Building Bonn: Experiencing Democracy in a Post-Totalitarian State

In 1948, the leafy, provincial university town of Bonn clinched the nomination to become the Federal Republic’s future capital. With few buildings ready to house a government, West Germany’s politicians, architects, and public soon debated what kinds of architecture would be fit for a democracy built on the ruins of a totalitarian society. Among parliamentarians, the discussion was not only about different architectural styles, but also about the spatial experience of the new buildings and their symbolic communication with the public, both German and international. Humble was a term frequently used. Conducive to listening and discussion was another, as neither parliamentarians nor visitors were to feel overawed, but instead experience themselves, and converse with each other, as individuals. For all this talk of humility, the buildings were given an ambitious task: to unite parliamentarians, interested visitors, even casual tourists in a community of modest yet robust democratic allegiance, while rejecting the collectivist, mass-oriented ethos of the Third Reich’s monumental architecture.

This talk explores what these demands meant in actual practice; how Bonn was built and politicians and citizens experienced the new capital; and the friction between ideal and parliamentary practice. Acoustics, for instance, were accorded a prime place in the sensory experience of democracy, as the buildings were to enable one-on-one conversation and free debate. However, while the acoustics in the halls of government were praised by visitors, parliamentarians complained that the sounds of the visitors, coupled with flimsy doors and limited office space—installed in the name of government modesty—made working there impossible. Using government records, visitors’ comments, parliamentarians’ ego-documents, and newspaper accounts, the paper examines how West Germans were supposed to feel, see, and experience democracy through architecture. It demonstrates the importance that politicians and public alike accorded to the sensual experience of democracy.