Editing Bonn (section)

===20th century and the "Bonn Republic"===
{{See also|Berlin-Bonn Act|Decision on the Capital of Germany}}

During the [[Second World War]], Bonn acquired military significance because of its strategic location on the Rhine, which formed a natural barrier to easy penetration into the German heartland from the west. The Allied ground advance into Germany reached Bonn on 7 March 1945, and the US [[1st Infantry Division (United States)|1st Infantry Division]] captured the city during the battle of 8–9 March 1945.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stanton |first=Shelby L. |title=World War II Order of Battle: An Encyclopedic Reference to U.S. Army Ground Forces from Battalion through Division, 1939–1946 |edition=Revised |year=2006 |publisher=[[Stackpole Books]] |page=76 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jfDfAQAACAAJ |isbn=9780811701570 }}</ref>

[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F013859-0009, Bonn, Staatsbesuch Präsident Charles de Gaulle.jpg|left|thumb|French president [[Charles de Gaulle]] on a state visit to Bonn in 1962]]

[[Aftermath of World War II|After]] the Second World War, Bonn was in the British zone of occupation. Following the advocacy of West Germany's first chancellor, [[Konrad Adenauer]], a former Cologne Mayor and a native of that area, Bonn became the ''de facto'' capital and [[seat of government]], officially designated the "temporary seat of the Federal institutions" of the newly formed Federal Republic of Germany in 1949. However, the Bundestag, seated in Bonn's [[Bundeshaus (Bonn)|Bundeshaus]], affirmed [[Berlin]]'s status as the German capital. Bonn was chosen as the provisional capital and seat of government despite the fact that [[Frankfurt am Main|Frankfurt]] already had most of the required facilities and using Bonn was estimated to be 95 million DM more expensive than using Frankfurt. Bonn was chosen because Adenauer and other prominent West German politicians intended to make Berlin the capital of a reunified Germany, and they felt that locating the provisional capital in a major city like Frankfurt or [[Hamburg]] would imply a <i>permanent</i> capital and plausibly weaken support in West Germany for a future reunification.

In 1949, the [[Parlamentarischer Rat|Parliamentary Council]] in Bonn drafted and adopted the current German constitution, the [[Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany]]. As the political centre of West Germany, Bonn saw six [[Chancellor of Germany|Chancellors]] and six [[President of Germany|Presidents]] of the Federal Republic of Germany. Bonn's time as the capital of West Germany is commonly referred to as the ''[[Bonn Republic]]'', in contrast to the ''[[Berlin Republic]]'' which followed reunification in 1990.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Schleichende Wende. Diskurse von Nation und Erinnerung bei der Konstituierung der Berliner Republik |last=Caborn |first=Joannah |language=de |publisher={{ill|Unrast Verlag|de}} |year=2006 |isbn=9783897717398 |pages=12 |via=[[Google Books]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZjNoAAAAMAAJ }}</ref>