The resolution passed by the Cologne City Council in 2007, aimed at relocating the Cologne wholesale market from Raderberg to Marsdorf will celebrate its 16th anniversary of non-completion this year. As early as 2020, the relocation of the Cologne wholesale market to Marsdorf should have been completed. In mid-2021, a committee consisting of the city administration, politicians, the Cologne Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the IG Kölner Großmarkt was formed, in order to finally make some progress, balancing out the interests of the traders and entrepreneurs at the Cologne wholesale market and the city of Cologne.
"Six joint meetings later, the result is sobering, and the future of the Cologne wholesale market is also more at risk than ever before," said Michael Rieke, spokesman for Interessengemeinschaft
Kölner Großmarkt (IG). "Instead of working at reconciliating all interests, the city administration is merely stating its position and announcing its plans. The remaining participants from politics, IHK Cologne and IG are only uninvolved spectators and can at best express their displeasure.
A discussion called about the subject in November 2022 with the Lord Mayor again showed the attitude of the city administration. "Parkstadt Süd is coming!" was the mayor's introduction to the 'joint conversation'. Traders and entrepreneurs should just accept the facts (created by the city administration and some political forces), the mayor continued. It was also her idea to offer space at Marsdorf to football club FC Köln, as 'there was enough room there'.
Traders at the Cologne wholesale market. Clockwise: Michael Rieke and Fermin Montaner Reinhardt, Christian Fischermann of Wolf Ltd, Norbert Heep of Früchte Heep and Akif Ulas of Fruitalia Ltd.
Wholesale market as part of the public service
In this conversation, it was announced at the time that the planning for the downsized area had reached its conclusion and that the city administration would launch a tender in November 2022, looking for an investor for construction and operation. It was clear to the Lord Mayor that this project would mean Cologne's withdrawal from the operation of the Cologne wholesale market as part of its public services. This, it said, was also just a fact that traders and entrepreneurs would have to come to terms with.
"By creating an ever-growing mixed situation - a kind of artificial chaos - the city administration is simultaneously trying to pass the buck to the traders and entrepreneurs at the Cologne wholesale market in the event that the city of Cologne will no longer have a wholesale market in the future. In the meantime, the Lufthansa Group is also coming into focus, with its considerations regarding the location in Cologne. The tense relationship between the insurer DEVK and the city of Cologne is well known also. This is how companies operate, and the city administration and politicians are well aware of this."
"Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt; these are some examples of German cities with functioning wholesale markets. Other European countries can do it as well. Large cities like Paris and Verona have excellent wholesale markets. Also, the fact that many jobs and families depend on the operation of the Cologne wholesale market, is ignored by those responsible in the city council of Cologne."
"The city just does not seem to have any ambition to establish a modern, attractive wholesale market for the preservation and creation of jobs, promotion of free competition, expansion of the distribution platform for regional producers as well as ecologically produced products."
According to the IG board, any kind of participation by the city of Cologne is essential for constructions and operations. "We reject a complete privatization of the operation. We reject a definite closure of the wholesale market at the current location. We continue to hold the City of Cologne to its obligations, to maintain a wholesale market as a municipal operation or at least with municipal participation."
Demands of the IG to politicians and city administration
"We hereby reject a relocation to an area reduced to about 10 hectares, a planning of a construction method over two floors, a calculated loss of traders and entrepreneurs and a simultaneous withdrawal of the city of Cologne from the financing of the future wholesale market. We demand a moratorium on all projects that affect the operation of the wholesale market at the current and future location. This concerns the Parkstadt Süd, the extension of the north-south urban railroad, the Masterplan Stadtgrün as well as a possible project of FC Köln on the areas of the future wholesale market in Marsdorf."
"We demand a return to planning over the original area of 24 hectares in Marsdorf, or alternatively a new site search of suitable areas. At the same time, traders and entrepreneurs will need to receive a location guarantee at the current Raderberg location until at least 2028."
For more information:
Michael Rieke
Interessengemeinschaft Kölner Großmarkt e.V.
c/o Fermin Montaner GmbH & Co. OHG
Marktstraße 10 ◦ 50968 Köln
Tel: +49 (0)221 934730-42
Fax: +49 (0)221 934730-66
Email: info21@koelner-grossmarkt.de
Internet: www.koelner-grossmarkt.de