This wasn’t the news the German TV industry was expecting at the start of the week.
The largest evacuation since World War II has been taking place in Cologne, as authorities sought to defuse three huge WWII bombs, as several major events are concurrently held in the city.
The evacuation is hitting businesses, schools, hospitals and residents in the affected area and some 20,500 people are being moved with tents set up to provide food and water.
From a media perspective, the evacuation came as major TV and cable industry events were underway. Both TV industry conference Seriencamp and tech-meets-content event AngaCom are situated outside the affected area and will continue. The latter regularly attracts well over 20,000 participants.
Prime Video is holding an upfront event this evening in the Ehrenfeld area, which is close to Seriencamp and slated to continue.
The likes of Maxton Hall scriptwriter Julia Dehne, Smallville showrunner Kelly Souders and Banijay Entertainment co-fiction chief Johannes Jensen are in town for Seriencamp. We’re also on the ground for the event and will update this article as developments happen.
RTL has been impacted, with the broadcaster shifting broadcasts to Berlin as the bombs are dealt with.
Although unaffected, travel plans for people attending events are massively disrupted. At Seriencamp, talk of co-production and industry trends took place alongside chatter about how to get to airports and stations amid the evacuation, notably for those travelling today. Some delegates also had to move hotels and alternate plans are being made.
“The evacuation is the largest operation since the end of World War II,” City authorities said.
The official info detailed affected areas and infrastructure including RTL and several cultural spaces including the trade fair center, the LANXESS arena, the Musical Dome, the Philharmonic Hall and many museums. The area close to the UNESCO-listed Cologne Cathedreal, known as the tallest twin-spired cathedral in the world, is near the radius.
Specifically, there are two 20-tonne bombs and a 10-tonne bomb, the City added. All three are American. Discovering unexploded WWII bombs in German cities is not unusual, but the scale of today’s impacts are by far the most dramatic since end of the war in 1945.
Provided the bombs can be defused, it is expected people will return to their homes this evening.
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