[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.

[SoCalPol]

A genealogist also.
Have also been to Koln.

Germany has some of the best records for genealogist,
far better than England.