Germany: Government Center - Reichstag, Berlin

It is probably no surprise that someone who does political science for a living would have a long-standing fascination with national parliaments. I still remember the first one I ever visited in Ottawa, while a student at McGill. We arrived without appointment and still got a tour and even got to sit in for Question Time.

In my mind, that is the way it should be in a democracy.   The government works out in the open and the boss (the people)
can show up whenever they want to check up on them. I guess that is why my experience in Moscow was such a shock. They pretend to be a democracy but the charade does not extend to public access to the legislature.

The Reichstag in Berlin is perhaps the other extreme.  The German government is so committed to openness that they actually have advertisements to entice you to come and see the workplace. They want you to come and visit and learn.  It is their chance to demonstrate how far they have come.

What I find most interesting about these seats of government is the extraordinary attention to detail given to every aspect of the space and symbolism that attaches to what might otherwise be ordinary objects. The Woolsack in the UK representing wool as the foundation of the empire - and the Russian graffiti covers the walls of the Reichstag.

At the end of World War II it was the Russians who conquered Berlin, fighting fierce resistance and advancing block by block. Taking the Reichstag, which ironically* was an important symbolic victory, signified the end of the war and the defeat of Nazism. Having accomplished this, Russian soldiers celebrated by tagging what was left of the structure.  *The irony was that the Reichstag meant nothing to the Nazis.  Hitler probably hated it more than the Russians.

For decades after, the Reichstag was little more than a shell. Nothing really important happened there. The government was in Bonn.  The Reichstag was in mothballs, waiting.

Until 1990, the collapse of the Berlin Wall and then of the GDR, and the resulting reunification. Berlin would once again be the capital and the Reichstag would once again be its home.

Obviously there was work to do to prepare for the moment. The building had not seated a legislature since the famous fire in 1933. Would the renovations include removing the graffiti from the walls? It would not. The graffiti is a reminder to the legislature of the potential consequences of their actions. They are an eternal part of German history, chemically preserved and legally protected.

But the Reichstag does not just look backwards.
In many respects it is perhaps the most innovative and forward looking parliament building in the world. The building is designed to use as little energy as possible, employing solar panels reflective mirrors and sun shades to harness the sun to power, illuminate and cool the chambers.  The central column of the dome sends a powerful message to the thousands who visit every week that great efforts are being made to be environmentally friendly.

And then there is the dome itself. It is transparent and from the top you can look right down on the floor of the legislature itself.  This legislature wants to be open - to the people and to the heavens.

Made it to the end?  Here's a WiT? Clue:Continuing the 'Father of his Country' theme.  He may not have been that but he was the first of 'his kind'.