Cologne - Schaafenstrasse

Cologne is the fourth-largest city in Germany - and one of the oldest. A Germanic tribe, the Ubii, had a settlement here, this was named by the Romans "Oppidum Ubiorum". In 50 AD, the Romans founded "Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium", the city then became the provincial capital of "Germania Inferior".

During WWII Cologne was bombed in 262 separate air raids. The first ever 1,000 bomber raid by the RAF (codenamed "Operation Millenium") was conducted on Cologne in May 1942. In April 1945, when the American armee reached Cologne, the city was completely ruined. About 90% of all houses in the inner city were - gone. In 1939 Cologne had had a population of more than 700.00. In spring 1945 there were only about 40.000, living in the ruins.

This video shows parts of the destroyed city

www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_pQdzhdD50
-
The well restored, but really narrow house in Schaafenstrasse is probably the only surviving part of a larger building, that once existed here.

-----------------

I have just learned today, that this building was never part of a larger construction. The building plots in the medieval city were that narrow. So the buildings to the left and right of this house were not rebuilt after WWII in the old dimensions, but this house was.