I'm also really critical of Cologne archaeology & politics in German
archaeology in general, but this isn't really the archaeologists at fault
this time (though, cynically, I'm still expecting us to become scapegoats
all the same); it's basically bad engineering, lack of monitoring, &
generally cutting corners as costs skyrocket (among other things, Cologne
politics has a reputation for being somewhat dirty... & someone did deny
there was any danger after an inspection in December); it's just really bad
luck that, of all the buildings to collapse (& it's probably not going too
far to suggest that it was probably likely that something would go down,
before this whole thing was over; we've just been lucky so far), it just
happened to be the archive... (there's a diagram showing what happened here:
http://www.koeln.de/koeln/nachrichten/stadtarchiv_kaum_noch_hoffnung_fuer_ve
rmisste_136130.html)
But on the other hand... sometimes there's just too much; someone gave some
statistic; I think something like 50-100,000 buildings just in Leipzig have
been declared protected monuments... in Cologne, besides whatever remains of
one of Europe's largest archives, there are museums, Romanesque churches,
some remains of the largest series of fortifications the Prussians ever
built, a few scattered pieces of the medieval city walls, Roman stuff, etc.
The amount is staggering; and when they're cutting back on schools &
highways & health care, etc., alas, heritage & culture tend to be first in
line to make sacrifices...

-----Original Message-----

Those of us involved in CRM in the States are often critical of the way
archaeology is handled in major urban projects, but we seem to have a better
regulatory system in place to avoid this kind of disaster.  It is to be
hoped that (not "hopefully") this will alert Germany and other EU members to
their lack of meaningful regulations to protect their cultural heritage
(which of course is not only theirs but ours as well).