Historical Archive of the City of Cologne Historical Archive of the City of Cologne The Historical Archive of the City of Cologne (, or for short) is the municipal archive of Cologne, Germany. It ranks among the largest communal archives in Europe. A municipal archive has existed in Cologne since the Middle Ages. The oldest inventory of charters in the archive is dated 1408/1409. The oldest document kept in the archive is a charter dated AD 922. The archive contains official records and private documents from all ages of Cologne history, as well as an extensive library of manuscripts. While the adjective "historical" in its name might
Historical Archive of the City of Cologne municipal archive and library was erected between 1894 and 1897 to a Gothic revival design by Friedrich Carl Heimann: it was inaugurated in December 1897. The new building was large enough to accommodate the archive at a time of accelerated growth when the city of Cologne was absorbing many previously independent towns and villages. During World War II the building suffered damage from bombing. However, since all records and manuscripts had been moved into secure storage from as early as September 1939, the archive did not suffer any substantial loss. Since the archive moved to its new location in 1971,