St. Joseph Church (Cologne-Ehrenfeld)

The church was built in 1872–1875 to designs by Vincenz Statz as a three-aisled neo-Gothic brick basilica without a transept, combining a tall nave with two low side aisles. Statz, together with Johann and Jakob Wahlen, also donated the building plot. The first service was held at Christmas 1873 while the interior was still provisional, and Archbishop Paulus Melchers consecrated the church to the patronage of Saint Joseph on 11 April 1875. That same year the church received three bells cast by the A. Rodenkirchen firm in Deutz from melted-down cannons, followed by its first organ in 1884.

Alterations in 1912/13 added a transept-like extension and replaced the low façade tower with today's 60-metre square tower topped by a slate-covered pyramid spire. The 1884 organ had to be dismantled for this work, but its replacement remained unfinished because the organ builder Schaeben was called up for military service and did not return from the war. After a stopgap with a borrowed organ, the parish obtained a new instrument of its own in 1926.

On 31 May 1942 an air raid destroyed the church except for its tower. Reconstruction followed in 1949–1955 to plans by Otto Bongartz. In place of the ruined vault, the building received a flat wooden ceiling painted with geometric figures; the exterior walls were rendered while leaving the ashlar detailing visible. A new organ with 38 stops and three manuals was built by the Gebr. Krell firm of Duderstadt in 1957. Coloured glass windows were added in 1958 and four new bells in 1960. Following the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council, the chancel and the building's colour scheme were redesigned in 1981/82.

The present bells were cast in bronze in 1960 by the Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock firm in Gescher. Their tuning follows the Salve Regina bell motif.