Frankfurt, Capital of West Germany

Westphalian

I know that a similar thread was started last october, but this has a different PoD:

In 1948, various West German cities put themselves forward as provisional capitals of the Federal republic of Germany. Among them were Kassel, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe and Celle, but the most serious contenders were Frankfurt am Main and Bonn.

Bonn was favoured by the British occupation government, while Frankfurt was already the administrative centre of the three western zones and had the democratic history of 1848 and its medieval importance going for it. Generally, the SPD favored Frankfurt, the CDU Bonn, while the Hessian CDU also favored Frankfurt. The decision for Bonn was rather surprising.

So, in this TL, the final vote in the Parlamentarischer Rat results in Frankfurt as the provisional capital of the FRG. What are the obvious and less obvious results for German and general history?

First, there will be no "ferderal village". Frankfurt is a large city, with lots of banks and a huge, central airport. German Politics will feel much more metropolitan and global. From half a million in 1950, the city will grow to almost 700.000 in 1965. As capital, it might even grow more. It is, of course, part of the huge Rhein-Main conurbation with nearly 5 million people.

During the Cold War, Frankfurt is closer to the Inner-German border than Bonn and rather close to the infamous Fulda Gap. This might lead to a bigger deployment of US forces in the region.

After the Cold War, if there is a German unification, I really doubt that the federal government will leave Frankfurt for Berlin. "Mainhattan" will be much more attractive (in the original sense of the term) than Bonn.

Other ideas?
 
Dustin

Dustin

When I was younger I actually thought that Frankfurt was the west German capital, it always made more sense to me.
 

Deleted member 1487

thekingsguard said:
Wasn't part of the reason Bonn was chosen because they wanted to move it to Berlin again should the oppertunity arise?
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I think it also had to do with the fact that Adenauer was living in Bonn, so it would be easier for him to get to work.

Also:
In the controversial selection for a "provisional capital" of the Federal Republic of Germany Adenauer championed Bonn over Frankfurt am Main. The British had agreed to detach Bonn from their zone of occupation and convert the area to an autonomous region wholly under German sovereignty; the Americans were not prepared to grant the same for Frankfurt.[13]
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Westphalian said:
I know that a similar thread was started last october, but this has a different PoD:

In 1948, various West German cities put themselves forward as provisional capitals of the Federal republic of Germany. Among them were Kassel, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe and Celle, but the most serious contenders were Frankfurt am Main and Bonn.

Bonn was favoured by the British occupation government, while Frankfurt was already the administrative centre of the three western zones and had the democratic history of 1848 and its medieval importance going for it. Generally, the SPD favored Frankfurt, the CDU Bonn, while the Hessian CDU also favored Frankfurt. The decision for Bonn was rather surprising.

So, in this TL, the final vote in the Parlamentarischer Rat results in Frankfurt as the provisional capital of the FRG. What are the obvious and less obvious results for German and general history?

First, there will be no "ferderal village". Frankfurt is a large city, with lots of banks and a huge, central airport. German Politics will feel much more metropolitan and global. From half a million in 1950, the city will grow to almost 700.000 in 1965. As capital, it might even grow more. It is, of course, part of the huge Rhein-Main conurbation with nearly 5 million people.

During the Cold War, Frankfurt is closer to the Inner-German border than Bonn and rather close to the infamous Fulda Gap. This might lead to a bigger deployment of US forces in the region.

After the Cold War, if there is a German unification, I really doubt that the federal government will leave Frankfurt for Berlin. "Mainhattan" will be much more attractive (in the original sense of the term) than Bonn.

Other ideas?
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Maybe more banker influence on the West German government?
 

user23123

Berlin was the traditional capital of united Germany,it will be the capital of an reunited one regardless of where are the capitals of the split parts are.
 

Tizoc

user23123 said:
Berlin was the traditional capital of united Germany,it will be the capital of an reunited one regardless of where are the capitals of the split parts are.
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Traditional? Hardly - by 1945 it was a capital for 74 years (since 1871). If collapse of East Germany isn't butterflied, by 1989 Frankfurt would be a capital for 41 years. Not much difference...
 

ivanotter

Wouldn't work.

What would JFK have said in Frankfurt, not being in Berlin?

Hint: "Ich bin ein Frank....."?

Ivan
 

freivolk

user23123 said:
Berlin was the traditional capital of united Germany,it will be the capital of an reunited one regardless of where are the capitals of the split parts are.
Click to expand...

IOTL the decision was with 338 votes pro Berlin and 320 pro Bonn close enough.Now we alos have to kep in mind, that Frankfurt looks back on a great tradition as a political centre of Germany. Place where the roman-german emporeres were crowned, capital of the German Confederacy, seat of the first german National Assembly. Frankfurts chances would be definitly better then Bonn IOTL.
 
Michel Van

Michel Van

ROFL about Frankfurter and Wiener sausage jokes.

on Question on Capitol of West Germany
Frankfurt am Main was favor of SPD
Bonn in favor of CDU/CSU under Konrad Adenauer (he was born here)

10. May 1949 voting day thing look not good for Bonn
SPD and Hessian CDU were in Majority for Frankfurt am Main.
Konrad Adenauer use a trick to fool the Voting, by presenting a unofficial dpd agency report,
about SPD chairman Kurt Schumacher in Cologne "welcoming the defeat of CDU/CSU, in question on Capitol of West Germany"
the Hessian CDU member join the Bonn vote of 33 against 29 vote for Frankfurt am Main.

but the unofficial dpd agency report, was writhe by Journalist Franz Hange with telex printer, but not send to dpd but to Adernauer...
 

Max Sinister

Banned
Oh come on, not that old joke again. If Angela Merkel said in NY "I am a New Yorker", would anyone think she meant she was a magazine?
 

Max Sinister

Banned
Back to topic: Frankfurt might have a better chance to stay the capital in a reunified Germany. And since the Bonn-Berlin vote IOTL was close, that should be enough.

In short: Frankfurt becomes bigger, the police may crack down on the infamous Bahnhofsviertel, Bonn stays a smaller town, and Berlin stays cheaper... so, even more lofts for artist types?
 
Dan

Dan

I think Berlin would remain as the capital of a reunified Germany. For it not to do so would leave most Ossies feeling even more disenfranchised than the ones I spoke to, (and got VERY drunk with), back in 96.

I like the idea of Frankfurt as a European capital though. An EU capital that isn't the capital of another country.
 
Meadow

Meadow

Max Sinister said:
Oh come on, not that old joke again. If Angela Merkel said in NY "I am a New Yorker", would anyone think she meant she was a magazine?
Click to expand...

The difference is 'Ich Bin Ein Berliner' doesn't mean 'I am a citizen of Berlin' in German. 'Ich Bin Berliner' does. There's no ambiguity, whereas in the New Yorker example there is.
 

Hörnla

Bonn was not Adenauer's birthplace, but Cologne (where he also was major for a long time). But he happened to live quite close to Bonn in the 1940s.

Bonn also held the advantage of being "on the side of the Rhine being farther away from the Red Army", though that was rather a point in hindsight, but not AFAIK in the contemporary discussion.

I agree that Frankfurt would have stood better chances than Bonn to remain capital post-1990. With the additional workplaces brought in by the (more and more expanding) Government, Frankfurt may have swollen in size to perhaps 800,000 within the next decades. If, opposite to OTL, they might incorporate all the communities which are in sight of its skyline on the rim of the Taunus, a Groß-Frankfurt might become a metropolis of (today) a million or slightly more, surpassing Cologe as Germany's fourth-most-popolous city.
(Frankfurt OTL is #5 already in 2012, though had been #7 in 1950 after Berlin,Hamburg,Munich,Cologne,Leipzig and Essen).
 

HMS Warspite

Historically Bonn was choosen for two primary reasons:

1. It was relatively unscatched, compared to other German cities, mostly due to lack of strategical targets. Therefore the city itself already was functional as a center of commerce and trade.
2. Bonn traditionally had a large number of hotels, due to its function as a Spa, relaxation center, being near to the vulcanic Eifel and its springs and mudbaths. This accomodation was perfect to house large numbers of civil cervants in the early stages of the BRD time, as well as foreign guests, vissiting the exiled BRD governemental institutions.
 
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