Cologne archive building collapses.(ARCHIVES)

The six-story archive building in Cologne, Germany, collapsed in early March, claiming at least two lives and centuries of historically important records and artifacts.

Cracks and groaning noises alerted archive staff and visitors to the impending collapse, and they all escaped unharmed. At least two individuals near the building at the time of the collapse were not as fortunate. Early media reports said the collapse appeared to be connected to nearby tunneling work for a new underground train line.

The archive building was built in 1971 and contained more than 16 miles of shelf space and 65,000 original documents dating from the year 922, as well as 104,000 maps, 50,000 posters, and 500,000 photographs depicting life in Cologne through the ages, according to the archive's website.

The collection included manuscripts by Communist philosophers Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels and treasures given to the city by luminaries such as Nobel Prize-winning author Heinrich Boell. Cologne also housed the largest collection of works by composer Jacques Offenbach, as well as important documents from Germany's first chancellor, Konrad Adenauer.

Georg Quander, who heads the city of Cologne's culture department, told the Associated Press news agency that the insured value of the archives totaled around 400 million euros ($525.2 million U.S.), but that the financial loss paled in comparison to the value of the cultural loss.

It won't be clear for some time exactly which items have been irrevocably lost, as some may be able to be restored. Experts have called the archive's collapse a "catastrophe for all European historians."

Experts warn that documents not destroyed by the collapse are still in danger, as ground water, soil, and mold may threaten them now.

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