Facts - The Bundestag at a glance - Deutscher Bundestag

The Reichstag Building
An imposing building with monumental
facades, the Reichstag has an immediate
powerful effect on the beholder.
Entering the building, its visitors find a
modern interior equipped with state-ofthe-art
technology. The British architect
Lord Norman Foster managed to preserve
the historic shell of the Reichstag
Building while creating the interior
space for a modern, outward-looking
Parliament. The outer shape of the
Reichstag Building has not changed, but
modern elements have been incorporated,
and so the old architecture blends
with rather futuristic forms, the whimsical
complementing the starkly functional
in innovative harmony.
The basement and ground floor contain
facilities belonging to the Parliamentary
Secretariat and the technical building
services as well as supply installations.
Above them, on the first floor, is the
plenary level with the main debating
chamber. Next comes the intermediate
visitors’ level, and the following floor
is the presidential level. Above this is
the area occupied by the parliamentary
groups, and finally there are the roof terrace
and the dome.
The plenary level on the first floor, recognisable
by its blue doors, is reserved
for Members of Parliament, their staff
and members of the Federal Government,
while the western lobby is also
accessible to media representatives.
All around the plenary chamber there is
room for the parliamentary activity that
takes place outside the chamber. First
of all, there are the traditional lobbies
along with a reference library. All of the
current parliamentary printed papers
are laid out on the reception tables in
the eastern lobby, where there are also
lounges for Government members and
a counting room for recorded votes or
secret ballots.
The focal point of the Reichstag Building
is the plenary chamber with its floor
area of 1,200 square metres. Measuring
24 metres from floor to ceiling, it covers
virtually the full height of the building,
and its interior is visible from almost all
the floor levels of the surrounding structure
as well as from the inner courtyards
and from many other viewpoints.
39