Reichstag

About

The Reichstag (; German: [ˈraɪçsˌtaːk] ) is a historic legislative government building on Platz der Republik in Berlin that is the seat of the German Bundestag. It is also the meeting place of the Federal Convention, which elects the president of Germany. The Neo-Renaissance building was constructed between 1884 and 1894 in the Tiergarten district on the left bank of the River Spree based on plans by the architect Paul Wallot. It housed the Reichstag (legislature) of the German Empire and subsequent Weimar Republic. The Reich's Federal Council also originally met there. The building was initially used by the Reichstag for Nazi Germany, but severe damage in the Reichstag fire of 1933 prevented further use and the Reichstag moved to the nearby Kroll Opera House. The 1933 fire became a pivotal event in the entrenchment of the Nazi regime. The building took further damage during World War II, and its symbolism made it an important target for the Red Army during the Battle of Berlin. After the war, the building was modernised and restored in the 1950s and used for exhibitions and special events, as its location in West Berlin prevented its use as a parliament building by either of the two...

The term Reichstag, when used to connote a diet, dates back to the Holy Roman Empire. The building was built for the Diet of the German Empire, which was succeeded by the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic. The latter would become the Reichstag of Nazi Germany, which left the building (and ceased to act as a parliament) after the 1933 fire and never returned, using the Kroll Opera House instead; the term Reichstag has not been used by German parliaments since World War II. In today's usage, the word Reichstag (Imperial Diet ) refers mainly to the building, while Bundestag (Federal Diet) refers to the institution.

Construction of the building began well after the unification of Germany in 1871. Starting in 1871, and for the next 23 years, the parliament met in the former property of the Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin, at Leipziger Straße 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 Königsplatz (today's Platz der Republik ), which was then occupied by the palace of a Polish-Prussian aristocrat, Athanasius Raczyński. That property was unavailable at the time.

In 1882, another architectural contest was held, with 200 architects participating. This time, the winner—the Frankfurt architect Paul Wallot —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. 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, Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg, and the heraldic coat of arms 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 9 June 1884, the foundation stone was finally laid by Wilhelm I, 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 ). His eventual successor, Wilhelm II, took a more jaundiced view of parliamentary democracy than his grandfather. The original building was acclaimed for the construction of an original cupola of steel and glass, considered an engineering feat at the time. But its mixture of architectural styles drew widespread criticism.

In front of the Reichstag building, the Bismarck Memorial was erected in 1897-1901. It was moved together with the Victory Column in 1938-1939.

In 1916, the iconic words Dem deutschen Volke ("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. During the revolutionary days of 1918, two days before World War I ended and just hours after Wilhelm's abdication was announced, Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed the institution of a republic from one of the balconies of the Reichstag building on 9 November. The building continued to be the seat of the parliament of the Weimar Republic (1919–1933), which was still called the Reichstag. Up to 42 protesters died during the Reichstag Bloodbath of 13 January 1920, when workers tried to protest against a law that would restrict their rights; it was the bloodiest demonstration in German history.

The Königsplatz in 1880 with the Raczyński Palace (an art gallery demolished in 1883 to make way for the Reichstag)

The Reichstag building on the Königsplatz seen from the Siegessäule, c. 1900

The Reichstag building with the newly built Bismarck Memorial, c. 1900

The Reichstag building, constitution celebration, 11 August 1932

Main articles: Reichstag fire and Reichstag (Nazi Germany) On 27 February 1933, there was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, precisely four weeks after Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Despite the firefighters' efforts, most of the building was gutted. Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch "council communist", was the apparent culprit; however, Hitler attributed the fire to Communist agitators. He used it as a pretext to claim that Communists were plotting against the German government, and induced President Paul von Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree suspending civil liberties, and pursue a "ruthless confrontation" with the Communists.

Following the Reichstag fire, the building was not used for parliamentary sessions for the next 12 years of Nazi rule. Instead, the nearby Kroll Opera House was modified into a legislative chamber and served as the location of all parliamentary sessions, while 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 to capture, due to its perceived symbolic significance.

The Reichstag building on fire, 27 February 1933

Raising a Flag over the Reichstag, by Yevgeny Khaldei, 2 May 1945

Graffiti left by Soviet soldiers on the walls of the Reichstag, May 1945

Ruins of the Reichstag building in postwar occupied Berlin, 3 June 1945

When the Cold War emerged, the building was physically within West Berlin, but in ruins. During the Berlin Blockade, 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 "Ihr Völker der Welt... schaut auf diese Stadt..." ("You people of the world...look upon this city...").

In 1956, after some debate, the West German government decided that the Reichstag 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, Berlin was formally outside the bounds of either East or West Germany, and so the West German parliament, the Bundestag, was not allowed to assemble formally in West Berlin. This prohibition was obeyed even though East Germany 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 and by Tangerine Dream on 29 August 1981. It was also used for a widely lauded permanent exhibition about German history called Fragen an die deutsche Geschichte ("Questions on German history").