Capital of Germany

The Reichstag building in Berlin is the site of the German parliament.

The Capital of Germany is the city state of Berlin. It is the seat of the President of Germany, whose official residence is Schloss Bellevue. The Bundesrat ("federal council") is the representation of the Federal States (Bundesländer) of Germany and has its seat at the former Prussian Herrenhaus (House of Lords). Though most of the ministries are seated in Berlin, some of them, as well as some minor departments, are seated in Bonn, the former capital of West Germany.

Pre-1871

Prior to 1871, Germany was not a unified nation state, and had no capital city. Already the Medieval Holy Roman Empire of which parts evolved into modern Germany had had no capital, considering itself rather as a confederation of varied territories of which some were German while others were not.

After the Congress of Vienna created the formal German Confederation in 1815, a Federal Assembly convened at the Free City of Frankfurt, representing not the people of the individual German Lands but their sovereigns. Subsequently, Frankfurt briefly became the official German capital during the short-lived Revolutions of 1848 in the German states.

Since 1871

It was only during the 1871 Unification of Germany that the unified nation state of the German Empire first was assigned an official capital. With Prussia as the dominant part of the unified Germany, its capital Berlin was chosen and remained so until the end of World War II. However, for a period of a few months following the First World War, the national assembly met in Weimar because civil war was ravaging Berlin. In 1945, Germany was occupied by the Allies as the outcome of WWII, and Berlin remained a capital only de jure.

In 1949, with sovereignty regained the country split up into West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany), with the capital of Bonn, and East Germany (German Democratic Republic), with the capital of East Berlin. In 1990, the unified Berlin became the capital of the unified Federal Republic of Germany at the unification treaty, but Bonn remained the seat of government until 1999.