Partner Search in Cologne – Online Dating in Cologne at Consonance (Gleichklang)
Cologne is a big city, so partner search, getting to know people, finding friendships, projects and communities should be particularly easy. That’s what many think, but it’s a fallacy. Precisely where many people live, the proportion of singles is especially high, and most are involuntary singles. This also applies to Cologne.
Partner search in Cologne is therefore – as everywhere – predominantly online dating today. But on dating apps, the ideology “more is more” also applies, and so superficial contacts, broken-off contacts, and new matches often arise, but no new relationships.
What we at Consonance (Gleichklang) have observed for 20 years also applies to partner search in Cologne:
What matters is not geographic distance, but the compatibility of values, life goals, and ideas about relationships.
This is exactly where Consonance (Gleichklang) comes in, by bringing people together for partnerships, friendships, projects, and communities that can build something valuable together in life:
See for yourself and join in: ➨ SIGN UP NOW!
Partner Search in Cologne – and why city size alone isn’t enough at Consonance (Gleichklang)
Cologne has a huge number of places to meet people. But there is a problem:
Everywhere, people are looking at their phones. Fewer and fewer are willing to get to know each other at third places. This phenomenon is called phubbing. And the second phenomenon is that people come with their friends and have little interest, willingness, or courage to get to know anyone outside their circle of friends.
This is how most singles ultimately go home alone again, if they don’t distract themselves from their single status with short-term one-night stands via dating apps.
Take the Rheinpark on a Sunday afternoon:
Who actually gets to know someone there and starts a partnership or a relationship? Most people even look at their apps here if they aren’t moving in their established circles of friends. It looks the same in the Volksgarten. People stay in their groups, and the singles end up alone. The Zülpicher Straße, the Belgian Quarter, the Brüsseler Platz, the Südstadt – people are everywhere, but partnerships or friendships hardly develop.
We see exactly the same thing in Cologne’s cultural venues:
The Odeon Cinema shows great films, people engage with each other or with their phones. At the Metropolis Cinema in Ehrenfeld, at the Alter Wartesaal, this huge former station hall with many concerts, parties, readings – visitors come in groups and leave in groups, or they come alone and leave alone. It’s similar at Odonien, that fantastic sculpture landscape with a club in the north: full of people, and again the singles remain singles.
Theoretically, the many leftist and queer venues in Cologne are practically perfect for partner search or building friendships:
The AZ Cologne (Autonomes Zentrum) on Luxemburger Straße – you could talk to strangers there for hours about politics, concerts, and anti-capitalist projects. But you don’t, because everyone comes with their own crowd. The Bahnhof Ehrenfeld (BUE) is a symbol of lived alternative culture, but who goes there to look for a lifelong partner? At the Schäufchen in Ehrenfeld, a legendary queer institution, the atmosphere is often open and warm – yet even there, most conversations fizzle out into small talk that leads nowhere. The Exile, formerly on Venloer Straße, has been a meeting point for the LGBTQ+ scene for decades. We meet people, but we don’t truly connect.
Is it any different in the vegan scene? Cologne is full of vegan cafés and restaurants. Are these places effective for partner search in Cologne or for forming friendships, starting projects and communities?
Theoretically yes, but practically for most, unfortunately not:
Café Grün on Severinstraße, Vreiheit in Ehrenfeld, Well Being at Friesenplatz, Nobiko in Nippes. Here we can meet animal-rights-oriented and health-conscious people. But it’s difficult because almost everyone comes with their friends and wants to spend their time with those friends. Approaching people we don’t know, and possibly for partner search, is also rare in vegan venues.
So it’s no surprise that only 3 percent of all new relationships still arise through third places. A large portion of the rest comes via the internet. Unfortunately, many don’t succeed with dating apps. They remain single, and quite a few fall prey to dating burnout.
The many beautiful and great places in Cologne alone are not enough to help people in Cologne find a partner.
This is exactly where we come in as an ecologically-alternative and psychologically-oriented dating community:
We help people break out of loneliness, which often means first breaking out of the dating-app trap and making possible a genuine, values- and lifestyle-compatibility-based partner search and relationship search once again.
Why Cologne has especially many Consonance (Gleichklang) members
Cologne has an especially large number of Consonance (Gleichklang) members. This is not only due to the many people in Cologne, but we are overrepresented here. There are several reasons for this:
The ideology “more means more” and the resulting emptiness at Consonance (Gleichklang)
While contact options are exploding and we are constantly looking at matches on our phones, single rates are increasing. In a big city like Cologne, more and more singles notice this, and this is exactly what brings them to Consonance (Gleichklang). They are looking for a different way of connecting and finding a partner.
Partner search in Cologne or online dating in Cologne at Consonance (Gleichklang) does not mean focusing on quick chats, a new match, or even geolocation around the corner, but rather becoming clear about one’s own relationship desires and possibilities and, on this basis, searching for people with whom a relationship is possible.
Leftist and resistant structures in Cologne at Consonance (Gleichklang)
Cologne historically and currently has many emancipatory, resistant, leftist structures and free spirits. The Elektrolurch – a house occupation on Maastrichter Straße in the Belgian Quarter – was a housing struggle in the early 1980s that continues to stand as a symbol that you can fight back against displacement. The Autonomes Zentrum Köln (AZ) has existed since 1990 on Luxemburger Straße – a place for leftist politics, concerts, plenums, and encounters, repeatedly threatened by repression and gentrification. And Bumann & Sohn in Mülheim, the self-managed youth center in an old forge, has been a place since 1990 where people come together who want a different society.
These structures, even though they have diminished and are giving way to a neoliberal, indifferent society in many places, still shape many people in their thinking, feeling, and being.
As the only German-language online dating platform and partner search for leftists, Consonance (Gleichklang) resonates especially strongly with people who feel connected to these structures. Thus, left-alternative people from Cologne flow into our community.
Queer scene in Cologne – one of Germany’s oldest communities with struggles for a non-mainstream CSD at Consonance (Gleichklang)
Cologne’s queer history is immense. The Centrum für schwule Geschichte e. V. in the Südstadt was founded in 1984 and remains the heart of the movement to this day. From here, the first queer archives were built, the first memorial for homosexual Nazi victims in Cologne was erected, and the AIDS-Hilfe Köln was co-founded. To this day, there are many queer cafés and meeting places where lesbian, bisexual, gay, trans* and non-binary people have been gathering for decades – the Schäufchen, the Exile, the Iron in the Südstadt.
In addition, there is a special struggle in Cologne: The official Cologne Pride (CSD) has been becoming increasingly commercial, mainstream, and police-friendly for years. Every year, a broad alliance of leftist queer groups, Antifa initiatives, and autonomous collectives forms against this, organizing a CSD that does not become mainstream – an anti-capitalist, radically queer, blocking protest. Whether the Revolutionary CSD, the Queerden CSD, or the Anti-Capitalist Queer Demo: In Cologne, the question of who owns the queer movement is fought over anew every year. These struggles are part of everyday life for many queer people in Cologne.
And yet, even in the queer scene, genuine encounters are increasingly diminishing. Hardly anyone finds a partnership within the scene anymore. Partner search is left to online dating and, for the most part, to dating apps.
But nevertheless, there are many queer singles in Cologne who are looking for a partnership and who feel at home at Consonance (Gleichklang) precisely because they are queer, resistant, and leftist.
Vegan roots in Cologne – pioneers since the 19th century at Consonance (Gleichklang)
As early as 1896, one of the earliest vegetarian restaurants in the Rhineland opened in Cologne on Eigelsteinstraße. In 1904, the “Vegetarischer Bund” was founded in Cologne, which was clearly socialist at the time, and as early as the 1920s there were several vegetarian restaurants in the city. Part of this spirit lives on to this day: the Well Being at Friesenplatz has existed as a vegan bistro since 1989, the Veggie Brothers have several locations in the city, and there are countless vegan cafés like Café Grün, Vreiheit, or Nobiko.
For vegan and animal-rights-oriented people, Consonance (Gleichklang) provides the platform to get to know each other. And this is exactly the reason why many vegan and animal-rights-oriented people from Cologne find their way to our dating platform.
Why partner search in Cologne should not be limited to Cologne alone at Consonance (Gleichklang)
Cologne is very large, and there are many people. Small area – but, as already shown, the size of a city does not lead to improved prospects for finding a partner. On the contrary, sometimes people in rural areas are more successful because they know they have to search beyond their own geographic area to truly find who fits them.
The big city of Cologne does not automatically lead to great love. Consonance (Gleichklang) is therefore active throughout the DACH region – in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland: We support our members in getting in touch with each other, actually meeting, and thus forming love relationships and friendships that often begin at a geographic distance, but which endure and bring great happiness in relationships. Many also find each other and move in together quite soon. Nevertheless, what keeps us in one place? Many Consonance (Gleichklang) members are also willing to relocate, which is explicitly taken into account in the matching process.
A different kind of dating – rooted in humanity at Consonance (Gleichklang)
Consonance (Gleichklang) stands for a serious and sustainable form of partner search that makes it possible even for people from Cologne who have remained single to reach the harbor of love, or better, to embark together on the journey to a fulfilling life. We also support our members in Cologne in finding friendships, projects, and communities:
See for yourself and join in: ➨ SIGN UP NOW!
