Imperial and Weimar Republic eras 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 , 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, . 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 ("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. File:Königsplatz Berlin, um 1880.jpg|The
Königsplatz in 1880 with the Palace (an art gallery demolished in 1883 to make way for the Reichstag) File:Reichstag-1870.jpg|The Reichstag building on the Königsplatz seen from the
Siegessäule, File:Berlin Reichstag mit Bismarck Denkmal um 1900.jpg|The Reichstag building with the newly built
Bismarck Memorial, File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-13744, Berlin, Reichstag, Verfassungsfeier.jpg|The Reichstag building, constitution celebration, 11 August 1932
Nazi period 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. File:Reichstagsbrand.jpg|The
Reichstag building on fire, 27 February 1933 File:Raising a flag over the Reichstag - Restoration.jpg|
Raising a Flag over the Reichstag, by
Yevgeny Khaldei, 2 May 1945 RIAN 2569121 Памятные надписи на стенах Рейхстага, оставленные советскими солдатами после взятия Берлина.jpg|Graffiti left by Soviet soldiers on the walls of the Reichstag, May 1945 File:Ruins of the Reichstag in Berlin, 3 June 1945. BU8573.jpg|Ruins of the Reichstag building in
postwar occupied Berlin, 3 June 1945
Cold War 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 ("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 , 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 ("Questions on German history"). On May 26, 1989, the
Bethke brothers landed the ultralight airplanes they had used to defect from
East Germany in front of the Reichstag.
Reunification The official
German reunification ceremony on 3 October 1990 was held at the Reichstag building, including
Chancellor Helmut Kohl,
President Richard von Weizsäcker, former Chancellor
Willy Brandt 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 Reichstag building. However, at that time, the role of
Berlin 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. On 21 June 1994,
Norman Foster 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 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 Reichstag 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. File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1990-1003-417, Berlin, Flaggen vor dem Reichstag.jpg|The Reichstag building during the official
German reunification ceremony, with
flags of all German states, 3 October 1990 File:Berlin Aug.98 - 3.jpg|The Reichstag covered in scaffolding during its reconstruction, August 1998. The new dome can be seen above the roofline. File:Reichstagsgebäude, Berlin-Mitte, 170402, ako.jpg|The Reichstag as seen from the north-east in 2017, after reconstruction File:Reichstag from spree 2024 b.jpg|The Reichstag viewed from the
Spree (river), August 2024 ==Dome==