The Reichstag sits at the edge of the Tiergarten, on a walk from Brandenburger Tor. The glass dome is free, and it is booked. Norman Foster’s spiral ramp looks over the chamber and then over the Spree and the new government quarter. The building is the Bundestag. The graffiti the Soviets left in 1945 is still in the corridors, under glass, which is the most honest decorative scheme in Berlin.
Burned, ruined, wrapped, reopened
Paul Wallot’s 1894 parliament burned in 1933. The fire became the pretext for emergency powers. Allied bombing and the Battle of Berlin finished the ruin. For decades it sat on the edge of West Berlin as a damaged symbol, used for occasional exhibitions. Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped it in 1995. Foster’s rebuild, finished in 1999, put a glass dome where the old one had been and moved the capital back from Bonn. You walk a German century in one pile of stone and glass.
The dome is a political idea: citizens above the chamber, light on the politicians. It is also a viewing platform with a well-run reservation system. The rooftop restaurant exists. The memorial to murdered members of the Reichstag, across the street, is the quieter civic object.
Why the dome is a destination
Because it is free, high, and next to the gate everyone already photographed. Because Berlin sells transparency as architecture, and this is the building that has to mean it. Because Foster’s spiral photographs well at dusk. It is popular with first-time visitors who want one interior that is not a museum of horror. Book it the day before, or earlier in summer.
If you go
Passport or ID for the dome. Security is an airport minus the flight. Berlin’s centre is still around the gate. This is the next hour, not a separate pilgrimage. Do not arrive at the door with no slot and a queue of people who did. If the dome is full, the west facade and the Platz der Republik are still the building. The East Side Gallery is a different day.
