What does the word "Reichstag" mean to our people? This is the sky in smoke, the roar of “Katyusha”, the rumble of automatic bursts and soldiers running towards the wide staircase, carrying a red banner under fire . This scene has been played many times by directors of feature films about the war. Despite the genius of many of them, the credibility of the image, the excellent work of the operators and the skill of the actors, these episodes are still inferior in expressiveness to the black and white documentary frames of the 1945 chronicle.
Reichstag after the war
After the war, the fate of the magnificent building was sad. It stood for a long time dilapidated, devoid of a dome on which Soviet soldiers set the victory flag. The Reichstag, perhaps today, no one would have been able to see if it had not been for the decision on restoration adopted by the German parliament. I had to hold referendums, there were three of them. Nine years after the victory, the ruins of the old building were decided to blow up, although the debate about his fate was fierce. Supporters of the destruction of the monument of German imperial architecture especially emphasized that it evokes associations with the Nazi past, and their opponents objected, citing the well-known historical fact that Adolf Hitler never spoke at the parliamentary platform. At the same time, all deputies, obviously or secretly, were irritated by the Soviet banner over the Reichstag, or rather, the memories of it. The defeat of their country, even if it is historically justified and natural, is unpleasant.
This continued until the sixties. The author of the project to revive the symbol of German statehood was Paul Baumgarten, and Norman Foster continued this work.
History of creation
Germany is a young state, it is much shorter than even the United States, not to mention Russia. As a single country, it has existed since 1871. The history of German democracy is just as short: the parliament began its work in 1884, during the reign of Bismarck. At the time of the formation of the country, assembled from separate lands and principalities, the idea arose to embody the future power of the state in stone. Interestingly, an architect from Russia initially won the project competition, but did not live to see it, for this reason the Germans gave preference to the well-respected Paul Wallot, a compatriot. The delay arose due to the inconsistency of Count Radzinsky, who did not want to part with the land received as a gift from the monarch. His son was also not compliant, he defended the principles of his late father, but by 1882 he was convinced that the Reichstag was a matter of national importance, and the plot still needed to be sold. The first stone was laid by William I. They built a magnificent building for a decade.
Fire
Many events shook the world, but World War II, which began in 1914, overshadowed them. She brought the most dire consequences for Germany, and unrest began in the country. The influence of the German Communists on the political situation grew in the twenties and at the beginning of the next decade.
Adolf Hitler, who received the chancellorship from the weakening hands of the elderly Hindenburg, felt a threat from the left. He simply solved the problem - through a primitive provocation, however, the Reichstag suffered. It was a fire, the blame for which was attributed to four conspirators, three Germans and one Dutchman, the Communists. The building burned out, its load-bearing structures were seriously damaged. Presumably, the Nazis carried out the arson, but no one listened to the defense, the new government acted in the country.
Hitler decided not to carry out a full restoration of the architectural monument . His plans did not include strengthening democracy, the bearer of which could be a popular assembly, and this is precisely the meaning of the word “Reichstag”.
Place for autographs
Fierce fighting during the assault on Berlin almost completed the destruction that began in 1933. Soviet soldiers made many memorable inscriptions on the ruins of the building, walls and columns, marking their battle path (sometimes from Moscow and the Volga). Not all autographs of heroes can be published today due to the lexical content of some of them, but the Red Army men scratched in chalk what was boiling in their souls. To the credit of the German authorities, most of the letters from 1945 were still preserved as a reminder of the horrors of war. There was even a proposal to keep everything as it is, as a warning to posterity.
The Reichstag was reconstructed four times. Since 1972, the German Institute of History has been working in it, the roof was flat, which reduced its grandeur in appearance. A new life began in 1992, after the reunification of the Eastern and Western parts of the newly united country. Now the Reichstag is a place where political issues are resolved, debates take place, state laws are adopted. Then he was again crowned with a dome symbolizing the German people. Designed by British architect Norman Foster.
Reichstag and contemporary art
Citizens of modern Germany, brought up on European democratic traditions, do not have questions about the appropriateness of happening, similar to that presented by the American Hristo Yavoshev, who for some reason in 1995 wrapped the Reichstag with a silver polypropylene film. Five million Berliners and city visitors looked at this spectacle, not expressing any particular emotions, only wondering at the weight of the spent polymer (60 tons) and its surface area (100 thousand square meters).
But still there is one section of the wall on the renovated parliament building , with which even the most progressively-minded artists do not conduct bold experiments. On it, under the transparent layer, all the same inscriptions of the victorious soldiers are visible. Despite numerous objections, they were retained by Foster, the last Reichstag reenactor, in memory of the Great War.