tree_and_leaf | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

This is unbelievably awful: Cologne city archives collapse into a hole in the ground. It is, in fact, a bigger disaster than the fire at Anna Amelia library. Four people are unaccounted for (at least), and it looks as if the archives themselves are a total loss (they poured concrete into the hole, in an attempt to shore things up. This includes a large number of mediaeval religious manuscripts relating to the Rhineland mystics, as well as stuff relating to Heinrich Böll.

... I know. It's rather monstrous to be concerned about that when people are probably dead, but all the same: the manuscripts are a very great loss, too.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm not surprised in a way- after all Cologne is very largely built on the remains of Cologne, with not very stable soil and on a geological fault. Having seen with my own eyes what is under the Dom (namely the remains of a Romanesque cathedral, and several roman houses including intact hypocausts) I would surmise that something has given way.

None the less, you would think they would have, I don't know checked the building and its foundations for structural integrity??

To say nothing of the "pouring in concrete" bit.

Well normally yes, but Cologne can be a bit- well le me put it this way. My husband used to work for Coelner Hofbrau Frueh. They had a Stammhaus in the city centre. They wanted to have something done, so they got the building checked over. When they asked about the foundations they received the reply "What foundations- it doesn't have any..."

Not to mention the man who found the top of a roman burial monument in his cellar- the monument now takes up three floors of the Roemisch Germanisch Museum.

Poke around under Cologne and you'd be amazed what you find.

Now if this was a new building ther was no excuse, but if it was built anytime before about 1960 then I can understand why they weren't necessarily too particular about foundations.

NB This is all assuming that the collapse doesn't have anything to do with the U Bahn tunnel, and also working on the assumption that what faults were discovered were in a "better left alone" category.

I've just managed to read Spiegel Online. Built in 1971- there's no excuse for it happening. I was under the impression that it was a fairly old building and sometimes you just don't know what's underneath, but as it was built so recently there is absolutely no excuse for the collapse.

Cologne may not be the easiest place to build, but that should have been taken into account when plans were drawn up.

The 'bis jetzt isset ümmer jut jegangen' mentality may have something to answer for?

The local authorities have denied it could be anything to do with the U-bahn extension with possibly slightly suspicious speed. I mean, it was an extremely big hole - bigger than, say, a hypocaust would explain.

Very. Good. Point. Eeeep.

What absolutely boggles my mind is that an expert looked at the basement LAST year and told them "Umm, guys? You've got a PROBLEM here." And nothing was done.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only