Cologne's car and machine industry 

When Nikolaus August Otto invented the four-stroke motor in Co- logne in 1876, he paved Cologne’s way to the future in automobile construction. In the proceeding decades, the city has become step by step one of Europe’s leading centers in this industry. This is docu- mented today by the presence of the Ford Factory. Henry Ford I is

still quoted often by Cologne's officials that no other location overseas was that attrac- tive as Cologne on the Rhine, which calls itself the "Business Center West" today. Since 1998 Cologne has been the seat of Ford Europe. And also other world- wide known firms of the auto industry have

settled in Cologne and the surrounding regions, among which are Citroen, Mazda, Toyota and Volvo. Toyota has climbed the ladder in Formula 1 since it began its operations in Cologne. From a 2000 poll, there were counted 22 manufacturers with 28,000 employees with yearly revenue of 6.4 Billion Euros. The machine construction is also an important industry for Cologne. Among them stand the names of Deutz AG, the Alfred Schütte KG or the Linde AG. In 2001 143 busi- nesses comprised 19,000 employees and a yearly revenue of 3.2 Billion Euros.

More info about Cologne branches, their histories and development are available at the Cologne Chamber of Commerce at (tel.) 16 40-130 or www.ihk-koeln.de.

Retail and insurance

Since the times of the Romans, Cologne has been one of the most important commerce centers in the world. In the Middle Ages Cologne was a free Hansian city, which was ruled by commerce laws. And to- day too, the largest business operators are active and successful here on the Rhine. Cologne is the seat of the Rewe Zentral AG, the

largest German retail company, and of Kaufhof Warenhaus AG as the the second largest operator of department stores in Germany. There is also a number of the largest unions‘ branches in Cologne. There are many and attractive shopping centers and specialty shops outside of Cologne’s

inner-city. Another branch of business with an over 100 year tradition in Cologne is represented by the insurance companies. Almost 50 of these firms have settled down in the Cologne, among which concerns include Axa, Zurich Agrippina, DKV, General Cologne and Gerling (see photo). Because of the economic significance for the growth of future businesses for the branches of retail and insurance, a special path of study and focus has been developed at the Fachhochschule (School of Applied Sciences) and the university.

Further information on the insurance branch in Cologne are available at the Cologne Chamber of Commerce and Industry at tel. 16 40-500. On-line: www.ihk-koeln.de.

Copyright 2005 - NICE CITY! Cologne

Facts on Cologne

Place and traffic

All of the important ways and routes for interna- tional commerce lead to Cologne. The city is en- compassed by an inter- state ring, in which 10 European interstates intersect. 15km south of the towers of the Dom lies the Cologne/Bonn Airport (CGN) as well as the Düsseldorf Airport (DUS) 50km north. 200 world-wide destinations can be reached within a few hours. The train station (german: Haupt- bahnhof) is, with 1,200 trains daily, one of the most important stations in Europe. Speed trains like the ICE or Thalys to Paris, Amsterdam, London or Brussels all leave from here. Since 2002 one can reach the Frankfurt Airport on new train tracks in less than an hour.

Branch structure

There are a considerable many pillars on which Cologne’s business stands: automobile and machine manufacturing, retail, insurance and the media industry. With 80 employers and about 60,000 employees, the chemical industry is no- ticeably enormous. 800 foreign firms alone have seats in Cologne. The is maintains a strong art industry as well. Over 100 art galleries, 6 auc- tion houses and dozens of antique dealers reside here. The Art Cologne is the leading art fair world-wide.

Education and Employment

In the subject of educa- tion, Cologne belongs to the first address in the nation, where that with the education field of audio-visual business, the Dom (cathedral)-City is the leader. For a num- ber of years, young peo- ple have been educated as sales(wo)men for audio-visual media or media design for scene and sound. Located in Cologne is the Art Insti- tute for Media, the School for Journalism in Politics and Business, the Movie and Author Insti- tute and the Media Aca- demy. All tolled, compa- nies in Cologne emplo- yees more than 440,000 people in 55,000 firms. The unemployment rate is around 11%.

Culture and spare

It’s not hard to feel good in Cologne. The city is said to be liberal, open and tolerant. And the people of this city along the river rhine love to celebrate - like in many other catholic centres of the world. Cheerfulness is offered every day and from every level. Art, at the moment, displayed in over 40 museums or 100 galleries, has 2,000 years of tradition. For music lovers, there’s the Philharmonic, the opera, the KölnArena and seve- ral hundreds of clubs and concert halls with classi- cal, jazz, rock, pop, funk, reggae and techno live or on CD. There are over 30 theaters and more than 70 film theaters. For the sport fans the "1. FC Köln" (the professio- nal football/soccer club of Cologne), plays in the Müngersdorfer Stadium, that was renamed by its nwe main sponsor to "RheinEnergy Stadium", and the ice hockey club KEC in the KölnArena.