[Mike Fieschko]

Construction on a subway (underground/tube) line was being done in front of the archive building. From the AP story Cologne building collapses; 3 missing, many escape:

Work was being done on a new subway line under the street on which the building stood. The roof of the subway construction site also collapsed Tuesday, but officials said they did not believe anyone was trapped in there.

Subway project leader Rolf Papst also said there had been no major tunneling work done in the last 30 days.

[Humal]

Thank you for the additional information. This is such a shame. Hopefully, they will be able to find and restore some of those ancient documents. As a genealogist, I have run up against courthouses that were burned during the War Between the States in the 1860’s. All kinds of information was lost then, but the Cologne's Archives’ records go back to the 10th century.