Bonn

Bonn is among Germany's oldest cities. The Roman governor Agrippa settled the Germanic Ubii here in 38 BCE, and the first fortified Roman camp on the Rhine followed in 12 BCE; after the Roman defeat in the Teutoburg Forest in 9 CE the garrison of Bonna grew in importance, within the province of Germania Inferior. The town declined after the end of the Roman Empire. From 1597 to 1794 it was the capital of the Electorate of Cologne, and the prince-electors built the palaces that gave it a baroque face — the Electoral Palace in the centre, Poppelsdorf Palace to the south-west. Ludwig van Beethoven was born here in 1770 and baptised in the church of St Remigius.

French occupation from 1794 closed the old university, took the electors' property into state hands and impoverished the town, whose population fell by about a fifth. Under Prussia a new university was founded in 1818, nicknamed the "Princes' University" because the Prussian crown prince, his son Wilhelm and Wilhelm's four sons all studied there, and the romantic Rhine drew tourists after 1871. On 29 November 1949 Bonn, rather than Frankfurt, became the provisional capital of the new Federal Republic.

The "Bonn Republic" lasted four decades. In 1969 Bad Godesberg, Beuel and several villages were merged into the city, roughly doubling its population. After reunification the Bundestag voted in 1991 to move parliament and much of the government to Berlin, and the move was complete by 1999. The Berlin/Bonn Act kept several ministries and the secondary seats of the president and chancellor in Bonn, and the city rebuilt itself around United Nations agencies, science and the headquarters of Deutsche Post DHL and Deutsche Telekom.

Beethoven is everywhere: his birthplace on Bonngasse is a museum and research centre, his monument has stood on the Münsterplatz since 1845, when the Beethovenfest began, and the festival still brings international orchestras to the city each year. The Museum Mile along the former government quarter gathers five major museums, among them the Haus der Geschichte, devoted to Germany since 1945, and the Bundeskunsthalle. Many sites recall the capital years: the Langer Eugen tower, once offices for members of the Bundestag, now houses the United Nations campus.

Bonn is a centre of Rhenish carnival, but it has always been quieter and more genteel than Cologne. In the electors' residence and university town, speaking dialect was frowned on in polite circles, so Bönnsch, the local Ripuarian speech, with its softer consonants and more leisurely singsong, is heard less than Kölsch is in Cologne. Some admirers call Bonn Italy's most northerly city for its street cafés and beer gardens in summer.

The city is markedly international. It hosts twenty United Nations institutions, including the secretariat of the UN climate change convention, and the university, the embassies that remain from the capital years and the international organisations bring residents from around the world. The Telekom Baskets, who own their arena, carry the city's sporting hopes.

About 324,000 people lived in Bonn at the end of 2025, and its population is still growing, limited mainly by the shortage of building land. It lies at the southern edge of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region and forms one region with Cologne, whose commuter trains and motorways tie the two together. In the 2022 census just over half of residents were neither Catholic nor Protestant or gave no answer.

Work is dominated by the federal ministries that stayed, the United Nations and other international bodies, science and the corporate headquarters of Deutsche Post DHL and Deutsche Telekom, whose Post Tower is the tallest building in North Rhine-Westphalia. Haribo has its founding headquarters and a production site here. The University of Bonn makes it a student city, with students concentrated in the Altstadt, the Südstadt and Poppelsdorf.

Daily life is unhurried. Cyclists and the Stadtbahn carry commuters between the centre, the government quarter and the outer boroughs; Bad Godesberg keeps its villa streets and Beuel its own small-town feel across the river. On fine evenings students gather on the Hofgarten lawn and in the riverside beer gardens. In September 2025 Guido Déus of the CDU was elected mayor, defeating the incumbent Katja Dörner.

Bonn eats as the rest of the Rhineland does. Brewpub menus offer Rheinischer Sauerbraten — beef marinated in vinegar and served with a raisin-sweetened gravy — and Himmel un Ääd, mashed potato and apple with fried black pudding, while Reibekuchen, potato fritters, are sold at markets and fairs with apple sauce. A brewpub near Friedensplatz, Bönnsch, brews its own beer.

The city's best-known food export is sweet: Haribo, founded in Bonn in 1920 by Hans Riegel, whose name and city make up the brand. Its factory store in Bad Godesberg sells gummy sweets in quantities and shapes rarely seen elsewhere.

Eating out reflects the international city. The Altstadt, the Südstadt and Poppelsdorf have student cafés, pubs and inexpensive restaurants from many countries, and in summer life moves outdoors to the beer gardens along the Rhine, among them the Alter Zoll, under an old tree with a direct view of the river.