In 1991, the German Bundestag held a vote to determine the capital of a reunified Germany.
There were two options: Berlin and Bonn (the former capital of West Germany). The map shows the voting results of deputies elected from territorial constituencies. As can be seen, Bonn won in this group.
However, there were also deputies elected from party lists, and they preferred Berlin. Thanks to their votes, Berlin became the capital (the overall margin was just 2 votes(!) 491 to 489).
There was one more detail: six deputies elected from territorial constituencies skipped the vote.
Had they shown up, Germany’s capital today could very well have been Bonn.
Posted by Typical-Ad-5716
29 Comments
Berlin hands down. It’s like the throbbing heart of Germany dude. All the culture, history, nightlife…
Berlin beautiful slavic city
Berlin just sounds better. Bonn is more suited as a candy name… Bon Pari.
Phantom Prussian Borders
Did partisanship play much of a role in this vote? It doesn’t look like it on the map. Regional differences look to have been the primary factor in deciding how to vote.
Is there anything special about Bonn other than it was once a capital? Glad they chose Berlin though.
There’s a couple of deputies from areas very close to Bonn that voted for Berlin. What was that – local rivalry?
Why it was Bonn? Frankfurt or Koln would make more sense
Edit: thank you all for answering, i have learned a lot.
i think berlin is a really nice turkish city
I don’t know much about this topic; from the map looks like Bonn won the vote. How did they end up with Berlin as capital?
Edit: ok guys I didn’t read the blurb on the post pls don’t send hate x
TBH if bonn would have kept its status, the East would have been in worse shape
So it almost happened?
The Bundestag debate preceding the vote was heated and emotional, and it crossed all party lines. It was a contested decision. But then once it was made, it was no longer contested at all. In all the years ever since, nobody seriously asserted that Bonn would’ve been the better choice. I think this would’ve been way different if Bonn had been chosen. That would’ve been constantly questioned afterwards, like all the time.
If Bonn won then why did they moved to Berlin afterwards?
Personally i think Frankfurt am Main would have made a good choice. As it has the liberal history of the Frankfurt parliament behind it. But picking Berlin was a clear sign of reunification so i get it.
so the rhine region, bavaria and southern saxony voted for bonn and the rest voted for berlin? i can see why the rhine would like to stay close to the capital but why does bavaria overwhelmingly support bonn?
Interesting that the southern regions of bavaria voted for Berlin and a big part of eastern germany aswell.
Neither. Should have been Frankfurt. 1848 enjoyers rejoice
Dresden voting for Bonn out of spite is so funny.
Never saw that map, but that looks like a Catholic vs Protestant map here haha
Good thing it didn’t keep on being Bonn. What a boring city it is.
Bonn feels a lot more German than Berlin (and I dont mean this in a positive way)
Rhinelanders wanted to keep the capital in their region
Why was Southern Saxony in favor of Bonn, when pretty much the rest of the former DDR was for Berlin?
The votes are quite close, could they not try some sort of two-stare or co-capital solutions instead?
I thought the move to Berlin was a foregone conclusion… I wonder how things would have unfolded if the capital had not moved.
When the majority voted for Bonn why they did Berlin ?
As a spaniard I didn’t know this. Thanks for making such an interesting post!
The content itself is interesting but this map is terrible. Why didn’t they include the cities themselves and a scale bar? Why are the colors so awful? ‘Pass’ is a different size than the other text for some reason? What are the thick borders and why do they disappear in places, including up in the north? It would be nice to have some minimum standards for this sub.