ESSA Berlin: The Reichstag

 

The building has an old base and a new glass and steel top. After passing through, like, a million security checkpoints and stops, we got to go up an elevator to the interior of the glass dome. It offered panoramic views of Berlin as well as an in-depth history of the inception of democracy in Germany, the Reichstag, the Weimar Republic, the rise of Hitler, and the Reichstag’s role in reestablishing democracy in recent history. A large pillar covered in multifaceted mirrors rises up from the center and a ramp spirals up even farther to the vista at the peak of the dome.

The Reichstag was originally built in the later eighteen hundreds. After the formation of the first German nation-state on the 18th of January in the year 1871, architect Paul Wallot builds the Reichstag to be its parliament building starting in the year 1884 and ending ten years later in the year 1894. Members met there until Germany’s military defeat in the year 1918. The Weimar Republic emerged trying to reestablish Germany amidst the reparations for WWI when Hitler was elected chancellor and (possibly) set the Reichstag on fire to gain executive power. After the war, the building was renovated and continues to be a symbol of German democracy to this day.

It is impossible to develop culture without interacting with history and you can throw a stone in Berlin without hitting a reminder of a very bleak period in world history. However bleak the past was, however, the German culture that has been cultivated in the latter half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first has been one of democracy and human dignity. With that in mind, this site was a great choice for a democratic headquarters as well as an anchor for German culture today. One need look no further than the transparent, glass architecture of the Reichstag when investigating whether democracy is important to German culture.