The Reichstag is my favorite building in Berlin. It's history is unbelievable. It has been destroyed and rebuilt many times. The building that stands currently is beautiful, with Norman Foster's glass dome (1993-1999) on the top to represent "transparency" in government. You can look down from the dome into actual sessions of Parliament. It's free to visit (with an appointment made on the internet) and you get a great view of the entire city. There is a black and white photo history of the building at the ring of the dome, showing the Reichstag at its time of completion in the late 1800s, it burning in 1933, it destroyed at the end of WW2, it sitting as a decrepit ruin throughout the coldwar, famous speeches in front of it by German political activists, by Kennedy and then later by Reagan, and it's reconstruction after the reunification of Germany. What a tumultuous history for one building!
