The western German city of Cologne on Friday inaugurated its new historical archive, 12 years after a subway construction mishap collapsed the former building.
In March 2009, the Cologne archive building collapsed into an excavation pit of a nearby subway construction project. Two people were killed and irreplaceable historical documents of the 2,000-year-old city were buried in the rubble.
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A look at the collapse of Cologne’s city archives
Buried under debris
In 2009, Cologne’s historical archives, the most significant such archive north of the Alps, suddenly caved in. Bakery apprentice Kevin, 17, and design student Khalil, 24, lost their lives, and valuable medieval manuscripts and historical photographs were destroyed forever. Mismanagement and faulty construction of a metro tunnel was the cause of the collapse.
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A look at the collapse of Cologne’s city archives
Treasures of city history
This handwritten medieval document shows parts of the 1437 Cologne statutes. More than 1,000 years of regional history were documented in the archive. Among the items are original manuscripts of significant personalities including medieval philosopher and scientist Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, French leader Napoleon Bonaparte and former German chancellor Konrad Adenauer.
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A look at the collapse of Cologne’s city archives
Rescue efforts under time pressure
Aid workers hurried to save whatever could still be saved, and time was running out. The first priority was to fix damage that might cause even more damage. Whereas at first it was feared that almost all irreplaceable manuscripts had vanished forever, it then turned out that almost 95 percent of the items could be saved.
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A look at the collapse of Cologne’s city archives
Collect, wrap and freeze
Resulting from the building’s dramatic collapse, roughly 10 percent of the documents landed down below ground water level. First, these lost items needed to be located and picked up. Wet parts had to be carefully cleaned of dirt and sludge and wrapped into a sheeting before being shock frozen at -22 Celsius to later be defrosted in a special dryer to prevent the formation of moisture.
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A look at the collapse of Cologne’s city archives
Recovery, renewed identification
Countless documents were heavily damaged, deformed or torn apart – and almost worse, tangled-up in total confusion. Thousands of pages needed to be identified, ordered and filed anew if researchers were to be enabled to study them once again. Only a thorough cleansing process could prevent tiny dust particles from slowly eating away at the material.
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A look at the collapse of Cologne’s city archives
Cleaning by hand
Even books that did not get soaked needed to be meticulously cleansed before being archived anew. Each single sheet of paper had to be restored by hand. It was particularly important to remove almost invisible traces of mold. Experts wearing gloves and masks took great care to clean the material by hand.
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A look at the collapse of Cologne’s city archives
With tender hands
“Von zarter Hand“ (“Of a tender hand”) is the fitting title of this 19th century novel by Johannes Richard zur Megede being carefully cleaned. The restoration experts need to take great care, using particular sponges, brushes and paintbrushes. Dust and dirt must be meticulously removed, lest the paper becomes porous so that, over time, it will decompose.
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A look at the collapse of Cologne’s city archives
Restoration of historical evidence
Manuscripts that needed to be frozen must be dried in special machines before dirt and dust may be removed from them. Books are given a new binding. Every single page needs to be polished and burnished before the book can be put in order anew. All materials are also digitized so that researchers can make better use of them.
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A look at the collapse of Cologne’s city archives
Limits of restoration
The technology available today cannot restore all damaged seals and signets. But as such technology may be improved in the future, the single components of the items are being preserved, explained the former head of the restoration team, Nadine Thiel, in 2011.
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A look at the collapse of Cologne’s city archives
Project to last for decades
The experts and aid workers not only examine and restore paper objects, but also film reels. The restoration of the entire inventory of Cologne’s historical archive is a very huge task. It’s estimated that the works will have to continue for at least 30 years.
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A look at the collapse of Cologne’s city archives
New home for Cologne’s history
A new site for archiving Cologne’s treasures is in the works, set to be finished by 2020. It will not only house the manuscripts formerly kept in the old archive, but also a collection of photographs. Meanwhile, the dispute about who is to be held responsible for the 2009 disaster continues, although soon, it will be too late anyway. In March 2018, the statute of limitations will be over.
Author: Petra Lambeck (ad)
Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker said ahead of the opening she is happy that the memory of “the demonstrably oldest German metropolis” has found a new home.
Cologne officials said the new archive was built around 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away from the original site and was built at a cost of €90 million ($106 million).
An ancient historical document in Cologne’s historical archive
‘Citizen’s archive’
Director Bettina Schmidt-Czaia said the new building was conceived as a “citizen’s archive,” containing 45 workstations in a reading room, a lecture hall and seminar rooms. Regular exhibitions, guided tours and events are planned.
The city has called the new institution the most modern municipal archive in Europe, with room for documents on 50 kilometers of shelves.
The new building was also built with several energy-efficient, climate-controlled zones adapted to the fragile historical archival materials, said Mayor Reker.
The modern building includes reading and seminar rooms
Most historical documents recovered
Ursula Heinen-Esser, environment minister of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia where Cologne is located, said Friday it was an “unbelievable achievement” that 95% of the archives contents were able to be recovered. A far smaller share of the archives has been fully restored as yet.
“They contribute to the identity, the self-image and the culture of the city,” she said.
wmr/msh (dpa, AFP)
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/cologne-opens-new-city-archive-12-years-after-fatal-collapse/a-59080639?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf