Germany: Cologne archives collapse.

[Berlin-Bob]

Many thanks for the link.
I have found someone who speaks German and was going to ask her to contact the archives for me but I saw a photo in todays Daily Telegraph showing the building in ruins. Apparently it has fallen down.
Michael

Yes, this is BIG news here at the moment, especially in the german genealogy forums - two people are still missing, presumed dead., and a lot of unique, priceless records (from the 9th century onwards), as well as the the usual BMD materials  may have been destroyed. Nobody knows the extent of the loss yet. People are in shock here, both because of the loss of life and the loss of priceless records.


They are building an underground railway in Cologne, and many people believe that this is what caused the subsidence.  A church recently started leaning, and a stop was put to more digging, but the rail engineers and architects measured up everything and said it was OK, so digging continued.  Some cracks in the archive's cellars were also reported but nothing (visibly) was done.


Here's a link to a sequence of pictures, starting with one actually showing just what "records damaged" means !

http://www.stern.de/panorama/:K%F6lner-S%FCdstadt-Bilder-Verw%FCstung/656566.html?backref=656813&cp=6

[Sue15]

A truly dreadful situation and the loss of the archives whilst terrible- the loss of lives is Tragic. I am so sorry for the families of the missing.

That such a thing could happen in a modern city is shocking.  It is so ironic that these records survived the last war and even modern times old world war bombs which are often found in German cities.

I wondered if any of the records have been scanned.

Of course the Germans have some expertise in the reconstruction of records as there are a small team of people who work everyday painstakingly reconstructing documents from sacks of shredded paper from the days of the Stasi in East Germany. I read somewhere that this task could take 300 years.

Hopefully the documents can be recovered and saved - I just wish there was the same chance for the two people missing

Sue

[Ruskie]

That is amazing Bob! 

What a tragedy. Not the sort of thing you expect to see in Germany of all places.

Please keep us updated.

[kerryb]

How truly horrific Bob and no not the sort of thing you expect to see.

My prayers are for the families of the missing.

Kerry

[Berlin-Bob]

The archive seems to have slid and tipped into the underground tunnel, pulling down several neighbouring houses with it.

Nearly 2000 cubic-metres of concrete have been poured into the tunnel
- to act as a protective wall against masses of water which are now pouring into the tunnel, and
- to provide a firmer foundation for the heavy equipment that's needed for further rescue and salvage operations. 

The first few hours after it all started nobody could get near enough to the site, as it was so "fragile".  Bits of the remains of the wrecked buildings are still falling down, but the heavy equipment couldn't get near enough to shore them up or pull the dangerous bits down: hence the concrete. 

It's been raining steadily, so things are looking very grim for the archives.  There are copies of a lot of stuff elsewhere, which can be copied again, but many original documents are possibly irretrievably lost, after being crushed by falling masonry, soaked in water and then immersed in concrete.

[Guy Etchells]

Thankfully only two people missing presumed dead, it could have been far worse.

As for the archives, that is exactly the reason some of us campaign against centralised archives.

It should be illegal to centralise archives in one building unless all records held in that building are duplicated (by microfilming or digitisation) and the duplicates held in a different location.
Cheers
Guy

[Berlin-Bob]

For those who can understand it, an inventory list:

    * 65.000 Urkunden ab dem Jahr 922
    * 26 Regalkilometer Akten
    * 104.000 Karten und Pläne und 50.000 Plakate
    * 780 Nachlässe und Sammlungen (u.a. Jan von Werth, Jacques Offenbach, Heinrich Böll)
    * 500.000 Fotos zu Kölner Ereignissen
    * Urkunden, Ratsprotokolle, Verfassung und Verwaltung, Stadtrechnungen, Hanse, Handel, Zunft, Schreinsbücher, Gerichte, Testamente, Armenverwaltung, Universität vom 12. Jahrhundert bis Ende der reichsstädtischen Zeit
    * Urkunden und Akten der Kölner Stifte und Klöster vom 10. Jahrhundert bis 1802
    * Akten der Stadt Köln aus französischer Zeit von 1794 bis 1814, preußischer Zeit von 1815 bis 1945 und von 1945 bis heute, wie zum Beispiel Schulzeugnisse, Abiturarbeiten und Ähnliches
    * Urkunden und Akten eingemeindeter Orte vom 14. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert
    * Nachlässe bedeutender Persönlichkeiten aus Politik, Kultur, Architektur und Wissenschaft, Archive von Vereinen, Verbänden, Parteien, Verlagen
    * Sammlungen, wie zum Beispiel Handschriften vom 6. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert, Siegel, Pläne, Plakate, Fotos, Zeitungen, zeitgeschichtliche Sammlung.

that's

• 65,000 certificates going back to 922
• Files from 26 Shelf-Kilometers of files
• 104,000 maps and plans and 50,000 posters
• 780 estates and collections (u.a. Jan von Werth, Jacques Offenbach, Heinrich Böll)
• 500,000 photos
• books and records going back to the 12th century
• etc, etc, etc

[Ruskie]

  This is how I feel ....

Bob, what is the gist of the letter on page 8 of your link above?

This story has not been covered by Australian news. 

[kerryb]

Ruskie

It has not been covered by the BBC either

Kerry