Ugh. The Cologne city archives were destroyed today in a building collapse. The Times of London is suitably melodramatic: The German city of Cologne woke up yesterday without a memory. Welllllll, ok.
And wow, much like Brangelina’s new home on Long Island, there was a nuclear bomb proof Panic Room/Fallout Shelter–and it was used as a Janitor’s closet.
When the building was constructed, a small nuclear-bomb proof chamber was included in the cellar to protect the most precious pieces. But in recent years, the chamber has been used only to store cleaning material.
Works by Hegel and Marx were lost, along with town hall minutes dating back to 1376.