Demographics of Cologne and on 1 April 1888 ended in a first major incorporation. The territorial expansion, beginning in the late 19th century, were significant marks for the city's population growth. Major communal reorganizations took place in 1910, 1914, 1922 and 1975. Demographics of Cologne Cologne () is Germany's fourth-largest city and the largest city in the Rhineland. As of 31 December 2011, there were officially 1,017,155 residents. The city is center of the Cologne/Bonn Region with around 3 million inhabitants (including the neighboring cities of Bonn, Hürth, Leverkusen, and Bergisch Gladbach). The walls of Colonia Agrippina covered an area of 96.8 hectares,
Historical Archive of the City of Cologne Rhine-Westphalia is based on the "Archivgesetz des Landes NRW" bill of 1989. The municipal archive of Cologne is also governed by the municipal archive ordinance "Archivsatzung" (last revised in 2007). The federal "Bundesarchivgesetz" bill does not apply. An early programme of holding archival records in Cologne was the so-called "Schreinswesen" (shrine system), used for documenting citizens' rights. A "Schrein" (shrine, from Latin "scrinium") was a wooden chest or cabinet where parish administrations stored records and charters. Such shrines were used for records storage throughout the Middle Ages and into early modern times, most notably in the parish of St. Lawrence