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?