Attention chocolate fans! Not only does our local specialty Kölsch attract countless visitors every year, our most famous museum is also a real crowd puller: the Chocolate Museum! 650,000 visitors are amazed by the sweet temptation every year. This makes the Chocolate Museum the most visited museum in Cologne. Not only will you learn a lot about the history and origins of cocoa and chocolate, but you can of course also try the treat at the unique chocolate fountain!
The chocolate museum also regularly hosts guided tours, events and chocolate-making courses. The 4,000 m² museum also has a café serving delicious cocoa, melt-in-the-mouth ice cream and the finest cakes. With a bit of luck, you'll find a place outside on the terrace and enjoy your selection with a view of the Rhine!
What is there to see in the Chocolate Museum?
The exhibition itself covers a full 5,000 years of cocoa history ! There are countless historical exhibits on the topics of chocolate, its origins and cultural significance, including old machines that were used to make chocolate, as well as the history of chocolate in advertising. This makes the museum the most comprehensive representation of the past and present of cocoa and chocolate in the world.
An interesting feature is that the museum has been run in a climate-neutral manner since 2019. Sustainability and environmental protection are important concerns for the museum's creators. Therefore, the environmentally harmful effects of cocoa cultivation are also addressed. The same applies to the often difficult working conditions in the Central and South American growing countries.
There is also a small tropical house in the museum, where you can experience for yourself the climate in which tropical plants grow. Of course, we also find cocoa trees here. There is also a chocolate factory in the chocolate museum, where you can see how chocolatiers make the sweet temptation. You should definitely refresh yourself at the famous chocolate fountain ! And don't worry: you can also snack on a piece of chocolate in the museum every now and then!
The Chocolate Museum is no longer just a meeting place for chocolate fans. Various events take place on the forecourt throughout the year, such as street food festivals, the Midsummer Festival in June or the cozy harbor Christmas market from the end of November.
Chocolate Museum since 1993
The museum was founded by Hans Imhoff and opened in 1993. At the time, people were skeptical as to whether such a special museum could be successful. However, visitors quickly proved the skeptics wrong. In the first few years, the chocolate manufacturer Stollwerck was behind the museum; in 2006, Lindt became a partner of the museum. It is therefore no surprise that in the early days many of the exhibits came from Stollwerck . However, this changed after the takeover by Lindt.
Nevertheless, the Imhoff family continues to be present in Cologne's social life to this day, especially through the Imhoff Foundation founded by Hans Imhoff. The benefactor wanted to do something good for his hometown in this way. The foundation supports educational, social and artistic projects in Cologne.
Over 120 years of chocolate art in Cologne
The Stollwerck company was founded in 1839 by Franz Stollwerck, but initially produced cough drops, among other things; chocolate was not added until 1860. Industrialization then gave chocolate production a real boost. Business was doing well around the turn of the century, but the global economic crisis of the 1920s and 1930s and the Second World War left deep scars.
The turning point only came in 1972, when Hans Imhoff took over the company. He expanded Stollwerck into one of the leading chocolate manufacturers in the world . However, the traditional factory in the Severinsviertel was closed in the mid-1970s.
Stollwerck and the Südstadt
The factory dominated the district at the time. The Stollwerck Girl (also called the Chocolate Girl or Praline Girl), a fountain with a bronze figure erected in 1989 on Serverinskirchplatz, also tells of this time. At the time of the chocolate factory, the young women who worked there had a rather dubious reputation. They did not prepare for the role of wife and mother, which was intended for young women at the time, but instead went to work. According to a newspaper report from 1902, they could neither cook nor sew. A scandal for the time!
After the factory closed , Cologne's largest house occupation took place: the Stollwerk occupation. The whole thing lasted almost 50 days. BAP (perhaps you know Wolfgang Niedecken) even wrote a song about it, the " Stollwerckleed ". Today, the Stollwerck community center in the southern part of the city is not only one of the largest community centers in North Rhine-Westphalia, it also hosts many exhibitions and concerts.
Your visit to the Chocolate Museum
Especially on days when the Chocolate Museum is usually very busy - for example on Sundays or public holidays - we recommend buying tickets online . Otherwise, you can of course also buy tickets directly at the box office.
And the Cologne Ferris Wheel is always in front of the Chocolate Museum, regularly traveling back and forth between the zoo and the Chocolate Museum. Before you visit Cologne, you can find out about the current location on the Cologne Ferris Wheel website . If you want to go on the Ferris Wheel and the Chocolate Museum, you can of course buy a combination ticket .
If you're not only thirsty for Kölsch in Cologne, but also fancy chocolate, you should plan a visit to the Chocolate Museum. And then take part in one of our great brewery tours ! 😉
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