The Reichstag houses the German parliament once again

The German Bundestag moves into the Reichstag building in Berlin

Designed in the neo-Renaissance style and constructed between 1884 and 1894, the Berlin Reichstag palace was built to house the parliament of the German nation state established in 1871 and continued to serve this function during the Weimar Republic. Damaged first by a fire in 1933 and then by bombing during the Second World War, the building itself was left half-ruined, while the area around it was used for cultivating potatoes. After the establishment of the two German states in 1949, there were two capitals: the Bundestag of the Federal Republic met in the Bundeshaus in Bonn, whilst the East German People’s Parliament was housed in the Palace of the Republic in East Berlin from 1976.

In accordance with the Unification Treaty, Berlin became the capital of reunified Germany on 3 October 1990. However, a vote by the German parliament was required to relocate the Bundestag from Bonn to Berlin, which passed by a very narrow margin in 1991. After a spectacular art happening in which the Reichstag building was wrapped entirely in silver fabric like an oversized birthday present, work began to restore and revamp the parliament building at the end of 1995. The Bundestag moved into its new home on 19 April 1999.