About this place
Breslauer Platz is the station's back door: a busy, unglamorous forecourt that only exists because wartime bombs erased the old quarter that once ran right up to the tracks, and that was named in 1959 after Breslau, today Wrocław. On 26 October 2014 it became the starting point of one of the ugliest riots in Cologne's recent history. Under the banner "Hooligans against Salafists", football hooligans and neo Nazis gathered here in numbers nobody had planned for. The authorities expected around 1,500; an official parliamentary paper later counted about 4,800, facing some 1,300 police officers. Minutes after the march set off, stones, bottles and fireworks flew, journalists and passers by were attacked, Hitler salutes were shown and a police van was tipped onto its side. It took water cannons, batons, pepper spray and hours of police work before the crowd was herded back into the station and sent home. In the middle of the chaos, a travelling street pianist who happened to be here sat down at his grand piano and, for a while, calmed part of the crowd. Seven weeks later, about 15,000 people reclaimed the same square with a concert against racism.
Key facts
- 4800 participants — Hooligans and far right extremists who rallied here, according to an official parliamentary paper, while the authorities had expected around 1,500.
- 1300 police officers — Officers on duty that Sunday, heavily outnumbered once the march set off and the first stones and bottles flew.
- 15000 people — Cologners who filled Breslauer Platz on 14 December 2014, seven weeks after the riot, for a concert against racism (police figure).