Cologne Cologne Cologne (; , , ) is the largest city of Germany's most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and its 1,075,935 (2016) inhabitants make it the fourth most populous city in Germany after Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich. The largest city on the Rhine, it is also the most populous city both of the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region, which is Germany's largest and one of Europe's major metropolitan areas, and of the Rhineland. Centred on the left bank of the Rhine, Cologne is about southeast of North Rhine-Westphalia's capital of Düsseldorf and northwest of Bonn. It is the largest city in
Cologne City Hall gradually changed from a mainly feudal society to free citizens. Documents from the years 1135 and 1152, recorded "a house in which citizen convene", referring to the first established council hall, at the location of today's town hall. The coat of arms of Cologne, first mentioned in 1114, is Europe's oldest municipal coat of arms. By 1180, the citizens of Cologne won a legal battle against Philip I, Archbishop of Cologne, for another extension of Cologne's city walls. With the Battle of Worringen fought in 1288, Cologne became independent from the Electorate and on 9. September 1475 officially gained Imperial