NS Documentation Centre of the City of Cologne NS Documentation Centre of the City of Cologne The NS Documentation Centre of the City of Cologne () was founded by a resolution passed by the Cologne city council on December 13, 1979 and has become the largest regional memorial site in all of Germany for the victims of the Nazis. Since 1988, it has been housed in "EL-DE Haus," the EL-DE building, named for the initials of its owner, Catholic businessman Leopold Dahmen. This building was the headquarters of the Cologne Gestapo (secret police) between December 1935 and March 1945. In the final months of the war, several hundred
Historical Archive of the City of Cologne so-called White Book ("Weißes Buch"), a book of copies of charters and privileges. By 1370 the archives were located in the "Haus zur Stessen". In medieval Cologne, valuable goods and important trade documents were frequently stored in vaulted warehouses specially built in backyards. This method of storage was used by both business owners and the municipal administration. Documents included grants of privileges, contracts, records of lawsuits, maps, seals and documents from the estates of important persons. As the city and its national and international trade thrived and prospered, the municipal administration began to plan further storage to house the growing