Tensions between the state and the church

Tensions increased between the state and the Catholic church after the Franco-German war in 1870 and the foundation of the empire in 1871 and ended in the so-called Kulturkampf (cultural struggle), which raged on for the next two decades.

The confessional disputes reached their climax in Bonn when the city mayor Leopold Kaufmann who had been unanimously elected and had been in office since 1851 was not confirmed in his office by the king.

In other respects the 19th century passed peacefully. Bonn had its “democratic moment” when Gottfried Kinkel waved the black-red-gold flag on the flight of stairs of the town hall in 1848 and seven professors of the Alma Mater Bonnensis took office in the Frankfurt Paulskirche. The citizens reconciled themselves with the Prussian rulers and were proud of the royal hussars and of the princes who studied here.

Godesberg was extended to become a much frequented spa and bathing resort. Bonn and Godesberg had become rich places of residence of affluent families, which numbered some two hundred millionaires by 1910.