If Frankfurt had been the capital?

At the end of World War II when it became apparent that Germany would be divided Frankfurt was originally intended provisional capital. However this wasn't so largely because they were those who felt the Frankfurt might mean Berlin never would be the capital again if they placed it in the major city

Well what if they had? How much could that really have changed anything?
 
I think to a United Germany, Berlin is the Only Capital possible, Located in former DDR Territory helps to reunite EAST and WEST. It has been the traditional seat of power for the German Nation since unification. It would be like Paris not being the capital of a united france.

So in 1990 the capital is moved from Frankfurt to Berlin. It wont hurt Frankfurt as much as Bonn to loose the Government as it already is a Major city.
 
Berlin might become the capital post reunification, but the seat of government would likely remain in Frankfurt / M., since, unlike Bonn, it not only had a democratic tradition, being the seat of the 1848 National Assembly; from 1815 till 1866 it had also been the capital of the German Confederation and before that during the time of the HRE, the place of elections and from 1562 till 1792 also coronations of Holy Roman Emperors.
 
Last edited:
I think to a united Germany, Berlin is the only capital possible...
The Unification Treaty had already made Berlin the official Federal capital, the main question was whether it would be the seat of government. The decision on whether to move the legislature and government offices to Berlin however was fairly contentious with the parliamentary vote after ten hours of debate being 338 to 320 in favour. Swing a few more votes the other way and you could end up with a situation like the Netherlands which has Amsterdam as the official capital but with the seat of government in The Hague, or South Africa's set-up of having seperate judicial, parliamentary, and administrative capitals all in different cities.
 
The capital will most likely still move back to Berlin eventually, but I would assume that the cumulative effects of Frankfurt being both the administrative and financial centre of a pre-reunification Germany could result in the city being a lot bigger, perhaps up to ~1.5 million people.
 
upload_2016-10-19_8-3-0.jpeg
 
The Unification Treaty had already made Berlin the official Federal capital, the main question was whether it would be the seat of government. The decision on whether to move the legislature and government offices to Berlin however was fairly contentious with the parliamentary vote after ten hours of debate being 338 to 320 in favour. Swing a few more votes the other way and you could end up with a situation like the Netherlands which has Amsterdam as the official capital but with the seat of government in The Hague, or South Africa's set-up of having seperate judicial, parliamentary, and administrative capitals all in different cities.
very true.. but I do think that over time the capital would move back to Berlin once things were repaired and brought up to date. but then again I could see a split scenario taking place.


I guess the larger thing is that in Making Berlin the Capital they are giving a solid show of support to integrating the East with the West and Signaling Germany is United Again.

remember Bonn was chided as being the Federal Village and yet still hosts government offices
 
At the end of World War II when it became apparent that Germany would be divided Frankfurt was originally intended provisional capital. However this wasn't so largely because they were those who felt the Frankfurt might mean Berlin never would be the capital again if they placed it in the major city

Well what if they had? How much could that really have changed anything?
Adenauer played a big part in this. And than there is the whole "The state we are building is only a provisional measure." You have to get rid of this & a lot of things & Frankfurt might be becoming permanent captial. VictorLaszlo raises good points. Frankfurt was always important through German history. Berlin compared to this is a upstart newcomer and than there is the whole birthplace of German democracy legacy. What a shame it didnt happen....
 
What a shame it didnt happen...
I don't know, there's something to be said for keeping the political and financial, plus possibly others like governmental or cultural/entertainment, spheres separated. If you plonk them all down in one city like Paris or London then you risk things being distorted around that one region, although if you have a situation like the US with Washington, New York, and Los Angeles respectively then you potentially end up at the other end of the scale with mono-industry cities which can also be bad.
 
Frankfurt is too big to fail as a German capital.
Frankfurt was always the mercantile crossroads of Germany and central Europe.
Frankfurt was always the "neutral" ground between all the little Germanies, it used to be a free Imperial City before 1866.
Last but not least Frankfurt was the HQ of the U.S. occupation troops in Germany.
It's also been the HQ of the combined Bizonal economic council where the respective Länder from the zones convened.
If Frankfurt had been chosen as West German capital, it's very likely that it remained the all-German capital today.

Most of these things are logical consequences rather than new reasons. It's actually a great map contest idea to show off how the German government quarter in Frankfurt would've looked like. Bonus points if you're considerate enough to integrate what eventually became the HQ of the Hessischer Rundfunk (Broadcast of Hesse): It was initally built to house the new Bundestag and repurposed when it was clear that Bonn got the job.

But without the defeat and division of Germany, once Prussia succesfully acted up in 1866, Berlin was set in stone to become and stay the German capital. Only the small window of opportunity after 1945 could've changed that. Otherwise, Berlin already was too big to fail as a German capital.

Frankfurt looks as if it was supposed to stay, but the big problem is that Berlin was just there and once reunification happened, people would've thought about how to put Berlin into good use even if Frankfurt instead of Bonn was the factual German capital. And here we go again with a return to Berlin.

I recently read that the envisioned equal division of labor between Bonn and Berlin is already skewed into direction Berlin, saying that 62% of all federal government jobs already are in Berlin. Bonn was actually envisioned to house the majority of those jobs or at least half of them. Now it looks like public opinion MAY actually be in favor of abandoning Boon completely. As I said, MAY.

PS: OTL is already pluricentic to a degree even in West Germany. Federal Constitutional Court always was in Karlsruhe, some other courts have be relegated back to Leipzig that housed the Imperial High Court back in the days etc.
 
I recall reading somewhere that Frankfuret wanted to be the capital city badly enough that it actually built a building for the parliament. If this is true, does anyone know what happened to this building?
 
I recall reading somewhere that Frankfuret wanted to be the capital city badly enough that it actually built a building for the parliament. If this is true, does anyone know what happened to this building?
Read my post again. There are the words Bundestag and Hessischer Rundfunk.
 

Archibald

Banned
Surely enough, "elle est bonne " = "she is hot" while "la Bonne" is "the maid". An endless reservoir of lame jokes...
 
Top