Cologne Cathedral in World War II

To this day, many people consider it a miracle that Cologne Cathedral survived the Second World War virtually unscathed. Cologne was one of the Allies‘ primary bombing targets in World War II. By the time the war ended in 1945, most of the city had been reduced to rubble. The threat to Cologne Cathedral was considerable because of its close proximity to the city’s central station and Hohenzollern Bridge. But was the damage really so minimal?

In his book Cologne Cathedral in World War II, Niklas Möring provides a detailed account of what happened to this beloved monument during the Second World War. His book covers the period from the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 to the 700th anniversary of the start of the cathedral’s construction in 1948. Not only is this the first such account of the cathedral in World War II, the book also contains a large number of photographs, many of which have never been published before. It also describes both the enormous effort that went into protecting this unique monument and its world-famous treasures and works of art, and the extensive damage caused to the building during the war.

Band 10 der Reihe „Meisterwerke des Kölner Domes“