This special city history of Cologne tells in pictures of the more than 2000-year history of the city. Based on photographs by Wolfgang F. Meier, which explains through the texts of Werner Schäfke as knowledgeable as it is entertaining and light-footed, The four volumes report on four very different epochs of the city's history: from the foundation on the border of the Roman Empire to the early Middle Ages in Volume 1, from Cologne's most radiant period as a metropolis of the Middle Ages in volume 2, from the difficulties and challenges of the modern era from the Thirty Years' War to the "Prussian" century in volume 3 and from the difficult journey to the present as a modern, living metropolis in volume 4. Only the gaze from the present combines past times into larger epochs. This is an overview at the beginning of each volume before various events and aspects of the history and culture of this epoch are vividly displayed on the basis of the annotated images. A chronology and references to further literature are decided by each volume.