Christi Geburt

From the mid-1960s the large Bocklemünd/Mengenich housing estate grew in the west of Cologne, planned for around 10,000 residents. The archdiocese acquired a central and, at roughly 4,000 m², comparatively small plot for a church and parish centre, and in 1966 launched an architectural competition won by the Hamburg architect Frieling. After the first ground-breaking in September 1968 and the laying of the foundation stone on 30 March 1969, an initial construction phase produced the church, a priests' house and sisters' apartments, with the topping-out ceremony held on 5 September 1969. Services began on 4 April 1971, and on 3 September 1972 Joseph Cardinal Höffner performed the consecration. A black wooden cross placed on the site at the start of construction still stands in front of the church today. In 2002 a vestibule designed by the Cologne architect Johannes Schilling was added.

The asymmetrical windows are the work of Ludwig Schaffrath: the two narrow side windows, which admit most of the light, use an almost colourless leaded glazing, while blue tones dominate in the Lady Chapel and the south window. In 1971 the sculptor Sepp Hürten designed the altar, ambo, tabernacle and font in white marble, as well as the eternal light, the altar cross and the altar candlestick. A concrete relief by Klaus-Heinz Monecke breaks open one wall surface, and Hermann Gottfried created both a fresco-like mural with New Testament motifs and the Stations of the Cross. Further pieces include a late-Baroque wooden Madonna of the 18th century in the confession chapel and a Baroque-style figure of Saint Joseph added in 1984. The organ, built in 1976 by Romanus Seifert & Sohn, has two manuals and 21 stops, its oak case echoing the asymmetry of the architecture. In the tower a peal cast by the Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock foundry, begun in 1970 with three bells, was expanded in 1983 by a fourth and largest bell.