Berlin-Bonn Act
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The Berlin/Bonn Act (
The Berlin/Bonn act determined which
The act was implemented incrementally. The most important year was 1999, when the Bundestag moved to the
Federal agencies that moved
The following are examples of federal facilities that moved to Bonn (in total: 22):
- Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung from Frankfurt am Main(established in 1995 by merging the Bundesanstalt für landwirtschaftliche Marktordnung and the Bundesamt für Ernährung und Forstwirtschaft)
- Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices from Berlin
- Federal Cartel Officefrom Berlin
- Federal Audit Office from Frankfurt am Main
- Bundesaufsichtsamt für das Kreditwesen and Bundesaufsichtsamt für das Versicherungswesen from Berlin
- Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung
- Bundesgesundheitsamtfrom Berlin (disbanded)
- Central Agency Postbank (disbanded when the Federal Post Office was privatized)
- Zentrale Auslands- und Fachvermittlung from Frankfurt am Main
These facilities were established in Bonn:
- Central office of the Federal Railway Authority
- Headquarters of the Bundeseisenbahnvermögen (In a broad sense the successor of the headquarters of the Bundesbahn, Frankfurt/Main)
The facilities were partially relocated:
- Bundesforschungsanstalt für Landeskunde und Raumordnung and Bundesbaudirektion (merged in 2002 forming the Bundesamt für Bauwesen und Raumordnung which is exclusively seated in Bonn)
- Statistisches Bundesamt (central office Wiesbaden, subsidiary Berlin)
- Hannover, subsidiary Berlin)
- Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz (central office Salzgitter, subsidiary Berlin).
Compensation agreement
Also, the Berlin/Bonn act is the foundation of the "Agreement regarding the compensation measures for the Bonn region"
Recent developments
According to the government, around 37 percent of federal government positions were based in Bonn by the end of 2015. Some see this as a breach of the Berlin-Bonn Act because it was agreed that the majority of ministerial employees should work in Bonn rather than in Berlin. According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, this division of government offices costs taxpayers at least 8.6 million euros each year, for example in flight fares for officials' business trips.[1] By July 2019, most political parties of Germany, including the Left Party, the Social Democrats, the Green Party and the Christian Democrats, were starting to agree to move all governmental institutions remaining in Bonn to Berlin, because ministers and civil servants were flying between the two cities about 230,000 times a year, which was considered too impractical, expensive and environmentally damaging. The distance of 500 kilometres between Bonn and Berlin was only travelable by train in 5.5 hours, so either the train connections had to be considerably upgraded, or Bonn abolished as the secondary capital.[2][3]
At the same time in 2019, Bonn, together with neighbouring
See also
- Bonn#20th century and the "Bonn Republic"
- Decision on the Capital of Germany
- History of Berlin
- Parliament of the United Kingdom relocation
References
- ^ Nette Nöstlinger (August 17, 2020), German minister: Corona shows no need to move ministries from Bonn to Berlin Politico Europe.
- ^ Jorg Luyken (23 July 2019). "Calls to end Bonn's status as Germany's second city as Greens seek to ban all domestic flights". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
- ^ "German government employees increased air travel in 2019". Deutsche Welle. 2 August 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
- ^ "Bonn-Vertrag: Profil der Region sichern". Bundesstadt Bonn (in German). Retrieved 2021-02-04.
External links
- Berlin/Bonn Act at bundesrecht.juris.de (German)
- Overview of the aided compensation projects at bonn.de (PDF file; 212 kB) (German)