Bonn

Bonn () is a city near Cologne. It is in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Bonn was founded on an old Roman settlement. Today about 327,000 people live there.
Following World War II Bonn was in the British occupation zone. In 1949 Bonn was chosen as the provisional capital of West Germany.
Bonn was the choice of Konrad Adenauer, a former Cologne Mayor and the first Chancellor of West Germany after World War II, who came from that area. Frankfurt am Main had most of the needed facilities already, so using Bonn meant spending about 95 Million DM to building new roads and building. However, Frankfurt am Main had been an important city during the war, and choosing Bonn was to symbolise a new start for the new Germany.
Because of its relatively small size for a capital city, Bonn was sometimes jokingly called the Bundesdorf (Federal Village).
Bonn was the capital of West Germany from 1949 until 1990 it. The Bundestag voted to move to Berlin on 20 June 1991, after a heated debate. The Federal President had already decided to make Schloss Bellevue in Berlin his main official residence. The extra building work needed meant it was 1999 before the government's move was completed.
Main sights
Beethoven's birthplace is located at Bonngasse. Next to the market place is the Old Town Hall, built in 1737 in Rococo style, under the rule of Clemens August of Bavaria. It's used for receptions of guests of the town, and as a bureau for the mayor. Close by is the Kurfurstliches Schloss, which has been built as a residence of the prince-elector, and nowadays is the main building of the University of Bonn.
The Poppelsdorfer Allee, an alley flanked by chestnut trees, connects the Kurfurstliches Schloss with the Poppelsdorfer Schloss, a palace that was built as a resort to prince-electors in the first half of the 18th century. This axis is interrupted by a railway line and Bonn Central Station, a building erected in 1883/84.
The three highest buildings in the city are the radio mast of WDR in Bonn-Venusberg (180 m), the headquarters of the Deutsche Post called Post Tower (162.5 m) and the former building for the German members of parliament Langer Eugen (114.7 m) which nowadays is the new location of the UN-Campus.
Churches
Bonn Minster
Doppelkirche (Double Church) Schwarzrheindorf built in 1151
Old Cemetery Bonn, one of the best known ones in Germany
Castles and residences
Godesburg fortress ruins
Modern buildings
Bundesviertel (federal quarter) with lots of government structures including
Post Tower, the tallest building in the state North Rhine-Westphalia, housing the headquarters of the Deutsche Post AG
Deutsche Telekom headquarters
T-Mobile headquarters
Maritim Bonn, 5 star hotel and convention centre
Schurmann-Bau, headquarters of Deutsche Welle
Langer Eugen, since 2006 the centre of the United Nations Campus, formerly housing the offices of the members of the German parliament
Museums
Museum Mile with
Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany) showing the Guggenheim Collection in 2006-2007
Kunstmuseum Bonn (Bonn Museum of Modern Art)
Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Museum of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany)
Museum Koenig where the Parlamentarischer Rat first met
Beethoven House, birthplace of Ludwig van Beethoven
Agyptisches Museum (Egyptian Museum)
Akademisches Kunstmuseum (Academic Museum of Art)
Arithmeum, research institute for discrete mathematics including a museum
Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn (Rhinish Regional Museum Bonn)
Universities
The Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn (University of Bonn) is one of the largest universities in Germany
Bonn Universities are located mainly in downtown Bonn, but some buildings are spread throughout the city. As such Bonn is known as the city of Universities.
Schools
Aloisiuskolleg, a Jesuit private school in Bad Godesberg
Nature
Botanischer Garten (Botanical Garden), where Titan arum reached a world record
Rheinaue (Bonn), a leisure park on the banks of the Rhine
Rhine promenade and the Alter Zoll (Old Toll Station)
In the very south of the city on the border to Wachtberg and Rhineland-Palatinate is the extinct volcano Rodderberg
Twin towns
Bonn
Oxford, since 1947
Tel Aviv-Jaffa, since 1983
Potsdam, since 1988
Budafok, District XII of Budapest since 1991
Opole, (officially since 1997; contacts were established 1954)
Belfast, Northern Ireland
district of Bad Godesberg
Saint-Cloud,
Frascati,
Windsor and Maidenhead
Kortrijk
Yalova
district of Beuel
Mirecourt
district of Hardtberg
Villemomble
Islamabad-Rawalpindi
Toronto
Bhubaneswar
References
Other websites
Official Website
Official timeline
Tourist information
"The Museum Mile"
Germany's Museum of Art in Bonn
Cities in North Rhine-Westphalia