The Stollwerck company is associated with the city of Cologne like few others.
The Cologne-born entrepreneur Franz Stollwerck founded a factory for the production of cough sweets and a bakery in Blindgasse, where he offered his customers chocolate, among other things, for sale. In 1847, the Cologne native opened the Café Royal in Schildergassse. He also owned two theaters, both of which were located in the city of Cologne.
However, his biggest project was probably the Stollwerck factory. This is the focus of the following article.
From 1860, Stollwerck chocolate was then produced in the factories in Hohe Straße and Sternengasse. This was followed by steady growth in the chocolate business and so in 1872 the company moved from its inner city locations to the Severinsviertel, a district on the outskirts of the city at the time, which offered Stollwerck far more space to expand. The Stollwerck factory in Severinsmühlengasse was built here.
Many referred to the production facility as "d'r Kamelledom". Why? Because tower buildings were added to the factory complex in 1880, which earned the building the popular name "Kamelledom", a mixture of Kamelle and the cathedral.
At the time, the factory produced plenty of Kamelle, a colloquial term for caramel sweets and today symbolizes simple sweets.
After the war and the subsequent reconstruction, however, Stollwerck was unable to return to its former glory days. Production became less and less until the "Chocolate King Hans Imhoff" took over the company in 1972. He moved the headquarters to Porz on the other side of the Rhine and saved the company from bankruptcy. Stollwerck experienced a "second spring" under the leadership of Imhoff, who incidentally also founded the Chocolate Museum.
However, the factory in the Severinsviertel that had been left behind was to receive a great deal of attention once again. In the 1970s, an art scene had settled on the site of the chocolate factory in Cologne's Südstadt district. The dispute over the redesign of the district came to a head in the spring of 1980 and culminated in the largest squat in Cologne's history, the so-called "Stollwerck squat".
Where the factory once stood in Seveverinsmühlengasse, only a few remnants of the "Kammeledom" can still be seen today. Only the former gear train and a few chimney bases are reminders of the old, glorious and chocolatey times.
Would you like to find out more about the chocolatey times in Cologne and the history of Stollwerck and Imhoff? Then come and visit the Chocolate Museum in Cologne, founded by Hans Imhoff. Incidentally, it is not far from the former Stollwerck factory and within walking distance, so you can easily make a detour to the old factory site.
