Bonn. The joy of finally being able to get into some festival moods again was clearly visible to the concert visitors on Saturday in the Kulturgarten at Römerbad: The first music fans were already there at noon, when the gates to the festival area opened. For almost ten hours, up-and-coming artists from all over Germany took to the microphone at the "Zusammen Leuchten" festival.

Seven bands provided good vibes on and in front of the stage. While the visitors were still listening to the group's detailed lyrics about pleasant and unpleasant everyday situations during the second act "Mele", "Children" subsequently motivated many of the approximately 500 spectators who had already found their way to the Kulturgarten in the early afternoon to get up and dance, which was also expressly desired at this corona-compliant festival.

(Original-Text: Sebastian Flick)

Bonn. About 900 graduates of the University of Bonn participated in the newly designed Graduation Walk on Saturday on the Hofgartenwiese. Because it could not take place last year, the event was the highlight of this year's largely digital Unifest.

Since 2005, the graduating classes have been bid farewell as part of the Bonn University Festival. Normally, this took place in early June in the Telekom Dome or in a large white tent on the Hofgartenwiese with a ceremonial-looking presentation of a certificate and warm words from the respective deans. To be able to offer a roughly similar dismissal ceremony this year, the organizers came up with a new concept.

"Due to the still ongoing pandemic, we decided to hold an equalized event outdoors," explained project manager Lena Hufschmidt. "We have assigned students individual start times spread throughout the day. They can then walk the route with up to three registered companions through the various stands." So throughout Saturday, a crowd of happy faces cavorted on the Hofgartenwiese. The happiest of them, of course, beamed from the gowns specially offered for hire. The symbolic path to the finish line, where the deans of the seven faculties were waiting for the students with certificates and congratulations, was lined with a total of 20 stations.

(Original-Text: Jakub Drogowski)

Lessenich/Dransdorf. During the flood disaster, which surprised residents of the Hardtbach in the night of July 14 to 15, the alarm system worked, according to the civil engineering office. Now the city wants to improve flood protection. A relief channel is to offer Dransdorf residents more safety.

Research into the causes of how the flooding disaster could have happened is occupying the minds of those affected in the An der Knappenmühle residential area, in addition to the ongoing renovation work on their houses. And not only those residents, because the Hardtbach also flooded the adjacent Tulpenstrasse and down Bahnhofstrasse, Ferdinand-Porsche-Strasse and parts of Roncallistrasse during the night of heavy rain from July 14 to 15.

If the head of the civil engineering department has his way, further measures against future floods will now have to be taken. "Such events will increase." The task is complex, the effort large and expensive, and planning takes time. "It's not enough for me to enlarge the stream cross-section at the bridge over Bahnhofstraße. The water that runs off must not hit a bottleneck in the further course under any circumstances," Esch said.

(Original-Text: Jutta Specht and Philipp Königs)

Cologne. On Saturday morning the fire department in Cologne has rescued a young cat baby from a wall gap of a warehouse at the wholesale market and thus saved it from certain death.

A lot of tact and a love for animals have been shown on Saturday morning by the emergency forces of the Cologne fire department, when they rescued a young kitten from a wall gap in a warehouse on the wholesale market site. The animal had fallen into the gap between a retrofitted cold store and a load-bearing wall. It had drawn attention to itself and its plight by loud whimpering, so that company employees alerted the fire department.

In order to reach the trapped animal, the emergency services had to crawl into a false ceiling via an extension ladder and, at the end, they lowered a special telescopic ladder into the gap in the wall after about 15 meters in order to reach the kitten. Arriving at the bottom at a depth of about four meters, a firefighter took the visibly frightened animal into a cat box and was then able to make his way back to freedom together with it.

The little animal was returned to the care of its mother and siblings, who had stayed permanently in the immediate vicinity during the rescue.

(Original-Text: Michael Wrobel)

(Translation: Mareike Graepel)