Topography and landscape

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View from the townhouse to Bonn-Zentrum and adjacent former independent city districts, in the background the Seven Mountains

Bonn Center, aerial survey (2014)

The city of Bonn is located in the southwest of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia at the junction of the Rhine region with the Bay of Lower Rhine, which is marked by the Godesberg Rhine Valley daughter. It extends over 141.2 square kilometers on both sides of the Rhine. The areas of the Rhine region account for about three quarters of the total area.

In the south and west, the foothills of the Eifel with the Kottenforst belonging to the Rhineland Nature Park and the Voreifel surround the city. North of Bonn, the Rhine Valley opens into the Cologne Bay, which is accompanied from the district of Duisdorf to the Ville from the foothills. The victory here represents the natural border in the northeast, the Seven Mountains in the southeast, while in the east there are still some parts of the right Rhine in the Pleiser Hügelland. Beyond the Siebengebirge, the Westerwald stretches southeast of Bonn, beyond the victory settlement northeast of the Bergisches Land.

Bonn accepted by ISS in March 2013. The recording has not been ordered.

Bonn has its geographical center at the Federal Chancellor's Square, located in the district of Gronau. The geographical position of the place is 50° 43′ 8,8″ N, 7° 7′ 3,3″ E 50/7191138888897,1175722222222. The city center of Bonn, which is not oriented towards the Rhine, lies at an altitude of 56 m to 61 m above sea level. NHN.

The largest area of the city in north-south direction is 15 kilometers, in west-east direction 12.5 kilometers. The city borders are 61 kilometers long.

On the right side of the Rhine lies the Ennert, the northern foothills of the Siebengebirge, in the Bonn area. The Paffelsberg mountain, which is 195.3 meters above sea level, belongs to it. NHN is considered the highest elevation in Bonn. Further ascent at this elevation are the name-giving Ennert, Holtorfer Hardt and Röckesberg as well as the distinctive steep slopes Rabenlay and Kuckstein, to the west the Finkenberg mountain is ahead. On the left side of the river there are the dominating hills of Venusberg (171 m) and Kreuzberg (158 m), to the southwest the city area rises to the coastal forest up to 190 m. The lowest point is at 45.6 meters above sea level. NHN on the tongue of Kemper Werth at the victory estuary.

neighboring communities

Ten towns and municipalities border Bonns, all of which belong to the Rhine-Sieg-Kreis in North Rhine-Westphalia, except Remagen, which is located in the district of Ahrweiler in the Land Rhineland-Palatinate:

Bornheim	low-grade troisdorf	Sankt Augustin
alder		king
home	Wachtberg	Bad Honnef, Remagen (RLP)

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View from Beuel at Bonn center

Town breakdown and allocation

Bonns

Bonn is a city without a district, with the vehicle registration number BN.

Bonn is divided into four districts according to § 3 of the German Law, which consist of 51 districts. Each district has its own district representation with a district mayor. In addition, the city consists of 65 statistical districts, some of which are similar to the districts in name and size. In addition, Bonn is divided into nine districts by the city's statistical office: Bonn’s central area, Bonn-Südwest, Bonn-Nordwest, Bundesviertel, Godesberg’s center area, Godesberger Ausring, Beueler Zentrum area, Beueler Outer Ring and Hardtberg.

There are 21 commissions in the area of Bonn.

Municipality of Bonn

district	coat	resident (31) Dec. 2014)	parts
Bad Godesberg		73,172	Alt-Godesberg, Friesdorf, Godesberg-Nord, Godesberg-Villenviertel, Heiderhof, Hochkreuz, Lannesdorf, Mehlem, Muffendorf, Pennenfeld, Plittersdorf, Rüngsdorf, Schweinheim
beam		66,695	Beuel-Mitte, Beuel-Ost, Geislar, Hoholz, Holtorf, Holzlar, Küdinghoven, Limperich, Oberkassel, Pützchen/Bechlinghoven, Ramersdorf, Schwarzrheindorf/Vilich-Rheindorf, Vilich, Vilich-Müldorf
Bonn		149,733	Auerberg, Bonn-Castell (until 2003: Bonn-Nord), Bonn-Zentrum, Buschdorf, Dottendorf, Dransdorf, Endenich, Graurheindorf, Gronau, Ippendorf, Kessenich, Lessenich/Messdorf, Nordstadt, Poppelsdorf, Röttgen, Südstadt, Tannenbusch, Ückesdorf, Venusberg, Weststadt
hardtberg		33,360	Brüser Berg, Duisdorf, Hardthhöhe, Lengsdorf

Bonn belongs to the district of Cologne. The regional government, based in Cologne, exercises the municipal supervision and supervision as the central government. a. on the budget of the city of Bonn. The district government also supervises the Bonns schools.

Bonn is also a member of the regional association Rhineland (LVR), which is based in Cologne. The LVR is part of the municipal self-government for Bonn. a. tasks in the field of social institutions, e.g. B. the sponsorship of specialized and, in particular, psychiatric hospitals or nurseries for disabled children. In addition, e.g. B. the task of the administration of the monuments in Bonn by the LVR.

geography and spatial planning

Bonn forms the southern edge of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, which is understood as a polycentric compaction area in North Rhine-Westphalia and extends along the Rhine and Ruhr rivers. The Rhein-Ruhr metropolitan region covers an area of about 7,000 km² with more than ten million inhabitants, is one of the five largest metropolitan regions in Europe and is the most populous of the eleven metropolitan regions in Germany. It is also located in the heart of the Central European Economic Area, the so-called Blue Banana. Part of the area around the density of Bonn is the town of Saint Augustin and Königswinter in the right Rhine.

climate

climate diagram City Bonn

Rare winter scenery in Bonn

In broad terms, Bonn is part of the Atlantic-maritime climate area, i.e. (h) The climate is mild and generally warm and moderate. "Cfb" is the Köppen Geiger classification.

This means low snow winter with an average of 56 frost days (lowest temperature below 0 degrees Celsius) and only ten ice days (maximum daily temperature below 0 degrees) with an average January temperature of 2.0 degrees. The average temperature in July is 17.6 degrees Celsius and the average annual temperature is 10.0 degrees Celsius. Bonn is thus one of the warmest regions in Germany. As early as the spring, the flowering starts.

In terms of rainfall, Bonn is in the shade of the south-bordering mountain landscape. While the city has an average annual rainfall of only 742 millimeters, the annual rainfall in the Eifel is more than 800 millimeters.

The relative humidity of the air is always high and influences people. Bonn is well ahead of other German cities, with an average of 35 days of flooding. In the public’s opinion, the "Bonn stimulus climate" is mentioned here. Bonn knows that this effect can be most felt in the deepest city location, in a former Rhine arm, in the area around the central station.

The excess of the sinks is partly due to the insufficient air movement in the basin, as the fresh air from the west is held back by the northern reaches of the Eifelberge. The basin is determined by the topography: In Bonn, the Lower Middle Rhine Valley ends, which passes here to the Cologne bay. The low air movement in turn affects urban warming, so that temperatures within the urban area, for example, are on average 3 to 5 degrees Celsius higher in July than in the surrounding area.

During the winter months and during snow melting the Rhine often crosses its banks. In the event of flooding, roads and houses in the districts of Mehlem (left Rhine - Westphalia) and Beuel (right - Rhine) are particularly at risk.

The regional climate with its special features, snow-scarce in winter and muddy in summer, also creates typical lakonian spoken-word species in Bonn, as the well-known: "Either it's raining, or the barriers are down."

tombstone of the Roman legionary Quintus Petilius Secundus stationed in Bonn

chronology

In 1989 Bonn celebrated its 2000 anniversary. birthday. The city thus remembered the construction of a first fortified Roman camp on the Rhine 12 B.C. Chr., after already 38 B.C. c. The Roman town of Agrippa was located at the site of Ubier. But people have lived in the area of today's urban area much earlier. The 14,000-year-old double tomb of Oberkassel and a ditch and wooden palisades were found in the area of the Venus Mountain and date from around 4080 BC. c. come from.

The Roman presence in Bonna was still modest in the period before Christ's birth, but this was due to the defeat of the Romans in the Varus Battle in year 9. c. change. In the following decades a legion was stationed here, which built a camp in the northern part of today's Bonn. Around the camp and south of it along today's Adenauerallee traders and craftsmen settled in a vicus.

Bonn 1646 - Copper engraving by Matthäus Merian d. E.

With the end of the Roman Empire, Bonns declined in the late antiquity and early Middle Ages. During the robbery of the Vikings in the Rhine, Bonn was sentenced to 882 twice and 883 to another attack, branding and looting of the newly rebuilt city by the Normen.

In the Franconian period and finally in the 9th and 10th centuries a spiritual center, the Villa Basilika, developed in the area of the Bonn Cathedral and in the area of the present market a market settlement. 1243 is considered the year of the grant of full city rights.

The battle of Worringen in 1288 was a major factor in the development of the city. In addition to Bruehl and Poppelsdorf, the Cologne princes made Bonn one of their residences and finally their residence. The magnificent palaces built by the Kurfürstendamm in the 17th and 18th centuries gave the city its Baroque splendor.

The occupation by French forces on 8 October 1794 brought this era to an end. Almost two decades of occupation followed by Napoleon's forces. The occupation charges on food, clothing and shelter, as well as the loss of the Kurfürstendamm administration, have resulted in an impoverishment of the population and a decline of around 20% in the number of inhabitants. The French brought to Bonn a civil code and a communal Munizial constitution. Under French occupation, medium and large industrial enterprises were still established, particularly in the textile industry. The French also pursued a consistent secularization: Real properties of the spiritual spa state, especially the Kurfürstendamm buildings, were taken over by the state. On the right-hand side of the present Bonn area in Vilich, the Prince of Nassau-Usingen: Oberkassel belonged to the duchy of Berg, a French satellite state. The Lunéville Treaty of 9 February 1801 also made the Rhine a French eastern border near Bonn. Bonn became the seat of a sub-prefecture in the newly formed Rhine-Moselle department.

Market place with old town hall (right), photochrome print around 1900

After the defeats of the French army in Russia (1812) and during the international battle at Leipzig, the French cleared Bonn in January 1814.

In 1815, as a result of the decisions of the Vienna Congress, Bonn was taken to Prussia. In the next few decades, the city was characterized by the university founded by the Prussian government on 18 October 1818. His name was King Friedrich Wilhelm III. from Prussia. At the end of the 18th century there had been a university in Bonn which was closed to the French occupation in 1794. The Prussian start-up did not follow the University of Kurfürstendamm, but was part of a founding program that included the Friedrich Wilhelms University of Berlin and the Schleswig Friedrich Wilhelms University of Wroclaw. The addition of Rheinische on behalf of the Bonn Academy should designate her as sister of the Berlin and Wroclaw Universities. In fact, in the next 100 years, it became the preferred place of study for the Hohenzollern princes. It was also called "Princess University", because both the later emperor Wilhelm II and his four sons studied there. Before its foundation in Bonn, Cologne had been the rival for a university founding. The key was that the "enlightened tradition" of Bonn vis-à-vis the "holy Cologne" seemed better suited to a confessional parity college. But there were also practical reasons for Bonn: The old Kurfürstendamm castle and the Poppelsdorfer castle already have suitable properties.

Professors, students, civil servants and officers came to Bonn from 1815. Among them are numerous Protestants from the Prussian provinces, which was a special feature in the "Catholic" Rhineland. The Prussians also made Bonn a garrison town. In the process, Bonn was also popular as a resting seat for military forces. After the establishment of the empire in 1871, tourism also gained momentum as a result of the "romantic Rhine" of those years.

District in Bonn: roof of the World Conference Center Bonn (front right), Altes Hochhaus (lower right) and Schürmann-Bau (center), Langer Eugen (left) and Posttower - on the horizon the Seven Mountains (2015)

After World War I, the city was occupied first by Canadians, then by the British, and then by the French until 1926.

More than 1,000 Germans, mostly Jewish citizens, were murdered during the Nazi era. Some 8,000 people had to leave their home town, have been arrested or locked up in concentration camps. When the Second World War ended on March 9, 1945, when American troops invaded Bonn, the rate of destruction of the buildings was 30%. Of these, 70 percent were slightly or severely damaged, and 30 percent were completely destroyed homes. More than 4,000 Bonn nationals died in bomb attacks. On May 28, 1945, British troops took over the city as an occupying power.

After the Second World War, the city experienced a rapid expansion, especially after the decision for Bonn as the provisional seat of government of the new Federal Republic of Germany instead of Frankfurt am Main on 29 November 1949 (see question of the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany). - As a result of the removal of parliament, parts of the government, a large part of the diplomatic representations and many lobbyists, and the privatization of the Bundespost, as a result of the law implementing the decision of the German Bundestag of 20 June 1991 to complete the unification of Germany (Berlin/Bonn Act), the city has once again undergone a change at the turn of the millennium. The remaining ministries, associated federal authorities, administrative centers of large German companies, international organizations and institutions of science and the management of science are the agents of this structural change, which has been regarded as successful and continues to this day.

transfer

The city of Bonn has been enlarged several times by means of donations. By 1900, Bonn had grown sharply. As a result, In 1904, the towns of Poppelsdorf, Endenich, Kessenich and Dottendorf were brought together by Bonn.

Concentrations in the field of today's Bonn

Since 1899: Bad Godesberg

Since 1904: Bonn

Since 1952: beam

The regional reform of the Bonn area (the "Bonn Act") In August 1969 the population of the city was approximately doubled and the victory circle was combined with the Landkreis Bonn to the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis. The once independent cities of Bad Godesberg and Beuel and the municipality of Duisdorf became separate districts of Bonn.

The district of Beuel on the right side of the Rhine was added to the town of Holzlar, Hoholz and the Oberkassel office, which until then belonged to the victory circle. Bonn itself was expanded to include the villages Ippendorf, Röttgen, Ückesdorf, Lessenich/Messdorf and Buschdorf in the former district of Bonn. Lengsdorf and Duisdorf together with some new construction areas formed the district of Hardtberg.

The city of Bad Godesberg had previously in turn grouped several towns. Plittersdorf and Rüngsdorf had already joined Godesberg in 1899, and Friesdorf was added in 1904, which meant that Bad Godesberg had in fact already joined Bonn. In 1915, Bad Godesberg had grown out of the valley to the southwest, and Muffendorf had been incorporated. 1. On July 11, 1935, Lannesdorf and the Mehlem districts of Bad Godesberg became part of the city.

development

Population development of Bonn from 1871 to 2017. The increase in 1969 is explained by the reorganization of the Bonn area, which is regulated by the law on the communal restructuring of the Bonn area

With 329,673 inhabitants (as at 31. December 2019) Bonn is one of the medium-sized cities and one of the ten largest cities in North Rhine-Westphalia and is an upper center.

In 1934, the population of the city of Bonn exceeded the 100,000-mark border, making it the capital of the city. The population doubled through the introduction of communal services until 1969. In the run-up to the change in government, the population declined slightly between 1992 and 1995 and was settled in a timely manner.

Today, Bonn is one of the big cities in Germany with an increasing population - according to the population forecast of the state office for data processing and statistics in North Rhine-Westphalia, Bonn will have about 341,500 inhabitants in 2025. Bonn's successor forecast for 2030 predicts a population of 362,100, making Bonn the sixth largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia. However, given the comparatively small amount of land available in the urban area, it is doubtful that such an increase in the number of inhabitants can actually be realized, so that the surrounding municipalities would have to start growing.

1. In January 2019, 330,244 inhabitants were resident in Bonns. The proportion of women was 51.7% at the cut-off date, and that of men 48.3%. The average age was 41.9 years. On 1 January 2019, the percentage of non-German residents registered under German law was 16.9% (55,704 persons), while the share of the population with a migrant background was 29.3% (96,919 persons). The immigrants came from 177 countries. The largest groups of foreigners were from Turkey (8,319 persons and 8.6% respectively), Syria (7,846 persons and 8.1% respectively), Poland (7,218 persons and 7.4% respectively) and Morocco (5,742 persons and 5.9% respectively). 3,017 asylum seekers and refugees from more than 40 nations lived in Bonn on December 2016; About a third of the refugees hosted by the city come from Syria.

religions

Bonn Münster

31. December 2019, 33.2 percent of Bonn's population were Catholic, 18.6 percent Protestant and 10.8 percent Islamic. 3.4 percent belong to another and 33.9 percent to no religious community. One year earlier, December 2018, 34.2% of the population (112,953 persons) were members of the Roman Catholic Church and 19.0% (62,821 persons) of the Protestant faith, 3.4% of the population (11,307 persons) belonged to other denominations, not belonging to a confession 32 1.8% (108,231 people). In Bonn, an estimated 35,000 Muslims also lived, representing almost 11 percent of the population.

Bonn is the center of the Old Catholic Church in Germany - Bonn is its bishop's seat - and the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Germany - Bonn is the seat of the metropolitan.

dialect

The Bonn dialect is the Ripulian Bönnsch, a medium Franconian dialect, which is distinguished by the closely related Cologne along with some vocabulary by the more pronounced singing, softness of consonants (as opposed to the very hard Aachen dialect e.g. and the more moderate speaking speed. This was evidenced by the author Ludwig Verbeek, born in Cologne and living in Bonn today, who commented:

In contrast to the self-confident Cologne of the craftsmen, however, it was puzzled in "noble" circles of the residence and university town of Bonn to speak dialect, so the Bönnsch is no longer as present in everyday life as the Cologne in Cologne. The high proportion of empires did the rest. The cabaret artist Konrad Beikircher, born not in Bonn but in South Tyrol, has lived in Bonn since his studies.

A characteristic of Bönnsch is the sharpness of the Rhine and the swallowing of endings (example: Bonner = tinting), the transformation of g to j (examples: the dear God = de liwe Jott or good = joot), cuddling with the ending -(s)chen (example: cuts = cuttings or dogs = bitches or street sweepers = sweetheart) and transformation of the ch or g to sch (examples: Church = Cherry or Siegburg = Sieschbursch (in popular sense 'the city with the three s') or technique = technology). In addition, there are many local word creations that can pose problems for travelers: A 'cheesebreaker' is a 'Halwe Hahn', a 'barrel of beer' is called 'Pittermalsche' or a 'Rye Buns' becomes 'Röggelsche'. From time becomes "Zigg", "farther" is called "wigger", "tell" becomes "zap" or "drag and press" becomes "trecke and deue". A carnival participant is a 'check' and if someone behaves strangely or funny, then also as an attribute 'wat is der jeck (jeck)'. Tourists will stumble across a "heaven and earth" on the menu, a banana dish of blood and liver sausages.

If a Bonn is happy, he may say: "You say, well is dat beautiful!"

A special feature, preferably in the older population, is or has been the use of words of French origin: The 'policeman' can also be a 'gendarm', the 'tunnel' becomes a 'tunnell' by stretching the 'wallet' and the 'wallet' until today becomes a 'wallet'.

personality

Persons associated with Bonn

→ Main article: associated persons

On the wall of the Jewish cemetery in the north of Bonn there is a tomb relief of the first named Bonner, a Roman legionary who was 35 n. c. came from Galicia. The inscription is from which Latin is translated: "Publius Clodius, son of Publius, from the district of Voltinia (roughly present-day Provence), born in Alba (A. Helviorium, today Alba-la-Romaine), soldier of the 1st century. Legion, 48 years old, with 25 years of service [deceased]. He's buried here."

The composer Ludwig van Beethoven is the undisputed leader of the list of celebrities in Bonn. His birthplace in Bonngasse is visited year after year by thousands of tourists from all over the world. In addition to Beethoven, other musicians were born in Bonn or found their home there. These include Andrea Lucchesi and Johanna Kinkel. The composer Robert Schumann spent his last years in the former Nervenheilanstalt (now Schumannhaus) in the present part of Bonn, Endenich, and was buried in the Old Cemetery.

The Italian poet and Nobel Prize in Literature Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) studied in Bonn. The following tribute is given to him:

"Bonn is a beautiful town on the banks of the Rhine, one of the most beautiful, even the most beautiful, I have seen so far ..."

The following painters can be identified in Bonn as the place of birth: Bernhard Gotfried Manskirsch, Peter Joseph Manskirsch and Peter Paul Manskirsch.

Residence was and is Bonn for other artists. This included Macke in the years before World War I. Nowadays authors like Lars Brandt and Akif Pirinçci live and work in the city.

For more than 200 years, the Rhine-based Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn has contributed to the establishment of a large number of researchers, teachers and students on the Rhine. These include Ernst Moritz Arndt, August Wilhelm Schlegel, Clemens-August von Droste zu Hulshoff, Carl Schurz, Heinrich Hertz and - more recently - the Nobel laureates Wolfgang Paul and Reinhard Selten. Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) was a professor of fundamentalism in Bonn from 1959 to 1963.

In addition to famous musicians and scholars, a number of political celebrities have been born or become (election-)bonners on the Rhine in recent decades. Born in Bonn, Heide Simonis is, Election Bonn includes Norbert Blüm, the long-term Minister of Labor, Peer Steinbrück, the former Federal Minister of Finance, and Wolfgang Clement, the former Federal Minister of Economics and Labor.

The prestigious media representatives, born in Bonn, include moderator Johannes B. Kerner, Publizist Roger Willemsen, comedian Luke Mockridge, singer Natalie Horler, actress Silke Bodenbender, actor Simon Böer.

honorary citizen

See also: List of honorary citizens of Bonn

Old town hall

The town council was established in the 18th century, until it was moved to the town house in the northern town in 1978, due to the municipalities that were carried out in 1969. The mayor of Bonn continues to hold his official office in the city hall on the market.

town head

In the 12th century, Bonns administration and jurisdiction were dominated by the Vogt and the 12 wives of the Land. Since 1331 two masters of Burgermeistere have been attested, later a council. In a document dated 24 June 2004 In July 1550, for the first time, the Twelfths were named, as "the twelve of the gemeynds" who had a control function. They represented not only the guilds, but the entire community. The mayors were elected by the Council, the council by the guilds and the twelve by the municipalities. The 1569 Treaty of Salento mandated that the city be administered by two mayors and two mayors of the council, one of whom was the mayor of the city. The Council has been enlarged to 15. The composition and powers of the Council subsequently changed several times. During the French occupation from 1794, the mayor was named Maire. After the French left the city, the French name Maire was replaced by the title of Mayor on 25 February 1814. Anton Maria Karl Graf von Belderbusch has held the post of Maire since 1804 and was first Mayor of the city since 1814. In the Prussian period after 1815 Bonn became the seat of a district. From 1815 onwards, the town was headed by a mayor and a council was also held.

New Town House (2014), seat of the Bonn City Council

During the Nazi period, the mayor was appointed by the NSDAP. Some streets and squares have been renamed according to the rulers' preferences: The current Konrad-Adenauer-Platz was named Adolf-Hitler-Platz from 1934 to 1945. In 1933, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Adolf Hitler became an honorary citizen of the city (resigned in 1945; 1983).

After World War II, the military government of the British occupation zone established a new mayor and in 1946 introduced the British-style municipal constitution. Then there was a council elected by the citizens of the city. He elected from his midst the honorary mayor as the town's chairman and representative and a full-time mayor as head of the city administration. In 1996, the dual leadership of the municipalities was abandoned in North Rhine-Westphalia. The mayor is now elected directly. He is the full mayor of the city, head of the city administration and representative of the city. In his capacity as representative, the Mayor of Bonn is represented by four mayors. The first direct election in 1999 was won by Bärbel Dieckmann in the run-off against CDU candidate Helmut Stahl, and in 2004 she was confirmed in the first round of the election. Dieckmann did not run again in the 2009 election. Jürgen Nimptsch (SPD) was elected as their successor. He defeated Christian Dürig (CDU candidate) with 40.9 percent. The runoff had previously been abolished by the state government of North Rhine - Westphalia. In September 2015, Ashok-Alexander Sridharan (CDU) won in the upcoming new election, ahead of the opponents Peter Ruhenstroth-Bauer (SPD) and Tom Schmidt (Greens). The incumbent incumbent, Mr. Nimptsch, was no longer eligible for re - election. Sridharan was sworn in on 21 October 2015 and was inaugurated. At the same time as the municipal elections on September 13, 2020, the mayoral election took place in Bonn, where none of the candidates achieved the required absolute majority. In the runoff on September 27, 2020, incumbent Sridharan defeated green challenger Katja Doernner.

town

The Council of the City of Bonn In the context of the municipal elections in North Rhine-Westphalia on 16 September 2020, the voting citizens of Bonns elected 66 members.

In the last parliamentary term 2014-2020, the CDU, the Greens, and the FDP (black-green-yellow) united into a coalition. In the previous Council period from 2009 to 2014, the CDU and the Greens formed a black-and-green coalition.

Council and offices of Bonn

The municipal administration is divided into subdivisions, to which the municipal offices are subordinated by department:

• Mayor
• Staff I - General Administration and Order
• December II - Finance, Law and Health
• Council III - Planning, environment and transport
• December IV - Sport and culture
• December V - School, Social Affairs and Youth.

The first to fifth decennials are headed by a city director - who is also the mayor's representative - by a town comrade and three other associates. They are full-time and elected by the City Council of Bonn.

election

state elections

Four members of parliament represent the Federal City of Bonn in the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia elected on 14 May 2017. Members directly elected are Guido Déus in constituency 29 (Bonn I) and Christos Georg Katzidis (both CDU) in constituency 30 (Bonn II). Joachim Stamp and Franziska Müller-Rech have been moved to the state parliament via the FDP's state list. Stamp has also been Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Family Affairs of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 30 June 2017.

Bundestag elections

Bonn forms the Bonn (96) Bundestag election. Ulrich Kelber (SPD) was confirmed as a directly elected member of parliament for the fifth consecutive year in the 2017 federal elections. However, Kelber left the Bundestag on 6 January 2019 to take up his new position as Federal Representative for Data Protection and Freedom of Information one day later. Katja Doernner (Greens) and Alexander Graf Lambsdorff (FDP) were elected to the German Bundestag via the respective state lists of their parties, and Doerner resigned after the election of Mayor of Bonn in 2020.

budget

The annual budget of Bonn is 1.3 billion euros. 21. On 23 May 2015, the City of Bonn announced the decision of the 2015/2016 double budget. 15. On 11 December 2015, the City of Bonn announced the approval by the Cologne district government of the double budget for 2015/2016 and the budget security plan for 2015-2024. The budget of the city of Bonn is to generate revenue of 1.115 billion euros in 2015 and expenditure of 1.158 billion euros in 2015. In 2016, revenues of more than €1.088 billion and expenses of €1.158 billion are foreseen. The 2015 budget shows a shortfall of EUR 42 million and EUR 70.5 million for 2016. The budgetary compensation is envisaged for 2021.

30. June 2016, the City of Bonn announced that the total debt of Bonn to 2.141 billion euros by 2020 (per capita debt: 6,775 euros). The total debt of the City of Bonn was as of 1 January 2006. June 2016 to €1.633 billion, making Bonn one of the most indebted cities in Germany. Thus, at the beginning of June 2016, each inhabitant was credited with 5172 euros.

The Council of the City of Bonn The Council adopted the 2017/2018 budget on 7 December 2016. June 2016). The city council is still planning to balance the budget for 2021. For 2017 and 2018, new debt is planned. For 2017, the profit and loss plan estimates revenue of around EUR 1.172 billion and expenditure of around EUR 1.269 billion. The 2018 earnings plan foresees about EUR 1.244 billion for income and about EUR 1.289 billion for expenditure.

symbols

Bonn has a coat of arms, a flag and a logo.

Flag of the City of Bonn

The "stone wolf"

	Blowing: "Divided by silver and red, top of a continuous black bar cross, bottom of a looming golden lion."
	crest: The coat of arms of the city of Bonn shows in the upper half the black Kurkölnisches Kreuz on silver ground, which painted all the coats of arms of the former Kurfürstentum and which illustrated the territorial rule of the Cologne Prince. The lower half of the shields have a golden looking walking lion on a red bottom. Since the Middle Ages, the lion has occasionally been called a leopard.

A medieval stone image of the coat of arms was called "Steinernes Wolfchen" in the folklore. The sculpture shows a lion beating a boar. The lion's head is no longer present, so it remains unclear whether he, like the lion in today's coat of arms, is looking to the observer. The Steinerne Wolfchen served as a court symbol and was located on the southern side of the Münsterplatz from the early Middle Ages to the end of the Kurfürstendamm period. Today there is a cast of the sculpture at the end of the Vivatsgasse and in the vestibule of the Old Town Hall. The original is to be seen in the Bonn City Museum.

• Logo used at the latest from the Bundesgartenschau 1979

• logo until 2009

• logo since 2009

Relations between Bonn

town twinning

Since 1983, the City of Bonn has maintained a friendship with Tel Aviv-Jaffa in Israel and a partnership with Potsdam since 1988. Other town-twinning and twinning schemes, some of which were created before the 1969 territorial reform, are in the different districts:

• Bonn district: Partnerships with Oxford in the UK since 1947 and with Budafok-Tétény (German Promontor), the XXII. Budapest District in Hungary since 1991, as well as an urban friendship with poplars in Poland since 1997 (contacts since 1954)
• Bad Godesberg district: Town twinning with Saint-Cloud in France since 1957, with Frascati in Italy since 1960, with Windsor and Maidenhead in the UK since 1960 and with Kortrijk in Belgium since 1964, and since 1969 with Yalova in Turkey
• Beuel district: Since 1969 partnership with Mirecourt in France
• Hardtberg district: Partnership with Villemomble in France since 1967

In addition to town twinning, Bonn has thematic project partnerships. In addition to youth and cultural exchanges, there is also an exchange of experiences in the fields of ecology, urban development and disaster prevention. Project partnerships exist (as of 2014) with the cities of Buchara in Uzbekistan, Cape Coast in Ghana, Chengdu in the People's Republic of China, La Paz in Bolivia, Minsk in Belarus and Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia.

sponsorship

On October 26, 1955, the then district of Bonn decided to take over the sponsorship of the former district-free city of Stolp and the former district of Stolp. On July 1, 1956, the sponsorship began during the Stolper Federal Meeting in the Stadthalle Bad Godesberg. After the reorganization of the Bonn area, the Council of the City of Bonn decided on May 21, 1970 to continue the reform.

In addition, the City of Bonn is the name of the ICE-2 trainset number 208, a Boeing 747-430 with Lufthansa’s registration D-ABVB, a container ship and the navy’s operations group provider Bonn (A 1413).

Regional cooperation

Bonn, the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis and the Rhineland-Palatinate Landkreis Ahrweiler have been cooperating closely with each other, particularly since the Bonn/Berlin decision of 1991, at political level through the Bonn/Rhein-Sieg/Ahrweiler Regional Working Group on Development, Planning and Transport (:rak). The region, which has a population of around one million inhabitants, is often called "Bonn/Rhein-Sieg" or "Bonn/Rhein-Sieg/Ahrweiler". The northern part of the district of Neuwied is geographically part of the Bonn area, in particular the municipalities of Unkel, Linz am Rhein and Asbach. Within the region there are close economic links, which is why many associations working together in Bonn and the surrounding districts have formed. Since 1993 the city has also been cooperating with the Cologne/Bonn region in the region Cologne/Bonn e. V. In this inter-communal association, the municipalities of Cologne, Bonn and Leverkusen have joined forces with the five districts of Rhein-Sieg-Kreis, Rhein-Erft-Kreis, Rhein-Kreis Neuss, Oberbergischer Kreis and the Rheinisch-Bergische Kreis to jointly develop the structural policy development of the region Cologne/Bonn. The Landkreis Ahrweiler is a permanent guest of this body from an old tradition of cooperation.

structures

Hofgarten, University, Münster

Beethovenfiguren in front of his monument on Münsterplatz (2019)

architecture

Historical buildings

The Old Town Hall, one of the city's landmarks, is built in the style of the Rococo from 1737. In the immediate vicinity of the town hall is the former main residence of the Kurfürsten in Cologne, the Kurfürstliche Schloss - today the main building of the Bonn University.

The Poppelsdorfer Allee, planted with chestnut trees, connects the Kurfürstliches Schloss with the Poppelsdorfer Schloss, which was built in the first half of the 18th century. It was built as a place of rest for the princes. This axis is interrupted by the railway line with the main railway station, whose reception building built in 1883/84 is now listed as a historical monument. Since the 1970s, the controversial Bonn hole has been located on the station's front square, which is currently being built with the "Urban Soul" project.

founding façades in the Poppelsdorfer Allee

Poppelsdorfer Allee

Between the Kurfürstendamm castle and the Rhine lies the Old Customs, a bastion of the former fortress ring. Its exposed location offers a picture book-like view of the Rhine and the Seven Mountains right at the crossing from the Middle Rhine to the Cologne bay.

The star gate, originally located at the constellation of Sternstraße on the Peace Square, was dismantled by the Star Street in 1900 because of the construction of the tram, and rebuilt in a highly modified form with a rest of the city wall a few meters away at the Bottler Square.

Above Bad Godesberg is the ruin of the Godesburg castle, probably originally built by the Franconians as an escape castle. The Godesberg Town Hall consists of six connected buildings, built between 1790 and 1792 by Prince Max Franz as a logistics house for spa guests. Built between 1790 and 1830, the former Kurfürstliches Kammertheater Haus an der Redoute is now the museum’s office.

Construction works in Bundes-Bonn

Selected works

Due to the large number of monuments of contemporary history, Bonns Information Stations were built on the path of democracy. The road to democracy is a circular route that passes through several historic buildings of the former government district, in the present federal district, in particular the district of Gronau. The path was opened on 21 May 2004 and is a project of the House of History of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Federal City of Bonn. The concept was developed under the direction of Dietmar Preißler, the collection director of the Haus der Geschichte foundation.

The Zoological Research Museum Alexander König (ZFMK) is the nucleus of democracy after 1945, along the path of democracy. It is not a federal property but a natural history museum and a foundation of the public law of the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia. The museum building is located directly on the federal highway 9, on the edge of the federal district, is a monument protected and is a center of the history trail of democracy, because on 1 September 1948, in the large hall of the museum, the ceremony was held to mark the meeting of the Parliamentary Council.

A core building of the old capital is the parliament building. The House of Lords was originally an educational academy which was used by the Parliamentary Council in 1948 and later by the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. In the late 1980s, the Chamber was replaced by a new building. Since the move, it has been used as a conference center and has been called the World Conference Center Bonn (WCCB) since 2007. Another part of the WCCB is the historic waterworks, whose pump house was used as the plenary hall of the Bundestag during the reconstruction of the federal house from 1986 to 1992.

The official seat of the President of the Swiss Confederation is the late-classicist Villa Hammerschmidt, built in 1861/1862, with a large landscaped garden. The Villa Hammerschmidt in Bonn has been the official and residence of the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany since 1950, the first since 1994 and the second post after Bellevue Castle since 1994.

From 1976 to 1999, the Federal Chancellery building in Bonn was the seat of the Federal Chancellery of the Federal Republic of Germany and since 2005 has housed the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development. It is located in the district of Gronau on Adenauerallee 139 (Bundesstraße 9) in the center of the federal district. Since 2001, the second seat of the Federal Chancellery has been the Palais Schauburg, which belongs to the property. It was the first Federal Chancellery and served as a place of employment from 1949 to 1976. The area of the former Chancellor's Office, which includes several other buildings, is listed as a monument.

The Chancellor's bungalow is the former residence and reception building of the German Chancellor in Bonn. It was used for this purpose from 1964 to 1999.

The former post office ministry I (1954-1988), now listed as a historical monument, is attractive in architectural terms. It was built between 1953 and 1954. The building of the Federal Ministry of Postal and Telecommunications (officially Adenauerallee-Nord); Adenauerallee 81-83) in Bonn was the seat of the Federal Ministry of Postal and Telecommunications from 1954 to 1988, and of the Federal Foreign Office from 1989 to 1999. Since 2000 it has been the seat of the Federal Court of Auditors.

The former Postal Ministry II (from 1988) is located on Robert Schuman Square in the Bundesviertel. The building for the then Federal Ministry of Post and Telecommunications was built according to the plans of architects Heinle, Wischer and Partner. Today it is the first office of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Construction and Reactor Safety (BMUB). This building is stylishly inspired by the shape of a posthorn, which can be seen in aerial photographs. There is a nuclear bunker under the building, which is now out of operation.

Post-Tower and Schürmann-Bau

Deutsche Post’s head office is located in the Post-Tower, the highest office building in North Rhine-Westphalia. The building is located in the immediate vicinity of the former House of Representatives and emblem of the federal city, the Langen Eugen, which has been used by the United Nations since 2002.

The Schürmann-Bau building, the current headquarters of Deutsche Welle, is located between the two towers. This building, originally planned as an office for Members of Parliament, was severely damaged during the construction phase by the flooding of the Rhine in 1993. The A562/B9 intersection is located on the border of the Bonn and Bad Godesberg districts, and is particularly well-lit with the 191 flags of the UN states.

reception of the buildings

The buildings of the government district have enormous age differences and thus also the building styles. While the Villa Hammerschmidt, Palais Sparburg or the Museum König date back to the 19th century, the Federal House from the early 20th century, there were few buildings in the young Federal Republic (by law, the 1955 building freeze) and many new buildings from the 1960s onwards. Until reunification in 1990, the Federal Government experienced a certain construction boom in the late phase in order to fulfill the tasks of the federal administration and to "show face". It is probably one of the changing baths of history that at the time of the strongest expansion of "Bundes-Bonn" the reunification broke down over the seat of government and the old ReichshKapital Berlin applied for the status of federal capital.

There were and still are numerous commentations about the architecture of the Bonn Republic, probably because it is an architectural heterogeneous "patchwork" that the Federal Government brought in the name "Provisionorium".

There was plenty of criticism from all sides: Peter M. Bodes ruled: "Probably no government in the world has produced as much architectural chaos as the federal government in Bonn." The architectural critic Ingeborg Flag said that "Bonn's state architecture is not a state to make". And the journalist Johannes Gross said: " "In 40 years of growing prosperity, the Federal State has not built a single building of architectural standing." But architectural historian Wolfgang Pöttering said something like understanding: Perhaps the long road to the capital of the Federal Republic was also a reflection of society, "contradictory in its interests, soon meticulously, too great a goal, which cannot be realized again"

In a dissertation from 2015 (title: "Constructions of the Confederation 1949-1989"), Elisabeth Plessen dealt with the architecture of the seat of government and documented 154 realized and 14 planned federal buildings. In spite of the negative image, she dared to analyze the fact that Bonn's headquarters were an expression of the "stages of the formation of a society through architecture".

Revitalization of old industrial sites

In 2003, the first construction works for the urban development project in Bonn’s Arch began on the site of the former Oberkasseler cement factory. Until the end of 2009, the hotel was built under the direction of the Bonn architect Karl-Heinz Schommer. Historically protected buildings of the old factory have been preserved and have been extensively renovated, including the mansion, the administrative building and the water tower.

An unused old industrial complex is the Auermühle in Graurheindorf.

high structures

The three highest buildings in the city are the widely visible radio mast of the WDR. on the Venusberg (180 m), the Post-Tower (162.5 m) and the former Langer Eugen (114.7 m). The four-tower of the Cathedral of Bonn is located at 81.4 meters in the seventh of the highest buildings.

sacred buildings

The city area is home to many churches and churches. Below is a selection:

Bonner Münster, Stiftskirche (Bonn), Schlosskirche (Bonn), Names Jesu Church (Bonn), St. Remigius (Bonn), St. Cäcilia (Oberkassel), Helenenkapelle (Bonn), Kreuzkirche (Bonn), St. Maria and Clemens (Schwarzrheindorf), St. Marien (Bonn), St. Peter (Vilich), St. Petri in Ketten (Lengsdorf), Rüngsdorfer Kirchturm, Marienkapelle (Rüngsdorf), St. Laurentius (Lessenich), Michaelskapelle (Bad Godesberg), Elisabeth Church (Bonn-Südstadt), Trinitatiskirche (Endenich), St. Servatius (Friesdorf), St. Evergislus (Praha) St. Severin (Mehlem), Kreuzbergkirche (Endenich), Synagogue Bonn, Agia Trias Cathedral (Greek Orthodox), Al-Muhajirin Mosque (Tannenbusch), Al-Muhsinin Mosque (Beuel), Al-Ansar Mosque (Bad Godesberg) .

Bonn has a number of historically important church buildings. A landmark of the city is the 11th century Bonn Cathedral. It is the largest of all the churches in the city and has a cloister. One of the oldest church buildings in Bonn is the Romanesque double church of St. Maria and Clemens in Schwarzrheindorf. As a special feature, she has a two-story church ship.

The Stiftskirche, a Roman Catholic parish church named St. Johann Baptist and Peter, built from 1879 to 1886, is located at the Pratt on Cologne Street in the district of Bonn-Zentrum and characterizes the Bonn townscape. The parish of the parish church is the oldest church in Bonn.

In the Remigiuskirche in the Brüdergasse, the former "Brüderkirche", there is the pool in which Beethoven was baptized. In 1627/28 Christoph Wamser built the Kreuzbergkirche above Poppelsdorf, on the square of a preChristian cult and a Christian pilgrimage place. Archbishop and prince Clemens August left the church in the middle of the 18th century. The Holy Steps are extended by the extension of the century of Balthasar Neumann.

The Kreuzkirche was founded in 1871 as the city’s main evangelical church and is today one of the largest evangelical houses in the Rhine region.

The synagogue in the district of Gronau in Bonn was built between 1958 and 1959. It is located on Tempelstrasse (number 2-4) on the northern edge of the federal district, just south of the Federal Foreign Office. It is the only synagogue in the city of Bonn and is listed as a historical monument. Until November 10, 1938, synagogues were in Bonn-Stadt, Beuel, Bad Godesberg, Mehlem and Poppelsdorf.

The Old Catholic Church of St. Cyprian, reopened in 1957, is located in the Adenauerallee. The cathedral church of the Bishop's seat in Bonn of the Old Catholic Church in Germany is the name Jesu Church in Bonn, which was handed over on 2 June 2012 for further use of the old Catholic Church. The name Jesu church in the Bonngasse was built in the style of the Jesuit Gothic as a post-Gothic church between 1686 and 1717 and is owned by the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia.

cemeteries

In the Bonn area there are 40 urban cemeteries with a total area of about 120 hectares. Other cemeteries are maintained as parish cemeteries by church communities.

The city's most famous cemetery is the Old Cemetery located at the border with the North City: Numerous celebrity graves and monuments of important sculptors make the Old Cemetery in Bonn one of the most famous cemeteries in Germany. For example, there is the tomb of Beethoven's mother and the monument to Robert and Clara Schumann. In the 19th century the Georgskapelle was transferred to the cemetery. Since the 13th century it was one of the buildings of the upcoming Ramersdorf. There is also a variety of architecturally interesting tombs and celebrity tombs at the Poppelsdorf cemetery and the Burgcemetery in Bad Godesberg.

Muslims are being buried in the North Cemetery today. There is also a Chinese tomb. In the summer of 2018, the construction of another tomb site for Yazidis was decided. Numerous graves of Sinti and Roma - some very large and elaborate - are located in the urban graveyard at the Platanenweg in Beuel.

The Jewish cemetery in Bonn-Castell is used by Jews as a burial ground. In the Kottenforst cemetery, the Jewish community operates a tomb field. The remains of Jewish cemeteries, which were dissolved or abandoned by the Nazis, are also located in the city. These include the Jewish cemetery in Schwarzrheindorf, the Jewish cemetery at the Augustus ring, which was the largest in the city in Kurkölnisches times, the Jewish cemetery at the Hainstrasse in Endenich, and the Jewish cemetery at the Godesberg, which is part of the castle cemetery.

Nature and parks

View from Bonn to the Seven Mountains, right in the image of Lange Eugen (l.) and the Post Tower (r.)

For the Bundesgartenschau 1979, the Rhine meadows and agricultural land south of the former parliament and government district were transformed into a 160 hectare landscape park, the Rheinaue. For the Bundesgartenschau 1979, land on the right Rhine was included from Beuel-Süd to the Südbrücke. Today, the parking spaces serve as a recreational area and are used for large events such as open-air concerts, festivals and flea markets.

Historical parks include the Hofgarten with Hofgartenwiese meadow, south adjacent to the university's main building, including the parks to the Old Customs on the Rhine east and west, the park axis to the Poppelsdorfer castle with the Botanical Gardens. Furthermore, the small Ernst Moritz Arndt garden is one of the most popular parks in the city.

On both sides of the Rhine, in Bonn and Beuel, promenades stretch from north to south with green spaces that allow for the view of the city, the Rhine and the Seven Mountains.

There are also several smaller parks in the city, the largest of which is the spa park in Bad Godesberg. Originally designed for the spa, it hosts a number of rare plant species. For Bonn-Oberkassel, the private arboretum park Härle is worth mentioning.

The Rheinaue, the Arboretum Härle, the Old Cemetery and the Botanical Gardens of the University of Bonn have been especially taken to the street of garden art between the Rhine and the Meuse.

The largest open space in Bonn is the trade fair village field between Endenich, Dransdorf, Lessenich and Duisdorf. It is the only agricultural area in the city area that is used for the climate of the downtown of Bonn.

Other recreational areas are:

• Kottenforst, west and south of Bonn, the 40 km² eastern part of the Rheinland Nature Park, which extends into Bonn’s urban area with several foothills, including:
• the Venusberg and the Waldau; and
• the surrounding valleys of Melbtal and Katzenlochbachtal (nature reserve)
• the foothills of the Rhine north and south of Beuel
• as well as the Siebengebirge, which is also part of a natural park, with its northern slopes.

A natural feature of the city is the Tannenbusch Dune, a 11,000-year-old interior. It was created by strong winds that at the end of the last ice age were turning the sand of the Rhine to this place. The dunes were declared a nature reserve in the late 1980s.

In both nature parks, extensive hiking trails with attractive views of the city invite you to hike. The Rheinsteig long-distance hiking trail begins in Bonn and then crosses the seven mountains.

In the north of the Beuel district of right-wing Rhine, Bonn borders the confluence of victory in the Rhine and the surrounding Siegaue nature reserve, which as one of the last remaining reasonably priced canals enjoys protection under the Fauna and Flora Habitat Directive. Here you will find alluvial forests and waste water without any particular agricultural use, but with a high biodiversity of flora and fauna.

There are 47 brooks in Bonn, most of which go into the Rhine.

art, museums, exhibitions and memorials

Museums and exhibitions

art museum

Chancellor's Bungalow in Bonn (2009)

art museum

Bonn has a large number of important museums. The Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundeskunsthalle) (built between 1986 and 1992 by the Viennese architect Gustav Peichl) and the House of History of the Federal Republic of Germany have been among the ten most visited museums in Germany since its opening. Every year more than 500,000 visitors come to the exhibition. At individual exchange exhibitions, the Federal Art Hall even significantly exceeds this number. Both museums were founded in the early 1990s together with the Municipal Art Museum in Bonn and together with the Bonn branch, which has been focusing on German research and technology since 1945, form the museum mile in the Science Center, the ifa-Galerie and the traditional Museum König.

The Federal Government can also be visited: Since 2009, the Sep Call Chancellor's Bungalow, built in 1964, is located between Villa Hammerschmidt and the Palais Schauburg, close to the House of History. In the city center, several museums have joined together to form a network of city museums: The CityMuseum Bonn (opened in 1998) in Franziskanerstrasse 9, the memorial for resistance and persecution, the Egyptian museum opposite, the Academic Art Museum, the Beethovenhaus and the Rheinische Landesmuseum.

Museums have been set up in the homes of celebrities in their birth, living and death. This is true of the Beethoven House, the August Macke House, the Ernst Moritz Arndt House, which, as part of the Bonn City Museum, offers special exhibitions and events on cultural historical topics of the 19th century, as well as the Schumannhaus in Endenich, where the music library of the City Library has been housed for decades. Since 2005, portraits of personalities whose curricula are closely connected with the city have been integrated into the floor of the Bonngasse, where the Beethoven House is located. In the Beethoven House, as a world document heritage, there is a part of the author of Symphony No. 9, d-minor, op. 125 by Ludwig van Beethoven.

The university has numerous museums and collections. The Egyptian Museum, a collection of about 3000 original objects, the Academic Art Museum, which houses the University's archeological collection, and the Arithmeum, a comprehensive collection of calculators, are well known. The Botanical Garden belongs to the university. Here is, among other things, the largest flower in the world to admire the Titan Wurz, whose flower was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records in 2003 as the largest flower in the world. It is flourishing regularly, every year since 2008. The Goldfoot Museum, a fossil collection, the Mineralogical Museum, a collection of precious stones and meteorites, and finally the Horst Stöckel Museum, which presents the history of anesthesiology from the discovery of aesthetic anesthesia in 1846 to the present.

The women's museum, founded in 1981, is now almost 40 years old. It was the first institution in the world to have the same name or similar purpose. Today, the Women's Museum can look back at more than 400 exhibitions and has become an internationally recognized institution with its extensive accompanying programs.

The Rheinische Landesmuseum, completely rebuilt between 1995 and 2003, features important archeological monuments to the cultural history of the Rhine region and has a less important collection of contemporary art from the region.

The Volkssternwarte Bonn, located on the Poppelsdorfer Allee, regularly carries out public observations of the sky and the sun.

On the initiative of and under the direction of the Bertolt-Brecht Comprehensive School, the German Aerospace Center and other sponsors opened the Bonn Planetary Trail in September 2002 at a scale of 1:1 billion in two years of work along the Rhine. The sun (diameter 1.40 meters) is the starting point of the 5946 meter long trail and is located below the water works. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are relatively short distances of between 50 and 100 meters. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune follow with distances of between 700 meters and 1.5 kilometers. Pluto completes the path at the northern end of Bonn's port in Graurheindorf. At each site of the planet, the name, a scale hemisphere, the symbol, diameter and all information are stored on information boards in Braille.

Nazi memorial

In Franziskanerstrasse 9 there is the memorial for the victims of the National Socialism in Bonn - An der Synagogue e. V. The permanent informative exhibition was thoroughly revised and supplemented in 2005. It documents persecution, suffering and murder of the victims of Nazism in Bonn. The memorial includes a library, a media library with interviews with contemporary witnesses, as well as an extensive archive.

art in public space

Hans Arp: The cloud shell (1961) - in front of the University Library

There is a wealth of works of art by contemporary German and international artists throughout the city. These include Victor Vasarely with his Juridicum facade design, Henry Moore with Large Two Forms in front of the former Federal Chancellery, the current Federal Ministry of Development, and Eduardo Chillida with De Musica IV in front of the Münster. The cloud shell of Hans Arp was erected in front of the University Library in 1961. Due to the multi-year renovation of the building, Arps plant was not visible between 2004 and May 2009.

This high number of works of art has been facilitated by the public sector's construction in connection with the expansion of Bonn to the seat of the government. Works created as an art of construction, sculptures in public institutions such as the University and the museums, and not least donations from private patrons, make it possible for a visitor to walk through the city through the history of the visual arts of the last 50 to 60 years.

In honor of Ludwig van Beethoven, there is a Beethoven monument on the Münsterplatz.

Monuments in honor of individuals are described in the list of personal monuments in Bonn.

theater, music, film

Beethovenhalle

The Beethoven Orchestra Bonn regularly organizes concerts in the Beethovenhalle and is used in the opera. It was founded in 1897 as a Philharmonic Orchestra Koblenz and acquired by the City of Bonn as a Municipal Orchestra in Bonn in 1907.

Klaus Kammerichs: "Beethon" (in front of the Beethovenhalle)

In addition to the municipal theater in Bonn with the opera Bonn and the theater in the Godesberg theater (formerly chamber games), there are several smaller private theaters in Bonn. These include the inner city counter-district theater, Euro Theater Central, the Young Theater in Beuel Bonn, the Theater DIE RABEN, the Little Theater Bad Godesberg, the Theater Pathology in the South City, the Bonn University Shakespeare Company and since September 2018 Malentes Theater Palace on the Godesberger Allee.

Bonn also houses renowned choirs such as the Bach choir, the Bonn jazz choir, the Chur Cologne choir, the Immortal Bach ensemble or the Philharmonic choir as well as Vox Bona.

You can also enjoy a show of art and cabaret in the House of the Springmaus, the Pantheon Theater (since 2016 in the Beuel Hall), the Endenicher Harmonie and the Theater in the Ballroom. The figurine artist cultivates the Piccolo puppetry in various Bonn venues. For several years now, a very strong poetry-slam scene has been established in Bonn: Since 2001 the Bonn Rosenkrieg has been taking place monthly and since 2009 Bonn has a second slam with sex, drugs & poetry.

From 1997 to 2011 concerts with German and international artists were held in the summer at the Museumsplatz at the Bundeskunsthalle as open-air concerts under a tent roof. Since 2012 the Art!rasen has been running in the Gronau on the edge of the Rheinaue since 2012. Smaller performances take place in the Bad Godesberg sound station and the Endenicher Harmonie. With the open-air festival Rheinkultur (Rheinkultur) the cultural offer of the city until 2011 had one of the most important festivals in Germany, where practically all modern styles were represented.

The traditional Metropol cinema at the Market Square was closed in March 2006, after the building was taken over by a new owner at the end of 2005. The building is now used as a bookstore after a heated discussion about demolition, re-use or further use of the listed playground. The star lights also on the market are operated by Cinestar. Built in 1956 at Bertha-von-Suttner-Platz, the building of the Universe Light Games has been home since 1998. In the center of Bad Godesberg is the multiplex cinema Kinopolis. There are three cinemas in Bonn: the listed Rex Lichtspieltheater opened in Endenich in 1952, the Neue Filmbühne built in Beuel in 1933 and the Bonn cinematheque located in the cultural center of Brotfabrik Bonn.

Regular events

Concert in Beethovenhalle during Beethovenfest 2007

The Beethovenfest is an almost four-week music festival held every autumn with over 50 concerts in Bonn and the surrounding area. In 2005, the Beethoven Competition was held for the first time, a competition for young pianists from all over the world.

Every year in the summer, silent movies that have been restored during the International Silent Film Days are shown in the Arkadenhof at the University.

The water organ event Klangwelle Bonn took place annually in the fall at Münsterplatz between 2005 and 2013.

Every third Saturday in the month of March to October the Great Rheinau Flea Market takes place in the Rheinaue. Annual events in the Rheinaue are the big fireworks Rhine in flames on the first weekend of May, the beer market last weekend in July and the International Meeting Festival in autumn. Since 1983, the Umsonst music festival Rheinkultur, established and held outside since 2012, has not taken place. From 2015 to 2018, the Rheinaue was also the venue for the Rockaue Open Air. Since 2015, the Panama Open Air Festival has been held once a year.

Since 2008 the Green Juice Festival has been held in Neu-Vilich.

The biggest annual fair in Bonn, Pützchen Markt, is always held on the second weekend of September in Beuel-Pützchen, on a festival meadow in the east of the city. Its origins date back to 1367. With around 1.2 to 1.4 million visitors, Pützchen's market is one of the big fairgrounds in the Rhineland region. The Volksfest has been awarded the honorary title of "the largest 5-day market in Germany".

The AnimagiC, one of the largest German-speaking anime conventions (manga and anime fans), was held annually in the Beethovenhalle until 2016. The Convention moved to Mannheim as the renovation work began. Since 2019, AiKon has once again been hosting a major Manga Convention in Bonn. The venue is the BaseCamp Bonn. The annual Holi Colors Festival Bonn has been held there since 2014. Further regular events such as the FeenCon take place in Bad Godesberg.

The cherry blossom in the old town of Bonn attracts tourists from all over the world in April and May. In the past, mainly Asian tourists, from whose home the trees originate, are coming with increasing awareness from other countries.

A Christmas market takes place in the city center from the weekend of November 12 (chasing on Sunday) to December 23. It stretches from Münsterplatz to Vivatsgasse, the Muelheimer Platz, the Bottler Square and the Peace Square.

From 1970 to 2011, an international cultural program was held in Bonn under the name "Bonn Summer", spread over several summer weekends. For musicians, artists and the free cultural scene a good opportunity to get to the public. In 2011, 690 Germans voted against the culture issue (around €300,000 per year), and 629 voted in favor. Given the population, it is not necessarily representative. In 2020, the city council decided in 2019 to revive the festival, which was popular at the time, and to combine it with the city garden concerts.

customs

carnival

Monday train in front of town hall

Bonn is one of the Carnival castles in the Rhine, although it is always in the shadow of the larger Carnival in Cologne.

The Prince of Laundry will take over the reign in the City Hall of Beueler on Christmas Eve. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the Old Town Hall in Bonn has been besieged and conquered by the city soldiers in historical uniforms in a French style. The largest carnival meeting is the alternative carnival meeting Pink Punk Pantheon with more than 10,000 visitors every year.

Local people define the carnival period between 11 November at 11:11 am and Ash Wednesday as the 'fifth season'.

sports

Choreography of Baskets Bonn fans, scene from Telekom Dome 2013

sports clubs

The best known sports club in Bonn is the basketball club Telekom Baskets Bonn, whose first men's team has been successfully playing in the Bundesliga basketball for years and since 2008 has played home games in the 6,000 spectator Telekom Dome in the district of Duisdorf.

Bonn is the largest German city from which never played a football club in the Bundesliga. The best known football club in Bonn is the Bonner SC, which plays its matches in the Sportpark Nord and currently plays in the Regional League West. Due to a bankruptcy, the first men's soccer team of the Bonn SC only took the second team in the 2010/11 season. Team (District League B), with the youth football teams and table tennis department. After the bankruptcy proceedings (reduction of 8 million Euro of old debts) and the construction of a new team, the first football team of the Bonn SC started again in the regional league in the season 2011/2012.

Other sports clubs are the 1st. Badminton Club Beuel (German badminton champions 1981, 1982 and 2005), the former ladies' basketball Bundesliga BG Rentrop Bonn (today BG Bonn 92), the Bundesliga Bonn Capitals (German Champion of the Baseball Bundesliga 200 18, German victor in 1999 and several German champions in the youth classes), the Bonn Tennis and Hockey Association (Hockey Regional League, Tennis Oberligist), the Hockey and Tennis Club Schwarz-Weiss Bonn, the Club für American Football Bonn Gamecocks (2nd Bundesliga) and Bonns largest sports club, which Swimming and Sports Friends of Bonn 1905 (SSF Bonn), multiple German volleyball champions and cup winners as well as home club of the Olympic champion in the Modern Five Fight 2008, Lena Schöneborn. The 1st Women's Team of the Triathlon Division of the SSF Bonn is represented in the 1st Bundesliga.

The best handball clubs in Bonn are the HSG Geislar Oberkassel and TSV Bonn rh., which play in the Verbandsliga of Middle Rhine and the Handball Regional League of North Rhine. Near the Sportpark Nord the German Fechter-Bund has its head office with a boarding school for the young elite who will start the Olympic fencing club in Bonn. This is where fencing stars like Peter Joppich and Benjamin Kleibrink train. For more than 100 years now, the 1906 e sports club has been located in Bonn. V. Duisdorf. 1. The wrestling team of the TKSV Duisdorf wins the first Bundesliga in the second year. The biggest dance club is the TSC Blue-Gold Rondo in the Beuel district, which regularly hosts the traditional tournament "Golden Rebe" in spring.

The immediate vicinity of the Rhine is shown in several rowing clubs and four rowing-work-communities (AG) of the Bonn schools, which organize themselves in the AG-Bonn-Student Rowing Club (AGBS). With the Eurega, Bonn has a rowing regatta that is well known far beyond Bonn's borders, which is hosted annually on the first weekend of May by the Bonn Ruder Association.

swimming pool

Bonn has eight swimming pools: Two swimming pools, five outdoor pools and a combined indoor/outdoor pool with attached climbing forest, as follows:

• indoor Beueler Bütt Beuel and Frankenbad Nordstadt
• indoor/outdoor swimming pool: Hardtbergbad Hardtberg
• outdoor swimming pool with gym: Friesdorf swimming pool
• open-air baths: Ennertbad Pützchen, Melbbad Poppelsdorf, Panoramabad Rüngsdorf and Römerbad Castell.

In addition, the swimmers of the SSF were given a swimming-sport training center in the North Sports Park with a 50-meter sports pool and a training pool. The first swimmingpools for young children and adults are part of the urban course, as well as stylish courses in kraultechnik or aqua-fitness hours.

Sports courts, gymnasiums and gyms

Over 100 municipal gymnastics and sporting halls are distributed throughout the city. Of these, 81 are single gyms, nine major tournaments, nine triple halls and a four-fold hall. There are also 24 gymnastics rooms and 46 outdoor sports courts, including 13 lawn areas. There are 25 privately run sports and tournament halls outside the city.

sporting events

The annual sporting events include the German Open in synchronous swimming in March, the Bonn Marathon in April, the Bonn-Triathlon in June, a station of the Beachvolleyball Championships in Germany in August, as well as the Herrenflorett World Cup tournament "Löwe von Bonn".

Gastronomy and nightlife

Brauhaus Bönnsch

Bonn has been repeatedly called a "city without any significant nightlife". This name is misleading in that the city is well developed in gastronomy and has a number of excellent restaurants. In 2005, Gault-Millau elected her to the title of "Schlemmer Capital of Germany". With Rainer-Maria Halbeel’s Halbedel’s Inn in Bad Godesberg, the city has a star restaurant. The restaurants Yunico (Im Kameha Grand Hotel), EQUU (in Gronau) and Kaspars (in Castell) are also awarded a star.

In typical inns, Rhineland cuisine is also offered as a regional kitchen in Germany, often under the label "good-bourgeois cuisine". These include classics such as: a.

• Rheinischer Sauerbraten (Soorbrode)
• roll
• sound
• bivalve molluscs of the Rhine species
• heaven and oak
• Rievkoche (rice pie).

The "student" pubs, bars and discotheques are distributed in Bonn on a decentralized basis and are mainly found in the northern city, the southern city and Poppelsdorf. In the early hours of the morning, experienced night owls move from these locations to the catering establishments around the Bonn market, which open their doors to market people.

Associations

free

Since 1775, there have been free - moor lodges in Bonn. They included local celebrities such as Karl Otto Freiherr von Gymnich, Anton von Belderbusch and Nikolaus Simrock. The Lodges in Bonn were forcibly dissolved twice, from 1814 to 1840 by the Prussian district director and opponent of Freemasons Rehfues and from 1935 to 1945 by the NSDAP. The Loge Beethoven for eternal harmony is one of the few German lodges that resisted forced dissolution and secretly continued to work in a private house. There are currently six outdoor lodges in Bonn from the various regular large lodges. There is also a lodge for men and women called Light and Truth under the Grand Orient de Luxembourg.

Corporations and compounds

The monks are represented with the Reych Schlaraffia Castrum Bonnense.

In addition, there are numerous student associations in Bonn (beating, non-beating or optional battling corporations) with their own houses and different ideological orientation.

traffic

air

The Cologne/Bonn airport, named after Konrad Adenauer, is located about 15 kilometers north-east of the city and is connected to Bonn via the A 59, a bus line and the right-Rhine railway line. There is also a connection to the air transport system through the Bonn-Hangelar airport, located in Saint Augustin, directly at the border with the Beuel district. The airport is mainly used by business and leisure passengers. A non-civilian airfield exists at the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Defense with the Heliport Bonn-Hardthehe, which is no longer used regularly. From 1953 to 1961, a civil helicopter landing site was operated by the Belgian airline Sabena on scheduled flights to Brussels via Cologne.

Rail and bus transport

Main railway intersections

The building of Bonn Central Station

Bonn's main railway station is the long-distance railway station of the Deutsche Bahn on the left Rhine route Cologne-Bonn-Koblenz, the railway station Siegburg/Bonn on the ICE line Cologne-Rhine/Main is 20 to 30 minutes from the center of Bonn with the tram line 66. If the right Rhine route is diverted as a result of disturbances, it will be held in Bonn-Beuel as an alternative. As a public transport route in Bonn, the Voreifelbahn to Euskirchen is a branch off the left Rhine. A total of 13 level level crossings exist on the Bonn railway lines.

railway stations

There are nine stations and stops in Bonn's city area. There are six regular services to the surrounding cities in the local rail transport system every hour, which are 20 to 30 minutes. The pre-icle railway operates every 15 to 30 minutes on weekdays and every 30 to 60 minutes in the evening and on Sundays.

rail freight

Bonn is almost cut off from local rail freight traffic, but transit rail freight traffic through Bonn's urban area takes place to a significant extent on both the left and the right. There were previously more than ten freight stations or port stations in the city of Bonn, operated by three different railways (DB, KBE (Cologne-Bonn-Railway) and the "old" RSE (a narrow-gage railway also called Bröltalbahn) and also numerous connecting tracks from Bonn companies. The freight railway station in Bonn-Beuel has remained the only one, which for several years has again been regularly and extensively handling freight and is the last interface between rail and road in the whole of Bonn and the surrounding area. Connecting tracks ready for use for the industry no longer exist in Bonn. Only a wholesaler of classic car spare parts has direct access to the rail network via a railway of the Bonn-Beueler freight station and is regularly supplied with containers via the rail.

development of rail transport

In the next few years and decades, a major expansion of the railway network in Bonn and the region is planned. This includes the construction of the S-Bahn line 13, which hitherto connects Cologne and Troisdorf to the Cologne/Bonn airport in a dense time via the airport loop opened in 2004. With the extension by the right - wing Rhine - Westphalia Bonn to Oberkassel, it was to take over this function for Bonn. In the meantime, the regional train 27 Bonn-Beuel and Bonn-Oberkassel connects to the Cologne/Bonn airport (60-minute-drive) free of charge. The S13 is scheduled to run every 20 minutes and will be accompanied by the new construction of two S-Bahn stations. The estimated cost of the 14-kilometer project has risen from 225 to 434 million euros, so the extension of the S13 to Oberkassel is not undisputed. After DB repeatedly revised the scheduled completion date backwards, no binding completion date has been specified by DB since 2011. In September 2014, preparatory works began in the district of Vilich-Müldorf, which involved the installation of an economic route instead of the planned new track. In December 2014, a financing and realization contract for the S13 was signed and construction is now scheduled to start in early 2017. The main criticism of the extension of the S13 is the fact that the center of Bonn with the main railway station and the Bundesviertel with the S13 will not be reachable by the immense costs.

A direct connection to the airport via the South Bridge to the inner city of Bonn and the central railway station has been examined in various versions and assessed with very low benefit-cost ratios. Furthermore, the South Bridge cannot carry today's S-Bahn cars statically. Such a link must therefore be regarded as unrealistic. Direct access to the airport via the Kennedybrücke bridge would be technically possible after the completion of the rehabilitation of the Kennedybrücke (2011) by means of two-system wagons (Karlsruhe model), but was rejected by the majority of the Bonn Council (status: 2013) and has therefore not been evaluated for a benefit-cost ratio until now (2013).

From 2013 to 2014, the Voreifelbahn was continuously upgraded on two tracks, linked to the new construction of two stops in Bonn’s city area (Bonn-Endenich Nord and Bonn’s Helmholtzstraße). The goal is to improve access through the new construction of the railway stations and to keep the line busy. As a result of its increasingly urban development function, the Voreifelbahn between Euskirchen and Bonn is operating as S23 from the change of schedule in December 2014, thus providing Bonn with the first connection to the network of the Cologne S-Bahn. Since March 2016, the Bonn UN Campus station on the left-hand side of the Rhine at the museum mile in the Bundesviertel region has been established in order to improve access to this job center. This was launched on 1 November 2017.

In the long term, the construction of the Cologne S-Bahn Westring will lead to the construction of a left-Rhine S-Bahn between Cologne and Bonn, which will replace part of the Rhine-Wupper-Bahn (RB 48) between Cologne and Bonn-Mehlem as S 17. A feasibility study commissioned by the Rhineland public transport system proposes to extend the Rhine Linke line in the Bonn section between Bonn-Bad Godesberg and Bonn-Mehlem on a four-track, three-track basis in the other sections in order to realize a 20-minute cycle. After electrification, the S23 pre-icle railway will be bound to Bonn-Mehlem and compressed at a 10-minute cycle in the main traffic. At the same time, it is planned to significantly increase noise protection and to modernize the technical equipment of the line. In addition, the EUR 250 million project is to replace or remove all railway level crossings in the Bonn area by overruns, underpasses or departures. This will eliminate the currently very long closing times of up to 20 minutes and optimize traffic flow in a sustainable way.

local road

network of the Bonn tram

Bonn now owns a tram/tram network with about six lines (depending on the number) in local tram traffic. In the 1950s, the Bonn tramway network contracted sharply due to numerous closures. Since spring 1975, the main line between Bonn and Bad Godesberg mainly replaces the tram line on the Kaiserstraße and the B 9, it runs every 10 minutes during the day and the evening cycle times were greatly reduced in 2002. In addition to inner-city connections, the Bonn Siegburg, St Augustin, Königswinter and Bad Honnef train service runs on line 66. Two lines run on railway lines from the former Cologne-Bonn railways to Cologne via Brühl, Hürth, Bornheim and Wesseling in 20 minutes.

bus

Bonn also has a very dense city bus network with 48 lines (including 6 Community lines 537, 541, 550, 551, 640 and SB55), which is operated in the 20-minute cycle as far as possible. The bus network is supported by E-marked "supplementary lines", partly due to the bundling of lines and cycles of five minutes, at peak times and in school traffic. In 2002, late traffic was extensively thinned by a majority in the Council. As a result of the new bus network, late-night traffic was revitalized at the end of 2008 until night traffic started. There is also a night bus network with ten lines that connect each other hourly. The night bus network is partly funded by sponsorship, i.e. (h) each sponsorship line bears the name of a sponsor, the bus (during the day in regular service) bears the appropriate full advertising. From 1951 to 1971, the trolleybus in Bonn also operated in the city, which replaced part of the tramway network and was replaced by bus lines.

Traffic Interconnection (VRS)

Bonn is part of the collective bargaining area of the "Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg" (VRS).

road network

Highways in Bonn area

Bonn is connected to the trunk road network via the federal highways 59, 555, 562, and 565 as well as the federal roads 9, 42 and 56.

As the city area is separated from the Rhine, the three Rhine bridges of the A 562 (South Bridge, Konrad Adenauer Bridge), A 565 (North Bridge, Friedrich Ebert Bridge) and B 56 (Kennedybrücke) as well as the Rhine ferries Mehlem-Königswinter, Bad Godesberg-Niederdollendorf and Graurheindorf-dorf have Mondorf is particularly important for urban transport. The same applies to the railway underpasses and the Victorian bridge linking the north and south of the left Rhine area.

In Bonn, 184,582 vehicles are registered, including 156,398 passenger cars.

The cycle path network of the city of Bonn was greatly expanded between 1994 and 1999. However, some bike paths have been rebuilt and partly replaced by bike lanes or protective strips. Bonn is a member of the working group of pedestrian and bicycle-friendly cities, municipalities and districts in North Rhine-Westphalia and aims to become the cycling capital in the future (following the example of the cycling capital in Munich). For this purpose, a city-wide network of bicycle roads has been designed.

waterways and ports

Access to the port of Bonn

In the north, in the district of Graurheindorf, lies the inland port of the city of Bonn (port of Bonn). Previously he was resident at the Old Customs, near the Kennedybrücke bridge. When this space was no longer sufficient for the handling capacity, it was relocated in the 1920s to a site that was still free of settlement. The plan was to create a larger industrial base and a port basin. Both have not been implemented. Until 1974, the harbor was connected to the CBE's rail network via a runway in Buschdorf. The harbor in Bonn is now completely enclosed by the district of Graurheindorf. Most containers for the transport of overseas are handled at this port today. The annual turnover is about €0.5 million for all goods. t.

Passenger shipping is operated from Bonn by the fleets of the Cologne-Düsseldorf and the Bonn people. The latter includes the conspicuous vessel Moby Dick, which is modeled on a whale.

Charges from transport

According to a study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Physics in 2011, Bonn is the noisiest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the fourth largest city in Germany.

supply networks

With the exception of the parts Holzlar, Hoholz and Hungary, the Stadtwerke in Bonn supply the city area with water from the Vahnbachtalblocking. The gas network has been owned by Stadtwerke for several years, since 2011, the electricity network has been run entirely municipally again, and the City Council has not renewed the RWE concession for the Beuel and Bad Godesberg districts.

After Bonn became the seat of the government, the power grid was converted into a ring and mesh network. The increased structure of these networks ensures greater resilience than in other cities.

There are four treatment plants in the city of Bonn, of which the Salierweg wastewater treatment plant is the largest in the district of Graurheindorf. In the last 15 years, significant investments have been made in the disposal of waste water. All wastewater treatment plants have been modernized and extended for more than 200 million euros.

Deutsche Telekom headquarters

business location

From mid-1991, the date of the Bonn/Berlin decision of the Bundestag, to mid-2002, the number of employees in the city of Bonn increased by approximately 11,400 persons, i.e. 8.5 percent to 145,558. For 2003, the city again reported an increase of 3118 jobs to 149,016. Job losses due to relocation could be compensated, as in the neighboring Rhine-Sieg-Kreis, and new jobs created.

In 2013, the city of Bonn reported a purchasing power index of 109.6 percent (German average: 100 per cent). Thus, the inhabitants of Bonns together had a general purchasing power of EUR 7.3 billion, or EUR 22 746 per inhabitant. The above-average purchasing power index is due to a high level of employment, a high proportion of highly skilled workers and high-income jobs. The neighboring Rhine-Sieg-Kreis had a marginally lower purchasing power of 21,367 euros per inhabitant.

In 2016, Bonn achieved a gross domestic product (GDP) of €22.824 billion within the city limits, ranking 12 in the economic performance rankings of German cities. GDP per capita in the same year was €71,222 per capita (North Rhine-Westphalia: €37,416, Germany €38,180), well above the regional and national average. In 2016, the city employed around 243,200 people. The unemployment rate was 6.1% in December 2018, below the average of 6.4% in North Rhine-Westphalia.

In most city placements for future development, Bonn and the region are located at least in the upper third. The fact that the region is a thriving economic location is demonstrated by the fact that the population has been developing positively for years.

The positive development was made possible, among other things, by the Federal Government’s compensatory payments to the region, totaling approximately EUR 1.4 billion. In particular, support was given to science projects and construction. In addition, many federal authorities moved to Bonn, and many international institutions and non-governmental organizations, including twelve of the United Nations, settled in the city. The concentration of Deutsche Post and Deutsche Telekom in Bonn also contributed.

Services (excluding public administration) grew by 27.1%, or about 22,400 employees, from June 1991 to June 2002. With 105,171 employees and a share of 72.3 percent of all employees, this sector has expanded its dominant position in Bonn. By contrast, the public administration has lost almost a third of its employees during this period.

Economic research institutes predict that the number of jobs will continue to rise in Bonn in the next few years. In the Future Atlas 2016, the city of Bonn occupied 37 of 402 districts and urban districts in Germany and is thus one of the places with "very high prospects for the future". In the 2019 edition, it was 28th out of 401.

tourism

Tourism in Bonn was dominated by political tourism during the time as a seat of government. Since the 1990s, this sector has experienced high growth rates, in particular the number of overnight stays since 1993 has risen by 40% and the arrivals of visitors have risen by 58%. One of the key factors for the increase is that tourism and the businesses operating there have adapted to the new situation, in particular the relocation of the government. Apart from the favorable location on the Rhine and the Siebengebirge mountains, the success of Bonn’s tourism is mainly due to the increase in the number of passengers at the airport and the congress facilities. Of the 1.16 million hotel nights spent in 2005, more than a quarter were held by congressional guests, with 300,000.

The number of daily tourists is much higher, at 9 million. In total, tourists spend EUR 176 million a year in Bonn. 10,475 people are employed in tourism in Bonn and the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis, with an increasing trend.

labor

Bonn has had one of the lowest unemployment rates in North Rhine-Westphalia for years, reaching 6.9 percent in October 2010. A large proportion of the employees in Bonn come from the surrounding area as commuters, mainly from the Rhine-Sieg-Kreis, the Kreis Euskirchen and the Rhineland-Palatinate Landkreis Ahrweiler, as well as from the Rhein-Erft-Kreis and Cologne. Every day, 80,000 people go to Bonn to work, while 30,000 Germans work outside the city limits. Bonn has the third highest commuter surplus in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and the state capital Duesseldorf.

Among other things, the region's labor market is dominated by the numerous federal ministries and authorities, together with several federal associations and organizations - the Confederation is the largest employer in the region - and the heavyweights of Deutsche Post AG, Deutsche Telekom and Postbank with its subsidiaries. In addition to the jobs in the Federal City and UN City functions with international organizations, there are comparatively many in the field of information and communication technology and science with several research institutions in Bonn.

Structural change in retail

As in many other cities in the Federal Republic, there was a structural change in the stationary retail sector since the 1990s. Numerous former owner-run, old-established retail stores disappeared and made way for stores of retail chains. Some specialized stores with highly specialized products also disappeared. This development was not least due to the increasing internet trade.

Known Bonn companies

The major companies in Bonn can be divided into two groups. On the one hand, several privatized state - owned companies are based in Bonn. Deutsche Telekom AG (together with its former subsidiaries T-Mobile and T-Home, which have been incorporated in Telekom Deutschland GmbH since 2010) and Deutsche Post (with its logistics subsidiary DHL and Postbank) (majority owned by Deutsche Bank since 2010) are the best known examples. Tank & Rast is also based in Bonn.

The third largest employer in the city of Bonn is the University of Bonn (including the university clinics) and, as a major employer, Stadtwerke Bonn is also a successor.

On the other hand, there are some traditional, nationally renowned private companies in Bonn, such as the companies producing sweeteners, distribution and Kessko, the organ manufacturer Klais and the Bonn flag factory.

Bonn flag factory

Haribo, the largest confectionery manufacturer in Europe, has its founding seat (Gr. 1922) and a production site in Bonn. The acronym Haribo stands for Hans Riegel Bonn.

Other companies of supra-regional importance are the Weck Glaswerke (production site), Fairtrade, Eaton Industries (formerly Klöckner & Moeller), IVG Immobilien AG, Kautex Textron, SolarWorld, Vapiano and SER Group.

Schürmann-Bau, headquarters of Deutsche Welle

media

Radio and television

Deutsche Welle is by far the largest media company in Bonn. It has its headquarters in Schürmann-Bau and produces radio programs broadcast all over the world as well as an online offer in currently (April 2012) 30 languages. In addition, the TV station Phoenix has its headquarters in the Federal City, in the former capital studio of ZDF.

The WDR. has a federal studio and a regional office in Bonn. On February 1, 2007 the local coverage in Bonn/Rhein-Sieg started with its own local time from Bonn.

In Bonn, the local radio station Radio Bonn/Rhein-Sieg with a program of Radio NRW and the higher education radio BonnFM also broadcast as a cooperation project of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and the Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg.

print media

By far the largest daily newspaper in Bonn is the General Scoreboard. He belongs to the Rheinische Post Media Group. Local coverage is also available in the Bonn Rundschau, the Rhine-Sieg-Anzeiger and the tabloid Express. These three newspapers belong to the Cologne media group M. DuMont Schauberg. In 2004, the Federal Cartel Office of the Media Group prohibited the acquisition of a share in the Bonn General Scoreboard. The Antitrust Authority considers that the transaction would have led to a strengthening of the dominant position in the reading and advertising markets. 6. On 23 July 2005, the Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf lifted the veto of the Federal Cartel Office, allowing DuMont to acquire 18% of the shares. In return, Neusser GmbH, the publisher of the General-Scorer, acquired shares in the DuMont Group in the amount of 9.02 percent as part of a cross-shareholding. This participation has since been dissolved again. Since 1 June 2018, the General-Scorer has been part of the Rheinische Post Media Group.

The Rentrop publishing group (including the German Business Publishing Group) and the Stollfuß publishing house (Stollfuß-Verlag) have a strong position in the field of printed matter. Both are among the 100 largest German publishers. Voggenreiter Verlag is one of the most renowned companies in this field with the publication of specialist musical literature, music notes and textbooks on musical instruments.

The city magazines Schnüss (Rheinisch für "Schnauze") and Szene Köln-Bonn appear monthly in Bonn. The regional weekly Rheinischer Merkur was also from Bonn and was transformed into a supplement to the weekly Die Zeit in 2010 at the initiative of the German Bishops Conference.

The Tulpenfeld, seat of the Bundesnetzagentur

Internet offers

Since October 1st, 2006 the news and communication portal Rheinraum-online.de is available. It goes without saying to citizens "who no longer want to settle for the coverage of the existing media landscape in Bonn". Online offers with local news produce the Bonn daily newspapers, the WDR. and Radio Bonn/Rhein-Sieg. Online offers that publish information about events and concerts in Bonn and the Rhein-Sieg Kreis are campus-web.de and bonndirect.com.

news agency

The Federal Press Conference has its only branch in the Tulpenfeld. Here is a branch of the German Press Agency (DPA). In addition, a number of news agencies are working in the UN city around the international organizations based here, such as the Catholic News Agency (CNA).

transmission

The broadcasting services are provided, among other things, via the broadcasting masts on the Venusberg and the Great Oil Mountain. Since 2004 the Bonn-Venusberg station on Venusberg has been providing the Bonn region with digital terrestrial television (DVB-T), which replaced analog broadcasting.

United Nations and federal

UN city (location of UN authorities)

The Old House of Representatives (2014), after the 2013 reconstruction, now houses part of the UN campus.

Since 1996 Bonn has been called "the UN City on the Rhine". Some 1,000 staff are now working for 19 United Nations agencies, offices and programs. Bonn is also the seat of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC). Most organizations combine the commitment to sustainable development of the world. At first, they were mainly based at the Carstanjen House in Bad Godesberg, which in the long run provided too little space for the growing secretariats. That is why the German government decided in 2003 to leave the "Langen Eugen" and the Bundeshaus as former parliament buildings to the United Nations for permanent use and to form a UN campus there. The campus has the status of an extraterritorial area. Since the official opening of the UN campus in July 2006, all but one of the other (18) organizations have moved to the "Langen Eugen". In October 2013, the climate secretariat was able to move to the reconstructed southern wing of the federal house - the old parliament building. The most recent UN organization in Bonn is the 3. The Knowledge Center for Sustainable Development of the United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC) was inaugurated on 23 March 2016.

The United Nations settlement has led to an increase in the number of international institutions and non-governmental organizations operating in Bonn, of which approximately 170 have now settled in Bonn. Among them are the German Development Service (DED), the German Institute for Development Policy (DIE) and the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), important institutes of development aid, which are supported in the performance of their tasks by the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), headquartered in Bonn.

About 150 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are represented at the UN headquarters in Bonn as interest representatives.

Federal City (location of federal authorities)

Inbound sign Bonns, here: Bad Godesberg district

Since the transfer of the seat of government to Berlin, regulated by the Berlin/Bonn Act of 26 June 2006. On April 11, 1994, six ministries continue to have their first office in Bonn. Because the Federal Republic of Germany was established here in 1949, the city became the seat of parliament and government for several decades (thus until 1990 provisionally assumed the function of federal capital) and Bonn became the administrative center, i.e. (h) The city now bears the unique title of the Federal City, which is unique in Germany, and should remain the center of the federal ministerial administration. Moreover, no more employees in Berlin ministries are allowed to work than in Bonn ministries, which employ about 10,000 people. The law also regulates the relocation of 22 federal authorities from Berlin and the Rhine-Main area to the federal city. In addition, the federal government decided on the settlement of Deutsche Telekom, Deutsche Post and Postbank by law.

Federal Office for Security in Information Technology (BSI)

Six federal ministries have their first office in Bonn: the Federal Ministry of Defense (BMVg); the Federal Ministries of Food and Agriculture (BMEL); for economic cooperation and development (BMZ); environment, nature protection, construction and reactor safety (BMUB); for Health (BMG) and for Education and Research (BMBF). The eight ministries with the first office in Berlin have a second seat in Bonn.

Many other federal authorities, such as the Federal Institute for Medicinal Products and Medical Devices (BfArM), the Federal Institute of Technology (THW), the Federal Cartel Office (BKartA), the Federal Audit Office (BRH), the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA), the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE), the Federal Office for Nature Conservation (BfN), The Federal Office for Financial Services Supervision (BaFin), the Federal Office of Information Security (BSI) and the Federal Railway Office (EBA) are also located in Bonn.

In addition, two constitutional bodies have their second office in the Federal City.

At the time of being a federal capital, numerous buildings for federal affairs and important institutions were built in the south of the city, between Bonn and Bad Godesberg, such as the German Bundestag and the offices of Chancellor and President of the Confederation, and not least some embassies were located in the Rheinaue area from 1949. In the public opinion, the Bonn people spoke of Bonn when they meant the city and of Bonn when it came to federal property. However, this geographical delimitation was difficult because many ministries and services were spread throughout the city due to space constraints.

Science, education and research

Former Kurfürstliches Schloss and current main building of the University (back view)

Main building of the university (front view) with Arkadenhof, courtyard behind and Academic Art Museum

The Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn was founded in 1777 as an academy and closed in 1798. It was founded in 1818 and has since been one of the largest universities in Germany. Together with her university hospital she is one of the largest employers in Bonn. In May 2019, more than 38,000 students were enrolled and ranked 13th (out of 426) among the German universities according to the number of students.

The former observatory of the university is now home to the Institute for Communications Sciences and the Bonn observatory.

The Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg was founded in 1995. Although she bears Bonn in her name, there is no place for study in the city. The seat of the university is Saint Augustin, other sites are located in Rheinbach and Hennef (Sieg).

In addition, the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics, Radio Astronomy and for the exploration of common objects are located in Bonn. Since 2012, the City of Bonn has been a member of the Max Planck Society. Furthermore, since 2009 Bonn has been the administrative seat of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE).

In 1998, the caesar research center was established as a compensation for the move to Berlin. The German Institute for Development Policy, founded in Berlin in 1964, moved to Bonn in 2000. The United Nations campus is home to a United Nations University Institute - the Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS). The Distance University in Hagen, the DIPLOMA - FH Nordhessen and the FOM University of Economics & Management have offices in Bonn.

Until 2004 Bonn housed the University of Applied Sciences Bonn. This university of applied sciences was founded in 1921 by the Borromäusverein Association and was officially recognized by the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1947. Since 1982, she wore her last known name. In 2004, however, the University of Applied Sciences was dissolved.

The Library for Hugenotten History was founded in 2008.

The Training Academy of the Ministry of the Interior of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia is a national training center for the employees of the municipalities and the regional administration. She has her seat in Herne. The independent educational institution of the financial administration of the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia is located in Bad Godesberg. It is called the Training Academy of the Financial Administration of North Rhine-Westphalia (FortAFin). After the relocation of FortAFin to 1 October 2018, a branch of the Landesfinanzschule Wuppertal will be established at the current location in Bonn-Bad Godesberg.

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the German Research Community (DFG), the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, the Student Foundation of the German People, the Cusanuswerk, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and the Working Group of Independent Culture Institutes (AsKI) have their offices in Bonn.

In the political sphere, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the secretariat of the Ministerial Conference on Culture (KMK), the University Rectors' Conference (HRK), the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), the Federal State Commission for Education Planning and Research Promotion (BLK), the German Institute for Adult Education (DIE) and the Federal Center for Political Education (bpb) also its headquarters in Bonn.

fire protection

The fire brigade in Bonn consists of the professional fire brigade founded in 1941, the voluntary fire brigade founded in 1863 and the youth fire brigade, each of which consists of different units with different guards.

health

The more than 15 hospitals are spread throughout the city. The most important company is the University Hospital in Bonn, which operates more than 30 clinics in 12 departments. Almost all of them are located on the Venusberg, the rest of the city has three other sites. Another major clinic is the LVR-Klinik Bonn (until 2009 Rheinische Kliniken Bonn, until 1997 Rheinische Landesklinik Bonn) of the Landschaftsverband Rheinland in Bonn-Castell. Since 2013 another Community hospital has been opened with the GFO hospitals in Bonn.

judicial

Landgericht Bonn, Main Building in Wilhelmstraße (2014)

Bonn is the seat of the Landgericht Bonn, which is governed by six federal courts, including the Amtsgericht Bonn. The city also has a labor court and the Bonn public prosecutor's office. The federal central register, which is based in Bonn, has been opened with the office of the Federal Ministry of Justice in the newly formed Federal Office of Justice, which is based in Bonn, on January 1, 2007. Among other things, the Federal Law Gazette will be published there. According to the Berlin/Bonn law, the Federal Ministry of Justice continues to maintain an office with about 30 employees in Bonn.

labor market authorities

Bonn is also the location of the Federal Agency for Labor's Central Foreign and Technical Intermediary (ZAV). The headquarters of ZAV with its 18 locations throughout Germany are located in the district of Duisdorf.