steadily, and in 1975 the number exceeded one million inhabitants for about a year. The population stayed just below a million for the next 35 years, before again surpassing the million inhabitant mark in 2010.

In the 1980s and 1990s Cologne's economy prospered from two factors. First, the steady growth in the number of media companies in both the private and the public sector. Catering especially to these companies is the newly developed Media Park, which creates a strongly visual focal point in downtown Cologne and includes the ''KölnTurm'' (Cologne Tower), one of Cologne's most prominent highrises. Secondly, a permanent improvement in traffic infrastructure, which makes Cologne one of the most easily accessible metropolitan areas in Central Europe.

Due to the economic success of the [[Cologne Trade Fair]], the city arranged a large extension to the fair site in 2005. The original buildings, which date back to the 1920s, are rented out to [[RTL Group|RTL]], Germany's largest private broadcaster, as their new corporate headquarters.

Cologne was at the centre of the [[2015–16 New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Germany]]. A controversy started after [[Islam in Germany|Muslims]] in Cologne sought to build the [[Cologne Central Mosque]], which was completed in 2017.<ref name="telegraph">Harry de Quetteville. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20070711051952/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/25/wger125.xml Huge mosque stirs protests in Cologne]". ''Telegraph'', June 26, 2007.</ref>

Most important for the history of Cologne since the Middle Ages is the [[Historisches Archiv der Stadt Köln|Cologne City Archive]], which was the largest in Germany. Its building collapsed during the construction of an extension to the underground railway system on 3 March 2009.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Resistance : subjects, representations, contexts|others=Butler, Martin, Dr.,, Mecheril, Paul, 1962-, Brenningmeyer, Lea|date = 30 June 2017|isbn=978-3-8394-3149-8|location=Bielefeld|pages=124|oclc=1011461726}}</ref>