Reichstag Plenary Chamber & Dome Tour in German Berlin

The government district along the Spree

The tour begins on the corner of Wilhelmstrasse and the Reichstagufer embankment beside the Marschall Bridge, and the first hour is a walk along the river through the Berlin government district, built almost entirely after the decision of 1991 to move the capital back from Bonn. The first stop is the Jakob-Kaiser-Haus, the largest parliamentary building in Germany, a complex of eight connected blocks completed in 2001 that holds offices for members of parliament and their staff and also absorbs several historic facades, including the former Reich President's Palace of 1904, where the president of the imperial parliament once lived and which now houses the parliamentary society.

Across the river the guide points out the Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus, the parliament's library and archive building of 2003 with its great circular window; in its basement a memorial preserves segments of the Berlin Wall, which ran exactly here, marked by rows of the original slabs. This Berlin government district tour explains why the new buildings were deliberately placed across the former border.

The Federal Chancellery and Platz der Republik

The walk continues west to the Federal Chancellery, the white cube of 2001 that is the office of the German head of government and one of the largest government headquarters in the world, with a thirty-six-metre-high central block flanked by long office wings and a garden on the far bank of the river. Together with the Paul-Löbe-Haus opposite it forms the ribbon of federal buildings, a line of architecture that crosses the Spree twice as a symbol of the city's reunification. In front stretches Platz der Republik, the lawn where the parliament building faces the chancellery and where visitors queue for the dome.

Your guide stops here for about fifteen minutes to explain how the architecture was designed to show openness and to describe the daily workings of German politics between parliament and government, before the group crosses the square to the Reichstag entrance.

The Reichstag building: history and architecture

The Reichstag was built between 1884 and 1894 as the parliament of the German Empire, a heavy neo-Renaissance block with four corner towers and the inscription To the German People added to its facade in 1916. The fire of February 1933 gutted the chamber and gave the Nazi regime its pretext for emergency rule; the building was then shelled and stormed in the final battle of 1945, and Soviet soldiers left graffiti on its walls that is still preserved inside. After decades on the edge of West Berlin, it was rebuilt between 1995 and 1999 by a British architect for the reunified parliament, keeping the historic shell and adding a transparent dome that lets citizens look down on their representatives at work.

Entry is through a separate entrance for registered groups after the airport-style security check; the guide completes the formalities and the Reichstag tour then moves inside. Bring the passport or ID card used for your registration.

The plenary chamber of the Bundestag

From the visitors' tribune you look down on the plenary chamber, the room where the Bundestag debates and votes: a hall of about 1,200 square metres with the members' seats arranged in a fan of blue-violet chairs, the government and federal council benches to the sides, the speaker's podium at the front and, on the wall above it, the great aluminium federal eagle that Germans affectionately call the fat hen. Light pours in from the dome overhead through the mirrored funnel, so that the chamber is lit by the sky.

During the forty-five-minute lecture an expert explains the history of German parliamentarism from the first national assembly to the present, how laws pass through the chamber, how seats are allocated after an election and what the architectural details mean. Because the lecture deals with the political system in detail, good German language skills are essential; it is the heart of this Reichstag plenary chamber visit and the part visitors on an ordinary dome ticket never see.

The roof terrace and the glass dome

The programme ends on the roof terrace and inside the glass dome of the Reichstag, the most visited landmark of modern Berlin. The dome is forty metres across and over twenty-three metres high, with two spiral ramps winding up around a central cone of mirrors that reflects daylight down into the chamber and draws warm air out. From the top you have a full panorama of the city: the Brandenburg Gate and Tiergarten to the south and west, the Chancellery and Central Station to the north, and the television tower, the cathedral and Museum Island to the east. An exhibition along the ramps tells the story of the building and the parliament.

Unlike the walk and the lecture, this part is unhurried: you may stay on the roof and in the dome as long as you wish until closing at midnight, so an afternoon tour can end with the sunset over Berlin. The Reichstag dome opening hours are daily, weather permitting, and the terrace has a restaurant and benches.