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The Reichstag is where Germany’s roughly 600 members of parliament have their meetings. The building is an amazing structure that looks rather antiquated on the outside and strikingly modern in parts of the inside.  It has been remodeled several times during the past decades, including once during the Cold War when asbestos was placed in the walls.  A later architect/designer drilled holes into the walls to remove the asbestos. 

In one section of the building there are signatures of Russian soldiers scrawled onto the original brick. 

The building is very much representative of Germany’s history, present and future.

The center of the facility features a large parliamentary room complete with a podium, purple chairs for the members of parliament, and several upstairs seating overhangs for visitors.

The center of the room features a large mental rendition of the German eagle and when you look up, you see an incredible glass dome.  On the top floor of the Reichstag you can enter the glass dome, which, at its top is open to the sky.  The winding passageway leading to the top of the dome provides for excellent views of the entire city.  From here you can see the Federal Chancellery and the “TV tower”, among other famous Berlin landmarks.  One thing I noticed was the lack of skyscrapers in Berlin.  According to RIAS Berlin Kommission Executive Director Rainer Hasters, the city-state of Berlin has a legal limit on the height of city-buildings.