Robert Fuchs: The collapse of the Cologne Historical Archive: the role of restorers and emergency plan.

On the 3rd of March 2009 the ground opened up and swallowed the Cologne Historical Archive. The historical memories of Cologne sunk within five minutes into the construction-site of the metro nearby. It is possible that a criminal act committed by some people from the construction company caused the collapse of the archive building.

The Cologne Archive is the most important city archive in Northern Europe with a very rich collection. The city documents go back to the early Middle Age and the cadastral register begun in the 11th century and was completely preserved until today.

For the restoration of the big mass of archival materials (27km!!) each of the 100 000 boxes had to be opened again and restorers have to classify the objects according to different restoration processes. These have to be made in many conservation workshops in Germany and abroad. Calculations at the present assume that the restoration process will cost some 450 million € and will possibly take 50 years. A very large area is necessary for the classification and distribution of the archival material. A site (3x6000m2) has been constructed and the first conservation activities have started.

For the future we have to plan and think constructively of how to deal with the preservation of our cultural heritage. Are our measures limited to an emergency plan or do we have other means of preserving and creating more pro-active measures for the preservation of cultural heritage? Is it enough to have conscientious measures or do we need prohibitive laws to make sure that cultural heritage cannot be lost?

For the Cologne archive a concise catalogue and a signature on every page would improve the efficiency of unification of the disrupted collections. Can we restorers agree to the last proposal?