Archives building collapse - Cologne, Germany

[Dave Rogers]

While it's disastrous across the whole spectrum of historical research, this must have some impact on us too. I don't know what specific documents might have been there. As one of the oldest and largest collections (as was said by another story I read) it seems likely that some important things have been lost. A true tragedy, that.

An article on the collapse is here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 846343.ece

I don't know how much of it might have been digitized and saved. Perhaps careful excavation can save some of it as well. But a monumental loss regardless.

[Dave Rogers]

From the above article:

[...]
If they are ever recovered, the documents will almost certainly be irretrievably damaged.

"We are talking here about 18 kilometres of extremely valuable archival material, of absolute importance to European culture," Eberhard Illner, the head of the city archives, said. "Now the memory of a European city has been destroyed. I can only hope, but cannot believe, that some of these fragile documents survived under tonnes of concrete and steel."

The archives included the minutes of all town council meetings held since 1376. Not a single session had been missed, making the collection a remarkable resource for legal historians.

The earliest document stored in the building dated back to 922, and there were hundreds of thousands of documents spread over six floors, some of them written on thin parchment. A total of 780 complete private collections and half a million photographs were being stored.

Many of the documents had been recovered from library buildings smashed by Allied bombing during the Second World War.

That was one reason why Böll – most famous outside Germany for his novel Group Portrait with Lady – was determined that his manuscripts be housed in the Rhineland city. He had been hailed as the pioneer of postwar Trümmerliteratur, the "literature of the rubble", chronicling Germans' attempts to rebuild their lives and recover their memories. Cologne seemed the appropriate place to house his work.

Mr Illner compared the loss with the fire that raged through the Anna Amalia library in Weimar in 2004. The Cologne loss could be even greater, however, because most of the documents are original and have not been copied.

"Even if there isn't something that hasn't been pulverised or destroyed by water, it will take decades of restoration work," said the historian Joachim Oepen.
[...]

[Keith Culbertson]

what a tragic mess. Having been trained as a specialist with old manuscripts, currently unemployed regularly, and easily happy to be in Germany, I feel compelled to go see if they are hiring any additional staff to address this disaster. thank you for the info.

[Dave Rogers]

what a tragic mess. Having been trained as a specialist with old manuscripts, currently unemployed regularly, and easily happy to be in Germany, I feel compelled to go see if they are hiring any additional staff to address this disaster. thank you for the info.

What a wonderful thing to do. I don't know but I would guess that they would appreciate whatever help they can get, especially if you are trained in preservation techniques. It is an awful thing indeed that has happened. The recovery of items from the rubble of this collapse could take a very long time.

[Richard Strey]

I was at the site about two hours after it happened. The whole building disappeared into the ground. I do not know whether the two fencing treatises (W*150 and W289) were in the main complex that collapsed. It is likely, however. If they were, they have to be considered lost to us, as even *if* they are found, restoration time will take multiple decades.
I spent a good portion of my summer holiday in 2007 studying the originals, so I feel their loss.

[Brandon Paul Heslop]

This is...horrible. No other word to describe it. Here's hoping something gets saved.

-B.

[Matt Bryant]

Man, that is terrible.