Cologne is the largest city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and over 3.1 million people in the Cologne Bonn urban region. Cologne is also part of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, the second biggest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union. Centered on the left (west) bank of the Rhine, Cologne is about 35 km (22 mi) southeast of the North Rhine-Westphalia state capital Düsseldorf and 25 km (16 mi) northwest of Bonn, the former capital of West Germany.
Image: Kranhäuser Cologne, April 2018 01
Image: Kölner Dom und Hohenzollernbrücke Abenddämmerung (9706 7 8)
Image: 12 09 WLM Cologne 40
Image: St. Gereon Köln Dekagon 9702
Colognian or Kölsch is a small set of very closely related dialects, or variants, of the Ripuarian group of dialects of the Central German group. These dialects are spoken in the area covered by the Archdiocese and former Electorate of Cologne reaching from Neuss in the north to just south of Bonn, west to Düren and east to Olpe in northwest Germany.
Colognian dialect on a sign on an S-Bahn train. Translation: "Everywhere, we Cologners are on the move!"
