Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

In the late eighteenth century the capitals of the major powers were London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, St Petersburg, and Constantinople. Of these only the first has subsequently enjoyed an entirely continuous history as a principal seat of government. Though Berlin graduated in 1871 from serving as capital of Prussia to becoming that of the new german empire as well, it suffered diminished status following the end of world war ii . From 1945 to 1949 it was essentially the base for rule by the Allied Control Commission, before operating during the rest of the cold war as capital only for an eastern area of German territory, while its western counterpart was governed from the small Rhineland town of Bonn (see german democratic republic ; federal republic of germany ). It was not until 1999 that Berlin officially resumed the full national functions that Bonn had taken over in the immediate aftermath of the german reunification of 1990. Germany's earlier period of European dominance under Nazi leadership had also led to the temporary demotion of Vienna and Paris. The former, having already ceased to be an imperial capital, was not even a national one during the 1938–45 period of Austro-German anschluss ; as for Paris, between 1940 and 1944 such nominal autonomy as France preserved was centered not there but on vichy . In Russia, St Petersburg had become the capital in 1713. ... log in or subscribe to read full text