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 near the Cologne town hall. The records were for the most part those of real estate transactions: these were recorded on sheets of parchment or in books, which subsequently became known as "Schreinsbücher" (shrine books). In Cologne, these books can be traced back to AD 1130. Similar books from the late 12th century are known from the cities of Metz and Andernach. In the 19th century, all records of the old Cologne shrine quarters were transferred to the municipal archives. A municipal archive has existed since at least the year 1322. In 1326 the city council decided to establish the