Substitute Odise Roshi scored shortly after coming on to give Cologne a hard-earned 1-0 away victory over 10-man Kaiserslautern.
Roshi struck the only goal of the game in the 72nd minute, 32 minutes after the home side had seen midfielder Ariel Borysiuk sent off on his debut.
Cologne jumped to 24 points as they ended a run of 25 Bundesliga matches against Kaiserslautern without a win. Defeat for the home side ended a streak of five consecutive draws as they remained on 18 points.
Cologne had the first chance of the game after 13 minutes as Mato Jajalo passed from the right side to Slawomir Peszko, who did not strike the ball cleanly from four yards out, enabling Anthar Yahia to head the ball away from danger.
The guests went close again 10 minutes later but Kevin McKenna's header from a free-kick went wide via the outside of the far post.
Kaiserslautern nearly grabbed the lead after 37 minutes but Cologne goalkeeper Michael Rensing made a superb save to deny Itay Shechter's header from eight yards.
The home side went a man down in the 40th minute when Borysiuk was given his second booking within five minutes, ending his Bundesliga debut early.
Cologne appeared to take the lead nine minutes after the restart when Milivoje Novakovic redirected Jajalo's shot into the net - but he was ruled offside.
Kaiserslautern goalkeeper Kevin Trapp made a strong stop from Roshi's shot in the 71st minute - however the Albanian headed the ensuing corner past Trapp, just 99 seconds after coming into the game.
Fellow substitute Mikael Ishak came close to deciding the game for Cologne but Trapp fended the Swede's shot over the crossbar in the 84th minute.
