Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
arrival followed a complete architectural revamp masterminded by Lord Norman Foster,
who preserved only the building's 19th-century shell and added the landmark glass dome.
Dome
Resembling a giant glass beehive, the sparkling cupola is open at the top and bottom and sits
right above the plenary chamber as a visual metaphor for transparency and openness in
politics. A lift whisks you to the rooftop terrace from where you can easily pinpoint such
sights as the curvaceous House of World Cultures and the majestic Berliner Dom (Berlin
Cathedral) or marvel at the enormous dimensions of Tiergarten park. To learn more about
these and other landmarks, the Reichstag building and the workings of parliament, pick up a
free multilingual audioguide as you exit the lift. The commentary starts automatically as you
mosey up the dome's 230m-long ramp, which spirals around a mirror-clad cone that deflects
daylight down into the plenary chamber.
Main Facade
Stylistically, the monumental west-facing main facade borrows heavily from the Italian
Renaissance, with a few neo-baroque elements thrown into the mix. A massive staircase
leads up to a portico curtained by six Corinthian columns and topped by the dedication
'Dem Deutschen Volke' (To the German People), which wasn't added until 1916. The bronze
letters were designed by Peter Behrens, one of the fathers of modern architecture, and cast
from two French cannons captured during the Napoleonic Wars of 1813-15. The original
dome, made of steel and glass and considered a high-tech marvel at the time, was destroyed
during the Reichstag fire in 1933.
Historic Milestones
Home of the German parliament from 1894 to 1933 and again from 1999, the hulking
Reichstag will likely give you more flashbacks to high-school history than any other Berlin
landmark. On 9 November 1919, parliament member Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed the
German republic from one of its windows. In 1933, the Nazis used a mysterious fire as a
pretext to seize dictatorial powers. A dozen years later, victorious Red Army troops raised
the Soviet flag on the bombed-out building, which stood damaged and empty on the western
side of the Berlin Wall throughout the Cold War. In the late 1980s, megastars including
David Bowie, Pink Floyd and Michael Jackson performed concerts on the lawn in front of
the building.
