Schräge Typen der Kölner Stadtgeschichte

There are resumes that read as exciting as 20 pages in a phone book. And there are biographies that completely break the mold – quirky, humorous, surprising, creepy, or all of the above. "Quirky Characters in Cologne's City History" introduces people from Cologne who made their contemporaries smile, tremble, take notice, or fall silent.

Author Monika Salchert presents Cologne residents who did not swim with the current of comfort, equality, and bliss. They were aware of societal norms but did not conform to them at any cost. Some were pioneers in what they did. Some were at odds with the law but were respected men among their peers. Some were esteemed yet shocked with their bizarre actions. Some were kind but simple in their thinking.

A look into over 2000 years of Cologne's city history reveals: there have always been these women and men with their "quirky biographies" across all times and social classes. The book tells stories of the eccentric sides of the city founder Agrippina, the criminal records of underworld figures Schäfers Nas and Dummse Tünn, and of Cornelius Stüssgen, Ludwig Stollwerck, and Cathedral Provost Bernhard Henrichs. Readers will marvel at Bishop Anno II, who was hardly liked in Cologne yet was canonized. They will also learn how theater founder Johann Christoph Winters made a mockery of his competitor Millowitsch.