The Reichstag building is a historical edifice in Berlin, Germany, constructed to house the Imperial Diet, of the German Empire. It was opened in 1894 and housed the Diet until 1933, when it was severely damaged after it was set on fire.
Construction of the building began well after the unification of Germany in 1871. Previously, the parliament had assembled in several other buildings in Leipziger Straße in Berlin but these were generally considered too small, so in 1872 an architectural contest with 103 participating architects was carried out to erect a new building.
The building caught fire on 27 February 1933, under circumstances still not entirely known . This gave a pretext for the Nazis to suspend most rights provided for by the 1919 Weimar Constitution in the Reichstag Fire Decree in an effort to weed out communists and increase state security throughout Germany.
When the Cold War emerged, the building was physically within West Berlin, but only a few metres from the border of East Berlin, which ran around the back of the building and in 1961 was closed by the Berlin Wall.
Hours:
Monday: 8:00 AM – 12:00 AM,
Tuesday: 8:00 AM – 12:00 AM,
Wednesday: 8:00 AM – 12:00 AM,
Thursday: 8:00 AM – 12:00 AM,
Friday: 8:00 AM – 12:00 AM,
Saturday: 8:00 AM – 12:00 AM,
Sunday: 8:00 AM – 12:00 AM