UN Campus Ceremony Proves that Bonn Lives on
July 12, 2006
On Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan were in Bonn to open the new UN Campus that will house 11 of 12 UN organizations and more than 600 employees that are based in Bonn.
The largest agency is UN Volunteers, which supports sustainable human development worldwide by promoting volunteerism. The "Langer Eugen" -- the building which formerly accommodated the offices of German parliamentarians up until 1999 -- is also home to agencies which combat desertification and preserve migratory species. Next year, the UN Climate Change Secretariat, whose largest responsibility is managing the Kyoto Protocol, will move in across the street from another location in Bonn.
The historical significance of Langer Eugen and the glass Bundestag, where Merkel, Annan and Bonn’s mayor Bärbel Dieckmann held their opening speeches on Tuesday in front of German politicians and UN workers, cannot be underestimated. It was in these buildings that German democracy was born and cultivated after World War II. It was from there that democratic West Germans thought democratic West Germany would be ruled for decades to come.
Bonn on the verge of insignificance
When communism in Eastern and Central Europe collapsed in 1989, Germany was at the center of the new order. Thoughts and desires of Berlin as the capital of reunified Germany came to the fore, while Bonn -- the sleepy, little town on the Rhine and the birthplace of Beethoven -- would seemingly become a forsaken bride.
And it happened. On June 20, 1991, the Bundestag narrowly voted by a 338 to 320 margin to move the capital back to Berlin. The outcry of those who had wished to keep the capital in the Rhineland was unmistakable.
The federal government under Helmut Kohl, however, was committed to helping Bonn overcome what was thought would be the loss of thousands of government jobs. Parliament passed the Bonn-Berlin Act in 1994 to set the framework for the support so that Bonn’s economic structure wouldn’t whither away.
Bonn’s proponents pushed measures through so that six federal ministries and over 10,000 government employees would remain there. That is compared to just fewer than 9,000 civil servants in Berlin.
A generous compensation
The generous Compensation Agreement passed together with the Bonn-Berlin Act provided a 1.4 billion euro ($1.78 billion) infusion of capital into the city and the region around it. The former state-run telephone and postal monopolies, now Deutsche Telekom and Deutsche Post, have been partially privatized and retained their headquarters in Bonn, attracting well-educated, middle-class workers.
"Bonn has managed the structural change. The birthplace of Beethoven is a UN city, and an important economic, scientific and cultural location," mayor Bärbel Dieckmann has said recently.
Further proof of this is the below-average unemployment rate of 8.2 percent and a German city whose population is actually growing.
New Germany as foundation for UN agencies
While Bonn and the German government preserved as much of the federal structure in the former capital as was possible, they also wanted to make it the fourth European home of the UN after Geneva, Vienna and Paris. Germany’s history of aid to the developing world and its environment-friendly reputation were natural points to focus on.
In 1995, Germany convinced the international body to base offices of the UN Volunteers and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bonn based on Germany’s commitments to those areas. One year later, then Environment Minister Angela Merkel and former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali laid the cornerstone for the UN Volunteers and the UNFCCC building in their new home, the historic Haus Carstanjen in Bonn. More agencies came to the city so that the UN quickly outgrew the building.
The UN on the move
When parliamentarians vacated their buildings in Bonn’s government quarter in the summer of 1999, the negotiations began for the UN to move in. Over 50 million euros were spent to renovate the new headquarters for the UN-based agencies.
But Bonn and Germany are not stopping there. Angela Merkel’s administration has committed Germany to attracting other UN institutions, a desire she repeated to Kofi Annan on Tuesday in Bonn. Across from the UN Campus, the foundations of a 140 million euro convention center are being laid. Currently it is unclear what it will be called but the city hopes the UN will allow the name "United Nations Congress Center."
Another 2,000 jobs are expected to be created through the center. Something no Bonner would have thought possible on June 20, 1991.