About Kölnische Rundschau

Kölnische Rundschau

The Kölnische Rundschau is a German regional daily newspaper published in Cologne and Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia — the Rhineland's twin cities, the cathedral metropolis and the former federal capital. Founded by the journalist and local politician Reinhold Heinen — who had spent four years in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp under the Nazis and emerged determined that journalism would never again serve dictatorship — it first appeared on 19 March 1946 as a CDU-affiliated paper licensed by the British occupation authorities. Traditionally regarded as conservative, in contrast to the left-liberal Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, it appears in Rhenish format with a network of local editorial offices publishing distinct local editions across the Cologne/Bonn region — a newsroom structure that keeps the paper close to its communities. Since 1999 the publishing rights have belonged to the DuMont group, though the editorial office has remained independent. Its website is rundschau-online.de, the digital home of the Rhineland's conservative daily.

Overview

The Kölnische Rundschau is Cologne's second daily — the conservative counterpart to the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger in a city whose press plurality is a point of civic pride, and one of the few German cities where two full dailies with distinct political profiles still compete. Published by the Cologne Heinen publishing house with independent local editorial offices — from the Cologne headquarters in the Stolkgasse to the Siegburg newsroom — it serves the Cologne/Bonn region with editions including the Rhein-Sieg-Rundschau in the Rhein-Sieg district and a Leverkusen edition. In the first quarter of 2010 the production of the national section was gradually taken over by the editorial office of the Bonner General-Anzeiger — a cooperation between the Rhineland's papers that pooled resources while preserving each title's identity. Every Friday the paper carries the television magazine Prisma as a supplement.

Together with the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, the sold circulation was 134,165 copies in 2025, down 68 percent since 1999 — the two papers' combined decline mirroring the industry's crisis even as their editorial rivalry endures. The share of subscriptions in the sold circulation stands at 90.9 percent, a sign of how loyal the remaining readership is. The publisher since 8 May 2000 has been Helmut Heinen — grandson of the founder and former president of the Federal Association of German Newspaper Publishers.

History

Heinen's 1946 founding

The Kölnische Rundschau was founded by the journalist and local politician Reinhold Heinen (1894–1969) and first appeared on 19 March 1946 — one of the first postwar papers in the Rhineland, and one of the few founded by a concentration camp survivor. Heinen, who had been imprisoned for four years in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during the Nazi period, received permission along with other licensees from the British occupation authorities to publish a CDU-affiliated newspaper — but accepted only after his journalistic independence was secured, a condition born of his experience of dictatorship. This led to constant conflicts with Konrad Adenauer — Cologne's former lord mayor turned Federal Chancellor — over the following two decades: the paper's founder would not be the Chancellor's house organ, and the CDU-affiliated paper repeatedly defied the CDU's leader. Among the co-founders was the jurist and politician Hugo Mönnig.

In 1948 began the attempt at a national edition as the Allgemeine Kölnische Rundschau — an ambitious bid to build a national conservative daily from Cologne — which led to losses in the millions and failed with the paper's discontinuation in 1950, a sobering lesson in the economics of national ambitions. In 1952 the traditional Bergische Landeszeitung of Bergisch Gladbach (founded 1890) was taken over by the Heider publishing house, in 1955 the Oberbergische Volkszeitung — extending the Rundschau's reach into the Bergisches Land. After the death of founder Reinhold Heinen in 1969, his adopted son and son-in-law Heinrich Heinen (1921–2008) became the sole publisher of the Rundschau, continuing the family stewardship into the paper's second generation.

From rivalry to cooperation with DuMont

Since October 1949 the former competitor DuMont Schauberg was again allowed to publish the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger — and the two papers fought one of the fiercest newspaper wars in postwar Germany, competing for every reader and every advertiser in the Cologne region. The initially fierce journalistic and economic confrontation between the two publishing houses was replaced from the 1980s by increasing cooperation, as both recognized the economics of the declining market. In 1982 DuMont acquired an equity interest in the Heinen publishing house. Even after DuMont's 1999 takeover of the publishing rights, the editorial office remained independent — the Rundschau's journalists continued to write from their own desks, in their own voice. Since 8 May 2000 the publisher has been Helmut Heinen, grandson of the founder and former president of the national newspaper publishers' association — the third generation of the family at the paper's helm.

Content and Programming

The Rundschau's content centers on Cologne, Bonn, and the surrounding Rhineland: city politics in both cities — Cologne's Rathaus and Bonn's, the former federal capital still home to ministries and international institutions — the Rhein-Sieg district, the Bergisches Land, 1. FC Köln and the region's football, the Karneval, and the cultural life of the region. The paper's local editions carry distinct local sections under their own mastheads: the Bonner Rundschau in Bonn, the Rhein-Erft-Rundschau with newsrooms in Brühl and Bergheim/Erft, the Rhein-Sieg Rundschau, the Bergische Landeszeitung, the Oberbergische Volkszeitung with newsrooms in Gummersbach and Wipperfürth, and a Kölnische Rundschau edition for Euskirchen and the Eifel region with newsrooms in Euskirchen and Schleiden-Gemünd. The paper withdrew entirely from the southern Ahrweiler district — where it had published the Rhein-Ahr-Rundschau — on 1 May 2005, and in 2014 the local newsrooms of the Rundschau and the Stadt-Anzeiger were outsourced to an external company producing content for both papers, with only Cologne, Leverkusen (Stadt-Anzeiger only) and Bonn (Rundschau only) keeping fully independent local newsrooms. As a center-right paper, its commentary offers the conservative counterpoint to the Stadt-Anzeiger's left-liberal voice — The papers' enduring rivalry of ideas being one of the Rhineland press landscape's defining features, and one that survived their common ownership — proof that competition of convictions can outlast competition of companies. The national section has been produced by the Bonner General-Anzeiger's editorial office since 2010 — a division of labor that lets the Rundschau's journalists concentrate on what they do best: Cologne, Bonn, and the Rhineland. Since 1 May 2025 the editor-in-chief has been Raimund Neuß, who succeeded Cordula von Wysocki in the role.

Coverage and Audience

The Kölnische Rundschau serves the Cologne/Bonn region — Cologne, Bonn, the Rhein-Sieg district, Leverkusen, and the Bergisches Land — a region of several million where the paper's conservative voice has deep roots in the Catholic bourgeoisie. Its readership reflects its conservative heritage: bourgeois, locally rooted, loyal, with a strong presence among the region's business community and the CDU milieu — the Rhineland Catholicism that has shaped the region's politics for generations. Together with the Stadt-Anzeiger, the two DuMont papers reach deep into the region's households, preserving — at least editorially — the plurality that has characterized Cologne's press since 1946, when Heinen's Rundschau and the returning Stadt-Anzeiger began their long rivalry.

Ownership

The Kölnische Rundschau's title and publishing rights have been held by the DuMont publishing group since 1999; in February 2026 it was announced that DuMont would take over the paper's publishership and editorial responsibility from April 2026. The paper was long published by the Cologne Heinen publishing house with independent local newsrooms, and since 2010 its national section has been produced by the Bonner General-Anzeiger newsroom.

The Kölnische Rundschau is published by the Cologne Heinen publishing house; the publishing rights have belonged to M. DuMont Schauberg since 1999, though the editorial office has remained independent — a deliberate arrangement honoring the founder's insistence on journalistic autonomy, the same insistence that once put him at odds with Adenauer. The publisher is Helmut Heinen, grandson of founder Reinhold Heinen and a former president of the Federal Association of German Newspaper Publishers — the family's third generation at the helm. In February 2026, however, a new chapter was announced: the DuMont Mediengruppe would take over the publishing role (Herausgeberschaft) of the Kölnische Rundschau from April 2026, assuming editorial responsibility — ending eight decades of Heinen-family publishing stewardship while the paper itself continues to appear.

Digital Presence

The website rundschau-online.de carries the paper's regional journalism online, with continuously updated Cologne/Bonn news, e-paper editions, and newsletters — the digital continuation of a paper founded when news traveled by bicycle and telephone. The site operates with digital subscriptions, serving the paper's loyal conservative readership in the digital age — readers who have taken the Rundschau for generations and now read it on tablets and phones. The paper maintains local editorial offices with digital presences — including the Rhein-Sieg-Rundschau's Siegburg newsroom — and publishes the Sunday supplement Rundschau am Sonntag, extending the week's journalism into the weekend. Founded in 1946 by Reinhold Heinen, the paper's insistence on editorial independence remains its defining trait eight decades on.