Editing Cologne (section)

===From the 19th century until World War I===

[[File:Hängebrücke - Köln (1).tif|thumb|Deutzer Suspension bridge]]
Cologne lost its status as a [[Free Imperial City|free city]] during the French period. According to the [[Treaty of Lunéville]] (1801) all the territories of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] on the left bank of the Rhine were officially incorporated into the [[French First Republic|French Republic]] (which had already occupied Cologne in 1794). Thus this region later became part of [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon]]'s Empire. Cologne was part of the French [[Department (administrative division)|Département]] [[Roer (department)|Roer]] (named after the river [[Roer]], German: Rur) with [[Aachen]] (French: Aix-la-Chapelle) as its capital. The French modernised public life, for example by introducing the [[Napoleonic code]] and removing the old elites from power. The Napoleonic code remained in use on the left bank of the Rhine until 1900, when a unified civil code (the ''[[Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch]]'') was introduced in the [[German Empire]]. In 1815 at the [[Congress of Vienna]], Cologne was made part of the [[Kingdom of Prussia]], first in the [[Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg]] and then the [[Rhine Province]].

The permanent tensions between the Catholic [[Rhineland]] and the overwhelmingly Protestant Prussian state repeatedly escalated with Cologne being in the focus of the conflict. In 1837 the archbishop of Cologne, [[Clemens August von Droste-Vischering]], was arrested and imprisoned for two years after a dispute over the legal status of marriages between Catholics and Protestants (''Mischehenstreit''). In 1874, during the [[Kulturkampf]], Archbishop [[Paul Melchers]] was imprisoned before taking asylum in the Netherlands. These conflicts alienated the Catholic population from Berlin and contributed to a deeply felt anti-Prussian resentment, which was still significant after World War II, when the former mayor of Cologne, [[Konrad Adenauer]], became the first West German chancellor.

During the 19th and 20th centuries, Cologne absorbed numerous surrounding towns, and by World War&nbsp;I had already grown to 700,000 inhabitants. Industrialisation changed the city and spurred its growth. Vehicle and engine manufacturing was especially successful, though the heavy industry was less ubiquitous than in the [[Ruhr area]]. The [[Cologne Cathedral|cathedral]], started in 1248 but abandoned around 1560, was eventually finished in 1880 not just as a place of worship but also as a German national monument celebrating the newly founded [[German empire]] and the continuity of the German nation since the Middle Ages. Some of this urban growth occurred at the expense of the city's historic heritage with much being demolished (for example, the city walls or the area around the cathedral) and sometimes replaced by contemporary buildings.

Cologne was designated as one of the [[Fortresses of the German Confederation]].<ref name=USM>[https://books.google.com/books?id=B77POH6Wgk4C&dq=%22Federal+Fortress+on+the+Upper+Rhine%22&pg=PA254 United Services Magazine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230503065948/https://books.google.com/books?id=B77POH6Wgk4C&dq=%22Federal+Fortress+on+the+Upper+Rhine%22&pg=PA254 |date=3 May 2023 }}, December 1835</ref> It was turned into a heavily armed fortress (opposing the French and Belgian fortresses of [[Verdun]] and [[Liège]]) with two fortified belts surrounding the city, the remains of which can be seen to this day.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.altearmee.de/zwischenwerk/index.htm |title=Festung Köln |access-date=1 April 2011 |archive-date=11 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811112103/http://www.altearmee.de/zwischenwerk/index.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The military demands on what became Germany's largest fortress presented a significant obstacle to urban development, with forts, bunkers, and wide defensive dugouts completely encircling the city and preventing expansion; this resulted in a very densely built-up area within the city itself.

During [[World War&nbsp;I]] Cologne was the target of several minor air raids but suffered no significant damage. Cologne was occupied by the [[British Army of the Rhine]] until 1926, under the terms of the Armistice and the subsequent [[Peace Treaty of Versailles|Versailles Peace Treaty]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080524105305/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,721598,00.html Cologne Evacuated], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', 15 February 1926</ref> In contrast with the harsh behaviour of the French occupation troops in Germany, the British forces were more lenient to the local population. [[Konrad Adenauer]], the mayor of Cologne from 1917 until 1933 and later a West German chancellor, acknowledged the political impact of this approach, especially since Britain had opposed French demands for a permanent Allied occupation of the entire Rhineland.

As part of the demilitarisation of the [[Rhineland]], the city's fortifications had to be dismantled. This was an opportunity to create two green belts (''Grüngürtel'') around the city by converting the fortifications and their fields of fire into large public parks. This was not completed until 1933. In 1919 the [[University of Cologne]], closed by the French in 1798, was reopened. This was considered to be a replacement for the loss of the [[University of Strasbourg]] on the west bank of the Rhine, which reverted to France with the rest of [[Alsace]]. Cologne prospered during the [[Weimar Republic]] (1919–33), and progress was made especially in public governance, city planning, housing and social affairs. Social housing projects were considered exemplary and were copied by other German cities. Cologne competed to host the Olympics, and a modern sports stadium was erected at Müngersdorf. When the British occupation ended, the prohibition of civil aviation was lifted 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]].

The democratic parties lost the local elections in Cologne in March 1933 to the [[Nazi Party]] and other extreme-right parties. The Nazis then arrested the [[KPD|Communist]] and [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democrats]] members of the city assembly, and Mayor Adenauer was dismissed. Compared to some other major cities, however, the Nazis never gained decisive support in Cologne. (Significantly, the number of votes cast for the Nazi Party in [[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]] elections had always been the national average.)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://weimarer-wahlen.de/de/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080211085633/http://weimarer-wahlen.de/de/index.html |archive-date=11 February 2008 |title=Weimarer Wahlen |date=11 February 2008 |access-date=24 July 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wahlen-in-deutschland.de/wrtwkoelnaachen.htm |title=Voting results 1919–1933 Cologne-Aachen |publisher=Wahlen-in-deutschland.de |access-date=8 August 2010 |archive-date=19 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719113427/http://www.wahlen-in-deutschland.de/wrtwkoelnaachen.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> By 1939, the population had risen to 772,221 inhabitants.<ref>{{Cite web |title=NS-Dokumentationszentrum Köln - During the war |url=https://museenkoeln.de/NS-DOKUMENTAtionszentrum/default.aspx?s=784#:~:text=At%20a%20census%20in%20March,people%20were%20registered%20in%20Cologne. |access-date=2024-06-06 |website=museenkoeln.de |publisher=NS-Documentation Center of the City of Cologne}}</ref>