On this page:

• The Rhine cuts through both Cologne and Bonn

  Where to live
• Where to find rentals
• Where to arrange a residence permit
• Where to register
• Where to arrange a driving licence
• Useful addresses
• Health and recreation opportunities
• Expat food
• English bookstores

With a comprehensive series of transport links, you can live in Cologne and work in Bonn...and vice versa. But both a very different cities with Cologne now a major centre for art and the television industry in Germany and Bonn having emerged as a key IT hub following the government's shift to Berlin.

COLOGNE

“A River Runs Through It” could be Cologne’s trademark claim. The city is cut cleanly into two halves by the Rhine River, with the “left Rhine side”, as locals call it, being Cologne’s centre of gravity. It is home to the densely populated downtown district as well as numerous residential neighbourhoods. The right Rhine side, by contrast, has no centre to speak of and has traditionally lived a shadow existence, with Cologners calling it the “Schäl Sick”, or the “Wrong Side.” It is home to many working class neighbourhoods as well as a large convention hall and a sports stadium.

Those who are new to the city usually move to one of half a dozen neighbourhoods on the left city side that hug downtown in a semi-circle: Ehrenfeld, Lindenthal, Suelz, Bayenthal, and Rodenkirchen. They all have their own little town centres, which means there is no need to go to the city for grocery and other necessity shopping. These neighbourhoods also offer some green spaces and are generally more liveable than downtown with its sky-high rents and traffic congestion. Nonetheless, the city remains a popular destination, especially for bar-and restaurant-hopping singles who tend to live in the Belgian Quarter (Belgisches Viertel) and Old Town (Altstadt).

The neighbourhoods that form a semi-circle belt around Cologne’s centre are anything but homogenous and therefore don’t offer any easy choices for the newcomer. All of them attract a wide variety of residents, from college students to young professionals, from low-income immigrants and blue-collar wokers to well-off families with children. The best advice is to consider every appartment and its immediate surroundings individually.

BONN

Despite the federal government’s move to Berlin in the 1990s, the former capital Bonn continues to attract job-seekers and residents. More than 100,000 people daily commute into this town of 310,000. Since 1990, when the government started pulling out, Bonn’s number of residents has grown by six percent, its number of working people even by ten percent. Flocking to this now quieter but still prospering town are especially young professionals from the IT and communication industries, who tend to set up residence east of the Rhine river, in the growing boroughs of Beuel, Geislar, Vilich, Holzlar, and Holtorf.

However, the western side of town still holds most of its cultural and leisure attractions.

Among them are some of the most important German museums like the Bundeskunsthalle and the rock concert venue Museumsplatz, where all the big internationals stars perform, from Alicia Keyes, Pink, and Bryan Adams to Alanis Morisette. Also located on the left town side are Bonn’s shopping and Old Town districts and the still popular residential neighborhoods of Südstadt and Poppelsdorf with their streets lined by historic buildings.

Further to the south lies the borough of Bad Godesberg, formerly prime real estate, which for some years now has been losing residents. Adjacent to the so-called Federal Quarter (Bundesviertel), Bad Godesberg used to be the neighborhood of choice for scores of German politicians, their families and foreign diplomats. While the Bundesviertel’s appeal as a residential neighbourhood has somewhat declined, its importance as a hub for non-governmental organisations has held steadfast. A number of government as well as UN agencies also remain there, as do important science and education foundations and some large corporations like Telekom and Deutsche Post.

COLOGNE

The most efficient way to house hunt is to simultanoeously check for ads in the local newspapers (“Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” and “Kölnische Rundschau”) and through internet databases (for instance www.immobilien24.de and www.immowelt.de ). The latter often provide digital pictures of the appartments, sometimes even neighbourhood views, which makes the search much more time-efficient. The local papers also offer their ads online on a joint website (http://anzeigen.ksta.de/anzeigen/anzeigen_suche.php?markt=20037). They don’t show pictures, but you can narrow down your search by choosing all relevant details like maximum rent, number of rooms, balcony, garage etc. The ads cover appartments as well as houses in the entire state of Northrhine-Westfalia. For rentals, be sure to click on “Mieten”.

BONN

In Bonn also a double-track approach works best. Check for rentals in the online or print versions of the local paper, the “General-Anzeiger” (http://www.general-anzeiger-bonn.de/) as well as the commercial databases www.immobilien24.de , http://www.bonner-immobilien-boerse.de and www.immowelt.de, or the non-commercial website www.anonza.de/start.php . 

COLOGNE

For Aufenthaltsgenehmigung or Aufenthaltserlaubnis:

Zentrale Ausländerbehörde
Blaubach 13
50676 Köln
Tel: 0221 / 221-25601

Monday - Thursday: 7.30am-12pm
Friday: 7.30am-11pm
and by appointment

BONN

Amt für Ausländerangelegenheiten
Königswinterer Straße 54
53227 Bonn
Tel: 02 28/77 63 0
 
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: 8am-12pm
Thursday: 2pm-5.30pm
Wednesday closed

COLOGNE

A list of offices for arranging a polizeiliche Anmeldebestätigung:
www.stadt-koeln.de/bol/meldehalle/uebersicht/index.html

BONN

Bürgeramt Bonn
Stadthaus, Berliner Platz 2, 53111 Bonn

Bürgeramt Bad Godesberg
Kurfürstenallee 2-3, 53142 Bonn

Bürgeramt Beuel
 Rathaus Beuel, Friedrich-Breuer-Straße 65, 53225 Bonn

Bürgeramt Hardtberg
Villemombler Str. 1, 53123 Bonn

All of these are open Moday and Thursday from 8am-6pm
Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 8am-1pm

The same offices that issue a resident’s registration (Anmeldebstätigung) also issue driving licences.

For car registrations:

COLOGNE

Amt für öffentliche Ordnung
Herkulesstraße 42
50823 Köln (Neu-Ehrenfeld)
Tel.: 0221 / 221-26692 or  -26635

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 7.15am-12pm
Tuesday: 7.15am-4pm
Thursday: 7.15am-6pm

BONN

Bürgeramt Bonn
Stadthaus, Berliner Platz 2, 53111 Bonn

Monday and Thursday from8am-6pm
Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 8am-1pm

The British Consulate in Düsseldorf provides on their website lists of English-speaking doctors, lawyers and other professionals in the Rhineland that might be needed at one time or another (www.britbot.de/en/consular/duesseldorf/index.htm).

The health club boom reached Germany in the 1990s from America, and ever since, the number of people working out at the gym or running outdoors has continued to grow. Both Cologne and Bonn have a good variety of public parks, where on weeknights and weekends the locals can be seen it sweating out doing their laps.

Cologne offers, for instance, a narrow (and unnamed) park belt sourrounding downtown, from the North of Ehrenfeld to the southern Altstadt. There are also the expansive green areas around the artificial lake Decksteiner Weiher, as well as Beethovenpark and Stadtwald, all of them located in the neighborhood of Lindenthal, west of Cologne’s centre.

Bonn is generally much greener than Cologne, and parks as well as almost rural-looking areas with fields and meadows can be found in all directions. Among the most prominent are the Freizeitpark Rheinaue stretching alongside the western river bank in the borough of Hochkreuz and the large nature preserve between Bonn-Oberkassel and Bonn-Holtorf.

GYMS

Many of the better-equipped fitness centres in Cologne and Bonn are part of national chains. In addition to machines for cardio-vascular training and “body building”, some of them offer swimming pools, hot tubs, saunas, and massages. You should visit the gym of your choice for a free test session and try to negotiate a reasonable admission fee, especially when you join together with a partner.

City Fit (Bonn)
www.cityfit-bonn.de/
Tel. 0228/62 10 00

Fitness Company (three locations in Cologne and Bonn)
http://www.fitcom.de/

Holmes Place Health Clubs (Cologne)
www.holmesplace.de
Tel. 0221/9776444 and 0221/5981414

Just Fit (Cologne)
www.justfit-clubs.de
Tel. 0221/70 21 120

Karstadt Fitness (four locations in Cologne and Bonn)
www.karstadtfitness.de

Neptunbad (Cologne)
www.neptunbad.de
Tel. 0221/71 00 71

Sport Treff Beuel (Bonn)
http://www.sport-treff-beuel.de/home.html
Tel. 02 28/44 05 67

Vitalis Fitness Team (Cologne)
www.vitalis-fitness.de
Tel. 0221/9 63 61 26

GOLF

The Rhineland area has one of the highest densities for golf courses in continental Europe. More 70 courses stretch the Rhineland from Düsselodorf to Aachen. The area also hosts two important professional tournaments: the Kaufhof Pokal in Birkhof/Kaarst (near Düsseldorf), part of the European Challenge Tour, and the Linde German Masters at Gut Lärchenhof in Pulheim, with tens of thousands of visitors each year. An extensive list of golf courses in the area can be found at www.maingolf.de/st_rl.html .

In recent years, foods from outside Europe have become more and more popular in Germany – including fruits and vegetables that had long been exotic to the German palate. Contributing to this development has been the rise in immigrant numbers from Asian countries, especially China. As a result, the long-established Turkish shops - with their lamb and poultry meat, goat cheeses, figs, dates, and olives - have found they have company with Asian stores mushrooming throughout German cities. There you can buy not only spices, sauces, rice and noodles, but also fresh vegetables, among them bean sprouts, Asian broccoli, pok choy, okra, and chillies.

Fans of Japanese foods can also find numerous Nippon shops in downtown Düsseldorf (on Immermannstraße and around), home to the largest Japanese community in continental Europe. The food specialties there are usually hard to find in Europe and range from typically Japanese pickled vegetables and fresh fish to Japanese teas, sweets and ricewine.

For groceries from English-speaking countries, you can visit the following shops:

The English Shop
An St. Agatha 41
50667 Cologne
Tel. 0221/257 85 55 or 257 87 00
E-mail: info@english-shop.net
www.english-shop.net

The International Store
for British and American Products
Kurfürstenstr. 28
40211 Düsseldorf
Tel. 0211/36 77 211
E-mail: TheStore@tis-2.com
www.tis-2.com

American and British Foods
Corneliusstr. 45
40215 Düsseldorf
Tel. 0211/385 85 01
E-mail: ab-foods@mail.isis.de
www.ab-foods.de

The Cottage
Annastr. 36
52062 Aachen
Tel./Fax 0241/4011 764
E-mail: cottagemail@aol.com
www.the-cottage.de

COLOGNE

Buchhandlung Klaus Bittner
Albertus Str 6

BONN

Bouvier Bookshop

0228 729010

Am Hof 28-32

Bonn

Bücher Bosch

0228 957150

Alte Bahnhofstraße 1-3
Bonn-Bad Godesberg

October 2004

[Copyright Expatica 2004]

Subject: Relocation Germany, Cologne, Bonn