24 people – one house
An extraordinary student residence in Cologne South City

The Schmittmann-Kolleg…

is a student residence for 24 people in the south city of Cologne. The fascinating part: The accommodation is self-governed by us, the students. Every semester one of us designs a content-related programme. Each programme is unique, refers to another topic and creates a great atmosphere within the house, plus it enables us to think outside the box.

Besides the private student rooms, the house consists of a library, a TV room, a big shared kitchen and a lot of other features.  Due to the association Kreuz Kolleg Benedikt Schmittmann Haus and the foundation Benedikt und Helene Schmittmann-Wahlen-Stiftung we, the students, are able to live in this unique student residence and profit from all its benefits. We are honestly thankful for this opportunity. If you want to become a part of us, have a look around online and send your application to us. We are looking forward to your application!

who we are

Us

We are 24 students who are of course all different but also have a lot of similarities. These are engagement, an open minded attitude and also the willingness to shoulder responsibility. All these common beliefs enable us to live together, but not only our similarities but also our differences lead to interesting talks and discussions.

Daily life

Not only are we housemates, but also friends. We spend a lot of time together and there is always someone who is in the mood for activities like playing games, having a barbecue, organising a pub crawl and much more. In December we are having a Christmas event and there is always something going on at times like New Year’s Eve and Carnival. The greatest advantage of sharing a house with 23 other students is the fact that you will always find at least one person who is up for activities but of course it is also possible to spend some relaxed time on your own. If you want to know what is going on at the moment, follow us on Facebook. We’re looking forward to you giving your thumbs up.

Semester Program

Every semester we are looking forward to gain new knowledge of a specific topic. One of us organises a few talks or activities referring to a subject of choice and no matter whether the semester program is dedicated to media culture, war and peace, philosophy or our lovely city Cologne, there are interesting events every time. The special highlight of every semester is our trip. During the winter term we always leave Cologne for one weekend and in summer we spend an entire week at places like London, Paris, Berlin or Rome where we enjoy amazing days together and get to know each other even better. Here you can find more information about our current and also the last programs.

Self-Management

Because the shared life of 24 people needs to be organised, each of us undertakes a task. This can be the set-up of our kitchen cleaning, catering for shared events, administration and much more. These responsibilities are switched every semester. For more information click here.

the house

From the outside our house still seems to be the old villa it used to be, but the inside is as different as special to us. There are three floors and 24 rooms in total. One for every housemate. The common rooms are especially importance to us: The kitchen – which is of course big enough for everyone to prepare their meal – as well as the dining room next to the kitchen form kind of a centre of everyone’s life since its function as a social meeting place in the house. Moreover we have our own library, which is filled with books, and cannot only be used for studying but also for many other activities. Connected to the library, you can find our TV room. Outside the house there is our small garden, which is great for barbecues during summer time.

While talking about this house, it is important to keep in mind how the whole system works. Without support by our sponsoring association and the foundation, the Schmittmann-Kolleg would not exist as it does. Especially Benedikt Schmittmann and his wife Helene had a specific role. For more information about them, go on reading the history session.

By the way, we are neither a fraternity, nor are we bound by any other restricting ideology. Benedikt Schmittmann was a devout Catholic, but we never chose our new housemates according to their confession. We are rather interested in your wish to integrate and be part of our group.

The Location

We love our neighborhood – the southern part of Cologne. The location is very central and a tram takes you to Friesenplatz, Neumarkt and the central station within a few minutes. Moreover it is only a five minutes walk to Chlodwigplatz, which is perfect for grocery shopping and also offers a wide range of nice restaurants, cute cafes and Cologne’s typical pubs. Also within walking distance there is the beautiful park “Volksgarten” and the river Rhine with its stylish new harbour “Rheinauhafen”.

The Rooms

Our rooms are quite different from each other. There are smaller and bigger ones, square and longish rooms with either one or two windows. The rent for small rooms is less than for the bigger ones and there are possibilities to change the room when someone moves out. It is important to mention that all rooms are ready furnished and also contain a sink. A bed plus bedside table, a desk and desk chair, as well as a wardrobe and a shelf belong to every room and must not be removed. It is not possible to replace the interior with your own furnitures but mostly there is still enough space to bring some personal furniture and belongings. That is how every housemate creates their very own atmosphere in their room. There are some pictures for you to get an impression how we decorated our rooms and what your future room might look like.

application

We provide students with rooms in a nice, modern house in the south of Cologne. It is possible to stay with us till the end of your studies, but we also have at least one part-time tenant per semester.

We expect our future housemates to be looking forward to becoming part of our community and taking part in our social life!

If we are convinced by your application, we invite you over to get to know you in person. A group of five housemates decides who may finally move in with us. To make sure you want to apply and live with us, please inform yourself about history, association and foundation of our house online. There you can find a lot of answers to different questions and please do not hesitate to ask us via e-mail if you want to know more.

If you want to move in with us please send your application with…

– A motivational letter

– Your Curriculum Vitae

to haussprecher@schmittmann-kolleg.de

Please do not forget to mention you name, age and subject of study, otherwise we cannot consider your application.

Moving in as a part-time tenant

You would like to stay with us for at least two months or a whole semester due to an internship or an exchange semester? Just send a mail to heimleiter@schmittmann-kolleg.de and ask our administrative person if there are rooms available for part-time tenants. Please also give information about your name, age, subject of study and the reason for you stay in Cologne. If you are interested in becoming a long-time tenant, please do not apply for a part-time tentant, but send your application to the „Haussprecher*in“.