Aufgewachsen in Köln in den 40er und 50er Jahren

Reminisce with us about your childhood and youth! Our start in life was under a very unfavourable star: We were 'war children', our hometown of Cologne was in ruins. The Royal Air Force's "Operation Millennium" left over 45,000 people homeless in the night from 30 to 31 May 1942. At the end of the war, the US troops came across an almost depopulated city. But the Rhinelanders are resilient and in the 1950s Cologne experienced its boom to become a cultural and media metropolis, while on the "Schäl Sick", in Cologne on the right bank of the Rhine, the factories brought in the money. Jazz music attracted a young audience to "Campis Eis-Diele" and the devastated Rhine Park was given a new look for the Federal Garden Show in 1957. The churches characterised the youth activities in "hillije Kölle", but Protestant refugees from the East also found a new home in the city. Everyone was the same at carnival anyway. While the old town and cathedral became tourist magnets, life in the suburbs continued almost like a village. Those who grew up here often remained attached to their "Veedel" for the rest of their lives.