Reichstag Berlin:
The History Behind the German Bundestag
Why is the Reichstag in Berlin so historically significant?
The Reichstag building was constructed between 1884 and 1894 as the seat of the Reichstag in the German Empire. Since then, it has been the setting for pivotal chapters in German history: the proclamation of the Republic in 1918, the Reichstag fire in 1933, the Battle of Berlin in 1945 and, finally, German reunification.
Since 1999, it has been the seat of the German Bundestag.
THE BERLIN LOCALS RECOMMEND.
What is the difference between the Reichstag and the Bundestag?
The Reichstag and the Bundestag are not the same thing. The German Bundestag is the parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Reichstag – or, more precisely, the Reichstag building – is the historic building in Berlin where the Bundestag has been based since 1999.
The name “Reichstag” comes from a different era: the building was originally constructed for the Reichstag of the German Empire, founded in 1871.
Why does the Reichstag have a glass dome?
The Reichstag’s current glass dome was created during the building’s redesign by British architect Norman Foster in the 1990s. From the dome, visitors can look down into the plenary chamber below.
The transparent architecture is also seen as a symbol of open and transparent democracy – a powerful image, especially given the history of this building.
Reichstag Berlin: History at a Glance
- Construction began: 1884
- Opened: 1894
- Architect: Paul Wallot
- Reichstag fire: 27 February 1933
- Severely damaged: 1945 during the Battle of Berlin
- German reunification: 3 October 1990
- Wrapped by Christo and Jeanne-Claude: 1995
- Redesign by Norman Foster: 1990s
- Seat of the German Bundestag: since 1999
- Location: Platz der Republik, Berlin-Tiergarten
The History of the Reichstag – and Why It Still Matters Today
Alright, friends,
the Bundestag probably plays a surprisingly small role in the everyday lives of most Berliners.
Sure, we hear about decisions being made there every day. But how much of normal Berlin life really takes place between the plenary chamber, MPs’ offices and the Brandenburg Gate?
I grew up near the Oberbaum Bridge and Frankfurter Tor and, like probably many Berliners, the first and only time I ever went inside the Reichstag was on a school trip.
Back then, a school trip basically meant one thing to us: no classes. So, unsurprisingly, I don’t remember much from the tour.
But one thing stuck with me.
We were told why this glass dome sits above parliament and what it means that visitors can look down into the plenary chamber from above.
That idea has stayed with me to this day. When you look at what has happened in and around this building over the past 130 years or so, you begin to understand why transparency, the people and political power have such a particular significance here.
More on that later.
Why was the Reichstag built in Berlin?
The history of the Reichstag begins with the founding of the German Empire in 1871. Berlin was now the capital of a new nation-state – but parliament lacked a building that reflected its new role.
Two architectural competitions were held to find a suitable design. In the end, Frankfurt architect Paul Wallot won. On 9 June 1884, Kaiser Wilhelm I laid the foundation stone, and ten years later the Reichstag was completed.
Wallot designed a monumental building with four corner towers and a large dome made of steel and glass, combining elements of Renaissance, Baroque and Classicism. In 1894, parliament was finally able to move in.
The Reichstag was intended to give the parliament of the still-young German Empire a permanent home – at a time when political power was distributed very differently from today.
“Dem deutschen Volke” – Why the Inscription Was Added Later
Today, “Dem deutschen Volke” is such an integral part of the Reichstag that you might assume the words had always stood above its entrance.
In fact, the inscription was not added until 1916 – more than 20 years after the building was completed and in the middle of the First World War. The wording had been debated for years, and Kaiser Wilhelm II was also opposed to it. The roughly 16-metre-wide lettering was eventually made from melted-down cannon barrels from the Wars of Liberation against Napoleon.
Looking back, these three words almost read like a headline for the building’s later history. Because the question of how much political power truly comes from the people would confront Germany in some pretty brutal ways over the decades that followed.
1918: From the German Empire to the Republic
Just two years after the inscription was added, the German Empire was history.
On 9 November 1918, during the final days of the First World War, SPD politician Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed the Republic from a window of the Reichstag. Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated, and the monarchy became a parliamentary democracy.
The Reichstag remained the seat of parliament during the Weimar Republic. For the first time, women could now vote and also enter parliament as elected representatives.
This fundamentally changed the political significance of the building: a Reichstag built for the parliament of an empire became the parliament of a republic.
But Germany’s first democracy would not last long. One of the most famous events in the history of the Reichstag would ultimately become a decisive moment in its downfall.
The Reichstag Fire of 1933 – The Turning Point
On the evening of 27 February 1933, the Reichstag caught fire. The flames destroyed the plenary chamber, among other parts of the building.
Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe was arrested inside the building and later convicted and executed. Whether he acted alone is still debated today. What proved decisive, however, was how the Nazis used the fire politically.
The very next day, the so-called Reichstag Fire Decree was issued.
Fundamental rights were suspended and political opponents were persecuted. Communists and Social Democrats in particular were targeted.
Just a few weeks later, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act. Parliamentary democracy had effectively been dismantled.
The building that had been constructed for parliamentary representation suddenly came to symbolise its destruction.
What Role Did the Reichstag Play During the Nazi Era?
During the Nazi dictatorship, the Reichstag building played almost no political role.
After the fire, the plenary chamber could no longer be used. The few sessions of the Reichstag therefore took place mainly in the Kroll Opera House opposite the damaged building. The Enabling Act had already stripped parliament of its actual political power.
During the Second World War, the building was used partly for military and other purposes. For a time, there was even a Charité maternity ward in the basement.
Looking at the Reichstag today, I find that remarkable: we now associate the building so strongly with German politics that it is easy to forget that during the twelve years of Nazi dictatorship, no functioning democratic parliament operated here.
By the end of the war, however, the Reichstag had gained enormous symbolic significance – this time for the Red Army.
1945: Why Did the Reichstag Become a Symbol of the Battle of Berlin?
In the spring of 1945, the Red Army advanced towards the centre of Berlin. Although the Reichstag had little political significance left for the Nazi regime, Soviet soldiers saw the monumental building as a symbol of the German Reich.
At the end of April, fierce fighting broke out around the building. The Reichstag was severely damaged by artillery, fire and the fighting itself. On 30 April 1945, Soviet soldiers reached the roof and raised a red flag there.
The world-famous photograph of the Soviet flag flying over the destroyed Reichstag was actually taken later as a staged image. Nevertheless, it became one of the most iconic images of the end of the Second World War in Europe.
If you stand between the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate today, there is little to suggest what happened here. In 1945, this very area was one of the last major battlefields of the war, right in the heart of Berlin.
The Traces of Soviet Soldiers in the Reichstag
The capture of the Reichstag left behind traces that can still be seen inside the building today. After the fighting, Soviet soldiers wrote their names, hometowns, units and short messages on the walls.
When the Reichstag was redesigned for the German Bundestag decades later, a conscious decision was made to preserve some of this Soviet graffiti.
It’s details like these that make the Reichstag more interesting to me than a perfectly restored government building. Its history hasn’t simply been plastered over. The traces of 1945 now stand right in the middle of a democratic parliament.
That also feels very Berlin. Between the Reichstag, the Holocaust Memorial and other places in the city centre, completely different chapters of German history are sometimes only a few minutes apart. You just have to know what you’re looking at.
The Reichstag in Divided Berlin
After 1945, the heavily damaged Reichstag stood in a completely new political reality. Berlin was divided, the Federal Republic of Germany had its seat of government in Bonn, while the GDR had its political centre in the east of the city.
The Reichstag stood in West Berlin – just a few metres from where the Berlin Wall would later be built. It was no longer needed as a parliament building.
In the 1960s, the building was reconstructed and greatly simplified according to plans by architect Paul Baumgarten. The plenary chamber was enclosed in glass, and many historical elements disappeared. The damaged historic dome had already been demolished in 1954 and was not rebuilt.
While on the other side of the Berlin Wall, the TV Tower and the area around the Red Town Hall formed the political centre of East Berlin, the former Reichstag stood directly on the border between two political systems.
1990: German Reunification in Front of the Reichstag
With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Reichstag suddenly regained political significance.
On 3 October 1990, German reunification was celebrated in front of the Reichstag building. At midnight, the German flag was raised there. The following day, the first all-German parliament, made up of members of the Bundestag and the Volkskammer, met in the Reichstag.
But it had not yet been decided that parliament would permanently return to Berlin. It was not until 20 June 1991, after a controversial debate, that the Bundestag voted to move its seat from Bonn to Berlin.
This marked the beginning of another fundamental transformation for the Reichstag: a building that had stood directly on the border of divided Berlin for decades was to become the seat of the German parliament once again.
1995: When the Reichstag Disappeared for Two Weeks
Before the Reichstag was transformed into today’s Bundestag, artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped the entire building in the summer of 1995.
Around 100,000 square metres of silver-coloured fabric and kilometres of blue rope transformed the Reichstag into a giant work of art for two weeks. The idea had first emerged in the 1970s, but it was not until 1994 that the Bundestag approved the project.
Around five million people are said to have seen the wrapped Reichstag.
The timing could hardly have been more fitting: Germany was no longer divided, the Bundestag was set to return to Berlin – but the Reichstag as we know it today did not yet exist.
Norman Foster Redesigns the Reichstag
Immediately after the wrapping, work began to transform the Reichstag into the new seat of the German Bundestag. British architect Norman Foster was responsible for the redesign.
The aim was not simply to restore the Reichstag to its 1894 appearance. Historical traces were preserved, while a modern parliament building was created inside.
The most striking change is on the roof: the new walkable dome made of glass and steel. Inside, spiral ramps lead upwards, while a large mirrored cone directs daylight into the plenary chamber below.
And this dome brings us right back to my only school visit to the Reichstag.
Why the Reichstag’s Glass Dome Offers More Than Just a View
I really don’t remember much from that school trip. But one explanation stuck with me: the people walk above, while their elected representatives work below.
Visitors can look down from the dome into the plenary chamber. Politics is therefore not hidden away somewhere behind thick walls – at least architecturally, it is made visible.
Of course, a glass dome alone does not make a democracy transparent. But as a symbol, I find it particularly powerful in this building. In a place that has witnessed the German Empire, the collapse of Weimar democracy, Nazi dictatorship, war and the division of Germany, the people now literally stand above the plenary chamber.
Maybe that’s exactly why this one explanation has stayed with me, while I’ve long forgotten the rest of that school trip.
Since 1999, the German Bundestag Has Been Based in the Reichstag Building
On 19 April 1999, Norman Foster officially handed the redesigned Reichstag building over to the Bundestag. On 6 September 1999, the first regular week of parliamentary sessions began there.
After more than six decades, the Reichstag was once again what it had originally been built for: a parliament building – although under a completely different political system.
Today, members of the German Bundestag sit in the plenary chamber while visitors walk through the glass dome above them. Parts of the historic structure and the Soviet graffiti have been preserved.
After reunification, there was no attempt to make the Reichstag’s complicated past disappear. It remains part of the building where German democracy operates today.
A Building That Barely Plays a Role in Everyday Berlin Life
And yet, for most Berliners, the Reichstag is probably still a building they are more likely to pass by than actually go inside.
It’s actually quite an interesting contradiction. Decisions are made here that affect people across Germany every day – and yet this political side of Berlin often feels surprisingly far removed from everyday life in the city.
Later, through my work in tourism, I must have sent hundreds of guests to the Reichstag. Most of the time, it was about the dome, the view or simply seeing one of Berlin’s most famous buildings from the inside.
Very few realise just how much Berlin and German history is contained within these walls. Once you know it, you definitely look at the Reichstag differently the next time you pass by.
Our Take on the History of the Reichstag
For us, the Reichstag is far more than just the building with the glass dome next to the Brandenburg Gate. Its history tells a story of empire and democracy, dictatorship and war, division and reunification.
And in the end, I come back to that one sentence from my school trip: the people above, their representatives below.
Back then, it was just that one interesting fact somewhere between a day off from classes and hanging out with my classmates. Today, I think it’s a pretty fitting idea for a building whose history repeatedly shows how the relationship between political power and the people has changed.
If you’re interested in Berlin’s history, check out our blogs about Museum Island, Volkspark Friedrichshain, Berlin Cathedral or the Holocaust Memorial.
Berlin isn’t a tourist attraction. Berlin is a city.
See you in the real Berlin – or right here in the next blog.
Take care 🖤
Sources: Book "Der Reichstag: Vom Parlament des Kaiserreichs zum Symbol der Berliner Republik" by Ch. Links Verlag | Book "Der Reichstag: Symbol deutscher Geschichte" by BeBra Verlag | Website "bundestag.de" | Website "de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstagsgebäude" | MOST IMAGES IN THIS ARTICLE ARE EXAMPLE IMAGES AND WERE NOT TAKEN AT THE LOCATION VISITED.
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