On the afternoon of Tuesday 3 March, the building of the Historic Archive of the city of Cologne in Germany collapsed along with two neighbouring buildings. Two residents of these neighbouring buildings were killed.
The building dated from the 1970s and contained some 65,000 original charters as well as valuable collections of maps, images, posters and files.
On Monday 27th April an international Blue Shield team went to Cologne to support the rescue work on the valuable collection of the collapsed City Archive of Cologne. Throughout week about 80 heritage professionals from The Netherlands, France, United States, Sweden, Switzerland, and Bosnia Herzegovina tried to save as much of the collection as possible.
Photo: Cologne / Köln City Archive. The photographer witnessed the collapse and took this picture immediately after the collapse. It was taken from the south side and shows the ruins of the city archives on Severinstraße.
By Frank Domahs, Wikimedia Commons.
Read about the 1st Blue Shield Rescue Mission Cologne 2009 (pdf)
Read the: Factsheet: 1st Blue Shield Rescue Mission to Cologne 2009 (pdf)
Read the ICBS Statement released after the disaster
Read about the second relief mission in August 2009
View The Cologne Archive Mission. Blue Shield – Powerpoint PDF
