In 1919, the Prussian government endorsed a decision by the Cologne City Council to re-establish the university.

This was considered to be a replacement for the loss of the University of Strasbourg on the west bank of the Rhine, which contemporaneously reverted to France with the rest of Alsace.

On 29 May 1919, the Cologne Mayor Konrad Adenauer signed the charter of the modern university.

At that point, the new university was located in Neustadt-Süd, but relocated to its current campus in Lindenthal on 2 November 1934.

Initially, the university was composed of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences (successor to the Institutes of Commerce and of Communal and Social Administration) and the Faculty of Medicine (successor to the Academy of Medicine).

The university is a leader in the area of economics and is regularly placed in top positions for law and business, both for national and international rankings.

The University of Cologne is a statutory corporation (Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts), operated by the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

which is a coalition of fifteen major research-intensive and leading medical universities in Germany with a full disciplinary spectrum.

Leading researchers are affiliated to Cologne: e.g., Angelika Nußberger, Thomas von Danwitz, Claus Kreß, Martin Henssler, Ulrich Preis, Heinz-Peter Mansel.

It consists of the Rector as Chairperson (Joybrato Mukherjee),[5] six Vice-Rectors and the Chancellor (Karsten Gerlof).

[6] The Rectorate is elected by the University Election Assembly, in which the Senate and the University Council exercise equal voting power; the first term of office is at least six years and subsequent terms of office at least four years.

short-term students On 20 July 2005, the University Senate approved a concept for the reorganization of the faculties.

The foundation manages private donations to the university, which promote the transfer of knowledge to society.

With 337 degree components and programmes and 79 doctoral disciplines (in the winter semester 2022/23), the university offers a wide range of study and research opportunities.

Based on the mission statement for teaching and learning, the University of Cologne has developed a quality management system that involves and is shaped by all status groups.

Due to the legal requirements of Section 11 subsection 2 of the Higher Education Act NRW, students do not form a majority in most committees and can be outvoted by professorial members and other status groups.

The remaining 6% was distributed by the student body to its own projects and salaries as well as to University Sport Cologne.

The AStA offers a wide range of services, including counselling and complaints offices, a bicycle repair shop, a tool rental service, the campus garden and countless cultural and informative events such as lectures, museum tours, the long study nights and the ‘festival contre le racisme’.

The office is located at the DAAD German Centre and represents the China-NRW University Alliance.

The University of Cologne has taken on the task of coordinating academic contacts with China from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The office will make it easier for members of the consortium to expand their work in China and provide local support.

In Division 9 (International Office), matters are managed by the "Cooperation with the Global South" team.

In 2005, the University of Cologne took over the central mediation and coordination of relations between the higher education institutions of North Rhine-Westphalia and China.

[10] The University of Cologne regularly participates in the most important international and national rankings.

The largest contingents of first year students came from Italy (10.3%), Turkey (8.8%), Poland (9,8%), France (6.6%) and Spain (5,5%).