This was published 6 years ago
Bonn: The town that became Germany's post-war capital
Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn.Credit: Alamy
Poor old Bonn, the Cinderella city of Germany, only in reverse. For a short and glorious time, she was belle of the ball, but all too soon, she lost her crystal shoe and was shunted out the tradesman's entrance.
The year 2020 will mark a discomfiting 30th anniversary for Beethoven's birthplace on the banks of the Rhine, the year she was stripped of her status. For 41 years from 1949 to 1990, Bonn was Germany's new capital, replacing Berlin, which was divided by the Iron Curtain and tainted by Third Reich associations.
Bonn, which John Le Carre called "a small town in Germany" in his eponymous cold war thriller, once stood alongside Paris, Washington and London as an important Western bloc bulwark against the Soviet Union.
It was a city of political intrigue, where anti-nuclear protests gave rise to the Green Party. Great leaders came to call, including US President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, the first Soviet leader to set foot in West Germany.
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev arrived in 1989, marking the end of the cold war. All mounted the steps of Bonn's rococo town hall, the 18th-century Altes Rathaus, which glows a luminous golden-pink on central market square.
It didn't save Bonn, which dates back to Roman times, undone by the reunification of Germany and the resurrection of Berlin. Germany's Bundestag voted by a scant 18 votes (338 to 320) to return the crown to Berlin, despite fears Bonn, in the populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia, would be ruined financially.
But size isn't everything, as we will discover. In fact, small appears to be the new stunning. And Bonn has some pretty significant cards tucked up her sleeve – it's home to United Nations' agencies, including the UN's climate change unit. (It hosted the World Climate Conference in early November).
It's still the second official residence of Germany's President and Chancellor; it received multimillion-euro compensation, and the city kept its important Federal city status. Bonn also retains six "lesser ministries". Berlin took finance, foreign affairs, justice and the Chancellor's office.
We have come to check out this city fallen from favour, as part of our 15-day APT Magnificent Europe river cruise. Even in the rain, Bonn is beautiful, with a rebuilt medieval centre, significantly bombed during World War II.
The rebuilding retained the old city street structure. There's a city model in Munsterplatz, outside Bonn's 900-year-old Bonn Minster basilica with its slender, 92-metre spire and 12th-century romanesque cloister. It's one of Germany's oldest churches, built on a Roman burial ground and once the Cologne Archbishopric's cathedral.
Our walking tour begins at the Hofgarten, the large park in front of the University of Bonn, whose main building is the Kurfurstliches Schloss, former residential palace of the prince-elector of Cologne. Notable alumni include Karl Marx, Pope Benedict, Friedrich Nietzsche and seven Nobel Laureates.
Students kick soccer balls, perhaps with a view to an early night. Our guide says Bonn is "a city without mentionable nightlife, unlike Cologne, but at least they concentrate on their studies". Of Bonn's 340,000 residents, 23,000 are students and the city has the welcoming atmosphere of a university town.
No cars are allowed in the Old Town, at the heart of which is the main market plaza, the Marktplatz, today filled with market stalls in front of the gorgeous town hall, which in its heyday welcomed the likes of Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, the Clintons, Charles de Gaulle and Queen Elizabeth II.
Look down at the cobbles in front of the building for a poignant reminder of Nazi brutality. Slim bronze plaques bear the names of writers, like Hemingway, Marx and Helen Keller, whose books didn't fit Nazi ideology and were burned there. Once a year in Marktplatz, in memory of these dark times, these books are offered free.
Nearby is Beethoven House in narrow Bonngasse, the composer's birthplace and home from 1770 to 1792, now a museum kept largely in its original state. Our guide remarks darkly: "The Austrians got Beethoven from us and we got Adolf Hitler back."
Here is the world's most extensive Beethoven collection, including original manuscripts and his last grand piano. The homes of famous Bonners like expressionist painter August Macke, composer Schumann and poet Ernst Moritz Arndt, are also open.
Beautiful buildings abound. The baroque facade of the gothic-style Namen-Jesu-Kirche in Bonngasse must be one of Rhineland's most beautiful.
Bonn is also Gummi Bears headquarters. Hans Riegel started his confectionary company, Haribo, in 1920, a composite of "Ha" for Hans, "Ri" for Riegel and "Bo" for Bonn. The pre-Christmas tradition continues of children collecting chestnuts and acorns, which Haribo exchanges for Gummi Bears, donating the nuts to animal parks.
Don't miss the city's "museum mile", with its world-class museums, reminiscent of Vienna's Museumsquartier. The Sudstadt quarter has Germany's largest group of preserved Wilhelminian-style buildings – terraced houses with rich facades built from 1875 to 1910. Sudstadt, along with the student quarter of Poppelsdorf and the Old Town, offer good culinary diversity from traditional German food and Rhenish beer to gastronomic gems.
Bonn is also an ideal starting point for great Rhine hikes to nearby Rhineland Nature Park and the Siebengebirge, Germany's oldest national park.
Instead of wallowing in its depressing anniversary, Bonn, as an international cultural city and birthplace of Beethoven, will instead celebrate 2020 in style when the city's most famous son turns 250. Cinderella not invited.
TRIP NOTES
FLY
Singapore Airlines flies daily to Budapest and Amsterdam from Sydney and Melbourne. See singaporeair.com/
CRUISE
APT's Magnificent Europe 15-day River Cruise Amsterdam-Budapest and reverse costs $6995 per person with a Fly Free deal or Fly Business Class deal for $2995. Tours operate from March to December. See aptouring.com.au or call 1300 196 420 for more information.
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Alison Stewart was a guest of APT
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