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Bonn, Germany, is located 20 kilometers south of Cologne.
The history of Bonn goes back beyond the Stone Age as archaeological findings
prove that people have lived in Bonn for more than 12,000 years.
Recorded history began as the Romans used Bonna (as it was called by them)
as the place for a military bridge across the river Rhine between 13 and 9 BC.
In the centuries that followed the city had a rich history
and in 1244 the city was granted a town charter.
From 1288 to 1803, it was the residence of the Archbishops and Prince-electors of Cologne.
In recent history, Bonn became the capital of West-Germany
and the seat of the federal parliament (1949).
It remained so until 1990, when, after the German unification,
Berlin once again became the German Capital.
At the end of the last century the last of the government and parliament workers
had moved back to Berlin. But, not all did move. Some ministries still remain in Bonn,
making it an unofficial second capital.
Bonn, also, is the birthplace of one of the greatest composers of all times,
Ludwig von Beethoven, who was born in Bonn in 1770.
The city is the 19th largest of Germany and has almost 315,000 inhabitants.
With 30,000 students, it also has one of the largest universities in the country.

The reason Bonn is included in the Skyscraper Picture Collection is
because of the 162,5m tall Post Tower, which was completed in 2002
and was built in the old governmental district.
It's currently Germany's 7th tallest building, and the tallest outside of the city of Frankfurt.
Skyscraper wise, the city has not much else to offer.
It only has one other skyscraper that is taller than 100m/328f.
The rest of the city consists of mostly low-rise buildings,
with only six buildings that have more than 15 stories,
the tallest of which has 19 stories.


Above left: part of Bonn seen from the Venusberg hill
with its two tallest buildings rising above.
Above right: Sendeturm, a wired mast on top of the Venusberg hill in Bonn.
With its height of 180m/591f, it's the tallest structure in Bonn.
The mast is being used by the German broadcasting company WDR.


Above (pictures 1-4): Post Tower seen from four different angles:
from the west, the south, the east (with the River Rhine) and the north.
















Above: Post Tower (162,5m/533f, 42 stories, 2002), during the day and at night.
The building is the headquarters of the Deutsche Post AG,
and was designed by architects C.F. Murphy and Helmuth Jahn.
The building has the shape of two half ellipses merged together,
with a space in between the two halves of 7,4 metres (24 feet).
In between the floors there are four sky-gardens (every ninth floor),
which connect the two half ellipses with each other.
The Tower has a glass façade, but also most of the inside of the building
(doors, walls, floors) is made out of glass, which gives it a very transparent look.
At night, the façade of the building can have a colour changing sequence
over 55,000 square metres of façade, in which the building is
alternating a lightning sequence scheme in which it's coloured blue, yellow and red.
This colour sequence is being used on special occasions.
Approximately 2,000 people work in the Post Tower.




Above: Abgeordetenhaus (115m/376f, 29 stories, 1969).
The building is nicknamed 'Langer Eugen', after Eugen Gerstenmaier,
who was President of the Bundestag while the building was under construction.
It was built from 1965-1969 for about 50 million marks (about 25 million US Dollar).
This office tower was used by the German government from 1969 to the early Nineties.
From 2003-2006, the building underwent a large and expensive renovation
(the costs of this renovation were about 56 million euro,
more than twice the amount of the original building costs).
The building was put back in use during the course of 2006
as the centre building of an UN-campus.
The building has a monument status, and was the city's tallest from 1969-2002,
when it was surpassed by Post Tower.


Above left and middle: Hochhaus im Tulpenfeld (no height available, 18 stories, 1967).
The building is part of the Tulpenfeld Office Complex,
which consists of seven buildings of which #4 is the tallest.
From 1968-1999, the complex was used by the German government.
Above right: Bonn-Center, a 60m/187f tall office building.
It was completed in 1969, and has 18 stories.

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