Are these the same people who pollute Cologne’s parks, streets and train stations with their (plastic) garbage?

Cologne-Gremberg has a garbage problem. Here on Gottfried-Hagen-Straße, for example at the old Kalk train station (closed in 1991), unknown people dump what is no longer needed. Illegal, of course. Some residents are desperate because the chaos is nothing new, in fact it is getting worse. And so far, no one is doing anything!

Here, at Cologne’s illegal rubbish dump, you can find a lot of things: old mattresses, refrigerators and freezers, carpets and lots of building rubble – the list goes on and on. And larger items are also apparently disposed of here. A broken and littered car, a filthy mobile home – these are also unlikely to be picked up here.

What is particularly bitter is that the area on Gottfried-Hagen-Straße is not deserted, but rather quite busy. “There are residential buildings in the immediate vicinity and the path is used by many adults who go to the S-Bahn or U-Bahn, as well as by schoolchildren who go to school in Kalk,” says a resident who has turned to EXPRESS.de in desperation.

In their distress, some residents had already turned to the city of Cologne – a case for the AWB? No. The city responded that the area belongs to Deutsche Bahn.

The DB was informed about the mountains of garbage as early as February 2024, as evidenced by emails available to EXPRESS.de. But: no reaction. Apart from the automated email reply that the request was “in good hands with us”.

Four months have passed since then. “Nothing is happening,” the resident continues. Instead of finally getting help, the local people have to watch the mountain of rubbish grow, and it keeps getting bigger.

EXPRESS.de asked Deutsche Bahn on Monday (June 3) about the mountain of rubbish in Cologne-Gremberg. A response is still pending.

The garbage situation around Cologne train stations has been a recurring topic of discussion recently, especially in a survey conducted by Go.Rheinland on the worst train stations in North Rhine-Westphalia. The Trimbornstraße S-Bahn station (also in Kalk) came out with the worst results.

Kalk station (formerly Kalk-Süd station) has been out of service since June 1991, having been in use for 105 years. Platforms, entrances and more have since been removed, and the site has only served as an operational station since then.

By Thomas Werner (tw)

Heavy rain, high water, flooding – the storm has southern Germany firmly in its grip. The water levels have reached the heights of a once-in-a-century flood. Dams are breaking. Places are being evacuated. Read everything you need to know in the weather ticker.

Many people can easily imagine spending their retirement abroad. However, the dream can also go really wrong, as in the case of Christine, who is stuck in Thailand.

The original of this article “Residents despair over garbage chaos in Cologne: “Nothing is happening”” comes from Express.de.