Cologne - St. Engelbert

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".

While Gremberg is known since the 9th century, Humboldt was founded during the industrialization of the second half of the 19th century. Both settlements developed into workers' housing areas.

As the factories around flourished, the number of workers living here grew very fast. A neoGothic church was erected here in 1899 . Already in 1926 this church was too small as by then there were more than 12000 parishioners in Humboldt. The church got demolished and the church seen here was built. It got consecrated in December 1927. During the air raids of WWII about 80% of all houses got destroyed, the church was in ruins in 1945 but got rebuilt following the plans of the late 1920s.

Unfortunately I could not find out the name of the architects. The style is "Brick Expressionism", a style that, influenced by the Bauhaus architecture, was popular in the 1920s mainly in Germany and the Netherlands.

Similar buildings in Cologne are the former exhibition halls of the Cologne Fair and the so called Hansahochhaus.

The church was - locked!