The Trade Fair until 1945

When the National Socialists took power in Germany, the fair changed. From that point on ideologically determined events such as "Healthy Women - A Healthy Population" were on the program. The inglorious high point of this political development was the erection of a transit camp on the fairgrounds during the Second World War, from which Jews and gypsies were transported to the death camps. Prisoners of war were also detained here. Following the assassination attempt on Hitler in 1944, even Konrad Adenauer, the far-sighted politician who had fought so hard for the establishment of a fair in Cologne was interned here for a time.