Harriet Waghorn builds an argument about the new language of the Reichstag.

When Norman Foster won the competition to re-build the Reichstag in 1993 it was an historic moment. Turning it into the permanent seat of the German parliament, and Berlin into the political capital, he approached the task with great delicacy. After an interruption of sixty six years the German Bundestag resumed their work, signifying the resuscitation of democracy after Germany was devastated by the totalitarianism of Hitler and the consequences of World War II. The Reichstag became a symbol of hope and renewal, and Foster, embracing this revival without erasing German history, claimed that “we grew to understand that history still resonated through the Reichstag and that it should not be swept away.”

The rejuvenated elevation of the new Reichstag is stylistically ambiguous; initially the eye is drawn to the great glass dome, which dominates Berlin’s skyline and is a truly modern example of innovative design. Perplexingly, as the eye continues down the building, one is met with the sober nineteenth century stone structure and its staunch classical orders. Looking at the Western elevation the Reichstag holds a vast amount of its original classical design configured by Paul Wallot in 1884. Wallot’s design was determined by aesthetic achievements such as harmonious proportions, as well as creating an impression of grandeur (admirable aspirations to those who indulge the text of Vitruvius). The central element of the Reichstag’s façade is a traditional portico supported by six Corinthian columns, which juts out from its flanking colonnade. Like both Versailles and the Rashtrapati Bhavan, symmetry is a fundamental component of the design. Adjoining the portico on either side is a run of six Corinthian pilasters which extend over the height of two storeys and fruition at square towers which sit like bookends on all four corners of the edifice. The towers protrude from the run of pilasters, providing a visual counterweight to the central portico. A prominent part of the central façade is the inscription upon the central pediment: Dem Deutschen Volke (To the German people). The inscription was not part of Wallot’s design but affixed in 1916, becoming significant in the re-alignment of democracy, expressing the beginning of change manifest in visual construction… the next step was the employment of Norman Foster.

Foster embraced the classical style already established by the original building. Re-establishing the dome, (taken out of Baumgarten’s design) it would seem that Foster mostly restored the Reichstag’s original construction. Or did he? Silhouetted, the building stands as the classical icon that it once was, yet Foster’s innovative use of glass as a spatial construction within the dome added a whole new visual element to the façade of the Reichstag, and entirely modernized the interior construction.

With his modern intervention Foster symbolized the new power of democracy, embodying the spirit of 20th century Germany within the Reichstag. Visually the building came to symbolize the past and future of German politics, with the classical style of Wallot’s original design representing the past. What is fundamental to observe is that the new rule of German democracy was not here symbolised by the classical architectural style. Unlike the Rashtrapati Bhavan and Versailles, the classical language within the Reichstag did not proclaim the voice of its current political regime, but its past. So how did democracy of the 20th century alter Foster’s political manipulation of the classical language? Had the classical style become so intimately allied with the history of antiquity and the propagation of a single authority that it was no longer appropriate to signify innovative democratic policy of contemporary politics? Studying the Reichstag suggests that it had. The style was highly unsuitable to proliferate democracy and the new political regime, thus the Reichstag was equipped with a new architectural language, a language that oozed ideologies of innovation, democracy and the new public voice. This new language became a global triumph, inspiring the architects of the Scottish Parliament building, the Senedd (the Welsh National Assembly rooms), the Madou Plaza tower (the EU building in Brussels) and the Louis Weis building (an EU building in Strasborg) – the new governing symbols of the millennia.