Social Programme

Welcome Reception - Wednesday, November 20

19:30 - 22:00
Location: Gaffel am Dom 
Address: Bahnhofsvorpl. 1, 50667 Colgone, Germany

Dress Code: Business casual
Cologne & Kölsch: all about the only language you can drink
(Kölsch tradition and brewery culture in Cologne)

There are so many brewery restaurants between the Cathedral, the Rathaus (Town Hall) and the Rhine Promenade that you’ll surely be putting your beer coaster on top of your Kölsch glass before you’ve gotten to know them all. With this gesture, you’ll be showing the Köbes that enough is enough. It’s time to go home.

What awaits you before you make this decision? 

Cologne’s most down-to-earth restaurants, full of lively cheer and unique rustic charm. There’s probably no other place where you can experience Cologne’s typical hearty yet gruff hospitality as vividly as in its brewery restaurants. 

You might be wondering how it feels to be amidst the brewery restaurant atmosphere. Here conversation flows easily, differences disappear, and people simply have a good time and drink together, in line with the well-known local song “Drink doch ene mit” (lift a glass with us). You can choose between approximately 25 brands of Kölsch brewed in Cologne.
 
Apropos Kölsch: Thanks to the special way it’s brewed, this top-fermented beer makes better use of the sugar and malt than other types of beer, making it especially light and digestible.

Kölsch is traditionally served by a waiter called a Köbes in the traditional gruff Köbes style — in a typical cylindrical Kölsch glass that holds 0.2 l. Because the glass is small, the Köbes rushes around with his round tray of glasses full of Kölsch, setting them down on customers’ tables. The beer is drawn from a 10-litre barrel, and it’s always cool and fresh. So stop talking — and drink up!

Speaking of the Köbes: in other places you might consider his behaviour rude, but here in Cologne’s brewery restaurants it’s part of the city’s unique culture. You could call the Köbes an outlier in the polite art of serving that is normally practised in Germany. 
Gaffel am Dom

Cologne’s brewery restaurants can look back on a history that goes back for 500 years. In the year 1412, a decree of the magistrate of the city of Cologne established 21 breweries operated by professional guilds within the city walls.
Experience the most impressive brewhouse in Cologne and enjoy the relaxed brewery culture in Cologne. 

Gaffel am Dom is a brewery of typical Rhenish character: Bourgeois, hearty and cozy. The waitors are positive, cheerful and attentive. You can feel the sunny Cologne spirit everywhere. This is where the metropolitan flair of the European hub of Cologne meets the village-like tranquility of Cologne: Spacious, bright areas with long counters, benches and tables on the one hand, cozy corners and retreats on the other.

What the ambience promises is kept by the cooking skills and at the tap. The menu mainly features hearty regional specialties for small and large appetites, rounded off with seasonal dishes and varied specialties.

Congress Dinner - Thursday, November 21

18:30 - 23:00
Exclusive Concert at the Cologne Cathedral
Meeting Point: at 18:30 in the lobby of official hotels 

Congress Dinner at Flora Köln
Address: Amsterdamer Straße 34, 50735 Cologne, Germany

Dress code: Business casual
Exclusive Concert at the Cologne Cathedral 

Cologne Cathedral: The city’s hallmark and its heart

The Cathedral and Cologne simply belong together and the church shapes the cityscape. To a Cologne resident, the sight of the Cathedral spires says that you’re home. Today the Cathedral is Cologne’s second-tallest structure, surpassed only by the telecommunications tower. 

Everyone knows this superlative building: It is 157 m tall, covers almost 8,000 square metres of floor space and is the world’s third largest Gothic-style cathedral with 10,000 square metres of windows and 20,000 visitors daily. Some 300,000 tonnes of stones were used in its construction. Maintenance costs per day add up to around €30,000. Its value - priceless, but because it’s unsaleable, it has a book value of only €27.

About 100 people from the Dombauhütte (cathedral masonry office) work every day to maintain the Cathedral as Germany's most popular landmark and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. “When the Cathedral is finished, the world will end” is an old Cologne saying. Even after the 632 years of construction, work thus continues on God’s eternal building site. 
 
But the cathedral is so much more than a sight, a backdrop, a world heritage site or a tourist magnet, because in the end, despite all the valuable exhibits and art objects in the Cathedral Treasure Chamber, in the interior or on the facade, it remains a church with religious services and music that you can experience in this special atmosphere.

Exclusivity of a private organ concert

Only very rarely and only on very special occasions does the cathedral close its doors to the public earlier. This will be the case for the UFI congress delegates. You can look forward to enjoying well-known melodies as part of a very exclusive organ concert in the impressive, venerable ambience of this magnificent building.
Congress Dinner at Flora Köln 

Nestled in the heart of the Botanical Gardens, Flora with its glass annex offers a very special setting for the Ufi Congress Dinner.

Flora can look back upon an eventful history. 14 August 1864 marked the official opening of the Flora, accompanied by a large ball and a concert that included fireworks. 

The building is situated in the heart of extensive, symmetrically-arranged botanical gardens that were laid out by Peter Joseph Lenné in what is known as the ‘mixed German garden style’ and features elements of the Baroque, the Renaissance and the English landscape style. During the years that followed, the park and building were used as exhibition grounds.

Horticultural exhibitions were held there in 1875 and 1888, along with an industry exhibition in 1889 and the ‘German Art Exhibition’ in 1906.
 
The park grounds were enlarged between 1912 and 1914 to become the Botanical Gardens, featuring greenhouses for tropical and subtropical plants and orchids.

The gardens and flora were severely damaged during the Second World War and only reopened as a banquet facility at the end of the 1970s. 

It was extensively renovated again in the early 2010s and restored to its original historical condition. In June 2014 – which was exactly 150 years after the opening in 1864 – Flora Köln was officially reopened; the Botanical Gardens also celebrated its centenary at the same time.

Not just since then, the Flora Köln is considered as one of the finest locations for social events, meetings and concerts in Cologne.