ZDV-The History

There were representatives of nobility, educated middle-class, economy and church, who on this memorable date decided upon resumption of the work on the cathedral, which had dominated the townscape like a huge torso since the 16th century. Boisserée had been dreaming about the perfection of the Gothic cathedral since 1808. Due to fortunate circumstances in 1815 he received the medieval construction plan for the Cathedral's facade by the Cathedral master builder from French diplomat, statesman and author of German descent Karl Friedrich Reinhard. The time now seemed to have come to establish one's society with the sole purpose to complete building the Cathedral, commenced in 1248. On September 3rd, 1840 two-hundred-and-two friends and sponsors of Cologne Cathedral gathered in Cologne's town hall to prepare the founding of the association. A committee was elected to discuss and record the club-laws to then be submitted to the Prussian king for his permission. King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, who had already been enthused by Sulpiz Boisserée with the idea of commencing construction during a visit in Cologne while he was still prince royal, granted permission on November 23rd 1840 to found a society in furtherance of the Cathedral's completion. He furthermore promised to support the society with annually 10.000 thaler - which today's value would be approximately 1,5 million Euro.

On April 13th 1841 a general meeting of all parties involved hitherto adopted a constitution and exhibited it again to the king for his appraisal, who decreed the remit of founding the association on December 8th 1841. On February 14th 1842 the society's first General Assembly took place in Gürzenich. The legal basis for this was a cabinet order of the king. Its legal force by the way is still valid today. Therefore the ZDV is one of the few still-existing so-called "Altrechtliche Vereine" (Old Juridical Societies). An eminent personage of Cologne was elected by ZDV to be its first president: Heinrich v. Wittgenstein, supervisory obards's chairman of the Cöln-Mindener railway corporation and later Cologne's governing president as well. Maybe one of the world's oldest citizen's initiatives' statute determines that not only elected members, but also "born" ones belong to the supervisory board. Cologne's Chief Burogmaster, Cologne's Cathedral master-builder - currently a Cathedral master-builder craftswoman - as well as a delegated member of the diocesan chapter (at present the officiating Cologne's Cathedral provost) are people, to whom the Cathedral is of exceeding importance qua appointment. This also holds true for the Archbishop of Cologne, who is continually asked to take over the honorary chairmanship in the general management. 

After the society's constitution the ZDV-founders exerted all their influence and their reputation to recruit members and collect donations. In conclusion alongside extraordinary construction workers and craftsmen as well as God's blessing were required, but also an immense financial resources in order to complete the house of God according to the original construction plans of the 13th century. The resonance was overwhelming: throughout the world friends and supporters were to be found, benevolent societies were established all over Europe. The idea was obvious, to organise a lottery. But the time had not yet been ripe for it, the ZDV-supervisory board rejected it in the year of 1852 at first.

A game of chance for the Cathedral?Impossible! But already in 1864 it was agreed: Everything for the Cathedral! And that is how it came shortly afterwards, on September 4th 1865, that the first draw of the Cathedral's-construction-lottery took place. Henceforth the society has supported the construction of Cologne Cathedral with amounts between 90.000 and 170.000 thaler annually (approximately 13.5 to 25.5 million Euro). In the year 1869 even 80 per cent of the constructions costs derived from the ZDV's-strongbox.

In total ZDV has raised 1.4 billion Euro to this date since its foundation: for the Cathedral's completion until 1880 it was 60 per cent of the aggregate costs of 6.63 million thaler (roughly one billion Euro). The exposure, dated 1863 until 1902, the society paid for entirely (4.95 million thaler - today's value 742.5 million Euro). Ultimately the ZDV has defrayed half the costs by average annually from 1949 to this date* (in total almost 200 million Euro) for the Cathedral's preservation.

Emperor Wilhelm I. attends the celebration of Cologne Cathedral's completion

But the ZDV-founders did not only collect financial means, but material as well. In this context especially worth mentioning is the emergence of one of the Cathedral's bells for instance. The German emperor Wilhelm I. allowed himself to be persuaded in 1872, to cede twenty-two French canons captured, so a bell for Cologne Cathedral could be found.

40 years after a group of people, decisive and enthused by their idea, had taken on the challenge to resume the Cathedral's construction, on October 15th 1880the completion of Cologne Cathedral was celebrated with a festivity. The German imperial couple as well as members of all German princely houses honoured with their presence this celebration, which nevertheless marked the provisional end of the Cathedral's construction, since: the Cathedral will never be completed and will always be dependent on friends supporting it. Though in 1902, Cathedral master-builder at that time Karl Eduard Richard Voigtel proclaimed that the Cathedral will manage one century without restoration. But as we know, this was a huge delusion. Already in 1903 Voigtel also knew it: His successor Bernhard Hertel proved damages caused by climatic conditions on the Cathedral. It almost seemed like a warning from above, when in the year of 1906 a large boulder fell in front of the main entrance, the moment as High Mass attendees were leaving the Cathedral - however nobody was injured, thank God.

*latest status: 2009