The bookshop at the cathedral

Alongside her work as managing director, Ilse Salberg was deeply involved in cultural and artistic projects in Cologne. Together with her husband Rudolf Metzger and the art historian Dr Hans Melchers, she founded the Bücherstube am Dom in September 1931. As well as selling books, the Bücherstube organised lectures and exhibitions for a mixed audience of middle-class Jews and Catholics. In 1932, the couple sold their shares in what had become a successful business.