Living in Braunsfeld, Cologne

Braunsfeld sits in the Lindenthal Stadtbezirk, west of the Gürtel ring road. Lindenthal wraps around it to the east and south, Müngersdorf lies to the west and Ehrenfeld to the north. Around twelve thousand people live in its 1.67 square kilometres. It takes its name from Ferdinand Braun, a freight contractor who bought land here in 1862 to run a brickyard; his workers settled on what people called Brauns Feld, and the place was absorbed by Cologne in 1888.

What it is

Two districts in one. Along Aachener Straße and the Maarweg it is a working quarter of offices, showrooms and company headquarters - the DKV insurance group, the head office of the city transport operator KVB, the record company Electrola - and the streets there are wide, busy and functional. Behind that front, the residential streets are narrower and calmer: modest Wilhelminian and inter-war blocks, post-war infill, small apartment houses with front gardens. Aachener Straße itself follows the line of the Roman road that ran west from Cologne towards the Channel coast, and the district has produced some of the city's best-known Roman finds. The Protestant Clarenbachkirche on Aachener Straße, consecrated in 1951 and named after the reformer Adolf Clarenbach, is the local landmark. Melaten, the great cemetery laid out in 1804 and the most-visited green space in this part of Cologne, is just across the Gürtel in Lindenthal.

Who lives here

A working-age mix without a dominant type. Office employees who walk to work, older residents in long-held flats, families in the side streets, and a growing group of younger professionals who wanted a Lindenthal address without a Lindenthal rent. Students are less common than in Sülz because the housing is smaller-scale and there are fewer shared flats, but rooms do come up, particularly in the blocks north of Aachener Straße. The overall feel is settled and middle-class rather than young.

What it's like during the day

Busy on the main axis, unremarkable behind it. Aachener Straße carries traffic, trams and pedestrians all day; the office blocks fill in the morning and empty in the evening. The side streets are residential and quiet, with school runs and parcel vans. The Gürtel green strip runs along the eastern edge, and Melaten cemetery, which people here use as a park with monuments, is a short walk. Further west the RheinEnergieStadion and the Stadtwald open out, two Stadtbahn stops away.

What it's like in the evening

Low-key. The evening offer is restaurants, a few bars and the pubs attached to hotels and offices along Aachener Straße, and it thins out quickly once you leave that street. This is not a going-out district and does not pretend to be. The compensation is the tram: line 1 puts Rudolfplatz five stops away and the Neumarkt six, so the whole inner city is fifteen minutes from your door and the ride home works late.

Getting around

Stadtbahn line 1 runs through the middle of the district on the Aachener Straße axis, stopping at Eupener Straße, Clarenbachstift and Maarweg, then continuing east via Aachener Straße/Gürtel and Melaten to Universitätsstraße, Moltkestraße, Rudolfplatz and Neumarkt, and on across the Rhine to Deutz and Kalk. Line 7 joins the same axis at Aachener Straße/Gürtel on the eastern rim, and line 13 runs the Gürtel there and at Melatengürtel, which is the quick way to Ehrenfeld and the northern districts without crossing the centre. Westwards, line 1 reaches the RheinEnergieStadion in two stops. The S-Bahn station Köln-Müngersdorf/Technologiepark, on lines S12 and S19, is a short ride or cycle to the west. The ground is flat and cycling is easy, though Aachener Straße is not a pleasant road to share with cars. The university's main campus is about two and a half kilometres away: line 1 leaves you with a walk of roughly a kilometre from Universitätsstraße, so most people here cycle to it instead.

Eating and shopping

Aachener Straße is the commercial spine and does the daily shopping - full-range supermarkets and discounters on it and just off it, bakeries, pharmacies, a butcher, and the everyday services that go with an office district. A weekly market is held in the district, and the Saturday Braunsfelder Markt on Kitschburger Straße is a short walk over the southern boundary. Restaurants are the practical kind: Italian, Greek, Asian, plus lunch places aimed at office workers. For a bigger choice you go north into Ehrenfeld or south into Lindenthal and Sülz.

When NOT to pick it

Do not pick it if you want atmosphere: Braunsfeld is useful rather than charming, and Aachener Straße is a main road with the noise and the air of one. Do not pick it if you want student life or a big share of shared flats, because most of the housing here is let to households rather than to rooms. Do not pick it if you want to walk to the university or to the Rhine, because both are a ride away. If you want more life at a similar distance from the centre, look north to Ehrenfeld; if you want green and quiet and can pay for it, look south to Lindenthal; if you want cheaper and further west, look at Müngersdorf.

Braunsfeld is the right choice if you value a straight, fast, reliable connection into the city over the character of the street you live on: line 1 through the middle, a full set of shops on the doorstep, quiet residential blocks behind the main road, and rents below the Lindenthal and Belgisches Viertel level. For office workers, commuters and anyone who wants a calm base within fifteen minutes of the centre, it does the job well.