There are different forms of art work within the Reichstag, each with their own message and interpretation for what they stand for. After a tour around the building, we were able to take note of a few examples of this, including paintings, important sayings as we as engineering forms of art work.
One piece of artwork that doesn't appear obvious, but still holds symbolism to the Reichstag, are the words that are on the front facade of the building. They say "Dem Deutschen Volke" which translates into "To the German People". This phrase was seen as slightly controversial with the interpretation that it meant this was only for the German people specifically, potentially excluding those who are new to the country. This gave way to changing this phrase to "Dem Bevölkerung" meaning "To the German Population", thus changing the overall meaning to a more general terminology to include every person within Germany. An artist by the name of Hans Haacke created an art installation of this phrase; it is located roughly in the middle of the building and can be seen from the upper levels of the Reichstag. There was a symbolic gesture added to this piece as well: an MP from each constituency was to bring a bit of soil from their area as an act of symbolizing that all areas of Germany would be represented at the Reichstag.
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| Outside facade of the Riechstag. |
The architecture itself in some ways could possibly be looked at as a form of art work that is important for this building. For example, the dome that stands at the centre of the building includes an architectural piece of artwork that extends into the area of parliamentary debate. This installation is made of glass and steal, that which is fundamentally different from the rest of the building, adding to the symbolism of the work. As the mirrors spiral through the dome and into the parliamentary area, this allows citizens to view into the parliamentary debate area and members of parliament to look at the citizens as well. This symbolizes the transparency that is needed between government and it's citizens in order to be successful.
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| Glass structure as it appears within the dome. |
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| Inside the parliamentary debate hall. |
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| Glass and steel art structure extending into the building. |
Sources: Kabisch, Wolfgang. "Art in the Reichstag Building". Accessed: http://www.bundestag.de/htdocs_e/artandhistory/art/film_reichstag/film_reichstag/202296 on May 15, 2015.
2 comments:
Do you feel like they made the right decision in changing the words? Or should they have been left alone?
Well technically, they just added another piece of 'word art'. Actually, I remember a discussion about changing the wording on the front of the Reichstag (Dem deutschen Volke). Today, the new one (Der deutschen Bevölkerung) is located in one of the court yards as Alyssa pointed out and they kept the original wording on the front.
The element of adding soil from each constituency was quite controversial as well when the piece of art was installed. Some people felt this had a 'Blood and Soil' touch to it. This is ironic as the artist wanted to achieve the opposite by being more inclusive with his choice of wording. Just another example of everything is quickly politicized and highly controversial in Berlin/Germany.
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