Ostheim

Ostheim (Colognian: Uustem or Ossheim) is an eastern district of Cologne in the Kalk district on the right bank of the Rhine. Until the 19th century, Ostheim was a small, agricultural village of the parish of Merheim. During the industrialization of the cities of Kalk and Mülheim am Rhein, Ostheim developed into a residential area for the workers of the factories there. With the incorporation of the mayoralty of Merheim on April 1, 1914, Ostheim became an independent district of Cologne. Due to the bomb-related destruction of the larger neighboring districts in World War II and the associated housing shortage as well as increasing industrialization, several housing estates were built in Ostheim, so that the number of inhabitants more than tripled between 1950 and 1980. In particular, the high-rise area on Gernsheimer Strasse, built in the 1970s, developed into a social hotspot with an increased need for care. Through measures on the part of the authorities as well as private initiative, attempts are being made to counteract this development. Geography The old village center is located on a now dry gully in the formerly marshy area of the lower Rhine terrace east of an ice-age branch of the Rhine. The soil of the formerly mostly forested area is strongly loess- and clay-rich, the altitude of the mostly flat village area is around 50 meters above sea level. The geographically highest point is the Vingster Berg in the northwest of the district, which was heaped up to 64 meters with debris from buildings destroyed in World War II in the neighboring districts.