Historical Archive of the City of Cologne included copies of the protocols of the diets of the Hanseatic League. With the 1594 transfer, the Cologne archive became the most important repository of historical material concerning the Hanseatic League and thus concerning the history of Northern Germany in general, only matched by the municipal archives of Lübeck. On 27 February 1602, the city council ordered that books on jurisdiction and administration were to be systematically bought at the regularly held Frankfurt Book Fair. These were subsequently stored in the municipal archive and became the basis of the Cologne municipal library. The "Ratsbibliothek" was one of the few Cologne
History of the Jews in Cologne origin in southern France, but quickly snowballed across the Continent. They formed the background for a murderous pogrom on 23/24 August 1349 in Cologne. There is a letter of the Cologne Council to the council of Strassburg in which the Cologne Council expresses concern about an anti-Jewish incident in Strassburg and warns insistently against an escalation. The Jews and their possessions were protected by letters of protection or consolation, which had to be considered. In the same letter the Cologne Council make clear that they would decidedly protect their own Jews. The council of Strassburg, however, having initially taken a