The newspaper cited a confidential report from German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble to the budgetary committee of the parliament, which for the first time suggests “changing the Berlin/Bonn Law” that officially altered the status of the two cities.
Although Berlin was made the capital after German reunification, most federal ministries kept huge presences in Bonn. The ministries for Agriculture, Defence, Health, Environment, Education and Development supposedly have their main offices along the Rhine, but the paper said that more and more German government agencies are moving important positions to Berlin.
Many politicians have long demanded the federal government move entirely to Berlin to save commuting costs between the two cities. According to Bild, more civil servants still work in Bonn (9,148) than in Berlin (8,726).
“The costs of having a double capital run up to €23 million each year,” the head of the German Association of Taxpayers, Reiner Holznagel, told the Thursday edition of the Passauer Neue Presse. The group estimates travel time between Berlin and Bonn eats up at least another €5 million in lost work.
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