The Reichstag opened in 1894 with the words Dem Deutschen Volke carved above its entrance. Kaiser Wilhelm hated the building. He refused to allow that inscription until 1916 and resented that its dome stood higher than his palace. He wanted the parliament to be nothing more than a talking shop while he kept real power in his own hands.
It caught fire in 1933 under dubious circumstances. Hitler blamed communists and used the blaze to suspend constitutional rights, ban opposition parties, and seize absolute control. When Soviet troops stormed Berlin in 1945, Stalin demanded a photograph of the red flag atop the Reichstag by May first.
2000 Russian soldiers died taking it. Inside today, visitors can still see Cyrillic graffiti reading "Hitler kaputt." After reunification, British architect Norman Foster rebuilt it with a glass dome. His central idea: visitors look down on members of parliament, a symbolic reversal in a country where too many leaders had been deified. 96 cast-iron plates outside commemorate the nearly 100 of 550 Reichstag members murdered by the Nazis within a few years of 1933.
VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours reveal the tunnel Hermann Göring may have used to set the fire, trace Pink Floyd and Michael Jackson concerts staged here so East Germans could hear, and explain why the building became Germany's most powerful democratic symbol.