[bon; Ger. bawn] 
| a city in W Germany, on the Rhine: seat of the government; former capital of West Germany. 291,400 |
| a former republic in central Europe: created in 1949 by the coalescing of the British, French, and U.S. zones of occupied Germany established in 1945. 62,080,000; 96,025 sq. mi. (248,706 sq. km). Capital: Bonn. |
| Bonn (bŏn, bôn) A city of west-central Germany on the Rhine River. Founded as a Roman garrison in the first century A.D., it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990. In 1991 Berlin was designated the official seat of the reunified German government, but some government offices remained in Bonn until 1999. Population: 314,000. |
Popular name for the Federal Republic of Germany before the reunification of Germany in 1990. Bonn was the seat of its government.
Note: West Germany was a member of NATO.
Note: Established in 1949, after dissension between the United States and the Soviet Union led to the division of Germany into East Germany and West Germany, it was formed out of the states included in the American, French, and British occupation zones.
Note: The Bonn Convention in 1952 essentially granted West Germany national sovereignty. In 1955, West Germany was recognized as an independent country.
Note: It made a swift recovery, called the “economic miracle” from the devastation of World War II.
Note: With the collapse of communism, West Germany absorbed East Germany. Berlin became the capital of the united Germany.
Former capital of the Federal Republic of Germany and still home to most of the German government's bureaucracy, located in the western part of Germany, on the Rhine River.
Note: The Constitution for West Germany was drafted in Bonn after World War II. Bonn became West Germany's capital in 1949 and reunified Germany's capital in 1990, but it has since lost that distinction to Berlin.