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Bonn (pop. 294,300) was until 1999 the seat of government of the Federal Republic of Germany and still retains some governmental functions as Bundesstadt ("Federal City"). The "small town in Germany" (as John Le Carre saw it in 1968) attracts travellers interested in visiting the city where Ludwig van Beethoven was born and Robert Schumann died. Beethoven's home and a museum can be seen in the Bonngasse. Other sights include the Poppelsdorf Palace (with Botanical Garden), Bonn University (formerly the palace of the Prince-Elector of Cologne) and the Bundeshaus (former Parliament House). Just south of Bonn begins the romantic Middle Rhine valley with its vineyards and ruined castles.

At Bonn there is a large University with nearly 40,000 students. But there are also a lot of cultural offers like an opera, some theatres and museums (the "Museumsmeile" was opened in 1993). Because the distance between Bonn and Cologne (1,000,000 inhabitants) is quite small, all the possibilities of this large city can also easily be used.

Bonn may not be able to compete with the great cities of the world or even Germany, but it is a place of many attractions consisting of three once independent towns and numerous villages each with its own character and surrounded by beautiful countryside.

For 50 years, Bonn has been identified with the German federal government, which established itself in the Gronau district between the town centres of Bonn and Bad Godesberg in 1949. The parliamentary office building “Langer Eugen” now dominates the river view. A red arrow-like steel sculpture, "L'illume" by Marc di Suvero, on the Rhine embankment points out the former Parliament House to stollers on the promenade and passengers on the river boats alike.

But, in fact, Bonn's tradition as capital is much older: it served for centuries as the residence of the elector of Cologne, one of the more important princes of the Holy Roman Empire. From this time date the baroque palaces of Bonn, Poppelsdorf and Brühl (15 km/10 mi northwest of Bonn) and the spa of Bad Godesberg.

Since the 19th century, it has been the university that has established Bonn's international reputation. Its main building is the former electoral palace; whiches stretches along the southern boundary of the pedestrianised town centre. A 1-km-long baroque avenue, the Poppelsdorfer Allee, connects the university main building with the Poppelsdorf palace, which houses the mineralogy department and museum and is surrounded by the Botanical Garden. The garden front of the main building overlooks the Hofgarten park with the Akademisches Kunstmuseum (Academic Art Museum, built in 1825 as anatomic theatre) and its river-front extension, the Stadtgarten and Alter Zoll, a remnant of the old fortifications with a great view of the river and the Siebengebirge (Seven Hills) at the southeastern outskirts of the city. The main road to the south (to the federal district, Bad Godesberg and ultimately Koblenz; federal highway no. 9) passes through the university building by way of an ornate gate house, the Koblenzer Tor.

Where as the river front of the city centre has been completely transformed after World War II with the construction of the modernist Opera House and a new access road to the Rhine bridge, most of the old town centre has preserved its mediaeval street plan, now almost completely pedestrians. This is the main shopping area with a lively daily (except Sundays) fruit and vegetable market in the market square (Markt). The baroque Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) forms the southeastern end of the market square. Next to it you find "Em Hottche", one of Bonn's most traditional restaurants (going back to 1389). Six streets radiate out from the Markt. Brüdergasse leads you to the Gothic Minorite Church St. Remigius (beautiful, intricate tracery in the apse), where the young Beethoven practised on the organ, Bonngasse to the mainly baroque Jesuit Church (Namen-Jesu-Kirche, now Roman-Catholic university church), the Beethoven House and the chamber music hall. The two main shopping streets are Sternstraße (the name is a corruption of Pisternenstraße, from the Latin for "street of the bakers") and Remigiusstraße, which leads to the second main square, the Münsterplatz. The Romanesque Münster basilica, Bonn’s premier landmark, dominates the square. Around the corner (Am Hof 32-34), you find hidden behind a 19th-century facade a 12th-century private chapel, the Helenakapelle, a gem that even few Bonners know. On the opposite side of the square stands the Beethoven statue, erected in 1845 for the first Beethoven festival (now an annual event in Bonn). It turns its back to the former "Fürstenberg'sches Palais" (the main post office), where the guests of honour for the unveiling ceremony were assembled on the balcony, among them Queen Victoria and the Prussian king. Alexander von Humboldt is said to have saved the day when he remarked that Beethoven had always been a rude fellow. unveiling ceremony were assembled on the balcony, among them Queen Victoria and the Prussian king. Alexander von Humboldt is said to have saved the day when he remarked that Beethoven had always been a rude fellow. Vivatgasse (the apparently Latin "Vivat" actually derives from Viehpfad, "cattle path"; too humble a name for a prosperous university town, it seems) leads to the Sterntor, a reconstruction of one of the city gates (originally located at the end of Sternstraße) and a remnant of the 14th century city wall. In the Alter Friedhof (Old Cemetery), just outside the historic centre between the 1970s high-rise City Hall (Stadthaus) and the railway line, many prominent Bonners were laid to rest, among them Beethoven's mother, Robert and Clara Schumann, the astronomer Friedrich Argelander and the romanticist August Wilhelm von Schlegel.

In the late 19th century, Bonn expanded and the residential districts of Weststadt and Südstadt were developed. The elegant upper-middle-class quarters of the Südstadt have largely survived World War II and post-war redevelopment (between Poppelsdorfer Allee, Adenauer Allee and Reuterstraße). The university's science departments expanded during that period in the Weststadt (mainly Nußallee and Meckenheimer Allee). 

Bonn boasts a large number of museums covering a divers range of subjects from history and archaeology to arts and sciences to politics.

The long history and prehistory of Bonn and the Rhineland, beginning with the original Neanderthal man, is documented in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum.

The constitutional convention for the future Federal Republic of Germany met in the zoological Museum Alexander König with the stuffed animals staring down on the assembled politicians in 1948. A museum building boom in the 1980's added three big institutions in the former Regierungsviertel (government district) along the main road from the city centre to Bad Godesberg; these are somewhat arbitrarily grouped together with the historic Museum König in the Museumsmeile (museums' mile).

Many famous people lived at least for a period in Bonn. The homes of some of them (Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, Ernst Moritz Arndt, August Macke, and, in Rhondorf just south of Bonn, Konrad Adenauer) can be visited.

"BOHEMIA" Beethoven and the Bohemian-Moravian Region From September 17 to October 10, the 2004 Bonn Beethoven Festival will focus attention on Beethoven and the cultural region of Bohemia and Moravia. The program, which runs under the heading of "Bohemia," will include 56 concerts to be held in Bonn and eight venues in the surrounding area. It will serve as the opening fanfare for a series of themes with which the new managing director, Ilona Schmiel, expects to give the Festival a unified image over the next few years. The plan is to present Beethoven's music in the context of its historical predecessors and descendants, choosing a different region of Europe each year. In addition to the Festival's concert program, the theme will also be illuminated by sideshows consisting of readings, exhibitions, lectures and film screenings.

Bonn, the quiet university town on the Rhine, is now the interim seat of reunited Germany's federal government and parliament, but in a parliamentary vote on June 20, 1991, it lost out to Berlin as the permanent capital of the country. In reality, Bonn will continue to share the responsibility of governing Germany with Berlin. The upper house of parliament--the Bundesrat--will remain in Bonn, as will nearly half the ministries and two-thirds of the civil servants. Moving the rest of the government to Berlin is expected to take 12 years and will be costly--as much as $30 billion.

The choice of Bonn as capital of the newly created Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 was never meant to be permanent. At the time few Germans thought the division of their country would prove anything other than temporary, and they were certain that Berlin would again become the capital before long. Popular legend now has it that Bonn, aptly described in the title of John Le Carré's spy novel A Small Town in Germany, was chosen as a stopgap measure to prevent such weightier contenders as Frankfurt from becoming the capital, a move that would have lessened Berlin's chances of regaining its former status.

In the city's streets, old markets, stores, pedestrian malls, parks, and the handsome Südstadt residential area, life is unhurried and unsophisticated by the standard of larger cities. The town center is a car-free zone. An inner-ring road circles it with parking garages on the perimeter. A convenient parking lot is just across from the railway station and within 50 yards of the tourist office.

Bonn's status may be new, but its roots are ancient. The Romans settled this part of the Rhineland 2,000 years ago, calling it Castra Bonnensia. Bonn's cathedral, the Münster stands where two Roman soldiers were executed in A.D. 253 for holding Christian beliefs. Münsterplatz, site of the cathedral and a short walk from the tourist office at Münsterstrasse 20, is the logical place to begin your tour. The 900-year-old cathedral is vintage late Romanesque, with a massive octagonal main tower and a soaring spire. It was chosen by two Holy Roman emperors for their coronations (in 1314 and 1346) and was one of the Rhineland's most important ecclesiastical centers in the Middle Ages. The bronze 17th-century figure of St. Helen and the ornate rococo pulpit are highlights of the interior. Münsterpl., 0228/633-344. Daily 7-7.

The grand Kurfürstliches Schloss (Electors' Palace) faces Bonn's Münster. Built during the 18th century by the prince-electors of Köln, it now houses a university. If it's a fine day, stroll through the Hofgarten (Palace Gardens).

Poppelsdorfer Schloss (Poppelsdorf Palace) may be reached from Kurfürstliches Schloss by following the chestnut-tree avenue called Poppelsdorfer Allee southward. This former electors' palace was built in baroque style between 1715 and 1753. The building houses the university's botanical garden, with an impressive display of tropical plants. Meckenheimer Allee 171, 0228/732-259. Free. Apr.-Sept., weekdays 9-6, weekends 9-1; Oct.-Mar., weekdays 9-4.

The Alter Friedhof (Old Cemetery), an ornate graveyard, is the resting place of many of the country's most celebrated sons and daughters. Look for the tomb of composer Robert Schumann and his wife, Clara. To get to the cemetery, go to the end of Colmantstrasse, take the underpass below the railroad line, and follow Thomastrasse 300 yards to the site. Am Alten Friedhof. Mar.-Aug., daily 7:15 am-8 pm; Sept. and Feb., daily 8-8; Oct., daily 8-7; Nov.-Jan., daily 8-5.

The Markt (market) is situated in the Old Town Center. Here you'll find an 18th-century Rathaus (Town Hall) that looks like a pink doll's house. Am Markt.

The Beethovenhaus (Beethoven House) is just north of the Town Hall on Bonngasse. The residence has been converted into a museum celebrating the life of the great composer. Here you'll find scores, paintings, a grand piano (his last, in fact), and an ear trumpet or two. Perhaps the most impressive exhibit is the room in which Beethoven was born--empty save for a bust of the composer. Bonngasse 20, 0228/635-188. DM 8. Apr.-Sept., Mon.-Sat. 10-5, Sun. 11-4; Oct.-Mar., Mon.-Sat. 10-4, Sun. 10-1.

A tour of Bonn would not be complete without mention of the government buildings in a complex about a mile south of downtown. Strung along the Rhine amid spacious, leafy grounds are the offices of the federal president, the high-tech Chancellery, and the federal parliament; the '60s high-rise you see contains the offices of members of parliament.

A trio of museums near the government buildings has brought Bonn more into the swing of things cultural. The Kunst-und Austellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Art Hall of the German Federal Republic) is a space for major traveling exhibitions. Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 4, 0228/917-1200. Free. Tues.-Sun. 10-7.

The Kunstmuseum (Art Museum), which is next door to the Art Hall, is a large museum of contemporary art. Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 2, 0228/776260. DM 8. Tues.-Sun. 10-6.

The Haus der Geschichte (House of History) is a controversial museum devoted to post-World War II German history. It displays an overwhelming amount of documentary material but avoids delving too deeply into some of the heavier issues of the period. Adenauerstr. 250, 0228/91650. Free. Tues.-Sun. 9-7.

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