Known derisively for the past 50 years as the Hauptdorf (capital village), Bonn (pop. 319,800) was basically a non-entity before falling into the limelight by chance. Konrad Adenauer, the Federal Republic’s first chancellor, resided in the suburbs, and the occupying Allied powers made Bonn the “provisional capital” of the Western Occupation Zone before naming it capital of the fledgling Republic. Today, the Bundestag stands as a vestige of bygone years. The summer of 1991 brought headlines of“Chaos in Bonn” as Berlin fought to reclaim the seat of government, but Berlin won by the narrowest of margins, and in 1999, the Bundestag packed up and moved east. Though Berliners joke that Bonn is “half the size of a Berlin cemetery and twice as dead,” it has the perfect combination of history and progressive optimism, with a sparkling Altstadt and a forward-thinking university.