There’s an abundance of TV studios in Cologne and you can even visit some of them to get a look behind the scenes. Photo: Konrad Weber /unsplash

BROADCAST LOVE!

Cologne is the media capital of Germany. From industry moguls to aspiring talents – this is where they all want to be. We take a look at how you can peek behind the scenes on a studio tour in Cologne and even get tickets to watch a show.

Who wouldn’t love to take a look behind the scenes on a studio tour? Where will you find German satire stars battling for supremacy on a Friday night whilst Hollywood celebrities sip on their well-earned cup of coffee just a few kilometres away? Cologne, of course. Where else?

Cologne is a media city. Two of Germany’s largest broadcasters, WDR and RTL, are based here. As are countless production firms, film and TV studios, major events and local radio stations. They’re all part of an extensive line-up of creative minds you won’t find anywhere else in the country.

In other words, Cologne is one of the most important and most popular centres in Germany and Europe for film, TV, radio and digital offerings. But who are the people who make media? Where can you find Germany’s satirical command centres and who curates the country’s favourite sports news programme?

Here’s our lowdown on five places in Cologne where you can take a peek behind the scenes and even get tickets to watch a show.

1. WDR: Tour of the public broadcaster’s studios and workshops

It’s hard to imagine Cologne without WDR – or Westdeutscher Rundfunk, to give it its full name. With a workforce of around 4,500, WDR is continental Europe’s largest public broadcasting corporation. It actually has three sites across Cologne, producing cross-media content on a daily basis. And the television isn’t the only place you can watch it – tours of the radio and TV production studios take you right into the WDR’s beating heart, including the studio used for popular sports programme, Sportschau. At the workshops in the city’s Bocklemünd district, visitors can see how sets are made whilst 1LIVE-Haus is the place to go to learn about the latest sector trends.

If you want to find out how sets are made, take a look behind the scenes at WDR. Photo: Izaak Kirkbeck /unsplash

WDR Besucherzentrum, An der Rechtschule 2, 50667 Cologne, wdr.de

2. MMC Studios: the Hollywood of Cologne

They can do TV on the other side of the Rhine too. The headquarters of the RTL Media Group, uniting almost all of the media giant’s TV channels under one roof, are located on the grounds of Cologne’s trade fair centre in the Deutz district. You can’t actually visit the RTL broadcasting companies but you can explore the MMC studios in Ossendorf, where a number of RTL productions are made. The studio tour takes you through the hallowed halls of Die Höhle der Löwen (Germany’s answer to “Dragons’ Den”/”Shark Tank”) or Let’s Dance (the German version of “Strictly Come Dancing”/”Dancing with the Stars”) or you can test your TV knowledge on a quiz tour. Bona fide Hollywood celebrities are regularly to be found on set here too. Who would have guessed that little old Ossendorf played a part in the filming of blockbusters like “The Reader” and “Amélie”? The studio tour and workshops can be booked through Helikon Events.

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Am Coloneum 1, 50829 Cologne, helikon-events.de

3. Deutschlandradio: a radio studio tour in Raderthal

Produced at Funkhaus Köln in the city’s Raderthal neighbourhood, the Deutschlandfunk and Deutschlandfunk Nova channels have been broadcasting “quality journalism for discerning listeners” to the nation’s ears since 1980. And you get a sense of that on a tour of the broadcasting centre. Besides the newsroom and various studios, visitors can find out more about the Denkfabrik concept, which brings listeners, experts and journalists together to debate current issues. Another highlight is the chamber music hall, which regularly hosts international artists. If you don’t get to see it when you do the tour, make sure you see a concert here sometime – the acoustics are phenomenal.

The Deutschlandfunk chamber music hall waiting for its next audience. Photo: Deutschlandradio / Thomas Kujawinski

Raderberggürtel 40, 50968 Cologne deutschlandradio.de

4. VideoDays Festival: content, creators and credibility

Hardly any other sector has seen as much change in the past few years as the media business. Digital content on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Twitch is pouring onto the market and has long since stopped being a youth-only phenomenon. The VideoDays Festival puts the spotlight on creators and other members of the community, honouring the big names of the scene in a broad programme of events, including panel talks, discussions and the VD Award Gala. Long gone are the days when the audience was made up entirely of screaming teenagers – the festival has developed to become a respected business event, bringing together creators, companies and fans. For information about tickets and dates, visit the festival website.

The VideoDays Festival is a big get-together for creators, businesses and fans. Photo: VideoDays Festival

5. Satire on ZDF: Cologne’s top-class comedy credentials

Two of Germany’s best-known TV satirists are based in Cologne. In his heute show, which first hit screens in 2009, Oliver Welke takes a humorous look at political events around the globe from a studio in the Mülheim district on the right bank of the Rhine. Demand for tickets is high so you can only get them by applying for a random draw. Friday-night programming on public TV station ZDF continues with yet more satire in the form of ZDF Magazin Royale. At 11pm, the curtain rises on Jan Böhmermann, who addresses sensitive issues, causing quite a scandal on more than one occasion. The programme has been broadcast from the Ehrenfeld studio in the neighbourhood of Bickendorf since 2022 and tickets can be purchased online. And if you want even more laughs, we strongly recommend the Cologne Comedy Festival (comedy.cologne).

Tickets for heute show are only available through a random draw so you’ll have to hope luck’s on your side if you want to be in the audience. Photo: ZDF/Willi Weber

Studio Köln-Mülheim, Schanzenstraße 22, 51063 Cologne
Studio Ehrenfeld, Vitalisstraße 170, 50827 Cologne
ticketservice.zdf.de

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