Timeline of Bonn

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Prior to 19th century

• 70 CE - Roman-Batavian conflict.^[1]
• 359 CE - Town of the Ubii restored by the emperor Julian.^[1]
• 889 CE - Settlement sacked by Norse raiders.^[1]
• 1151 - Doppelkirche Schwarzrheindorf consecrated.
• 13th C. - Bonn Minster (church) built.^[1]
• 1318 - Minoretenkirche (church) built.^[1]
• 1543 - Printing press in operation.^[2]
• 1597 - Bonn becomes capital of the Electorate of Cologne.^{[citation needed]}
• 1627 - Kreuzbergkirche (Bonn) [de] (church) built.
• 1673 - November: Siege of Bonn.
• 1693 - Jesuiten-kirche (church) built.^[1]
• 1730 - Palace built.^[3]
• 1737 - Town Hall built.^[3]
• 1746 - Poppelsdorf Palace built.
• 1770 - Ludwig van Beethoven born in Bonn.^[1]
• 1777 - Kurkölnische Akademie Bonn (academy) founded..
• 1792 - Beethoven leaves Bonn for Vienna where he would stay for the rest of his life.
• 1793 - N. Simrock music publisher in business.^[4]
• 1794 - French took power; sanctioned by the Treaty of Lunéville.^[1]
• 1800 - Johann Joseph Eichhoff [de] becomes mayor.

19th century

• 1815 - Town becomes part of Prussia per Congress of Vienna.^[1]
• 1818 - Rhenish Frederic William University and Academic Art Museum established.
• 1820 - Museum of Antiquities founded.
• 1822 - Town becomes part of the Rhine Province.
• 1841 - Society of the Friends of Antiquity founded.^[5]
• 1844 - Railway Station built; Bonn–Cologne Railway begins operating.
• 1845 - Beethovenhalle (concert hall) built.
• 1851 - Leopold Kaufmann becomes mayor.
• 1859 - Durchmusterung astronomical survey begins at the Bonn Observatory.
• 1860 - Dieckhoff residence built.
• 1862 - Herz Jesu-kirche (church) built.^[1]
• 1867 - Population: 63,630.^[6]
• 1871 - Bonn-Beuel station opens.
• 1882 - Municipal museum active.^[1]
• 1884 - Railway Station rebuilt.
• 1885 - Population: 35,989.^[1]
• 1888 - the local newspaper General-Anzeiger was first published
• 1889 - Beethoven House museum opens.^[7][1]
• 1890 - Beethovenfest active.^[8]
• 1891 - Provincial Museum of Rhenish and Roman Antiquities opens.^[9]
• 1892 - Marienkirche (church) built.^[1]
• 1898 - Rhine bridge built.^[1]

Bonn at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries

20th century

1900s-1940s

• 1904 - Photographische Vereinigung Bonn and Amateur-Photographen-Club Bonn active (approximate date).^[10]
• 1905 - Population: 81,997.^[1]
• 1913 - Stollfuß Verlag (publisher) in business.^{[citation needed]}
• 1919 - Population: 91,410.^[11]
• 1922 - Gummy bear candy invented.^[12]
• 1934 - Museum Koenig (natural history museum) opens.
• 1939 - Population: 101,391.^[13]
• 1944
  • 4 May: Arbeitserziehungslager Bonn forced labour camp established.^[14]
  • 14 May: Arbeitserziehungslager Bonn-Bad Godesberg forced labour camp established.^[15]
  • 28 November: Arbeitserziehungslager Bonn forced labour camp dissolved.^[14]
• 1945
  • March: American forces take city.
  • Allied occupation of Germany begins; North Rhine-Westphalia overseen by British forces.
• 1947 - Kunstmuseum Bonn (art museum) founded.
• 1949
  • May: City designated capital of Federal Republic of Germany.^[13]
  • Bundestag (national legislature) begins meeting in the Bundeshaus.
  • Rhine bridge rebuilt.

1950s-1990s

• 1950 - Cologne Bonn Airport in operation.^[16]
  • Hammerschmidt Villa designated residence of the President of Germany.
• 1951
  • Verein der Ausländischen Presse in Deutschland [de] (foreign press association) formed.^[17]
• 1959 - Beethovenhalle rebuilt.
• 1963 - British Embassy Preparatory School founded.
• 1967 - Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn (museum) rebuilt.
• 1969
  • Bad Godesberg, Beuel, and Duisdorf become part of city.^[18]
  • Central Theater and Youth Theater founded.
• 1970 - United Nations Volunteers headquartered in Bonn.
• 1975
  • Bonn Stadtbahn (public transit) begins operating; Bundesrechnungshof station opens.
  • Hans Daniels becomes mayor.
• 1978 - July: 4th G7 summit held.
• 1979 - City hosts Bundesgartenschau (garden show).^[19]
• 1980 - University of Bonn's Max Planck Institute for Mathematics established.
• 1981 -Bonn Women's Museum founded.

  

  Protest in Bonn against the deployment of Pershing II missiles in Germany, 1981

• 1982 - 10 June: NATO summit held.
• 1984 - Bonn Botanical Garden reconstructed.
• 1985
  • Rheinisches Malermuseum (art museum) established.
  • May: 11th G7 summit held.
• 1986 - Heimatmuseum Beuel (museum) established.
• 1989 - International Paralympic Committee headquartered in city.^[17]
• 1991 - Capital decision (Hauptstadtbeschluss)
• 1992 - Bundeskunsthalle (exhibit hall) inaugurated.
• 1994
  • Bärbel Dieckmann becomes mayor.
  • Haus der Geschichte (history museum) opens.
• 1995 - Deutsches Museum Bonn, and University of Bonn's Center of Advanced European Studies and Research and Center for European Integration Studies established.
• 1996 - United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat headquartered in Bonn.^[20]
• 1997 - Bonn International School and Gesellschaft für Arabisches und Islamisches Recht (Society for Arab and Islamic Law)^[21] established.
• 1998 - Institute for the Study of Labor founded.
• 1999
  • German Bundestag (legislature) relocated from Bonn to Berlin per Berlin-Bonn Act.
  • Federal Court of Auditors and Federal Cartel Office relocated to Bonn.

21st century

• 2001 - University of Bonn's Egyptian Museum founded.
• 2002
  • Post Tower and Schürmann-Bau (office building) constructed.
  • UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training inaugurated.^[17][22]
• 2005 - Events of the World Youth Day 2005 were held in Bonn
• 2006 - Official opening of the Bonn UN Campus by Secretary-General Kofi Annan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel
• 2009
  • Jürgen Nimptsch [de] becomes mayor.^[23]
  • Student protests.^[24]

Aerial view of the city center in 2013

• 2011 - The celebrations for the Day of German Unity take place in Bonn
• 2012 - attempted bomb attack on Bonn Central Station [de]
• 2015
  • After 9 years of construction, the World Conference Center Bonn [de] was opened
  • Ashok-Alexander Sridharan becomes mayor^[25]
• 2017
  • Meeting of the ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Group of 20
  • 2017 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP23) under the Presidency of the Republic of Fiji in Bonn
• 2019 - University of Bonn becomes excellence university
• 2020 - Katja Dörner is elected new mayor
• 2023 - Telekom Baskets Bonn win the Basketball Champions League as first German team and first title in the club´s history.

See also

• Bonn history
• List of mayors of Bonn
• History of the city of Bonn [de]
• Bonna (in Italian), settlement in the Roman province of Germania Inferior
• Timelines of other cities in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia:^(de) Aachen, Cologne, Dortmund, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Münster