Misplaced Pages

#109890

174-421: The ring road encircles the old town of Cologne on its southern, western and northern boundaries on the site of the former medieval city wall. It divides Innenstadt into old town ( Altstadt ) east of it and new town ( Neustadt ) west of it. Most of the city wall has been worked away during the 1880s and only few sections of the wall exist today at Hansaring and Sachsenring. Of the once twelve medieval city gates, only

348-589: A Cologne patrician to his personal adviser. The twelve-time Cologne mayor Arnt von Siegen became a consultee in topics of faith policy. Unsurprisingly, the Emperor resided in the Siegen city palace at Holzmarkt during his visits to Cologne in 1545 and 1550. After the Cologne Diocesan Feud in 1475, Cologne was elevated as a Free Imperial City , but left with significant financial burdens that brought

522-773: A controversy arose about the succession. Duke Frederick II and Conrad , the two current male Staufers, by their mother Agnes, were grandsons of late Emperor Henry IV and nephews of Henry V. Frederick attempted to succeed to the throne of the Holy Roman Emperor (formally known as the King of the Romans ) through a customary election, but lost to the Saxon duke Lothair of Supplinburg . A civil war between Frederick's dynasty and Lothair's ended with Frederick's submission in 1134. After Lothair's death in 1137, Frederick's brother Conrad

696-474: A dispute in 1512, the small circles in the council were tempted to bend the law and commit fraud in order to defend their privileges, at least from the point of view of rival citizens. A riot broke out in January 1513; the burghers organized in cooperative circles (Gaffeln) seized power and deprived the council of its authority. Ten former councilmen were convicted of misconduct and executed; the representatives of

870-674: A dynasty of German kings lasting from 1138 to 1254. With only 180 metres' length, the Habsburgerring is the shortest section of the Ring. It is named after the Habsburg dynasty . The Barceló Cologne Hotel stands on the site of the former Opernhaus (1904–1944), destroyed during the bombing of Cologne in World War II . Rudolfplatz 50°56′11″N 6°56′22″E  /  50.93639°N 6.93944°E  / 50.93639; 6.93944

1044-484: A good indicator of economic prosperity. However, Cologne could hardly ever count itself among the leading metropolises in Western Europe. Around 1200, the archbishops expanded the city and made it the capital of their sphere of influence; with a population of 40,000, Cologne reached a size comparable to London and Paris and was thus among the 10 largest cities in Western Europe. In the following three centuries,

1218-459: A largely free class of officials previously formed, many of these assumed or acquired hereditary rights to administrative and legal offices. These trends compounded political fragmentation within Germany. The period was ended in 1273 with the election of Rudolph of Habsburg , a godson of Frederick. Conrad IV was succeeded as duke of Swabia by his only son, two-year-old Conradin . By this time,

1392-682: A pamphleteering battle developed from Cologne throughout the empire over whether Jewish books — and in particular the Talmud — should be confiscated and burnt, with the intention of stifling the Jewish faith. The driver of this anti-Jewish action was Johannes Pfefferkorn , a Jew convert to Catholic Christianity who was apparently supported by the Cologne Dominican Order ; the Dominican theologian Jacob van Hoogstraaten , prior to

1566-478: A population of about 45,000 until the end of the 18th century. As early as 1300, the Flanders city of Ghent became a mercantile center of cloth industry with 64,000 inhabitants, and thus the largest city in the northwest; in those years Paris already reached a population of 75,000 and Milan , as a commercial metropolis, had about 100,000 inhabitants. When Cologne was elevated to Free Imperial City status at

1740-483: A secular territory. This led to his murder in 1225. Construction of the Gothic cathedral started in 1248 under Konrad von Hochstaden . The eastern arm was completed and consecrated in 1322. Construction of the western arm was halted in 1475, and it would remain unfinished until 1880. In 1074 the commune was formed. By the 13th century, the relationship between the city and its archbishop had become difficult, and after

1914-577: A steep growth path. Cologne had little share in the Atlantic trade that began in the 17th century, which made Amsterdam (180,000) to the Netherlands trading metropolis and Hamburg (70,000) the largest German trading city. Thus in 1700, Cologne dropped out of the top 30 list of largest cities in Western Europe. Increasingly, population growth was absorbed by the political centers such as London (575,000), Paris (500,000), and Vienna (114,000), all on

SECTION 10

#1732783649110

2088-877: A successful campaign against the Kingdom of Poland in order to re-install the Silesian dukes of the Piast dynasty. With the German colonization, the Empire increased in size and came to include the Duchy of Pomerania . A quickening economic life in Germany increased the number of towns and Imperial cities , and gave them greater importance. It was also during this period that castles and courts replaced monasteries as centers of culture. Growing out of this courtly culture, Middle High German literature reached its peak in lyrical love poetry,

2262-425: A wholesale denuding of royal power and it did not prevent imperial officials from enforcing Frederick’s prerogatives. The Statutum affirmed a division of labor between the emperor and the princes and laid much groundwork for the development of particularism and, perhaps even federalism in Germany. Even so, from 1232 the vassals of the emperor had a veto over imperial legislative decisions and any new law established by

2436-599: Is a centre of the Severinsviertel, a busy traffic roundabout and a 5-way intersection of Ubierring from the east, Karolingerring from the north-west, Severinstraße from the north and Merowinger and Bonner Straße from the south. Chlodwigplatz is named after Clovis I (German: Chlodwig I. ) (c. 466 - 511), King of the Franks from the Merovingian dynasty . The Karolingerring is a short, 200-metre-long portion of

2610-722: Is an urban esplanade , some 360 metres long, with a landscaped central part and a large fountain. Nevertheless, it has a mainly commercial character. On the northern end lies the Christophstraße/ Mediapark U-Bahn station. Kaiser-Wilhelm-Ring is named after Wilhelm I of Germany (1797–1888). At a length of 1,100 metres, the Hansaring is one of the longest sections of the Cologne Ring. Commercial activity decreases noticeably compared to Hohenzollernring, and only gradually increases towards Ebertplatz and

2784-480: Is shown clearly in the imperial Landfried issued at Mainz in 1235, which explicitly enjoined the princes as loyal vassals to exercise their own jurisdictions in their own localities. The jurisdictional autarky of the German princes was favoured by the crown itself in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the interests of order and local peace. The inevitable result was the territorial particularism of churchmen, lay princes, and interstitial cities. However, Frederick II

2958-559: Is the centre of Belgisches Viertel and one of the liveliest squares of Cologne. It is an important hub for private and public transportation in Cologne , as several roads and tram lines meet at Rudolfplatz. The Cologne Ring running north–south, Aachener Straße – the principal east–west arterial road which leads through Lindenthal district to the western extreme of the Cologne Beltway – and Hahnenstraße (which leads via

3132-543: Is the southern end of the Cologne Ring and is named after the Ubii , a Germanic tribe and first inhabitants of the new founded Roman city of CCAA . Ubierring is some 400 metres long and joins with Agrippinaufer (a river embankment road along the redeveloped Rheinauhafen , which leads into Bayenthal and Rodenkirchen ) to the east and Chlodwigplatz to the west. The Chlodwigsplatz 50°55′16″N 6°57′35″E  /  50.92111°N 6.95972°E  / 50.92111; 6.95972

3306-403: Is unlikely that a particularly “strong ruler” such as Frederick II would have even pragmatically agreed to legislation that was concessionary rather than cooperative, neither would the princes have insisted on such. Frederick II used the political loyalty and practical jurisdictions of the German aristocracy to support his kingly duty of imposing peace, order, and justice upon the German realm. This

3480-544: The Battle of Worringen in 1288, the forces of Brabant and the citizenry of Cologne captured Archbishop Siegfried of Westerburg (1274–97), resulting in almost complete freedom for the city. To regain his liberty the archbishop recognized the political independence of Cologne but reserved certain rights, notably the administration of justice. Long-distance trade in the Baltic intensified as the major trading towns came together in

3654-539: The Cologne School of Painting . After the Thirty Years' War , however, the city's development stalled. Only after French occupation when in 1815, Cologne was incorporated into Prussia , the city experienced a steady upswing borne by industrialization . In 1880, the cathedral was completed as a national monument of German imperial unity providing the city with its well-known landmark. Extensive devastation in

SECTION 20

#1732783649110

3828-633: The Eigelsteintorburg at Ebertplatz, the Hahnentor at Rudolfplatz and the Severinstorburg at Chlodwigplatz still stand today. The Cologne Ring is a composition of several roads and squares, for which it is known in German in the plural form ( Ringe ). The sections are named after people and personalities of the history of Cologne and Germany . The following is a list of these sections, clockwise from south to north: The Ubierring

4002-636: The Franks formed their kingdoms after the decline of Roman power, the Roman induced urban settlements in the Rhineland largely perished. Only a few places — such as Trier , Cologne and Mainz — remained continuously inhabited within the Roman urban scope, however with a significantly reduced population. Cologne, which had been inhabited by up to 20,000 people in Roman Late Antiquity, counted in

4176-603: The Hansahochhaus , was built opposite the Gymnasium. The Ebertplatz 50°57′2″N 6°57′28″E  /  50.95056°N 6.95778°E  / 50.95056; 6.95778 is named after Friedrich Ebert (1871–1925), first President of Germany in the Weimar Republic , though the square was originally named Deutscher Platz. The square is actually a spatial continuation of the larger Theodor-Heuss-Ring. On

4350-532: The Hanseatic League and in 1556 created the role of a syndic, a kind of secretary-general in an institution that until then had not known any representative. The position was assigned to Heinrich Sudermann of Cologne, who was to use diplomatic means to prolong the old trading privileges. However, after Elizabeth I had taken up the government in England in 1558, it was not possible to make her endorse

4524-663: The Hanseatic League under the leadership of Lübeck . The League was a business alliance of trading cities and their guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe. It flourished from the 1200 to 1500 and continued with lesser importance thereafter. The chief cities were Cologne on the Rhine, Hamburg and Bremen on the North Sea, and Lübeck on the Baltic. Cologne was a leading member, especially because of its trade with England. The Hanseatic League gave merchants special privileges in member cities, which dominated trade in

4698-529: The Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynasty's most prominent rulers – Frederick I (1155), Henry VI (1191) and Frederick II (1220) – ascended the imperial throne and also reigned over Italy and Burgundy . The non-contemporary name of 'Hohenstaufen' is derived from the family's Hohenstaufen Castle on Hohenstaufen mountain at the northern fringes of

4872-565: The Imperial Diet (Reichstag) was held in Cologne with all grandeur; it was perceived from contemporaries as the high point of Maximilian's imperial rule. Another diet, although started in Trier, was continued and concluded in 1512 in Cologne. Charles V was crowned Roman-German king in 1520, Ferdinand I in 1531. In both cases coronation ceremonies adhered to the customary practice known for centuries. Cologne archbishop acted as coronator in

5046-473: The Kingdom of Sicily in 1189 and 1194 respectively, a source of vast wealth. Henry failed to make royal and Imperial succession hereditary, but in 1196 he succeeded in gaining a pledge that his infant son Frederick would receive the German crown. Faced with difficulties in Italy and confident that he would realize his wishes in Germany at a later date, Henry returned to the south, where it appeared he might unify

5220-595: The Minnesang , and in narrative epic poems such as Tristan , Parzival , and the Nibelungenlied . Frederick died in 1190 while on the Third Crusade and was succeeded by his son, Henry VI . Elected king even before his father's death, Henry went to Rome to be crowned emperor. He married Princess Constance of Sicily , and deaths in his wife's family gave him claim of succession and possession of

5394-627: The Rhine shore at Konrad-Adenauer-Ufer. The park is a preferred residential area, with some corporate headquarters and offices. While the block South of the park is a densely built up area and border of the subsequent Kunibertsviertel, the block North of the park mainly consists of free standing buildings. Among the buildings on the northern side are the Ringturm skyscraper and the art nouveau Villa Bestgen . History of Cologne The History of Cologne covers over 2000 years of urban history. In

Cologne Ring - Misplaced Pages Continue

5568-772: The Second Crusade at Speyer , and he agreed to join King Louis VII of France in a great expedition to the Holy Land which failed. Conrad's brother Duke Frederick II died in 1147, and was succeeded in Swabia by his son, Duke Frederick III . When King Conrad III died without adult heir in 1152, Frederick also succeeded him, taking both German royal and Imperial titles. Frederick I (Reign 2 January 1155 – 10 June 1190), known as Frederick Barbarossa because of his red beard, struggled throughout his reign to restore

5742-465: The Second World War was followed by decades of reconstruction, which only slowly restored Cologne to its emblematic urban panorama on the Rhine through the efforts of urban repair. Today with more than one million inhabitants, Cologne is the fourth largest city in Germany. It is primarily marketed as an event city, with Cologne Carnival being perceived as the biggest tourist attraction. In

5916-534: The Swabian Jura , near the town of Göppingen . Under Hohenstaufen rule, the Holy Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent from 1155 to 1268. The name Hohenstaufen was first used in the 14th century to distinguish the 'high' ( hohen ) conical hill named Staufen in the Swabian Jura (in the district of Göppingen ) from the village of the same name in the valley below. The new name

6090-530: The toponymic surname de Stauf or variants thereof. Only in the 13th century would the name come to be applied to the family as a whole. Around 1215, a chronicler referred to the "emperors of Stauf". In 1247, the Emperor Frederick II himself referred to his family as the domus Stoffensis (Staufer house), but this was an isolated instance. Otto of Freising (d. 1158) associated the Staufer with

6264-768: The 19th century (for example, at the Zeughaus and at the Stapelhaus). The foundation of chapels should not only serve the representative memory, but above all the salvation of the donors. In 1493, mayor Johann von Hirtz donated a chapel in St. Maria im Kapitol , today known as Hirtz Chapel; Johannes Hardenrath and his wife Agnes van Merle decided to commission the New Sacristy at the Kartäuserkirche (Carthusian Church) St. Barbara in 1510. Their intention materialized into

6438-479: The 3rd century, only some 20,000 people lived in and around the town. In 310 AD, Emperor Constantine I had a bridge constructed over the Rhine, guarded by the castellum Divitia . Divitia later became a part of Cologne with the name Deutz . The presence of Jews in Cologne was documented in AD 321. When exactly the first Jews arrived in the Rhineland area cannot now be established, but the Cologne community claims to be

6612-591: The Alps. Around 1500, silk cloth probably made up for Cologne's most successful export commerce. The production of silk fabrics was controlled by the Silk Office (Seidenamt), a guild in which predominantly women were active. This practice, which was maintained only in Cologne except in Paris, allowed a larger number of female guild masters to achieve considerable wealth. For the daughters of upper class families, entering

6786-475: The Baltic Sea and the North Sea. Cologne's hinterland in Germany gave it an added advantage over the other Hanseatic cities, and it became the largest city in Germany and the region. Cologne's central location on the Rhine placed it at the intersection of the major trade routes between east and west and was the basis of Cologne's growth. The economic structures of medieval and early modern Cologne were based on

6960-537: The Brabant and Flanders cities. To pacify the disputes in the provinces, which formally still were part of the Holy Roman Empire , Emperor Rudolf II , the brother-in-law of the Spanish king, sought a negotiated settlement. The so-called Pacification Day took place in Cologne from April to November 1579, because the imperial city, as a strategically important metropolis, could be accepted as a neutral location and provide

7134-517: The Burgundian troops to withdraw from the siege. Subsequently, the emperor officially elevated Cologne to the status of a Free imperial city . However, since the city itself had to bear the extraordinarily high war costs, including the maintenance of the imperial army, the city's finances were completely shattered. Cologne needed decades to regain its financial leeway. Traditionally, the most important stronghold for Cologne's long-distance commerce

Cologne Ring - Misplaced Pages Continue

7308-580: The Child , grandson of the late Saxon duke Henry the Lion, was named Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg . The power struggle with the popes continued and resulted in Frederick's excommunication in 1227. In 1239, Pope Gregory IX excommunicated Frederick again, and in 1245 he was condemned as a heretic by a church council. Although Frederick II was perhaps one of the most energetic, imaginative, and capable rulers of

7482-543: The Cologne Ring, and only 30 metres in width, one of its narrowest sections. The Karolingerring is named after the Frankish Carolingian dynasty . The Sachsenring is—in contrast to the preceding Karolingerring—a wide landscaped Avenue , with a central lawn and several lines of trees. The Sachsenring is named after the Ottonian dynasty (919-1024), also known as Saxon dynasty . This 800-metre-long section of

7656-640: The Cologne printing industry, however, is the Koelhoff Chronicle with the title "Die Cronica van der hilliger Stat van Coellen" (Chronicle of the Holy City of Cologne): the work written in the Ripuarian dialect of Cologne region was published in 1499 by Johann Koelhoff the Younger. Today, it is considered the high point of late medieval Cologne city history. At the beginning of the 16th century,

7830-476: The Dutch disputes affected Cologne's interests got evidence in 1580, when Dutch warships came up the Rhine and advanced as far as Cologne. The coordinated efforts of a fleet of Rhenish electors promptly drove off the invaders. Overall, developments were unfavorable to Cologne's economic interests. The unrest severely disrupted Cologne's trade routes to Flanders; in addition, the Dutch were able to control sea access to

8004-615: The Emperor Claudius , asked for her home village to be raised to the status of a colonia — a city under Roman law. It was then renamed Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensis (colony of Claudius and the altar of Agrippina), shortened to Colonia Agrippina (Colony of Agrippina). In 80 AD the Eifel Aqueduct was built. It was one of the longest aqueducts of the Roman Empire, delivering 20,000 cubic metres of water to

8178-419: The English capital for more than 300 years, and even accepted being excluded from the Hanseatic League in 1471. Only after the League had prevailed in the caper war, the steelyard being restituted to the merchants, and the old privileges being renewed by the English crown, Cologne was re-incorporated into Hanseatic League in 1476. The English trade remained a major asset in Cologne's long-distance commerce until

8352-418: The Gaffeln reformed taxation and held a new election. New rules of conduct, intended to contain the re-emergence of oligarchic structures, were codified by December 1513 in an amendment letter (Transfixbrief), which supplemented the city constitution (Verbundbrief) in force since 1396. Among other things, the new regulations extended the rights of burghers, especially the inviolability of person and home. When

8526-403: The Hanseatic cities, the most important were Hamburg , Gdansk (Danzig) (30,000 each) and Lübeck (25.000). The dominant commercial places of Western Europe were Milan and Venice (100,000 each); among the political centers, the most numerous population had Naples (125,000), Paris (94,000), and London (50,000). In the second half of the 16th century, trade flows increasingly shifted away from

8700-495: The Hohenstaufen but he spent little time in Germany. His main concerns lay in Italy and the Kingdom of Sicily, where he ruled as an absolute monarch supported by a sophisticated administrative apparatus. The institutions of Sicily and Italy seemed to be better political laboratories, more conducive to Frederick’s remarkable brand of innovation and absolutist tendencies. He founded the University of Naples in 1224 to train future state officials and reigned over Germany primarily through

8874-446: The Jews of Cologne occurred in 1349, when they were used as scapegoats for the Black Death . In 1424 they were evicted from the city. They were allowed back again in 1798. A dispute between Archbishop Ruprecht of the Palatinate and the chapter of Cologne cathedral eventually evolved into a war with international involvement in 1474, known as the Cologne Diocesan Feud . This plunged the city of Cologne into an existential crisis. Since

SECTION 50

#1732783649110

9048-572: The Kingdom of Sicily. The sophistication of the Constitutions or the Liber Augustalis set Frederick as perhaps the supreme lawgiver of the Middle Ages. The Constitutions drew upon decades of Siculo-Norman governmental tradition stretching back to his maternal grandfather, Roger II of Sicily . Almost every aspect in Frederick’s tightly-governed kingdom was regulated, from a rigorously centralized judiciary and bureaucracy, to commerce, coinage, financial policy, weights and measures, legal equality for all citizens, protections for women, and even provisions for

9222-438: The Lion of Saxony and Bavaria in 1180, but his hopes of restoring the power and prestige of the monarchy seemed unlikely to be met by the end of his life. During Frederick's long stays in Italy, the German princes became stronger and began a successful colonization of Slavic lands. Offers of reduced taxes and manorial duties enticed many Germans to settle in the east in the course of the Ostsiedlung . In 1163 Frederick waged

9396-440: The Netherlands remained without pay. In 1576, they went marauding through Flanders and, looting, wreaked havoc in the city of Antwerp . This caused proverbial horror as the Spanish Fury and strengthened the resistance of the Flemings and Dutch against the Spanish crown. In the course of the riots, the newly built Hanseatic Kontor in Antwerp was also looted several times. The merchants of Cologne tried in vain to be compensated for

9570-474: The Netherlands. The first ruling Hohenstaufen, Conrad III, like the last one, Conrad IV, was never crowned emperor. After a 20-year period (Great interregnum 1254–1273), the first Habsburg was elected king. Note: The following kings are already listed above as German Kings Note: Some of the following kings are already listed above as German Kings Note: Some of the following dukes are already listed above as German Kings The colors denotes

9744-450: The Netherlands. To secure this inheritance as a permanent possession, the royal presence in the region proved to be beneficial. In 1484 Maximilian was crowned German king to become the German deputy of his imperial father Frederick III . The extended festivities took place in Cologne, giving the City that year the appearance of Habsburg capital. Maximilian appointed the Cologne merchant Nicasius Hackeney as his chief financial advisor. In 1505,

9918-462: The Neumarkt on to the Deutzer Brücke ). Cologne Stadtbahn has stations on Rudolfplatz for tram lines 1, 7, 12 and 15. The square is named after Rudolph I of Germany (1218–1291). The Hohenzollernring is the main entertainment district of Cologne, with numerous restaurants, cafes, movie theaters, discothèques and night clubs along its course and in the adjacent side streets. Since the 1990s, competing gangs of bouncers have fought over control of

10092-413: The Rhine city was among the 20 largest metropolises. In 39 BC the Germanic tribe of the Ubii entered into an agreement with the forces of the Roman General Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and settled on the left bank of the Rhine . Their headquarters was Oppidum Ubiorum (settlement of the Ubii) and at the same time an important Roman military base. In 50 AD the Cologne-born Agrippina the Younger , wife of

10266-415: The Rhine city, as a merchant center, unfolded a tightly linked trading network that included the Hanseatic towns of the Baltic Sea, in the west London and Bruges , but also trading places such as Bordeaux and Leipzig , and in the south the centers of Milan and Venice . Within this network, Cologne developed a strong but not dominant position. While other cities continued to grow, Cologne never exceeded

10440-416: The Rhine in the heart of the city. Cologne managed to increase its population — also through generous expansion of the urban area — to 650,000 by World War I . After the war, Cologne was one of the four largest cities in the German Empire, after Berlin (1.9 million) and Hamburg (985,000) and about equal with Munich (630,000). In 1939, more than 770,000 people lived in Cologne. The city was able to recover after

10614-420: The Rhine to sea routes, diminishing Cologne's influence on the long-distance trade network. Cologne did continue to maintain its population of around 40,000 until the 18th century. This is remarkably enough given the belligerent and epidemic vicissitudes that hit other commercial centers. Nevertheless, the city of Cologne became relatively less important and its commercial sphere of influence was mainly reduced to

SECTION 60

#1732783649110

10788-415: The Rhine, who published the programmatic paper "Einfältiges Bedenken" (Simple-minded Apprehension) on behalf of the archbishop. The counter-position, deep-routed in the Catholic conviction of the cathedral chapter, was formulated by Johannes Gropper , one of the leading Catholic theologians of his time. In 1544, the bishop had a preacher's pulpit erected in Cologne Cathedral , with the intention to emphasize

10962-453: The Rhine. Both gravely impeded Cologne's trade flows and brought Cologne's trade with England to an almost complete standstill. Hohenstaufen dynasty The Hohenstaufen dynasty ( / ˈ h oʊ ə n ʃ t aʊ f ən / , US also /- s t aʊ -/ , German: [ˌhoːənˈʃtaʊfn̩] ), also known as the Staufer , was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in

11136-435: The Romans in Germany. None of these claimants were able to achieve any position of authority much less the power and imperial grandeur of the Hohenstaufen. The German princes vied for individual advantage and managed to strip many powers away from the diminished monarchy. Rather than establish sovereign states however, many nobles tended to look after their families. Their many male heirs created more and smaller estates, and from

11310-483: The Saint Bartholomew Altarpiece , who has been introduced as a "genius without a name" in recent art history. Both show the late Gothic painting in highest perfection expressed in the somewhat conservative Cologne style. The most sophisticated mastery of Cologne late Gothic sculpture is realized in the rood screen of St. Pantaleon Church , attributed to Master Tilman, and donated by Abbot Johannes Lüninck around 1502. The emerging technology of letterpress printing quickly

11484-405: The Saxon, Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties. From 1031 they also held the office of Arch-Chancellor of Italy . Their authority culminated under Archbishop Engelbert II of Berg , imperial administrator (Reichsprovisor) and tutor to the emperor's son. Between 1216 and 1225, Engelbert fought for the establishment and security of the archdiocese of Cologne both as an ecclesiastical authority and as

11658-440: The Staufer are known as the Svevi (Swabians). The origin remains unclear, however, Staufer counts are mentioned in a document of emperor Otto III in 987 as descendants of counts of the region of Riesgau near Nördlingen in the Duchy of Swabia , who were related to the Bavarian Sieghardinger family. A local count Frederick (d. about 1075) is mentioned as progenitor in a pedigree drawn up by Abbot Wibald of Stavelot at

11832-412: The Welfs, but when Otto, now sole elected monarch, moved to appropriate Sicily, Innocent changed sides and accepted young Frederick II and his ally, King Philip II of France , who defeated Otto at the 1214 Battle of Bouvines . Frederick had returned to Germany in 1212 from Sicily, where he had grown up, and was elected king in 1215. When Otto died in 1218, Frederick became the undisputed ruler, and in 1220

12006-484: The allocation of royal prerogatives, leaving the sovereign authority and imperial estates to the ecclesiastical and secular princes. In 1232, Henry (VII), King of Germany and Frederick’s eldest son, was forced by the German princes to promulgate the Statutum in favorem principum ("statute in favor of princes"). Frederick II, embittered but aiming to promote cohesion in Germany in preparation for his campaigns in northern Italy, pragmatically agreed to Henry’s confirmation of

12180-406: The archbishop refrained to abide by the financial agreements he had entered into when elected in 1463, the cathedral chapter appointed Landgrave Hermann IV of Hesse as diocesan administrator in 1473. Perceived as insubordination, the archbishop in consequence asked for military assistance from the powerful Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold , ruler of Flanders and Dutch regions. When Charles started

12354-410: The behest of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1153. He held the office of a Swabian count palatine ; his son Frederick of Büren ( c.  1020 –1053) married Hildegard of Egisheim - Dagsburg (d. 1094/95), a niece of Pope Leo IX . Their son Frederick I was appointed Duke of Swabia at Hohenstaufen Castle by the Salian king Henry IV of Germany in 1079. At the same time, Duke Frederick I

12528-668: The boy's uncle, Duke Philip of Swabia , brother of late Henry VI, was designated to serve in his place. Other factions however favoured a Welf candidate. In 1198, two rival kings were chosen: the Hohenstaufen Philip of Swabia and the son of the deprived Duke Henry the Lion , the Welf Otto IV . A long civil war began; Philip was about to win when he was murdered by the Bavarian count palatine Otto VIII of Wittelsbach in 1208. Pope Innocent III initially had supported

12702-463: The campaign with a well equipped army and headed for a siege of Neuss , part of Cologne electorate , and threatened to subsequently attack Cologne, the burghers feared for their independence. The city began extensive preparations for war, reinforced the city walls and sent a contingent of troops to defend Neuss. Within months, the citizenry succeeded in persuading Emperor Friedrich III to intervene with an imperial army; their arrival before Neuss forced

12876-478: The centuries-old narrative of the "Holy Cologne." Not coincidentally, from 1567, Cologne councilors built a city hall loggia, which in its Renaissance style deliberately cited the triumphal arch architecture of Roman antiquity, thus recalling the historical greatness of Cologne. Since the High Middle Ages, the people of Cologne had observed with concern that the Rhine began to shift its river bed on

13050-784: The ceremony in Palatine Chapel in Aachen , thereafter the coronation procession moved to Cologne to pay homage to the Three Magi in Cologne Cathedral . The final coronation festivities took place with great splendor in the city of Cologne. For the celebration in 1531, the Cologne Council had Anton Woensam produce a detailed Cologne city view, used as present for the newly crowned Ferdinand to highlight Cologne's status and greatness. Emperor Charles V. also raised

13224-536: The change from Judaism to Christianity . The controversy, which spread across the whole Empire and engaged numerous Humanists and Emperor Maximilian , exposed van Hoogstraaten and the Cologne University faculty to the ridicule of the Letters of Obscure Men written by humanists, which discredited Cologne's theological conservatism for decades to come. The book controversy was eventually eclipsed by

13398-441: The charter. It was a charter of liberties for the leading German princes at the expense of the lesser nobility and the entirety of the commoners. The princes gained whole power of jurisdiction, and the power to strike their own coins. The emperor lost his right to establish new cities, castles and mints over their territories. The Statutum was more a confirmation of political realities which had existed for generations in Germany than

13572-784: The city a hub for long-distance import, for example to distribute sugar and pepper. Eventually, the Hanseatic League moved its Kontor to Antwerp in 1545 and had a prestigious new trading house built by Cornelis Floris II from 1563 to 1569; however, it was only used to one-fifth of its capacity. Cologne merchants found it increasingly difficult to hold their own against international competition. To avoid confessional unrest in Antwerp, Portuguese, Italian as well as Flemish merchants settled directly in Cologne. They imported grain and furs, but above all cloth and silk fabrics, which put them in direct competition with Cologne's production. At times,

13746-565: The city every day. Ten years later, the colonia became the capital of the Roman province of Lower Germany, Germania Inferior , with a total population of 45,000 people occupying 96.8 hectares. In 260 AD Postumus made Cologne the capital of the Gallic Empire , which included the Gallic provinces, the German provinces to the left of the Rhine, Britannia, and the provinces of Hispania. The Gallic Empire lasted only fourteen years. By

13920-463: The city of Cologne mobilized all its forces in 1474 to arm itself against the advancing Duke of Burgundy , the construction work at Cologne Cathedral needed to be interrupted as well. The craftsmen were obliged to reinforce the city fortifications. Johann Kuyn von Frankenberg, the last master mason of the cathedral in the Middle Ages known by name, had to dissolve the masonry (Dombauhütte). After

14094-471: The city of Cologne to keep refugees out of the Rhine city and to secure military transit routes to the Habsburg possessions in southern Europe. The Cologne Council endeavored to meet Spanish demands for improved city administration and a rigorous attitude toward refugees. To this end, as a modern administrative measure of the time, the council had a detailed Bird's-eye view of the city drawn up, to enhance

14268-420: The city to the brink of insolvency. The debtors were predominantly the wealthy merchants of Cologne, who had been forced to subscribe to compulsory bonds for financing purposes. The council, dominated by these circles, tried to maintain the city's solvency by raising indirect taxes - especially on food and wine - in order to assure the debt service. In fact, during the heyday of the imperial city, Cologne Council

14442-539: The city was independent, and the archbishops were usually not allowed to enter it. Instead, they took up residence in Bonn and later in Brühl until they returned in 1821. Cologne Cathedral housed sacred relics that made it a destination for many worshippers. With the bishop not resident, the city was ruled by patricians (merchants carrying on long-distance trade). The craftsmen formed guilds, which sought to obtain control of

14616-479: The city's council, therefore sought to strengthen Cologne's position in international trade. In 1553, the Cologne commodity exchange was founded inspired by Antwerp practice, which allowed the trading of commodity contracts. Additionally, the bill of exchange business became established when the Antwerp finance business partially shifted to Cologne. In order to strengthen its traditional business branches - especially wine and cloth - Cologne became intensively involved in

14790-416: The city's major harbor, its location as a transport hub, and its entrepreneurial merchants who built ties with merchants in other Hanseatic cities. Cologne effectively became a free city after 1288, and in 1475 it was formally made a free imperial city , a status that it held until annexed by France on May 28, 1796. The Archbishopric of Cologne was a state in its own right within the Holy Roman Empire, but

14964-515: The city, but claimed to pursue a policy of reconciliation, which the city defended to the Diet of 1532 - as did the imperial cities of Nuremberg, Augsburg or Frankfurt. Persons who publicly professed Reformation ideas, such as the preacher Adolf Clarenbach and Peter Fliesteden were handed over by the council to the archbishop's jurisdiction. Archbishop Hermann of Wied , who wanted to prove his authority in religious matters, sentenced them to death at

15138-571: The continuation of the privileges for the Stalhof in London, whose importance therefore diminished over the years. After the relocation of the flanders Kontor to Antwerp and the construction of a respresentative trading post from 1563 to 1569, Sudermann struggled - ultimately in vain - to give the Kontor greater economic relevance. More successful was the initiative of the Cologne Council to strengthen

15312-399: The convent of Cologne, and acting as a papal inquisitor, flanked the anti-Jewish religious propaganda with expert opinions and prohibitory pamphlets, which were mainly directed against Johannes Reuchlin , a leading humanist and Hebraist . This anti-Jewish attitude also found expression in Cologne Cathedral . A series of stone reliefs, donated by the former Jew Victor von Carben , exemplifies

15486-678: The coronator and king had celebrated since time immemorial from Aachen to Cologne to visit the shrine of the Three Kings was dispensed with. The king skipped the tradition, to pay homage to the Magi in Cologne. The coronation festivities, which for centuries had guaranteed Cologne a closeness to the imperial dominion and had given it a great character since 1484, were held in Frankfurt am Main. This Cologne setback resulted because Archbishop Frederick IV of Wied had not yet been papally confirmed at

15660-496: The course of the river. Iron-reinforced oak logs - weighted down with basalt boulders and connected by heavy crossbeams - were driven into the river bottom. The northern headland is said to have had a length of 1500 meters. The religious and economic unrest afflicting the Spanish Netherlands from 1566 onward was observed in Cologne with apprehensiveness. The Spanish general Duke of Alba , sent to Brussels in 1567 as

15834-566: The damage; in the following years, the Kontor lost its economic importance. The Union of Arras , agreed in January 1579 and followed promptly by the Union of Utrecht , marked the arising separation of the Spanish Netherlands, from which the states of the Netherlands and Belgium would ultimately emerge. The Union of Utrecht, dominated by the Province of Holland, was also joined by almost all

16008-472: The dukes of Lorraine seceded from East Francia. Cologne passed to East Francia but was soon reconquered by Henry the Fowler , deciding its fate as a city of the Holy Roman Empire (and eventually Germany ) rather than France. Cologne's first Christian bishop was Maternus . He was responsible for the construction of the first cathedral , a square building erected early in the 4th century. In 794, Hildebold

16182-482: The economic center of Europe and developed great commercial dynamism, displacing the Cologne merchants. In southern Germany, the imperial cities of Augsburg and Nürnberg had also developed into important trading hubs; both cities had grown to over 30,000 inhabitants, almost the size of Cologne. This was also true for Magdeburg , which benefited from the staple rights on the Elbe. The Cologne wholesalers, who dominated

16356-637: The economic center of Europe in the mid-16th century. By 1526, the city on the Scheldt surpassed 50,000 inhabitants and outnumbered Cologne, and by 1560 Antwerp had doubled its population. In contrast, the importance of the Hanseatic Kontor of Bruges faded until the end of the 15th century, since Bruges could no longer be approached by seagoing ships due to the silting of the Zwin . Antwerp benefited from overseas trade flows; Portuguese merchants made

16530-543: The elaborate work was ordered from an art carver in Mechelen, who thus made the Flemish Renaissance known in Cologne. The town hall’s extension, called Löwenhof (Lion‘s Courtyard), was built in 1540 by Laurenz Cronenberg blending elements in late Gothic and Renaissance style. The Antwerp-born Cornelis Floris was commissioned by the cathedral chapter in 1561 to erect the epitaphs of the two archbishops from

16704-514: The emperor as a city palace. Johann Rinck from a dynasty of influential merchants and mayors built at the same time the Rinkenhof opposite St. Mauritius. Both palaces demonstrated with a polygonal stair tower the importance of their owners; a generation later, the twelve-time mayor Arnt von Siegen equipped his family mansion on Holzmarkt with a comparable tower. Thus, these towers became a status demonstrating meaning, cited in public buildings until

16878-408: The emperor had to be approved by the princes. These provisions not withstanding, royal power in Germany remained strong under Frederick. By the 1240s the crown was almost as rich in fiscal resources, towns, castles, enfeoffed retinues, monasteries, ecclesiastical advocacies, manors, tolls, and all other rights, revenues, and jurisdictions as it had ever been at any time since the death of Henry VI. It

17052-667: The empire. The Cologne publishers aimed at nationwide distribution and unleashed a program including primarily religious, scientific, and humanistic works. For example, along with Basel, Cologne was the leading printing center to publish the writings of the humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam . Moreover, Cologne remained the only one of the major imperial cities to remain Catholic, and thus offered a comprehensive book program of counter-Reformation works that continued to argue in Latin. The book that, from today's perspective, most prominently represents

17226-468: The end of the 15th century, it was the largest city in the Holy Roman Empire , but only one of several important trading centers between the Scheldt and Elbe . Among them were in Flanders the cities of Ghent (45,000), Bruges and Tournai (35,000 each), as well as Brussels (33,000) and Antwerp (30,000), and in the southern part of Germany the cities of Nuremberg (38,000) and Augsburg (30,000); of

17400-477: The entire Middle Ages, he seemed to be less concerned with drawing the disparate forces in Germany together. Frederick was pragmatic enough to realize that for all his ability and power, his time and focus could only be fully concentrated either north or south of the Alps, where the bulk of his resources lay. Frederick II’s most profound legal legacy remains the Constitutions of Melfi promulgated in 1231 in

17574-578: The environment and public health. Per the Constitutions, Frederick II was lex animata and ruled as an absolute monarch. The Constitutions have been regarded as perhaps the “birth certificate” of the modern continental European state. From 1240, Frederick II was determined to push through far-reaching reforms to establish the Sicilian kingdom and Imperial Italy as a unified state bound by a centralized administration. The new unified administration

17748-498: The extensive destruction in World War II and grew by more than 30% between 1939 and 1975 sustained by a very diversified economic structure. In 2000, Cologne, as megacity with more than one million inhabitants, was Germany's fourth-largest city after Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich; in northwestern Europe, Cologne ranked sixth after London, Paris, Hamburg, Brussels and Copenhagen . When considering Western Europe (EU in 2000 borders),

17922-700: The flow of goods across the Rhine from London to Italy and at the same time linked them with west-east trade routes to Frankfurt and Leipzig. In fact, Cologne merchants could be found in all European commercial centers. The central importance of Cologne's commerce throughout the Reich was also reflected in the fact that the Cologne Mark was officially designated the Reichsmünzgewicht (imperial currency standard) by Emperor Charles V in 1524. The Cologne penny, 160 of which were struck from one Cologne mark,

18096-441: The following centuries, dynamic growth of Cologne was driven by enhanced merchant activities on river Rhine; in addition, the town became seat of an influential archbishop. In the year 1000, the city with 10,000 inhabitants was among the three largest cities in northwestern Europe, after Paris (15,000) and Rouen (12,000). From 1000 to 1200, Cologne experienced further steep growth and quadrupled its population to 40,000. This expansion

18270-617: The house of Schaumburg , whose depiction gained proverbial recognition in Cologne as the Floris style. Floris was also requested for the design of the city hall loggia , which was built from 1567; the construction, however, was assigned to the Cologne stonemason Wilhelm Vernukken. The most sought-after Cologne Renaissance painter was Barthel Bruyn the Elder , who developed his own form for portrait paintings in Cologne. Families who could afford it, however, had their members portrayed in London by

18444-409: The importance of the preacher's word in accordance to reformist doctrine. Thus, the Catholic party in the archdiocese and in the Cologne city council finally became suspicious of Hermann; longtime councillor Arnt von Siegen, a devout Catholic, leveraged his access to Charles V. In 1547, the emperor forced the archbishop to resign. In this way, the last, possibly too simple-minded attempt, to outbalance

18618-470: The important decisions, even without consulting the other members of the 49-member city council. The non-transparent financial practices and the high taxation sometimes perceived as arbitrary led to an ongoing dispute within the city's leadership circles, which, after an attempted overthrow averted in 1482, was only resolved in 1513 by an amendment of the city constitution known as „Transfixbrief“ (Transfix letter). In 1481, councilor Werner von Lyskirchen, who

18792-401: The late Staufer period, the population had grown from an estimated 8 million in 1200 to about 14 million in 1300, and the number of towns increased tenfold. The most heavily urbanized areas of Germany were in the south and the west. Towns often developed a degree of independence, but many were subordinate to local rulers if not immediate to the emperor. Colonization of the east also continued in

18966-445: The mastery of inhabitants and immigrants. The cartographer Arnold Mercator drew up the plan at a scale of 1:2450, striving for a work that satisfied cartographic-scientific standards; the map was based on a comparatively accurate survey of the city's topography and showed the building tracts in the aim to create a spatial effect with a skillful mixture of elevation and bird's-eye view. Given its detailed and true-to-scale representation,

19140-428: The middle of the 16th century became increasingly noticeable in Cologne as well. At the end of its heyday in 1560, Cologne counted 60 to 70 silk merchants who processed 700 bales of silk each year. From the last decades of the 15th century on, the patricians of Cologne felt an increased need to express their status and therefore developed a lively activity as benefactors. Many of them ordered large winged altarpieces ,

19314-512: The most refined sling vault of late Gothic church architecture in Cologne. From the pronounced need for prestige benefited the numerous late Gothic masters of the Cologne School of Painting , whose best known were commissioned with large-scale altarpieces. Among the most notable painters were the Master of the Holy Kinship , sometimes identified with Lambert von Luytge, and the Master of

19488-502: The necessary infrastructure for the delegations. The representatives of the Netherlands, the emperor and the Spanish crown were accommodated in the city palaces of Cologne's councillors. The negotiations themselves took place in the City hall called Gürzenich . However, the conferences ended without any agreement. Today, Cologne's Pacification Day is understood as the starting point for the emergence of an independent Dutch state. How vitally

19662-465: The neighboring Eigelsteinviertel. The name of the Hansaring pays tribute to Cologne's history as a Hanseatic city from the 13th to 17th century. Among the landmarks on Hansaring are the building of the former Cologne Graduate School of Management (Handelshochschule), erected on Hansaring in 1901; since 1907 the building has been home to the Hansa-Gymnasium . In 1925, Cologne's first skyscraper,

19836-474: The new governor-general of the Spanish crown, sought to quell Flemish discontent with draconian measures and military force. Because of the tensions, many refugees left Antwerp and settled in Cologne; among the most illustrious were Jan Rubens , father of the subsequently famous painter Peter Paul , and Anna of Saxony , wife of William of Orange , who eventually became governor of the united Dutch provinces. Duke Alba therefore also exerted considerable pressure on

20010-633: The nightclubs here, extorting money from the clubs and befriending girls for exploitation as prostitutes. The Hohenzollernring is lined with tall trees and is about 700 metres long. About halfway, Hohenzollernring passes Friesenplatz, centre of the Friesenviertel, and a major U-Bahn station. At Friesenplatz, the Venloer Straße leads into Ehrenfeld . The Hohenzollernring is named after the Hohenzollern dynasty . The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Ring

20184-476: The non-Cologne merchants bundled a third of Cologne's long-distance trade. In the 16th century, the patricians of Cologne began to reflect the Renaissance art trends they got to know on their trade journeys especially in Flanders, when commissioning works of art. In 1517, the Cologne families Hackeney, Hardenrath, von Merle, von Straelen, Salm and von Berchem donated a rood screen for St. Maria im Kapitol ;

20358-471: The office of duke of Swabia had been fully subsumed into the office of the king, and without royal authority had become meaningless. In 1261, attempts to elect young Conradin king were unsuccessful. He also had to defend Sicily against an invasion, sponsored by Pope Urban IV (Jacques Pantaléon) and Pope Clement IV (Guy Folques), by Charles of Anjou , a brother of the French king. Charles had been promised by

20532-674: The oldest north of the Alps. As early as 321 AD, an edict by the Emperor Constantine allowed Jews to be elected to the City Council. Colonia was pillaged several times by the Franks in the 4th century. Two lavish burial sites located near the Cathedral date from this period. In 355 AD the Alemanni tribes besieged the town for 10 months, finally taking and plundering it. At the time, the garrison of Colonia Agrippina

20706-613: The onset of the Reformation . The pioneering theses of Martin Luther triggered ongoing controversy also in Cologne over whether and to what degree the church should renew itself. On the occasion of the coronation of Emperor Charles V in 1520, the writings of the Augustinian monk were publicly burned in the cathedral courtyard and Luther’s theses persecuted as heresy. The city council decided in 1527 to banish all Lutherans of

20880-602: The peninsula under the Hohenstaufen name. After a series of military victories, however, he fell ill and died of natural causes in Sicily in 1197. His underage son Frederick could only succeed him in Sicily and Malta, while in the Empire the struggle between the House of Staufen and the House of Welf erupted once again. Because the election of a three-year-old boy to be German king appeared likely to make orderly rule difficult,

21054-555: The peninsula yielded scant results. The Papacy and the prosperous city-states of the Lombard League in northern Italy were traditional enemies, but the fear of Imperial domination caused them to join ranks to fight Frederick. Under the skilled leadership of Pope Alexander III , the alliance suffered many defeats but ultimately was able to deny the emperor a complete victory in Italy. Frederick returned to Germany. He had vanquished one notable opponent, his Welf cousin, Duke Henry

21228-496: The perception of "Holy Cologne" when they developed the city to the capital of their Electorate of Cologne ; to this end, they had both the semicircular city wall and the Gothic Cologne Cathedral built as a demonstration of power. In the 15th century, Cologne was able to shake off archiepiscopal rule and, as a Free Imperial City , enabled the burgher ruling class to achieve great splendor, visibly documented by

21402-460: The popes the Kingdom of Sicily, where he would replace the relatives of Frederick II. Charles had defeated Conradin's uncle Manfred, King of Sicily , in the Battle of Benevento on 26 February 1266. The king himself, refusing to flee, rushed into the midst of his enemies and was killed. Conradin's campaign to retake control ended with his defeat in 1268 at the Battle of Tagliacozzo , after which he

21576-490: The power and prestige of the German monarchy against the dukes, whose power had grown both before and after the Investiture Controversy under his Salian predecessors. As royal access to the resources of the church in Germany was much reduced, Frederick was forced to go to Italy to find the finances needed to restore the king's power in Germany. He was soon crowned emperor in Italy, but decades of warfare on

21750-542: The prototype for the great signori who dominated Italy in later generations, each a petty sovereign in Frederick’s image—some even continued to claim the title of imperial vicar. By the time of Frederick's death in 1250, the crown in Germany was still formidable and Conrad IV , Frederick’s eldest surviving legitimate son and heir, enjoyed a strong position. However after Conrad’s death in 1254, The Great Interregnum followed which saw several rival claimants elected as King of

21924-435: The regional environment. Antwerp established itself around 1560 with 100,000 inhabitants as the commercial metropolis of the northwest. The military conflicts of the Thirty Years' War were by and large beneficial for Cologne because it was considered impregnable and could benefit from the arms trade; in any case, the Rhine city did not suffer a blow like the cities of Nuremberg, Augsburg or Magdeburg all three until then on

22098-607: The right bank near Poll . Floods and ice flows broadened this deviation. To prevent an eastern breach of the Rhine between Poll and Deutz , Cologne planned to fortify the bank with the so-called “Poll Heads” (Poller Köpfe), but it was not until 1557 that the council was able to reach an agreement with the archbishop on the measures. In 1560, the large-scale project was started and continued for more than 250 years. In total, three heavy headlands were built as shore fortification. In addition to hundreds of ships laid aground, willow plantings and groynes were brought in to prevent deviations in

22272-524: The ring road is bounded by mostly free-standing, modern office blocks, as well as the early 13th century Ulrepforte . The Salierring is some 400 metres long and forms a transition between the landscaped Sachsenring and the urban Barbarossaplatz. It is named after the Salian dynasty (1024–1125). As several roads and tram lines meet at Barbarossaplatz 50°55′45″N 6°56′30″E  /  50.92917°N 6.94167°E  / 50.92917; 6.94167 ,

22446-427: The royal court painter Hans Holbein the Younger . In the 1550s, it became apparent that international trade was undergoing a fundamental change. Kontors based trade underpinned with trading privileges was losing cohesive strength; as overseas destinations were increasingly discovered, long-distance trade shifted away from the Rhine to the North Sea. Antwerp , which by 1560 had more than 100,000 inhabitants, emerged as

22620-537: The same period however, London was already inhabited by more than 2 million people, and Paris population surpassed 1 million. Industrialization as the driver of city size was exemplified by the British industrial cities Liverpool , Glasgow and Manchester , all exceeding 300,000 inhabitants by 1850. During the entrepreneurial boom of the Gründerzeit , Cologne benefited from the railroad network that crossed

22794-409: The schism in the empire, proved to be a complete failure. The successors, the archbishops Adolf and Anton of Schaumburg , steered the archbishopric back on a clear Catholic course. For the Cologne commerce, the trade route to Flanders and the North Sea was of foundational importance. In the 16th century, it needed to be realigned as trading flows shifted from Bruges to Antwerp , which emerged as

22968-472: The second half of the 16th century, and England continued to flourish as primary market for wine traded from Cologne. The city’s merchants succeeded in largely monopolizing the distribution of English tin. In addition, the Cologne merchants dominated the English trade in armaments (swords, armor, spears). Overall, Cologne prospered as merchant city until the middle of the 16th century, which continued to control

23142-490: The silk business became a recognized career prospect. The most famous female guild master was Fygen Lutzenkirchen , who is considered to be the most successful silk entrepreneur in Cologne and was one of the wealthiest citizens of Cologne around 1498. Silk production was closely linked to the silk trade because the raw silk had to be imported from northern Italian trading centers, usually via Venice and Milan. The silk weaving and craft processing - braid weaving, silk embroidery -

23316-409: The so-called Mercator Plan is considered today to be the first reliable city plan of Cologne and is perceived as one of the first ever cartographically correct city maps. The economic region of the Spanish Netherlands, so foundational for Cologne's prosperity, did not come to rest in the 1570s. In 1575, the Spanish king Philipp II had to declare a state bankruptcy; the Spanish occupation troops of

23490-430: The spatial experience is largely overshadowed by a dominant, longitudinal tram station, which occupies most of the square. The square is one of the most discussed urban spaces in Cologne for re-development. North of Barbarossaplatz, the character of the Cologne Ring changes drastically, as all ground floors are occupied by shops, galleries and/or department stores and nearly all upper floors are being used as offices. Also,

23664-481: The square is an important hub for private and public transportation in Cologne . The Cologne Ring running north–south, Luxemburger Straße , leading into Sülz and Klettenberg , and Roonstraße leading onto Rathenauplatz. Cologne Stadtbahn has stations on Barbarossaplatz for tram lines 12, 15, 16 and 18. The square is named after Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (1122–1190) and was originally laid out as an oval space with two circular traffic islands. Today,

23838-604: The stake. In the following years however, the God-fearing archbishop, who perceived church debauchery as an abomination, tried to set the Archbishopric on a course of renewal; the efforts eventually proved to be in vain. In the attempt to bridge the opposing positions of the faith dispute, Hermann progressively endorsed Reformation ideas, and finally invited the reform theologians Martin Bucer and Philipp Melanchthon to

24012-612: The thirteenth century, most notably through the efforts of the Teutonic Knights. German merchants also began trading extensively on the Baltic . The Kyffhäuser Monument was erected to commemorate Frederick I, and was inaugurated in 1896. On October 29, 1968, the 700th anniversary of the death of Konradin, a society known as "Society for Staufer History" ( de ) was founded in Göppingen . The Castel del Monte, Apulia which

24186-532: The time of Roman Late antiquity , the cultural development in northwestern Europe west of the Rhine was embodied by a network of urban settlements. Most important towns in the Rhineland were Trier, which served as imperial residence of the Western Roman Emperor from 293 to 395, and Cologne, where five Roman trunk roads intersected with the Rhine, also then used as a water transport route. When

24360-448: The time of the coronation; because of the autumn season, the great men of the Empire avoided the long journey from Frankfurt, where the election had taken place anyway, to Aachen and Cologne. In addition, the king sympathized with Protestant ideas and found relic homages out of date. All subsequent imperial coronations also took place in Frankfurt; as coronator henceforth celebrated the archbishop of Mainz . Thus, this relocation detrimented

24534-569: The town of Waiblingen , and around 1230, Burchard of Ursberg referred to the Staufer as of the "royal lineage of the Waiblingens" ( regia stirps Waiblingensium ). The exact connection between the family and Waiblingen is not clear, but as a name for the family, it became very popular. The pro-imperial Ghibelline faction of the Italian civic rivalries of the 13th and 14th centuries derived its name from Waiblingen. In Italian historiography,

24708-435: The towns. The guilds were governed by strict rules. A few were open to women. Society was divided into sharply demarcated classes: the clergy, physicians, merchants, and various guilds of artisans; full citizenship was not available to paupers. Political tensions arose from issues of taxation, public spending, regulation of business, and market supervision, as well as the limits of corporate autonomy. The first pogrom against

24882-418: The trade with indulgences , dried up due to the Reformation . At the latest in 1560, the cathedral construction was entirely suspended — and was only resumed in 1823. Silk production, which had been costumary practice in Cologne since the early Middle Ages, experienced its last flowering by the middle of the 16th century. Along with Paris, Cologne was considered one of the great production centers north of

25056-644: The trading business on the Rhine by building a new stacking house (Stapelhaus) (1558-1561). The building allowed, above all, to handle the fish trade more effectively; despite all international adversities, Cologne still benefited considerably from the Stapelrecht , that continued to remain in force. Maximilian II got crowned German king in November 1562 in Frankfurt am Main - and not in Aachen , as generations of his ancestors. The ritualized procession that

25230-547: The trees are older and taller, which give the Ring a more cosmopolitan character. The Hohenstaufenring extends some 600 metres up to Schaafenstraße (where it turns unnoticeably into Habsburgerring). Halfway along its course, Hohenstaufenring passes the Sacred Heart Church ( Herz-Jesu-Kirche ) on Zülpicher Platz, the latter also serves as a tram station. Hohenstaufenring is named after the Hohenstaufen dynasty ,

25404-460: The war, Archbishop Hermann of Hesse refrained from continuing construction for about 30 years due to the excessive over-indebtedness of the Electorate of Cologne . He apparently used the donations, which continued to flow in abundance, to regain the financial leeway of the prince-archbishopric . It was not until his successor, Archbishop Philip II of Daun-Oberstein , that the cathedral masonry

25578-539: The way to a form of modern European metropolises. Berlin (50,000) still had its dynamic growth ahead of it, and achieved the status of a major urban center (“Grossstadt”) only in 1763, when its population exceeded permanently 100,000 inhabitants. With the onset of industrialization, Cologne doubled its population between 1810 (45,000) and 1846 (90,000) and was in 1850 the sixth largest city in Central Europe after Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg, Prague and Breslau . In

25752-492: The wealthiest financed entire chapels or parts of church furnishings. Therefore, by the end of the 18th century, in "Cologne were more medieval works of art than anywhere else in the world." Some families had large courtyards built in the city. Nicasius Hackeney, who was particularly close to the emperor Maximilian as his chief financial administrator, had the Hackeney'schen Hof built around 1505 at Neumarkt, which also served

25926-433: The western end, Hansaring opens onto Ebertplatz, the eastern end bleeds into the park-like Theodor-Heuss-Ring. On the northern edge of the square, Riehler and Neusser Straße lead into Agnesviertel and Nippes . Ebertplatz U-Bahn station is a large interchange station four Cologne Stadtbahn lines and the city's largest subway station. Theodor-Heuss-Ring is a 500 metre long by 100 metre wide park, locked between Ebertplatz and

26100-465: The year 50, Cologne was elevated to a city under Roman law and named " Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium "; since the Frankish rule it is known as Cologne. The city became an influential merchant stronghold in the early Middle Ages due to its location on the Rhine , which allowed the most seasoned Cologne wholesalers to control the flow of goods from northern Italy to England. The archbishops promoted

26274-414: The year 700 about 3,000 settlers and was thus after Trier (5,000) the second largest town in the Rhineland. Further west, the urban tradition survived in more numerous places, none of them having gathered significantly more inhabitants. This applies, among others, to Tours , Rouen , Reims (5,000 each) and Paris (3.000). The largest cities in Western Europe were Rome (44,000) and Milan (21,000). In

26448-511: Was a prospering venture. Many of them expanded to other metropolises in Europe and formed cross-city cooperatives. Peter Quentel, the busiest in the new industry, was re-elected as a Cologne councilman for many years. In 1524, Quentel published an edition in Low German language of Luther’s New Testament translation; from the late 1520s, however, the printing and distribution of Lutheran books

26622-593: Was a ruler of vast territories and “could not be everywhere at once”. The transference of jurisdiction was a practical solution to secure the further support of the German princes. By the 1226 Golden Bull of Rimini , Frederick had assigned the military order of the Teutonic Knights to complete the conquest and conversion of the Prussian lands. A reconciliation with the Welfs took place in 1235, whereby Otto

26796-401: Was a standard currency of the High Middle Ages. Between 1484 and 1531, emperors and kings often spent time in Cologne, enabling Cologne patricians a welcome proximity to Habsburg dynasty. As an indirect result of the Cologne Diocesan Feud , in 1477 heir Maximilian of Austria had married Maria , Duchess of Burgundy, thus enabling Habsburg access to the rich Burgundian lands of Flanders and

26970-419: Was adopted in Cologne; as early as 1464, Ulrich Zell printed the first book. Until the end of the 15th century, there was evidence of 20 printing works in Cologne, producing more than 1200 different editions. This made Cologne - after Venice, Paris and Rome - a leading book printing center in Europe. For the families involved in the printing and publishing business, such as the Quentel, Birckmann and Gymnich, it

27144-455: Was applied to the hill castle of Staufen by historians only in the 19th century to distinguish it from other castles of the same name. The name of the dynasty followed suit, but in recent decades, the trend in German historiography has been to prefer the name 'Staufer', which is closer to contemporary usage. The name 'Staufen' itself derives from Stauf ( OHG stouf , akin to Early Modern English stoup ), meaning ' chalice '. This term

27318-459: Was banned by the Cologne Council. Again, it was Peter Quentel who published the first complete German translation of the Bible by Johann Dietenberger (the so-called Dietenberger Bible), which was printed in Mainz in 1534 and eventually gained recognition as one of the Catholic correction Bibles. By developing into a leading publishing place for Latin-language works Cologne gained an exceptional position compared to all other book printing centers of

27492-425: Was built during the 1240s by the Emperor Frederick II was designated as a World Heritage Site in 1996. The German artist, Hans Kloss , painted his Staufer-Rundbild depicting in great detail the history of the House of Hohenstaufen, in Lorch Monastery . From 2000 to 2018, the Committee of Staufer Friends ( de ) has built thirty-eight Staufer steles ( de ) in Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic and

27666-423: Was commonly applied to conical hills in Swabia during the Middle Ages. It is a contemporary term for both the hill and the castle, although its spelling in the Latin documents of the time varies considerably: Sthouf, Stophe, Stophen, Stoyphe, Estufin , etc. The castle was built or at least acquired by Duke Frederick I of Swabia in the latter half of the 11th century. Members of the family occasionally used

27840-426: Was crowned Holy Roman Emperor . Philip changed the coat of arms from a black lion on a gold shield to three leopards, probably derived from the arms of his Welf rival Otto IV . The conflict between the Staufer dynasty and the Welf had irrevocably weakened the Imperial authority and the Norman kingdom of Sicily became the base for Staufer rule. Emperor Frederick II was the most brilliant and extraordinary of

28014-404: Was descended from one of Cologne's old patrician families, used the latent discontent in cooperative circles („Gaffeln“) and guilds to attempt a coup. The action, which went down in the chronicles as the "Große Schickung" (big dispatch) was quickly stifled by rival families and partisans, and Werner was eventually beheaded. The oligarchic structures that dominated the city remained. In the course of

28188-479: Was dominated by a small group of influential and very wealthy families who regarded themselves as Cologne patriciate; through a circle of council friends, they ensured that only initiated people moved up. This created an oligarchic rule in which corruption and favoritism increasingly spread, which became proverbial as „Kölscher Klüngel“ (Cologne cronyism). A center was formed by a lobby of councilmen who called themselves krensgin (chaplet) and who apparently made most of

28362-443: Was elected King as Conrad III. Because the Welf duke Henry the Proud , son-in-law and heir of Lothair and the most powerful prince in Germany, who had been passed over in the election, refused to acknowledge the new king, Conrad III deprived him of all his territories, giving the Duchy of Saxony to Albert the Bear and that of Bavaria to Leopold IV, Margrave of Austria . In 1147, Conrad heard Bernard of Clairvaux preach

28536-434: Was engaged to the king's approximately seventeen-year-old daughter, Agnes . Nothing is known about Frederick's life before this event, but he proved to be an imperial ally throughout Henry's struggles against other Swabian lords, namely Rudolf of Rheinfelden , Frederick's predecessor, and the Zähringen and Welf lords. Frederick's brother Otto was elevated to the Strasbourg bishopric in 1082. Upon Frederick's death, he

28710-416: Was excommunicated in 863 for his support of the divorce and remarriage of Lothair II . In 873 Gunther's successor Wilbert consecrated what would become known as the Alter Dom (old cathedral), the predecessor of Cologne Cathedral. With the death of Lothair in 876, Cologne fell to East Francia under Louis the German . The city was burnt down by Vikings in the winter of 881/2. In the early 10th century,

28884-418: Was handed over to Charles, who had him publicly executed at Naples . With Conradin, the direct line of the Dukes of Swabia finally ceased to exist, though most of the later emperors were descended from the Staufer dynasty indirectly. The last member of the dynasty was Manfred's son, Henry [Enrico], who died in captivity at Castel dell'Ovo on 31 October 1318. During the political decentralization of

29058-404: Was mirrored by an intensified church building in romanesque style known as the "great century of Cologne church architecture" from 1150 to 1250. In the Middle Ages and the early modern period, Cologne was consistently among the 30 largest cities in Western Europe. This indicates the importance of the merchant center on the Rhine, because, in these periods, the number of inhabitants can be read as

29232-408: Was organized mainly through the putting-out system . The wholesaler prefinanced the raw materials and left the craftswomen to work at home. The main buyers of Cologne's silk products were the clergy of Cologne and the export markets in Frankfurt, Strasbourg and Leipzig. On the markets in Flanders (Bruges, Antwerp, Ghent), Cologne merchants increasingly came up against intense local competition, which by

29406-403: Was re-established and the late gothic stained glass windows were installed in the north aisle of the Cathedral in 1508. They are considered to be of particularly high quality, for which the most respected representatives of the Cologne School of Painting created the designs. Eventually, the regular flow of construction activities stalled after 1525, because the most important financing instrument,

29580-403: Was succeeded by his son, Duke Frederick II , in 1105. Frederick II remained a close ally of the Salians, he and his younger brother Conrad were named the king's representatives in Germany when the king was in Italy. Around 1120, Frederick II married Judith of Bavaria from the rival House of Welf . When the last male member of the Salian dynasty, Emperor Henry V , died without heirs in 1125,

29754-470: Was taken over directly by the emperor and his highly trained Sicilian officials whose jurisdiction now ranged across all of Italy. For the rest of Frederick’s reign, there was a continuous movement toward the extension and perfection of this new unified administrative system, with the emperor himself as the driving force. Despite his mighty efforts however, Frederick’s unified Italian state proved ephemeral after his death. The vicars and captains-general provided

29928-413: Was the Steelyard (Stalhof) in London. This prestigious trading post, endowed with trading privileges, allowed Cologne merchants to dominate English trade along the Rhine. The status of the steelyard was the cause of the Anglo-Hanseatic War in 1469, which was not settled until 1474. This dispute was primarily fought as a privateer war. Cologne however remained neutral adhering to its special relations with

30102-399: Was the first bishop of Cologne to be appointed archbishop. Bruno I (925–965), younger brother of Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor , founded several monasteries here. The dynasty of the Ezzonids , later Counts of Berg , counted 7 archbishops during that period and consolidated the powers of the archbishopric over imperial affairs. The archbishops of Cologne became very influential as advisers to

30276-469: Was under the generalship of Marcus Vitellus. The Romans re-occupied the city several months afterwards by Julian . The city finally fell to the Ripuarian Franks in 462 AD. Cologne served as a base for the Carolingian conversion of the Saxons and Frisians . In 795 the chaplain to Charlemagne , Hildebold , was elevated to the newly created archbishopric of Cologne . After the death of Charlemagne, Cologne became part of Middle Francia . Archbishop Gunther

#109890