Cologne
Type: City
Image provided by Wikimedia Commons
Image author: ©Thomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de
At the time of the Romans, after 50 A.D., the city was named Colonia, which over time came be known as “Köln”. Today it has a population of about 1 million and is the largest city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It’s the fourth largest city in the FRG. Cologne is also the largest city in Germany’s largest metropolitan region, the Rhine-Ruhr. For centuries following the Middle Ages it was the largest German city. Today it’s the headquarters of 12 international automobile companies or contains their production factories. In World War II it was the first German city to be bombed by Allied planes, in 1942. Even today it contains the most structures from the Roman Era as well as a rich cultural heritage.