Posted on 08/20/2005 7:54:38 PM PDT by sanormal
The first Roman settlements on that river [Rhine], ...Cologne, a city whose earlier name, Colonus, meant "colony," began as fortified military outposts.
That city was living proof both of the savagery of which an unleashed America was capable- by 1945, 90 percent of Cologne's city center was reduced to rubble- and of our nation's sensitivity, for our skilled bombadiers had spared the great Cologne Cathedral, whose twin steeples, before the Eiffel Tower was erected in 1889, had been the tallest structures in the world.
The other thing that took us to Cologne were the relics of the Three Kings, the Magi. Their bones were, and still are, enshrined in a triple pyramid of gold caskets on the high altar of the cathedral.
Frederick Barbarossa brought the remains to Colonge in 1164. ...He found them in Milan, the imperial city to which they had been brought in the fourth century...by Helena.
Cologne was also the home of West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer, the former Mayor of Cologne who defied the Nazis.
Cologne is also the home of a brutal anti-Jewish riot, led by Peter the Hermit, who blamed Jews for the death of Jesus. Over 300 Jews were encircled and given the choice to convert or be kiled. Instead they chose 5 men to slay the rest. Jewish mass suicide reenters history.
By 1348, the Jews of Cologne had been accused of conspiracy and treachery. Perhaps 300 Jewish communities, including the Jewish community in Cologne were exterminated by those who blamed them for the Black Plague.
In 1544 Charles V issued extensive priviledges to the Jews in the Empire. Jewish families in free cities like Cologne returned and prospered.
On May 5, 1933 books by Jewish authors were burned enmasse in Cologne. Ordinary Germans who protested the actions were arrested. More than 26,000 "police prisoners" were held in rudimentary concentration camps, which were hovels surrounded by streches of mud and barbed wire.
Taken from Constantine's Sword, J. Carroll.
Cologne, like all places that have been inhabited by humans, who are stained by original sin, have seen their good times, and their times filled with horror. The citations are historical. However, they are cited from a book which makes very "controversial" conclusions, to say the least.
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