Reichstag Building

The Reichstag Building is a historic Berlin parliament building that has housed Germany’s national legislature since 1894 and has served as the Bundestag’s seat since 1999.

German Empire: A German nation-state established in 1871 under Prussian leadership and dissolved after World War I. The building was commissioned to house the empire’s parliament after German unification.
Reichstag dome: A glass dome above the Reichstag Building’s plenary chamber, designed by Norman Foster and opened in 1999. Its public ramp and central light shaft define the renovated building’s most visible feature.
Bundestag: Germany’s federal parliament, whose members are elected by the public. The Bundestag has met in the Reichstag Building since the government moved to Berlin in 1999.
Weimar Republic: Germany’s democratic republic from 1919 to 1933, marked by political instability and cultural change. The Reichstag Building became the setting for the republic’s parliamentary government.
Reichstag (institution): The historical German national legislature, especially the parliament of the German Empire and Weimar Republic. The institution and the building share a name but are not the same thing.
Paul Wallot: A German architect who designed the Reichstag Building in a Renaissance Revival style. His design won the competition for the building that opened in 1894.
Plenary chamber: The main assembly hall where a legislature meets for debates and votes. The Bundestag’s chamber occupies the building beneath the glass dome.
Bundestag plenary chamber: The Bundestag’s main assembly hall in the Reichstag Building, where members debate and vote. Its placement beneath the dome makes parliamentary proceedings part of the building’s architecture.
Nazi Germany: Germany under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party from 1933 to 1945. The regime exploited the Reichstag fire and left the building unused as a parliament.
Bundeshaus: The former parliamentary complex in Bonn that housed West Germany’s Bundestag for most of the Cold War. It preceded the Reichstag Building as the Bundestag’s principal seat.

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History of BerlinRelated: Its changing use mirrors shifts in German government and national identity.