Start und Ziel: Wolfgang Niedecken über die Südstadt und 50 Jahre BAP

In the organizer's words:

The story of BAP began 50 years ago in Cologne's Südstadt district. Chlodwigplatz was the living rehearsal room, in the middle of which were a few musicians who liked to drink beer together and were crazy enough to go outside with their ideas. What happened next is music history: Wolfgang Niedecken still fills the halls of the republic with his Cologne dialect today. He has always described Chlodwigplatz as "his navel of the world" - and has sung about it more than once. The BAP boss turned 75 this year. He has countless stories to tell: about Cologne after the war, the people in the Vringsveedel, the Cologne language and how he expresses all of this in his music.

Cologne journalists and BAP experts Jens Meifert and Anne Burgmer will be talking to Niedecken in the main auditorium of the Comedia about small and big stories from his life. A pictorial journey leads to old locations on Severinstraße, the sweat of the rehearsal rooms and to moving moments on and off the stage. On July 10, Niedecken plays with BAP for the first time in the Rhein-Energie-Stadion. It's the home stretch.

The proceeds from the evening will go to the Welthungerhilfe project "Au secours du Congo".

The evening is a cooperation between Kölnische Rundschau and Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. Anne Burgmer is head of the culture editorial department of the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, Jens Meifert is editor-in-chief of the Kölnische Rundschau.