Gerda in the Stollwerck district

It's me again - Gerda: Today I want to tell you something about my Veedel - the Vringsveedel

It was late last night. Johann had found me a room at the HOPPER Hotel St. Josef in Dreiköniginnenstraße(www.hopper.de). The building I stayed in was not yet a hostel in my day. Back then, it was an infant school and public kitchen, donated by two Cologne families. Due to the strong industrialization in the second half of the 19th century, there was a great need for childcare for children who were not yet of school age and whose parents worked full-time in the factories. Just like my parents - and for a while, this was also my home during the day.

I slept like a dream there - and if I didn't know that this is all true now, I'd think I was still dreaming. But now you know who I am and where I came from.

Everything looks very different here in the Severinsviertel today than it did when I was here. No wonder, since it's been 100 years since I lived and worked here in Vringsveedel, as we called the district in my day.

Look, we were standing right here in front of the portal of St. Severin - me and my colleagues, when this photo was taken of us. Those were hard times and we had to work long hours. But we also had fun when we had time off. Then my friends and I would wander through the Veedel, see what the boys were up to and sing loudly: "Wer ess für der stärkste Mann nit bang. Who can sing without a break for three hours. Who can dance as beautifully as the angels in heaven. Who always eats modestly, and has no fimsel. Who speaks fluently in four languages, has, high, loud and catchy. That's us girls from the Stollwerk from Kölle am Rhing".

We had a lot of fun at carnival. We greeted them with a loud "Der Zoch kütt" when we saw them coming from afar through Severinsstraße. We girls then drew attention to ourselves by shouting "Kamelle" and hoped that we could catch lots of carnival sweets. Because there were lots of Stollwerck sweets among them and they were indispensable as "ammunition" for "shooting at" the spectators during the Rose Monday parade. We often went home with our pockets full to bursting and were incredibly happy, because we could rarely afford these treats on our low wages.

I then walked further around the Severinskirche, because the main entrance to the administration building of the Stollwerck factory used to be at the back. However, the official address of the chocolate factory was around the corner at Corneliusstraße 2.

Incidentally, the address Corneliusstrasse 2 was chosen deliberately. At the time, the chocolate factory was bordered by the streets Ferkulumstrasse, Corneliusstrasse, Annonstrasse and Severinsmühlengasse and was known as the "sweet triangle" of Cologne. Originally, the main entrance was to be on the street "Im Ferkulum". However, this was not considered effective advertising for a confectionery factory and so the main entrance was moved to Corneliusstrasse

But the building that stands there today looks completely different now - and the tall, pointed towers that once adorned the neo-Gothic building no longer exist. Because of these towers, the people of Cologne also called the building the "Kamelledom", as its towers were almost as high as those of St. Severin. Where the two recesses are today were the towers back then. A journalist from the Paris Figaro once described it in my day as follows: "The neighboring streets were filled with a delicious caramel smell, and the corridors and offices of the factory gave me the impression of being in a giant chocolate pot that smelled wonderfully of cocoa and vanilla. Even in Mr. Stollwerck's study, you could smell the sweet aroma of hot chocolate, and it gave the brightly colored statues and windows and the painted columns of the office a fairy-tale feel. It was as if you were in a magical castle where the stones were made of gingerbread and sweets, and the painted windows were made of large slabs of candy decorated with sugar."

Of course, we weren't allowed into the boss's office. But my work colleagues and I would sometimes play doorbell ringers after work - when we were walking through the Veedel in the evening with our chocolate baskets and the light was still on in the boss's office. We were silly, laughed and ran home.

In my day, it was Ludwig Stollwerck who ran Stollwerck and led it to its heyday. He died on 12.03.1922. Incidentally - what a fateful coincidence - Hans Imhoff, who later became the boss, was born on the day of his death.

Curious as I am and always have been, I went into the Vringstreff. Today, a non-profit, ecumenical association looks after disadvantaged people here and has created a meeting place that offers lunch, leisure and cultural activities as well as work and employment opportunities.

Nothing on the façade of the building reminds us that this was once the main entrance to the Stollwerck chocolate empire. But the large glass doors offer a view of two white columns, part of the original wood paneling and a backlit relief, which also adorned the reception hall of the Stollwerck headquarters in my day.

I then walked around the corner and further along Severinsmühlengasse and was delighted to see that part of the old façade of the administration building of the former Stollwerck factory can still be seen here. And it will probably stay that way, as it is now a listed building.

The end of Severinsmühlengasse then offered a view of the Annoriegel and the former wheel factory, the so-called "Stollwerck compressor". Most of the buildings of the former Stollwerck factory were demolished in 1987 - as Johann had told me - and the area was turned into a new housing estate with green spaces. But the Annoriegel remained standing and was converted into rental apartments.

Those must have been wild times. With demonstrations and occupations. If you want to find out more about the Veedel, have a look here.

By then, word had gotten around that I was wandering through the area of my former workplace. And you couldn't miss me in my traditional work clothes. So it was no wonder that more and more people greeted me and answered my questions about what had happened in the meantime. One of them - who had also heard about me in the meantime and was looking for me - was Wolfang. He could sing really well. And as he also knew a few of the songs we had already sung back then, we went singing together through the area of the former Stollwerk factory. He had even written a song about Stollwerk and the wild times back then. Back then, he said, he would have sung it with his boys. The boys later formed a band and called themselves BAP. The name of the band - as he told me - came from the nickname he originally gave his father. Well, the boys were probably one of the most successful German rock bands. But Wolfgang remained really modest. But that's how they are, the people of Cologne. Their hearts are in the right place. And that's what I always loved so much about Cologne - apart from the chocolate.

We then moved on to the Stollwerk community center. This beautiful red brick building from 1906, which was formerly used as a Prussian provisions office and was later used as a warehouse by the Federal Post Office, has been extensively renovated behind listed facades to create one of the largest town houses in NRW. This was made necessary by the renovation of the former factory site where the community center was originally located.

Wolfgang then said goodbye at the Trude Herr memorial in Trude Herr Park, which is directly adjacent to the community center. She must have been a funny woman who ran a folk theater in the Vringsveedel. She became famous in 1960 with the hit song "Ich will keine Schokolade, ich will lieber einen Mann! Well - even if the chocolate from Stollwerck is really delicious - if I'm honest, I'd rather have a man too. But as fat as she was, she must have eaten a lot of delicious Stollwerck chocolate. If you want to find out more, then take a look here.

I then moved across the street and on through the Rheinauhafen. It's amazing how it has changed. It's so beautiful. Many of the buildings - such as the beautiful port customs office - were already there in my day. It was opened in 1898 and for a long time it was the most important of the four ports in Cologne - including the Mülheim port, the Godorf port and the one in Niehl. After port operations ceased in 2001, the site was converted into a leisure and recreation facility - in addition to the many offices and apartments that are located here.

"Turning old into new":

Johann had described the route to me because he really wanted me to visit him in the chocolate museum. "How lucky I am," I thought to myself and was already very excited. My excitement grew with every step.

And as if it was a sign from fate, there on the banks of the Rhine just before the Chocolate Museum - on the same level as the Olympic Museum - is the "Little Café Glück". "How sweet is that," I thought to myself. And when Paula and Michael saw me as I strolled past them, they invited me in for a coffee. I never knew coffee could taste so good! We had a long, personal and really nice chat. That's probably what makes this place so special. "What is happiness for you?" Michael asked me before I moved on. The chocolate museum was already in sight and I didn't have to think about it for long: "Being a chocolate girl makes me happy. And chocolate, of course!" Well, he could have guessed that. Because we're both doing what we love. He with coffee, me with chocolate. And isn't that what makes you happy? When we do what we love?

If you want to find out more about the history of Rheinauhafen, take a look here: The Chocolate Museum in Rheinauhafen.