Chains of office - insignia of municipal self-government
The basis for the introduction and wearing of chains of office - or the acquisition of insignia in general - was created by Imperial Baron von und zum Stein with his "Regulations for all towns in the Prussian monarchy" of 1808, in which he decreed that town councillors and magistrates, including mayors, "in larger towns must wear gold medals on gold chains when exercising their office".
The chain of office of the city of Bonn
The city of Bonn was the third Rhenish city to receive a chain of office in 1895. Previously, Düsseldorf had acquired chains of office in 1858 and Duisburg in 1886 - the city of Mönchengladbach was the last to do so in 1904. To this day, the chains of office of Bonn, Duisburg and Mönchengladbach are the original chains. Some other chains of office were melted down during the First World War. The chains of Bonn and Duisburg are identical except for the medals.
The Bonn chain of office was made by the company D. Vollgold & Sohn, Goldsmiths to His Majesty the Emperor, in Berlin in 1895. Although the name of the company might suggest this, it is not a chain made of "full gold", but of heavily gold-plated silver. Its purchase price was 1,500 marks and it weighed 372 grams.
The chain of office consists of simple, transverse-oval individual links and seven medals. These show the city coat of arms, the portrait of the founder of the city order Friedrich Wilhelm III, the imperial coat of arms and the portraits of Ludwig van Beethoven and the Imperial Baron vom Stein.