Nearly a decade after the catastrophic collapse of the city archive building in the center of the German city of Cologne, a district court is hearing testimony in what could be a lengthy criminal case.
Five individual defendants are being charged with involuntary manslaughter and hazardous building practices in the case. Two people were killed in the collapse, which occurred in March of 2009 and caused an estimated $1.1 billion in structural damage and the loss and damages of archival records and artifacts which in some cases dated to medieval times. The Cologne Public Prosecutors Office has linked the collapse to mismanagement and faulty construction of a new subway line running underneath the city, according to reports from German media Der Spiegel and Deutsche Welle. The proceedings are in criminal court and their only concern is with personal liability. Any civil cases or liability proceedings concerning the principals in the construction of the subway line would be a separate matter.