Malakoffturm

From 1848, Prussia expanded the city's Rhine-facing defences, including a harbour basin in front of the southern old town and a gatehouse at the northern tip of the basin with an iron swing bridge. The tower was externally complete by 1854 and fully fitted out by 1855. As weaponry advanced, the fortifications lost their military relevance. After the site passed from military to municipal ownership, the Rheinauhafen was developed between 1892 and 1898 — stripping the tower of its defensive role and leaving it facing the city rather than the river.

In 1855 the tower was named after Fort Malakhov in Sevastopol, seized by French troops on 8 September 1855 during the Crimean War after Russian defenders had held out through eleven months of siege. Why a Cologne fortress tower received this particular name puzzled contemporaries — as late as the 1940s, a cavalry captain at the Cologne military command could find no explanation in the records.

After the Second World War, freight traffic shifted and the Rheinauhafen declined in importance. The swing bridge is now mostly open to pedestrians and cyclists, who use it to reach the Chocolate Museum — housed in the building opposite since 1993. Just to the southwest of the tower stands the 1911 sculpture known as the Tauzieher (Tug-of-War Players).