Coordinates: 50.9413, 6.9572
Position in OpenStreetMap: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/18639364

When you think of Cologne, many people's first association, regardless of where they come from, is probably Cologne Cathedral. Cologne Cathedral is such a memorable and impressive building that much has been written about it from the past to the present day. The Finland Swedish writer Zacharias Topelius, the Icelandic writer Hannes Pétursson and the Swedish writer August Strindberg all recorded their impressions.

Topelius compares the cathedral to a cliff in a sea of small, inconspicuous houses and describes it as »piled up in such astonishingly light vaults, such ingeniously harmonious proportions, that one feels uplifted, free and high at the same time under the feeling of all one’s smallness«. The cathedral looks like a thought. Topelius is so enthusiastic about the cathedral city that he even writes that if he were German, he would consider Cologne to be the true capital of Germany.
The Icelander Hannes Pétursson studied for a short time at the University of Cologne and found words for the cathedral in form of a poem. Translated, the poem reads as follows:

Cologne
Everything sinks horizontally forwards:
the quiet river
the life of the streets
the train on the bridge
everything - except the church
above a generation and time.

Look, the lines of the towers
flow vertically upwards
and do not stop
although the stone runs out
instead, they rise into the air
and fly away, striving
vertically to heaven
to the assembly of the Lord.

August Strindberg, one of Sweden's most famous authors, visited Cologne in 1876 and wrote extensively about his experiences in and impressions of Cologne and the cathedral. Strindberg enters the cathedral and is very impressed by its size and grandeur, but also feels almost overwhelmed by it. Stepping out again, he finds the following words: »I took a look at the mask-heavy façade; it was ugly, but it was overwhelming«.

Whether from Finland, Iceland or Sweden - each of these three writers found impressive words for this impressive building.

Coordinates: 50.9406, 6.9537
Position in OpenStreetMap: https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/5121515

Cologne was under the domination of Napoleon's France for twenty years – until 1814. Due to military failures, the French troops withdrew from Cologne and Prussian troops entered the city.

However, the withdrawal was not only met with enthusiasm: the French administration had modernised Cologne. Politically, the Prussians initially made concessions to Cologne. For example, the freedom of trade that had been introduced remained in place. On a personal level, however, there was repeated friction due to differences in mentality. Catholic Cologne clashed with Prussian Protestantism. The Cologne carnival did not fit in with Prussian virtues.

The Swedish crown prince at that time is also part of this Cologne city history. In the turmoil of the campaign against Napoleon, Cologne briefly became the headquarters of Crown Prince Charles John and his forces at the beginning of 1814. The originally middle-class Frenchman Jean Baptiste Bernadotte was born in Pau in 1763. He rose rapidly under Napoleon and was finally appointed Imperial Marshal in 1804. However, his connection to Napoleon was not only of a political-military nature, but far more personal: In 1789, Bernadotte married Désirée Clary, who had previously been engaged to Napoleon for several years. In 1810, Bernadotte's life took a drastic turn: He was proposed as heir to the Swedish throne and was eventually unanimously elected and adopted by the childless King Charles XIII under the name Charles John. This also made him commander-in-chief of the Swedish armed forces.

Initially he tried to stay out of military action, but then intervened in the campaign against Napoleon in 1813 as commander-in-chief of the assembled Northern Army. In doing so, he had to oppose his former patron Napoleon. After initial military successes, he moved his headquarters to Cologne from February 10 to 28, 1814. In the wine tavern, which would later become the Dom Hotel, there is even said to have been a grand ball in honor of the crown prince. He also published a proclamation to the French people from his headquarters in Cologne:

Frenchmen! I have taken up arms on the orders of my king to defend the rights of the Swedish people. After avenging the insults inflicted on and helping to liberate Germany, I crossed the Rhine. As I return to the banks of this river, where I have fought so often and so gloriously for you, I feel the need to make my sentiments known to you. [...] All people of understanding cherish wishes for the salvation of France; they only ask that it should no longer be the scourge of the earth. The nations have not united with each other to wage war, but to compel your government to recognize the other states; these are their sentiments, and I vouch for their sincerity.

In May 1814, Crown Prince Charles John left his former homeland of France for good and moved to Sweden for once and for all. In 1818, King Charles XIII died and the former Jean Baptiste Bernadotte was crowned King Charles XIV John. He thus founded the Swedish noble family of Bernadotte, from which the Swedish royal family is still descended today. Politically, he established Sweden's neutrality, among other things.

Coordinates: 50.9384, 6.9523
Position in OpenStreetMap: https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/4544839246

When visiting Cologne - even if you were just passing through - you couldn't miss buying a bottle of 4711 (Eau de Cologne).

In 1866, Georg Brandes (1842-1927), who would become the most important Danish literary critic five years later with the start of his lecture series ‘Main currents in the literature of the 19th century’, travelled to Paris. On his journey there, he also travelled through Cologne:

In Cologne, where I stood devoutly in the noble forest of columns of the cathedral and then, in my simplicity, had a whole crate of eau de Cologne talked into it, I shortened my stay full of impatience to get to Paris.

According to the diary entry from his overnight stay in Cologne from 17 July 1852 to 18 July 1852, Hans Christian Andersen also bought a bottle of eau de cologne for 12 groschen in the Farina and also wrote the following:

First landed in Deutz, then on to Cologne, where we checked into the Grand Hotel Royal and agreed to stay here until tomorrow afternoon. Went into town a little, I went to a pub and had a glass of beer, saw an old church, and went to Farina and bought a bottle of eau de cologne for 12 silver groschen – Lots of life on the bridge; steamships came and went; we saw clearly from our windows, ›Siebengebirge‹. The Rhine shoots away.

Coordinates: 50.9382, 6.9539
Position in OpenStreetMap: https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/3356989745

The building that now houses Manufactum and KPM stands on the site of the former Hotel Disch, which was one of the two most internationally renowned hotels in Cologne in 1880. A central scene in the 1880 novel Haabløse Slægter (Families without hope; unfortunately never translated into English), is set in such a Cologne hotel. The author was the Dane Herman Bang, one of the most important Scandinavian authors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who is still widely read to this day. Bang's first novel is about the degeneration of a family and is an early example of a literature of decadence in Scandinavia. The main character is William Høeg, who takes a trip with his mentally unstable father to help him recover. The father indulges intensively in the nightlife in Cologne (theatre and circus are mentioned), but finally loses his mind and dies that same night in the hotel.

Bang was actually in Cologne shortly before the novel was published in August 1880. Equipped with the Baedeker guidebook, he visited the Rhineland that month, reported as a travelling journalist on the great trade, industry and art exhibition in Düsseldorf with its over one million visitors and travelled on from there to Belgium. He must have passed through Cologne on his way. However, it is uncertain whether he stayed in the famous cathedral city for any length of time. In the novel, Cologne is strikingly described as a rather generic city. Unlike in other literary mentions of the city by Scandinavian authors, no tourist attractions or Cologne-specific experiences are described. The reason may be that the manuscript of this section had already been sent to the printer in July 1880, i.e. before Bang himself could draw on personal experience in Cologne.

Haabløse Slægter was then published in Copenhagen at the end of November 1880. Incidentally, Bang's debut novel not only made literary history, but also censorship history, as the remaining edition was confiscated a month later for indecency. For many decades, the novel was only allowed to appear in a ›sanitised‹ version, until the original version was published again for the first time in 1965. However, the Cologne scene was always included in all editions.

Coordinates: 50.9374, 6.9548
Position in OpenStreetMap: https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/2897225301

If you have a little more time, you can take a detour to the Wallraf-Richartz Museum. The museum dates back to the collection of Ferdinand Franz Wallraf, which he bequeathed to the city of Cologne on his death in 1824. The museum is the oldest in the city and can look back on an eventful history. The Wallraf-Richartz-Museum is one of Germany's classic art galleries and has the world's most extensive collection of medieval paintings. However, it also displays a large collection of Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist art. The museum also holds an important collection of prints and drawings.

On the third floor of the collection of 19th and 20th century art, two works by the important Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863–1944) can be admired: Asgårdstrand rom 1888/1890 and Four Girls on the Bridge from 1905.

Other works by Munch – which are not currently on display – are also assigned to the Wallraf-Richartz Museum's holdings on the website https://www.kulturelles-erbe-koeln.de. Among them are: Girl by the Sea (1891), Two People (um 1900) and Ibsen in the Cafe of the Grand Hotel in Christiania (1902).

The museum also owns the following Northern European works: Roulette (1966) by the Swedish artist Öyvind Axel Christian Fahlström (1928–1976) and Landscape (before 1964) by the Icelandic painter Jóhannes Sveinsson Kjarval (1885–1972).

Coordinates: 50.9384, 6.9609
Position in OpenStreetMap: https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/750820138

Relics of St Bridget of Sweden are kept in the church of St Martin. Bridget received divine revelations and founded the Order of the Most Holy Saviour in 1346. However, the church of St Martin itself never had any connection with this order. So why can the relics of a Swedish saint be found here in Cologne?

Due to distruction, the church had been closed to the public for 40 years, and was only reopened in 1985, after having been rebuilt. Before the secularisation, there had been a parish church adjacent to the church, of which St. Brigid of Kildare was the patron saint. As no relics of her were available after the church’s reconstruction, it was decided to honour her ›namesake‹ Bridget of Sweden instead. At the consecration of the new altar on 22 June 1985, relics of St Bridget of Sweden were therefore inserted into the altar of the church.

Since the Middle Ages, Cologne has been a well-known pilgrimage site in the Northern countries, especially because of the bones of the Three Kings, which were brought to the city in 1164. St Bridget of Sweden is also said to have paid them a visit during her pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. However, there are no reliable sources of her stop in Cologne. But Cologne is mentioned in Leiðarvísir, a pilgrimage guide written by the Icelandic monk Nikúlás Bergsson. In it, Cologne is mentioned as one of the main attractions on the way to Rome and Jerusalem, but it is not described in detail and therefore seems more like a minor stopover.

Coordinates: 50.9398, 6.9622
Position in OpenStreetMap: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/155570079

There is probably no other city in Germany that has a closer connection to ›its‹ river than Cologne. Even in Roman times, the Rhine marked a natural border between the Roman Empire and the Germanic region on the right bank of the Rhine. The Romans themselves were also responsible for building the first of many bridges across the Rhine in 310. Of the seven Rhine bridges that still exist today, the Hohenzollern Bridge (named after the former German imperial family) is probably the most important, as it is the busiest railroad bridge with 1220 train journeys per day and the gateway to Cologne for many travelers. The then three Rhine bridges were also mentioned in Stig Dagerman's Tysk höst (German autumn) as one of the symbolic images for the city's large buildings, which were almost completely destroyed in the Second World War.

Opened in 1998, the Lanxess Arena (KölnArena until 2008), whose arched roof can be seen on the left on the other side of the Rhine, is the largest multifunctional arena in Germany and has already hosted numerous national and international sporting events in addition to being the home ground of the Kölner Haie. These include three ice hockey world championships, with the finals in 2010 and 2017 also being held in the arena known locally as the ›Henkelmännchen‹. Away from ice hockey, the arena has also proven to be a top venue for indoor handball, with The Final Four of the EHF Champions League being held in Cologne every year since 2010. Compared to the RheinEnergie Stadium, the Lanxess Arena has proven to be a good venue for Scandinavian teams, with the Danish national team coming third at the 2007 World Handball Championships and Sweden at the 2010 Ice Hockey World Championships, when they beat the hosts Germany 3:1 in Cologne. Seven years later, Sweden even managed to top this performance by being crowned world champions on the Schäl Sick (the right ›wrong‹ side of the Rhine) after knocking Finland out of the tournament in the semi-finals. In addition to analog sports events, the Lanxess Arena has also become an established location for eSports. Since 2015, the arena has been transformed into the ›Cathedral of Counter Strike‹ for three days every year. The success of Scandinavian teams in the arena also continues in eSports. At the first edition of ESL One Cologne, the Danish line-up from Fnatic triumphed straight away.

Coordinates: 50.9412, 6.9605
Position in OpenStreetMap: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/15993541

We've already explored some of Cologne's fascinating places with links to Northern Europe, and now we want to immerse ourselves in the history of a very special visitor at our last stop: a Danish poet whose works are known all over the world, Hans Christian Andersen (in Denmark just called H.C. Andersen).

He experienced the Cologne Carnival during his stay in 1870, and his impressions of this unforgettable spectacle are still a wonderful view of the colourful hustle and bustle that makes this city so unique.

He stayed at the Hotel du Nord, which had been rebuilt ten years earlier and is now the site we're standing in front of. It had a great reputation at the time.

Andersen, who was in Cologne for the ninth time, loved the carnival, which had just started when he arrived and finished with the Rose Monday parade two days later. In a letter to Henriette Collin, his closest friend's wife, he said »the Cologne Carnival was just as varied and festive as the one in Rome [...]. We had an excellent time. [...] Then we just let ourselves get caught up in the excitement.«

On 28 February 1870, when the carnival was in full swing, Andersen was in Cologne with Jonas Collin Jr. (the son of his friend and Henriette) and got to experience the colourful hustle and bustle first-hand. In his diary, he describes the day as follows:

Went out with Jonas; there were lots of masks around, and the kids were the most beautiful. Almost a third of the townspeople were dressed up, and we had a look around the Neumarkt, met some of the cavalrymen in the procession and also spoke to them individually. [...] We were out from half past twelve until about four watching the procession; it took almost two hours before it got going.

The unusual floats pulled by velocipedes and carrying fanciful characters made a big impression on these two men. The parades were lively and noisy, the streets were busy, and the atmosphere was such that Andersen threw himself into the hustle and bustle and let himself be infected by the merriment.

Andersen also paid a visit to Cologne Cathedral, which he found even more impressive than on his last visit. However, the carnival days were the highlight of his visit to the city and the most entertaining three days of the trip, as he summed up in his diary.

If you compare Andersen's letter to Henriette Collin with that of his colleague Jonas Collin Jr. to his mother, it's evident that even back then, the carnival wasn't seen as entirely positive by all visitors and could be off-putting for outsiders and non-Cologne residents. Collin Jr. found the carnival pretty chaotic and likened it to a ›madhouse‹. The crazy costumes and hooting, hollering people seemed more like a wild mess than a festive event to him. Even he couldn't deny that the Cologne carnival was unique in its extravagance and exuberance. He summed it up by saying, »There's a carnival cheerfulness here like no other in Europe.«

Even today, we still feel the special energy that this carnival radiates when the city is transformed into an exuberant festival of joy and foolish exuberance every year. And even if you're as keen on the whole thing as Andersen or Collin Junior, you should definitely check out the Cologne carnival if you haven't already!

Coordinates: 50.9397, 6.9587
Position in OpenStreetMap: https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/1439231908

Did you know that Northern Europe has the highest coffee consumption per capita of anywhere else in the world? If you fancy a hot drink in a Northern European style after this quick city tour, the Copenhagen Coffee Lab is the ideal last stop. You can even drink coffee from their own roastery here, and there are also a number of Scandinavian pastries on the menu, such as cinnamon or cardamom buns.
https://copenhagencoffeelab.com/cafes/cafes-germany/