Assault on Cologne's historical core
There are certain words that tend not to engage very much sympathy in a person, and "archive" has traditionally been one of them. It is generally associated with something dried out and perhaps a little dull. Could it be that the collapse of the Cologne city archives building will mark a change in this mentality in Germany?
Even after the Anna-Amalia Library in Weimar burnt down, it was possible to sense a change in Germany – perhaps a very subtle change, but a change nonetheless. After decades of selective memory loss, many people feel that the narrowing of German history to the twelve revolting years of Nazi rule has become something of a cul-de-sac. German history is well over 1000 years old, and if one were to include the Roman-Germanic symbiosis on the Rhine it would be more like 2000.
There is no better place to witness this than Cologne. The city’s founding as a colony of the Roman Empire didn’t have so much to do with its strategic position, as it did with the vanity of a certain woman: Agrippina. The grandchild of the commander Agrippa and sister of Emperor Caligula, wife of Emperor Claudius and mother of Emperor Nero was born there in 15 AD and was not prepared to live in the world metropolis of Rome while being labelled as springing from an insignificant provincial town. And that was how Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinesium, under the acronym of CCAA, was born, the Roman Empire's most strategically important city north of the Alps.
And it doesn’t matter where you dig in present day Cologne: Residue of the Roman era can be found everywhere. For example the accident-site, which was directly in front of the Roman city walls, was the location of a station for the Roman street police for centuries. Today, Sankt Georg, an early Roman treasure, is also not far away....
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Even after the Anna-Amalia Library in Weimar burnt down, it was possible to sense a change in Germany – perhaps a very subtle change, but a change nonetheless. After decades of selective memory loss, many people feel that the narrowing of German history to the twelve revolting years of Nazi rule has become something of a cul-de-sac. German history is well over 1000 years old, and if one were to include the Roman-Germanic symbiosis on the Rhine it would be more like 2000.
There is no better place to witness this than Cologne. The city’s founding as a colony of the Roman Empire didn’t have so much to do with its strategic position, as it did with the vanity of a certain woman: Agrippina. The grandchild of the commander Agrippa and sister of Emperor Caligula, wife of Emperor Claudius and mother of Emperor Nero was born there in 15 AD and was not prepared to live in the world metropolis of Rome while being labelled as springing from an insignificant provincial town. And that was how Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinesium, under the acronym of CCAA, was born, the Roman Empire's most strategically important city north of the Alps.
And it doesn’t matter where you dig in present day Cologne: Residue of the Roman era can be found everywhere. For example the accident-site, which was directly in front of the Roman city walls, was the location of a station for the Roman street police for centuries. Today, Sankt Georg, an early Roman treasure, is also not far away....