Government Precinct Tour
German Bundestag in the Reichstag Building
German Bundestag
Platz der Republik 1
11011 Berlin
The Reichstag was designed by Paul Wallot and built between 1884 and 1894. Following conversion work by Lord Norman Foster it has been used since 1999 as the seat of the German Bundestag. Its new dome has become a symbol of the Berlin Republic and the building itself is one of the capital's main attractions.
The national parliament moved into Paul Wallot's new Reichstag in 1894, having spent many years in a temporary domicile in the Royal Porcelain Manufactory on Leipziger Straße. Wallot's building was erected on the grounds of the former Raczynski Palace.
On 9 November 1918, Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed a republic from the ledge of a window in the Reichstag. The end of this republic was signalled by the fire staged by the Nazis that destroyed the Reichstag on the night of 27 February 1933.
Heavily damaged during the war, the Reichstag was reconstructed to plans by Paul Baumgarten in the 1960s, the ruins of the dome being removed. Not until 1990 did the Reichstag return to the forefront of German politics, when the first all-German Bundestag gathered here for its constitutive meeting on 20 December.
The competition to remodel the Reichstag had been won in 1992 by Lord Norman Foster. He originally planned a huge roof spanning the whole of the Reichstag and the Platz der Republik square in front of it. The dome in its present form is the product of several revised designs.
The centrepiece of the building is the generously glazed chamber that is crowned by the dome. A funnel with panes of mirror glass reflects the daylight from above into the chamber.
The building services system that Foster has introduced is surprisingly modern and environmentally compatible. Natural ventilation and lighting predominate. A block heating and generating plant fired by low-pollutant vegetable fuels provides energy for the heating, cooling and power supply system and a heat accumulator over 300 metres below ground can store surplus energy for long periods.
Further information (in German only):
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Images:
Bundesbildstelle Bonn / B. Kühler
Reiner Elsen
Andreas Muhs
Partner für Berlin / FTB-Werbefotografie (2)
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