>> In the contrary: If Berlin wasn't there, maybe Frankfurt would be the capital of Germany. > Don't kid yourself. If it wasn't Berlin, it would be Bonn, Munic

>> In the contrary: If Berlin wasn't there, maybe Frankfurt would be the capital of Germany. > Don't kid yourself. If it wasn't Berlin, it would be Bonn, Munich, Hamburg, or Cologne. None of these cities have any history of being a German capital. To imagine Munich as the capital of Germany is outright funny, since they make it very clear, that they are the capital of the free state of Bavaria. Especially Bonn was chosen exactly for being not an important city, to show that it is a temporary solution. Frankfurt might have been able to keep the status as capital, because German democracy was basically founded in Frankfurt. It would have weakened the West in the cold war. Choosing it as a capital would have marked a historical endpoint, while the West bet on having that endpoint only after the reunification, which eventually happened [0]. Of course it is hard to argue about stuff like this, because if Berlin would not exist, maybe the wall would have gone through Frankfurt instead. > Berlin has the disadvantage of being separated and isolated for decades while Frankfurt has been able to exist in a world with a free market and heavy investments by the allied forces for more than 70 years. To blame Berlin for not becoming as rich as Frankfurt in about 25 years time is just stupid and ignorant. Nobody does that. There are plenty of other poor states in Germany, but Berlin combines it with it's unique attitude, which I sometimes find a bit provoking. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_of_Germany https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_of_Germany