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Bonn – Profile
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany with about 300,000 inhabitants. Located about 20 kilometers (13 miles) south of Cologne on the Rhine river in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999. Starting in 1998, many national government institutions were moved from Bonn to Berlin. Both houses of the German national parliament, the Bundestag as well as the Bundesrat, were moved along with the Chancellery and the residence of German head of state, the Bundespräsident.
Despite no longer being the capital, Bonn still remains a center of politics and administration today. Roughly half of all government jobs were retained as many government departments remained in Bonn and numerous sub-ministerial level government agencies relocated to the former capital from Berlin and other parts of Germany. In recognition of this, the former capital now holds the title of “Federal City“ (“Bundesstadt”).
Bonn has developed into a hub of international cooperation, particularly in the area of environment and sustainable development. In addition to a number of other international organizations and institutions, the city is currently home to 18 United Nations institutions. Among these are two of the so-called Rio Conventions, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). The number of UN agencies in Bonn, most of which are based at the newly established United Nations Campus in the city’s former parliamentary quarter on the banks of the Rhine, continues to grow.
Bonn is the seat of some of Germany’s largest corporate players, chiefly in the areas of telecommunications and logistics. Simultaneously, Bonn is establishing itself as an important national and international center of meetings, conventions and conferences, many of which are directly related to the work of the United Nations. A new conference center capable of hosting thousands of participants is currently under construction in the immediate vicinity of the UN Campus.
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