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Hotel on the Petersberg Mountain, Adenauer memorial, plenary in the Bundestag, Bonn                                                         

Federal Republic (1945-1990)

World

Germany
1940

 1945-1953, USA
 Harry Truman
33th President 

After World War II, Germany had to start all over again. The Western part of the country,  occupied by England, France and the USA and since 1948 combined into the  trizone, should be governed democratically.

1949

Establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany

On September 1, 1948, the Parliamentary Council (an interim parliament) met in Bonn, on May 8, 1949,  exactly  four years after the German surrender, it submitted the Basic Law (in German "Grundgesetz"), the constitution. After approval by the three western military governors on May 12,  it entered in force on May 13, 1949.  Bonn was made the provisional capital. The Federal Republic struggled for integration into the democratic, western world.

In the same year, the first democratic government with Konrad Adenauer of the newly founded  Christian Democratic Union (CDU) as Federal Chancellor  (1949-1963) was formed. Konrad Adenauer was a Rhinelander, born in Cologne, and he had been Mayor of his native city for many long years. In 1935, he moved to Rhöndorf close to Bonn. 

1949-1952, Rhineland

The Allied High Commissioners on the Petersberg

During the first years after the war, the victorious powers reserved the right to themselves to control German policy and formed the Allied High Commission which from 1949 to 1952 took residence in the hotel on top of the Petersberg. Here the important "Petersberg Protocol" was negotiated that opened the way into economic reconstruction and independence. By the way: while the Allied High Commissioners had their residence on the Petersberg, they often used the cog train, which was restored for that purpose.

1950

1953, UK
 Coronation of Queen
Elizabeth II.

 1950-19??, Korea
 Korean War

 1953-1961, USA
 Dwight Eisenhower
34th President 

The first years of the Federal Republic are characterized by reconciliation: the Reparations Agreement between Israel and Germany in 1952, the "plan Schuman" and the establishment of the Coal and Steel Union 1952 with France. The Paris contracts of 1954 terminated the occupation regime in West Germany, the Federal Republic was a sovereign state and was admitted to the Western European Union (WEU) and the NATO.  East Germany joined the Warsaw Pact. In December 1955, Adenauer traveled as a first German Federal Chancellor on Soviet invitation to Moscow; and he succeed in bringing the prisoners of war home. 

"Its runs and runs and runs" The Volkswagen Beetle

Thanks to the Marshall Plan, Ludwig  Erhard's foresighted economic policy and the courage, diligence and optimism of countless people, the Federal Republic experienced the "Economic miracle" (in German "Wirtschaftswunder"): rapid economic growth and social market economy. In 1962, full employment was reached, and people could allow themselves again some spoiling: more varied meals, a vacation trip, or a Volkswagen beetle - a symbol of the Wirtschaftswunder.

1960

 1961-1963, USA
 John F. Kennedy
35th President 

 1963-1969, USA
 Lyndon Johnson
36th President 

 1963-1973, Vietnam 
 Vietnam War

 1969-1973, USA
 Richard Nixon
37th President 

"Ich bin ein Berliner"  US President John F. Kennedy in Berlin

Still, many people fled from the German Democratic Republic  into the west. In 1952, the East German government had already sealed the borders, but still people fled from East Berlin to West Berlin. 

1961, Berlin

Finally, on August 13, 1961,  the GDR government ordered to build the Berlin Wall, and the eastern part of the city was physically cut off, the western part became an enclave of the West in East Germany and the Soviet  Bloc. Eastern Germany was politically and economically cut off by the "Iron Curtain". Even if the Wall does not stand today any longer, it still  symbolizes separation, fright, and the totalitarian regime's contempt for mankind. 

1963, Berlin 

US President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin in June 1963 and closed his speech at the Berlin City Hall with the famous sentence:

"All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore as a free man, I take pride in the words: 
Ich bin ein Berliner." 

1963, Germany

On October 15, 1963, Konrad Adenauer resigned. His successor was  Ludwig Erhard (1963-1966), but as Federal Chancellor, he was not granted success. The end of the Wirtschaftswunder became apparent, in 1966/67 the Federal Republic got into a recession. Erhard resigned  already 1966; his successor was Kurt Georg Kiesinger (CDU).

1967, Rhineland 

Only few years after his resignation, Konrad Adenauer died in his house at the foot of the Seven Mountains in Rhöndorf. Today it is a memorial place, which you can visit. www.adenauerhaus.de.

1968, Germany

The discussion about the limitation of Nazi crimes and  the legal proceedings against Adolf Eichmann led to a deep confrontation with Germany's  Nazi past.  In the Bundestag, a grand coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD ruled since 1966, which had an overwhelming majority and could even change the Basic Law. The only opposition party was the small Free Democratic Party (FDP). As a protest against the much too powerful grand coalition, particularly against its emergency acts,  the "Extraparliamentary Opposition" (in German Außerparlamentarische Opposition, APO) formed, mainly borne by students; therefore it was also called "student movement" or "68ers".

1969, Germany

SPD and FDP won the federal elections in 1969, and a social democrat / liberal government formed  under Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt. 

1970

 1973, USA/Vietnam
 Peace Treaty ends
Vietnam War

1973, UK/Ireland
 UK and Ireland
join the
European Community

 1977-1981, USA
 Jimmy Carter
39th President 

1979-, UK
 Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher

SPD and FDP had won the federal elections in 1969, and a social democrat / liberal government formed  under Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt. 

His name stands for a  new policy towards the Soviet Block (in German "Ostpolitik"), to improve the relationships with East Germany and Eastern Europe.  The photo of Chancellor Brandt kneeling at the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising memorial in December 1979, went around the  world. The Parliament debated fiercely over the contracts with East Germany and the Soviet Bloc states, there was live TV coverage and entire school classes watched.  Eventually, the relations with East Germany and the Soviet Bloc improved, and the two German states recognized the existence of each other. On September 18, 1973, both  East and West Germany joined the United Nations.

"The Games must go on" IOC President Avery Brundage in Munich 1972

Over years the Federal Republic was shaken by terrorist attacks: The taking of hostages by the  Palestinian terror group "Black September" at the Olympic Games in Munich 1972, the murder of Siegfried Buback, Jürgen Ponto and Hanns Martin Schleyer by the Red Army Faction (RAF), and the hijacking of the Lufthansa airplane "Landshut" by allied Palestinian terrorists.

After the invasion of the Soviet Union into Afghanistan, the NATO Double-Track Decision and the trade union Solidarność in Poland, more and more people became committed to the peace movement. Also protection of the environment became increasingly urgent, an environmental movement formed, and eventually the party "Die Grünen" (the Greens) emerged. In 1983, they were elected into the Bundestag for the first time.

1980

 1981-1989, USA
 Ronald Reagan
40th President

1982, UK/Argentina
 Falklands War

 1989-1993, USA 
 George Bush sr. 41st President 

In 1982, the SPD/FDP coalition broke up. On October 1, 1982,  Helmut Kohl (CDU) was elected Chancellor in a Constructive Vote of No Confidence in the Bundestag.CDU and FDP formed a new government under Helmut Kohl (Chancellor 1982-1998).

1985, Europe

At the beginning of the 80s, the Cold War was still going on. That changed when Mikhail Gorbachev became Secretary-General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. His reform programs Perestroika ("New Thinking for Our Country and Abroad") and Glasnost (openness)  made "Gorby" popular in the West and improved political and economic relations. He urged the other regimes in the Soviet Bloc to follow his reform policy.  Reformists in Hungary and Poland were encouraged, staunch communists. among them  Erich Honecker in East Berlin, rejected Gorbachev's reforms. 

1987, Berlin

"Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!" 
US-President Ronald Reagan in Berlin, 1987

On June 12, 1987, US-President Ronald Reagan gave a speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. His words went around the world: "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbatchev, tear down this wall!" 

1988/89, Europe

Shortly after, in 1988, Gorbachov made it clear that the Soviet Union would not intervene in the internal affairs of Soviet Bloc allies, as it had done 1968 in Prague to crush the "Prague Spring". Poland and Hungary became the first Warsaw Pact state country to break free.

1989

Hungary had opened its border to Austria, and many East Germans fled via Hungary into the West. East Germans occupied West German Embassies in Budapest, Warsaw and Prague in order to force permit for leaving the country. In September, thousands of men, woman and children camped in the garden of the German Embassy in Prague, until Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher brought the news they all had been waiting for: they all were allowed to travel into the Federal Republic. 

October/November 1989, East Germany

On October 7, Gorbachev visited East Berlin to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic. While many people demonstrated on the streets, the Politbüro did not reconsider and refused reforms. More and more citizens of East Germany vehemently demanded an adjustment of the political course on that the USSR, and mass demonstrations with eventually hundreds of thousands people occured in several cities, particularly in Leipzig.

November 1989, Berlin

Finally, on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall was opened, and East Germany were allowed to travel freely. 

1990 

1993-2001, USA
 Bill Clinton
42nd President 

1990, Germany

In 1990, discussions between the West German and the East German Governments over reunification took place. In February, Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Mikhail Gorbachev met in the Caucasus. On July 1st, the economic and monetary union was in force. On August 23rd, both Parliaments agreed on the date of the reunification. The winning powers approved in September and dismissed Germany into the full sovereignty. On October 3, the five reconstituted East German states Mecklenburg-Pommerania, Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt und Thuringia and the reunited city state of Berlin acceded to the Federal Republic, and the two German states were united. This is the national holiday we celebrate. 

1994, Rhineland

Today, the old hotel doesn’t exist anymore, in its place, a new guest house for the Federal Government was built. It modeled on the old hotel, saving some of the old stones. This hotel, too, has had it's share of prominent guests, among them Hillary and Bill Clinton - a jogging trail is named by him.

1999

On June 20,  1991,  the Bundestag had decided in a hard-fought ballot  to return to Berlin its old capital function. In 1999, the Government moved from the Rhine to the Spree, in the same year, the renovated Reichstag  in Berlin was reopened. 

Here we are the end of the last chapter of the history of the Seven Mountains.  When we wander through our area today, we may take it for granted that we have enough to eat, and that we live in a state under the rule of law, and that we are free .. but we cannot take it for granted. Every day, we see that in the news. In the years of the new beginning  after World War II, in the "Bonn Republic", the basis was created. 

Therefore, this chapter also is a big "thank you", for the opportunity to live in a free state under rule of law. I would like to close with my regards to the Spree River and a quotation of Chancellor Angela Merkel: "Überraschen wir uns mit dem, was möglich ist." (Let us surprise ourselves by what is possible.)

Reference

The photos of the plenary, the Adenauer Memorial and the Adenauer Haus are from the German Wikipedia.
Die folgenden Bilder basieren  auf den nachfolgend aufgeführten Bildern aus der freien Enzyklopädie Wikipedia und stehen unter der GNU-Lizenz für freie Dokumentation.   
Urheber   Plenarsaal Wasserwerk  
Urheber   Adenauerhaus   
Urheber   Adenauer-Denkmal 


Mentioned sites


Petersberg