The Reichstag (, ; officially: – ; en, Parliament) is a historic government building in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
which houses the
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Common ...
, the lower house of
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
's parliament.
It was constructed to house the Imperial Diet (german:
Reichstag) of the
German Empire. It was opened in 1894 and housed the Diet until 1933, when it was
set on fire.
In
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, during the
Battle of Berlin, the building was severely damaged by the Soviet
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...
. After the War, the building fell into disuse; the parliament of the
German Democratic Republic
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**G ...
(the ) met in the
Palast der Republik
The Palace of the Republic (german: link=no, Palast der Republik) was a building in Berlin that hosted the ''Volkskammer'', the parliament of East Germany, from 1976 to 1990.
The Palace of the Republic, also known as the "People's Palace", was ...
in
East Berlin, while the parliament of the
Federal Republic of Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...
(the Bundestag) met in the in
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...
.
The ruined building was made safe against the elements and partially refurbished in the 1960s, but no attempt at full restoration was made until after
German reunification on 3 October 1990, when it underwent a reconstruction led by architect
Norman Foster
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Nor ...
. After its completion in 1999, it once again became the meeting place of the German parliament: the contemporary Bundestag.
Etymology
The term , when used to connote a
diet
Diet may refer to:
Food
* Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group
* Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake
** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...
, dates back to the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.
From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...
. The building was built for the Diet of the
German Empire, which was succeeded by the
Reichstag of the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...
. The latter would become the
Reichstag of
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, which left the building (and ceased to act as a parliament) after the
1933 fire and never returned, using the
Kroll Opera House
The Kroll Opera House (german: Krolloper, Kroll-Oper) in Berlin, Germany, was in the Tiergarten district on the western edge of the '' Königsplatz'' square (today ''Platz der Republik''), facing the Reichstag building. It was built in 1844 as ...
instead; the term has not been used by German parliaments since World War II. In today's usage, the word (Imperial
Diet
Diet may refer to:
Food
* Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group
* Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake
** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...
) refers mainly to the building, while (Federal Diet) refers to the institution.
History of the building
Imperial and Weimar Republic eras
Construction of the building began well after the
unification of Germany
The unification of Germany (, ) was the process of building the modern German nation state with federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without multinational Austria), which commenced on 18 August 1866 with adoption of t ...
in 1871. Starting in 1871, and for the next 23 years, the parliament met in the former property of the , at 4. In 1872 an architectural contest with 103 participating architects was carried out to erect a new building, a contest won by
Ludwig Bohnstedt. The plan incorporated the (today's ), which was then occupied by the palace of a Polish-Prussian aristocrat, . Unfortunately, that property was unavailable at the time.
In 1882, another architectural contest was held, with 200 architects participating. This time, the winner—the
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...
architect
Paul Wallot
Johann Paul Wallot (26 June 1841 Oppenheim am Rhein – 10 August 1912 Bad Schwalbach) was a German architect of Huguenot descent, best known for designing the Reichstag building in Berlin, erected between 1884 and 1894. He also built the adjacent ...
—would actually see his
Neo-Baroque project executed. The direct model for Wallot's design was Philadelphia's
Memorial Hall, the main building of the 1876
Centennial Exhibition
The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...
. Wallot adorned the building's façade with crowns and eagles symbolising imperial strength. The building's four corner towers represented the four German kingdoms at unification,
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...
,
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
,
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
and
Württemberg
Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart.
Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Württ ...
, and the heraldic
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...
of each kingdom, as well as smaller devices representing various German city-states, flanked the main entrance, celebrating the process of unification. Some of the Reichstag's decorative sculptures, reliefs, and inscriptions were by sculptor
Otto Lessing.
On 29 June 1884, the foundation stone was finally laid by
Wilhelm I
William I or Wilhelm I (german: Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig; 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888) was King of Prussia from 2 January 1861 and German Emperor from 18 January 1871 until his death in 1888. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he was the ...
, at the east side of the Königsplatz. Before construction was completed by
Philipp Holzmann A.G. in 1894, Wilhelm I died (in 1888, the
Year of Three Emperors
The Year of the Three Emperors, or the Year of the Three Kaisers (german: Dreikaiserjahr), refers to the year 1888 during the German Empire in German history.PikeTipton, p. 175.Nichols, p. 1.Berghahn, p. 282. The year is considered to have memo ...
). His eventual successor,
Wilhelm II
, house = Hohenzollern
, father = Frederick III, German Emperor
, mother = Victoria, Princess Royal
, religion = Lutheranism (Prussian United)
, signature = Wilhelm II, German Emperor Signature-.svg
Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor ...
, took a more jaundiced view of parliamentary democracy than his grandfather. The original building was acclaimed for the construction of an original
cupola
In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome.
The word derives, via Italian, fro ...
of steel and glass, considered an engineering feat at the time. But its mixture of architectural styles drew widespread criticism.
[David Clay Large, ''Berlin'', New York: Basic Books, 2000, ]
p. 59
.
In 1916 the iconic words ("To the German People") were placed above the main façade of the building, much to the displeasure of Wilhelm II, who had tried to block the adding of the inscription for its democratic significance. After
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
had ended and Wilhelm had
abdicated
Abdication is the act of formally relinquishing monarchical authority. Abdications have played various roles in the succession procedures of monarchies. While some cultures have viewed abdication as an extreme abandonment of duty, in other societ ...
, during the revolutionary days of 1918,
Philipp Scheidemann
Philipp Heinrich Scheidemann (26 July 1865 – 29 November 1939) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In the first quarter of the 20th century he played a leading role in both his party and in the young Weimar ...
proclaimed the institution of a republic from one of the balconies of the building on 9 November. The building continued to be the seat of the parliament of the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...
(1919–1933), which was still called the . Up to 42 protesters died during the
Reichstag Bloodbath of 13 January 1920, when workers tried to protest a law that would restrict their rights; it was the bloodiest demonstration in German history.
Nazi period
Following the
Reichstag fire on 27 February 1933, the building was not used for parliamentary sessions for the next 12 years of Nazi rule. Instead, the nearby
Kroll Opera House
The Kroll Opera House (german: Krolloper, Kroll-Oper) in Berlin, Germany, was in the Tiergarten district on the western edge of the '' Königsplatz'' square (today ''Platz der Republik''), facing the Reichstag building. It was built in 1844 as ...
was used, and the Reichstag building became the setting for political exhibitions. In 1939 the library and archive were moved elsewhere, and the windows bricked up as the building was made into a fortress. By 1943, the building was used as a hospital, and a radio tube manufacturing facility by
AEG. During the
Battle of Berlin in 1945, it became one of the central targets for the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...
to capture, due to its perceived symbolic significance.
[
]
Cold War
When the Cold War emerged, the building was physically within West Berlin
West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
, but in ruins. During the Berlin blockade
The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, ro ...
, an enormous number of West Berliners assembled before the building on 9 September 1948, and Mayor Ernst Reuter held a famous speech that ended with ("You people of the world...look upon this city...").[
In 1956, after some debate, the West German government decided that the should not be torn down, but be restored instead under the guidance of Paul Baumgarten. The cupola of the original building, which had also been heavily damaged in the war, was dismantled, and the outside façade made simpler with the removal of ornaments and statues. Reconstruction started in 1961, and was complete by 1971.][
The artistic and practical value of his work was the subject of much debate after German reunification. Under the 1971 ]Four Power Agreement on Berlin
The Four Power Agreement on Berlin, also known as the Berlin Agreement or the Quadripartite Agreement on Berlin, was agreed on 3 September 1971 by the four wartime Allied powers, represented by their ambassadors. The four foreign ministers, Ale ...
, Berlin was formally outside the bounds of either East or West Germany, and so the West German parliament, the , was not allowed to assemble formally in West Berlin. This prohibition was obeyed even though East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
had declared East Berlin its capital, violating this provision. Until 1990, the building was thus used only for occasional representative meetings, and one-off events, such as a free concert given by British rock band Barclay James Harvest on 30 August 1980. It was also used for a widely lauded permanent exhibition about German history
The Germani tribes i.e. Germanic tribes are now considered to be related to the Jastorf culture before expanding and interacting with the other peoples.
The concept of a region for Germanic tribes is traced to time of Julius Caesar, a Roman gen ...
called ("Questions on German history").
Reunification
The official German reunification ceremony on 3 October 1990, was held at the building, including Chancellor Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998. Kohl's 16-year tenure is the longes ...
, President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Richard von Weizsäcker, former Chancellor Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ge ...
and many others. The event included huge firework displays. The following day the parliament of the united Germany assembled as a symbolic act in the building.
However, at that time, the role of Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
had not yet been decided upon. Only after a fierce debate, considered by many as one of the most memorable sessions of parliament, on 20 June 1991, did the conclude with quite a slim majority in favour of both government and parliament returning to Berlin from Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...
.
On 21 June 1994, Norman Foster
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Nor ...
was asked to include a dome solution in his draft reconstruction proposal, which he included in his 10 February 1995 plans.[
Before reconstruction began, the Reichstag was wrapped by the Bulgarian-American artists ]Christo
Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (1935–2009), known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, were artists noted for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations, often large landmarks and ...
and his wife Jeanne-Claude in 1995, attracting millions of visitors. The project was financed by the artists through the sale of preparatory drawings and collages, as well as early works of the 1950s and 1960s.
During the reconstruction, the building was first almost completely gutted, taking out everything except the outer walls, including all changes made by Baumgarten in the 1960s. Respect for the historic aspects of the building was one of the conditions stipulated to the architects, so traces of historical events were to be retained in a visible state. Among them were bullet holes and graffiti left by Soviet soldiers after the final battle for Berlin in April–May 1945. However, graffiti considered offensive was removed, in agreement with Russian diplomats at the time.[
Reconstruction was completed in 1999, with the Bundestag convening there officially for the first time on 19 April of that year. The is now the second most visited attraction in Germany, not least because of the huge glass dome that was erected on the roof as a gesture to the original 1894 cupola, giving an impressive view over the city, especially at night.
]
Dome
The large glass dome at the very top of the Reichstag has a 360-degree view of the surrounding Berlin cityscape. The main hall ( debating chamber) of the parliament below can also be seen from inside the dome, and natural light from above radiates down to the parliament floor. A large sun shield tracks the movement of the sun electronically and blocks direct sunlight which would not only cause large solar gain, but dazzle those below. Construction work was finished in 1999 and the seat of parliament was transferred to the in April of that year. The dome is open to visitors by prior registration.www.reichstag.de "Registering to visit the dome of the Reichstag Building"
. Retrieved 29 September 2011
See also
*List of legislative buildings
A legislative building is a building in which a legislature sits and makes laws for its respective Polity, political entity. The term used for the building varies between the political entities, such as "building", "capitol", "hall", "house", or ...
* Band des Bundes
*Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (1935–2009), known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, were artists noted for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations, often large landmarks and ...
*National Diet Building
The is the building where both houses of the National Diet of Japan meet. It is located at Nagatachō 1-chome 7–1, Chiyoda, Tokyo.
Sessions of the House of Representatives take place in the south wing and sessions of the House of Councillo ...
of Japan
*Reichskanzlei
The Reich Chancellery (german: Reichskanzlei) was the traditional name of the office of the Chancellor of Germany (then called ''Reichskanzler'') in the period of the German Reich from 1878 to 1945. The Chancellery's seat, selected and prepared s ...
*Reichstag (disambiguation)
is a German word generally meaning parliament, more directly translated as '' Diet of the Realm'' or ''National diet'', or more loosely as ''Imperial Diet''. It may refer to:
Buildings and places
is the specific German word for parliamentary b ...
Notes
* - Total pages: 687
* - Total pages: 252
*
External links
Website of the German parliament
of the German Reichstags building in Berlin
* ttp://www.exberliner.com/mustsees/reichstag Article in Exberliner Magazine br>Reichstag and vicinity at dawn, July 1971.
From the "Berlin 1969" website.
Panoramic view of The Reichstag (building)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reichstag (Building)
Government buildings completed in 1894
Buildings and structures in Berlin
Tourist attractions in Berlin
Legislative buildings in Europe
Foster and Partners buildings
Landmarks in Germany
Government buildings with domes
Rebuilt buildings and structures in Berlin
Seats of national legislatures
Buildings and structures destroyed by arson
Attacks on government buildings and structures
Government buildings in Germany