LETTER FROM BERLIN
Can Berlin claim to be the undisputed capital of Germany if some of its ministries continue to be based in Bonn, the political center of the former West Germany? The subject, which comes up in public debate at regular intervals, has come back to the fore in early 2025 as a result of statements made by Construction Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD). On January 7, Geywitz announced her intention to sign a declaration with the city of Bonn and the Länder of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate confirming Bonn as one of the two seats of federal government. The aim? For the Rhineland city to receive dedicated support to enable it to continue funding its political and cultural institutions.
The minister’s statement drew a sharp reaction from Berlin’s conservative mayor, Kai Wegner (CDU), who took the opportunity to call for all ministries to be transferred once and for all from Bonn to the city to which he has been elected since 2023. “The place of the federal government is entirely in Berlin,” he insisted in an interview with the Tagesspiegel on Sunday January 19. “Everything else is inefficient, harmful to the climate and expensive,” he added, calling for a full move, and as quickly as possible, while suggesting that Bonn should remain the headquarters of the United Nations in Germany, as well as that of other international organizations.
In a country still haunted by divisions between East and West, these debates resurrect the heated discussions surrounding the decision to transfer the capital from Bonn to Berlin in 1991. This move to Berlin, the former capital of the Reich, was voted on by the Bundestag on June 20 of that year, after more than 10 hours of debate, and decided by a narrow majority of 18 votes out of a total of 658.
In addition to the cost of the move, there were concerns about the symbolism of Berlin as a strong, authoritarian central state. Synonymous with modesty and democratic reliability, Bonn was seen as the representative of federalism and the guarantor of a new, peaceful, prosperous and Europe-oriented Germany. Anchored in the heart of the former East Germany, Berlin – the “hotbed of German division and nostalgia for German unity,” as chancellor Helmut Kohl summed it up in his speech to the Bundestag on June 20, 1991 – was chosen as the emblem of a truly reunited Germany.
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