Tag: Cologne

I thought that as I was in Cologne that I’d better visit a couple of bars and this is a Bavarian restaurant which specialises in Augustiner beers.

I’d add that it was a bit hot to be sitting outside, but I thought I’d embrace summer. Although I was annoyed it was too hot, at least there were no insects ready to sting me. In many ways, sitting outside is an annoyance, as I have to turn my screen brightness up, so it’s more efficient battery wise to just look at my phone inside. But I suppose there’s people watching, one of the highlights of my life as I don’t get out much.

The service was friendly and efficient, with the whole environment feeling quite relaxed. I had checked in advance that they accepted cards, but I also thought I’d better check with the waitress and she confirmed that would be fine. I was pleased to note that no-one was smoking near me, I wouldn’t want that impacting the taste of my beer.

Every customer gets a glass with their own initials on. The beer was the Augustiner Dunkel, and it was pleasant enough with notes of toffee and caramel, with the drink being slightly sweet.

It was easy to pay at the end, although there’s a new trend in Germany to leave a tip, so I just left the 10% suggested tip to avoid any diplomatic incidents. I rather liked this venue, it’s very well reviewed and the Bavarian focused dishes looked plentiful and as expected. There were a few different beers to choose from as well from the brewery, with the prices being moderate.

I really like exhibits like this and when taking the photo I accidentally included the “Small Box – Big Impact” headline which does sum this up quite well. It’s the wooden ballot box that was used by Cologne City Council to make decisions between 1945 and 1957. With some foresight, the Mayor in 1957, Theo Burauen (1906-1987), decided to hand it over to the city museum. It seems that as a city mayor, he was a very popular one and it must have been a challenge to try and guide the city away from the Nazi era into a new future.

So, it’s a wooden box, but I liked it, this is the restoration of democracy in action.

This is a Jewish gravestone dating to 1323 and it commemorates the life of a lady called Rachel. I’ve already made reference to the synagogue built in 1280 and the pogrom of 1349. The gravestone was uncovered during excavations near the city hall in 1953 and it’s thought that it was hidden during that pogrom. The Jewish community were expelled from Cologne in 1424 and they didn’t return for centuries, so all memory of this gravestone would have been lost. In what has been a traumatic history for Jews in the city, at least the memory that this was meant to preserve has not been entirely lost.

Before the Second World War, Konrad Adenauer was best known as a Catholic politician of the Centre Party and as the long serving mayor of Cologne, where he developed a reputation for administrative competence, modernisation and a rather practical approach to urban Government.

Born in 1876, he rose through local politics during the German Empire and the Weimar Republic, helping shape Cologne’s infrastructure and civic life while also serving in wider Prussian politics. He was conservative, anti extremist and not remotely enchanted by the rise of National Socialism, which led to his removal from office after Hitler came to power in 1933. It seems that Hitler respected his ability to get things done, but his politics were too far removed for him to be allowed to remain in office. During the Nazi period he lived under suspicion, was at times arrested and remained politically sidelined.

After the war, Adenauer became one of the central architects of the new West Germany and a far larger figure than the pre war municipal politician might have suggested. As the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963, he tied West Germany firmly to the West through NATO, European integration and close relations with France, Britain and the United States. He died in 1967, at the age of 91 and remained as a member of the Bundestag until his death.

In post war history he is often seen as one of the founding fathers of modern democratic Germany and is also regarded as one of the founding fathers of the European Union. That’s quite a handy list of achievements and in a poll of Germans he was voted as the greatest of them all.

The painting is by Eduard Horst (1893-1966) and was painted in 1928, when Adenauer was Mayor of Cologne. The museum seems to be a little more guarded about his reputation, the information panel by the painting notes:

“He was assertive and sometimes authoritarian. On occasion, his political actions pushed the boundaries of legality.”

That’s not entirely a glowing summary of your life’s work.

I think that this is the best pub in Cologne and I’m unanimous in that as Mrs. Slocombe would say…..

Styled to look like a traditional bar, this is firmly on-trend as far as I’m concerned. The menu is on Untappd, there’s a wide range of craft beer and the vibe was welcoming and laid-back.

This is the first time that I’ve seen this at a German bar and it’s in a city where a few of the brewery bars don’t even willingly accept cards.

The bar arrangement and I’d note that I got there soon after it opened, although it got busier quickly.

The beer selection.

I like quirky decoration.

Raw fire in a bar, what could possibly go wrong….

The food menu.

But, back to the main event which was the beer. This is the Howling Wolf from Two Chefs Brewing who are based in Amsterdam, with the porter being rich with flavours of coffee and dark chocolate.

Next was the Alexander from Brouwerij Rodenbach of Belgium. This was very punchy from the cherries, lightly tart, rounded and suitably slightly sweet. I’m not very knowledgeable about Belgian beers, but I’m ready to learn….. It’s good to be flexible like that.

I then realised I hadn’t had anything German, which was a bit of an omission, so I went for the Death Luxury from the Sudden Death Brewing Company. This was heavy on the citrus, but refreshing, smooth and moreish.

I very much liked this bar, it was welcoming, informal, on-trend, interesting and had one of the best selections that I could see in the wider region, let alone just in Cologne. All very lovely.

It was hard not to note this quite punchy little sculpture number which depicts when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on his donkey. The inhabitants of the city lay palm fronds in his path (or psalm fronds if you’re Robert Jenrick) as a sign of veneration and love.

This little arrangement was made from limewood and dates to around 1520, being made locally in Cologne. The donkey comes from the Church of St. Kolumba and it was documented as being taken through the streets of Cologne as late as 1778. The church was unfortunately lost during the air raid bombings during the Second World War.

I do wonder how these things survived through the centuries as it’s not the easiest thing to store. I accept that it’s quite easy to move, but I wonder where churches have stored it over time.

And here are some images that AI has created to try and picture the scene back in the late medieval period.

It’s definitely fair to say that I was excited to discover a medieval religious art museum in a former church, so that’s another set of posts that will be occupying me all week. This is a sculpture made of oak that depicts the Virgin Mary and Jesus, with a suspicious amount of paint remaining which makes me wonder if it has been touched up somewhat.

Anyway, this was the new French influence where the Virgin Mary was looking in a caring manner towards the baby Jesus, rather than the previous more formal look that had been the norm. She’s holding an apple, but that’s rather for religious symbolism than what the child might have wanted to eat. The information panel at the museum notes that Mary is standing on a dragon, although I’m not sure that I would have realised that.

I’ve had AI have a play with it and I think this is probably a reasonable stab at how it looked. I’m impressed that it has pulled out the dragon thing to at least some degree, although the imagery is obviously wrong there.

The sculpture was likely once in a church and it has been dated to around 1270. It was likely made in Cologne, but the wider throne the sculpture sits on was likely changed in the later medieval period.

The Deutz Suspension Bridge, which was later renamed the Hindenburg Bridge in 1935, was once a pioneering feat of engineering that defined the Cologne riverfront. Completed in 1915, it was a self-anchored suspension bridge utilising massive eyebar chains rather than the wire cables common today. Its design was so influential that it served as the direct architectural inspiration for the ‘Three Sisters’ bridges in Pittsburgh and the Kiyosu Bridge in Tokyo. For decades, it provided a vital link between the Cologne city centre and the district of Deutz, carrying motor vehicles, trams and pedestrians across the Rhine.

The demise of the bridge was a dramatic and sub-optimal affair that occurred in the closing months of the Second World War. On 28 February 1945, while Cologne was under heavy Allied pressure and suffering from frequent air raids, the bridge unexpectedly collapsed into the Rhine. Unlike many other Rhine bridges that were intentionally demolished by retreating German forces to slow the Allied advance, the Hindenburg Bridge failed during urgent repair works intended to fix damage that had been sustained in previous bombings. The collapse was a catastrophic event that reportedly resulted in many civilian casualties, as hundreds of people were allegedly on or around the structure, with many fleeing the city, when the weakened chains finally gave way.

In the museum there is one of the rivets from the collapsed bridge, one of the many thousands that once held the structure up. If it hadn’t collapsed it would have been blown up by the retreating German army just a few days later, but without the huge loss of life. It’s a rather small survival from such a substantial structure, but it still tells the story of the disaster.

The ‘Eistüte’ or the Dropped Cone, is one of the city’s more whimsical pieces of public art, perched precariously on the corner of the Neumarkt Galerie shopping mall. Created by the legendary Pop Art couple Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, the sculpture was installed in March 2001. The inverted vanilla scoop is made of reinforced plastic and stainless steel and was designed to be a response to commercialism and the rather ubiquitous nature of the ice cream stand in the city. There’s something rather charming that Primark have moved in underneath it.