Trade and Market in Cologne - from the Ancient World to the Stapelrecht

The Congress of Vienna called for the Stapelrecht to be abolished. This was the impetus behind the idea proposed by the Kölner Kaufmannschaft (trade alliance) of creating a replacement by establishing a trade fair. In 1828, Peter Heinrich Merkens, who was to become President of the Cologne Chamber of Industry and Commerce declared in a memorandum that a revival of the trade fair tradition would be of vital importance. While this idea was rejected by the Prussian government, merchants and bankers formed a "Committee for the "Great Rhineland Trade Fair" as early as 1848. Initially, these efforts were not crowned with success. The transition, however, from a pure commodities fair to a samples fair, which took place on the tide of the industrial revolution, as exemplified by the Leipzig trade fair in particular, breathed new life into German trade fairs. In 1914, the Werkbund Exhibition took place in Deutz, a part of Cologne situated on the right bank of the Rhine. This successful event boosted the concept of promoting the city's trade and industry with its own trade fair. The Kölner Musterausstellungs GmbH was founded as early as 1916, during the war, at the instigation of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce. This was certainly a major step in the foundation of the subsequent trade fair company

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