The Reichstag Building

A decision in favour of conversion

On 30 October 1991, the Council of Elders of the German Bundestag decided that the Paul Wallot’s historic building should be restored and used as the seat of the new all-German Parliament. In ruins after the war, the Reichstag Building had been rebuilt in the 1960s but not for permanent use as a parliamentary building.

In addition to the Bundestag’s Building Commission, set up to prepare and implement parliamentary decisions in Berlin, the Bundesbaugesellschaft Berlin mbH, a private limited liability company, was created to organize and coordinate the building projects of both Government and Parliament in the Spreebogen area.

The sole shareholder in the Bundesbaugesellschaft Berlin is the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the President of the German Bundestag, Prof. Rita Süssmuth (for Parliament) and the Federal Minister for Regional Planning, Building and Urban Development, Prof. Klaus Töpfer (for the Federal Government).

Following an international design competition, on 21 June 1993 the Council of Elders chose the plans submitted by the British architect Sir Norman Foster for converting the Reichstag Building into the new seat of Parliament.

Plenary chamber in the Reichstag Building
(computer simulation)

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