On 23 May 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) was founded on the grounds of the Western occupational zones. The abbreviation FRG has been used particularly during the German partition in order to differentiate the FRG from the second German state, the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Since the reunification of both states in 1990, the Federal Republic of Germany consists of 16 federal states and is a constitutional federal democracy with the German Basic Law as its constitution. After the reunification, Berlin became the capital of the newly unified state, replacing Bonn as the capital of the FRG.