City (pop., 2002 est: city, 306,000; metro. area, 878,700), Germany.
Located on the Rhine River south of Cologne , it was, until 1990, the capital of West Germany. An old settlement that predated the coming of the Romans, its name was continued in Castra Bonnensia, a 1st-century Roman fortress. By the 9th century it had become the Frankish town of Bonnburg. It grew from the 13th century, becoming capital of the Electorate of Cologne. In 1815 Bonn was awarded to Prussia by the Congress of Vienna , and by the late 19th century it was a fashionable residential town. It was bombed heavily in World War II; its postwar redevelopment was accelerated when in 1949 it was chosen as West Germany's capital. With Germany's reunification in 1990, the national capital was moved to Berlin . Bonn was the birthplace of Ludwig van Beethoven .