From the S&S archives: Restoration of Reichstag studied

(See photos of the Reichstag in 1957 here.)

LEADERS OF West Berlin, gazing into the crystal ball of the future, are hoping and planning for movement of the Bonn government to the encircled city.

The West German Bundestag (lower house) last February affirmed by a near unanimous vote that- Berlin still is the capital of Germany, However, the Adenauer government has turned a cold shoulder to the idea of having the government moved 110 miles behind the Iron Curtain, feeling it would be impractical to do so. at, the present time.

I East German Communists have pushed into the picture with a warning that there would be reprisals against West Berlin if the Bonn Government is moved there. Said the official Communist Party newspaper Neues Deutschland in an issue last February:

"West Berlin will have to pay dearly if the West German Government actually moves here."

But. West Berlin, still f }elfin that the -return of the German government to the metropolis is inevitable, have started an experiment of sorts with the old Reichstag ! building studying the possibility of rebuilding -and preparing for the event which is in the' lap of the future.

The Reichstag ruins stand in the British. Sector just a few steps from the line which marks the Soviet area. When the Nazis under Hitler came into power in 1933 they instigated the burning of the historic structure, blaming the fire. on the Reds and using it as .a pretext to crush the Communist Party,

Today, it is a hollow shell, devastated by the fire and further damaged by bombs and artillery fire in World War II. When the war ended the doors and windows were walled up to keep out the curious, but somehow or other hundreds of Communists did get in and stripped the building of virtually everything it contained.

As if this - were not. enough, thousands of them wrote their names on the " walls and on pillars, some of them 25 feet high.' By what feat they-managed to climb that high is a mystery. Yet the names are there----Russian names-by the thousand.

West Germans now call the Reichstag the "Russian Guest Book," a name by no means inappropriate in view of what they have done' to it. There appears to be at least 25,000 inscriptions in Russian all over the place.

Work is being done on the old Reichstag now. It is not actual construction but "a trial for the final planning," as Gerhardt Maasberg, head of a construction firm whose men are working there put it. He described the work as "an attempt to figure I out the cost and to see how it will look."

There is an architectural contest on to plan for the rebuilding of the Reichstag and, perhaps, other future government buildings in the area. The Bundestag, in an October 1955 session, granted 60,000 marks ($14,400) for the purpose. I

A "preparation committee," in agreement with representatives of the Federal Republic and the Berlin Senate's administration for building, suggested that the conditions of the contest "Capital Berlin" take into consideration the desirability of maintaining the area around the Reichstag ruins as a district of the legislative bodies.

It has been thought likely that in the event the Reichstag were rebuilt for the Bundesrat (upper house) it might be possible to construct the Bundestag (lower house) in the direct vicinity.

Workers have been clearing away the

Work is being done on the old Reichstag now. It is not actual construction but "a trial for the final planning," as Gerhardt Maasberg, head of a construction firm whose men are working there put it. He described the work as "an attempt to figure out the cost and to see how it will look."

There is an architectural contest on to plan for the rebuilding of the Reichstag and, perhaps, other future government buildings in the area. The Bundestag, in an October 1955 session, granted 66,000 marks ($14,400) for the purpose.

A "preparation committee," in agreement with representatives of the Federal Republic and the Berlin Senate's 'administration for building, suggested that the conditions of the contest "Capital Berlin" take into consideration the desirability of maintaining the area around the Reichstag ruins as a district of the legislative bodies.

It has been thought likely that in the event the Reichstag were rebuilt for the Bundesrat (upper house) it might be possible to construct the Bundestag (lower house) in the direct vicinity.

Workers have been clearing away the rubble from the 63-year-old structure. A visit to the place reveals nothing but ruins, of course, but there is still evidence of the past splendor of the structure of which all Germany was once proud.

There is a huge crater inside which was caused when the weakened dome of the building was demolished as a safety measure. The floors were of marble, the pillars and walls of -sandstone.

The palace of Hermann Goering, which the tubby marshal occupied when he was president of the Reichstag at the time of the great fire, still stands across the street in the Communist sector. The palace was connected with the Reichstag by a tunnel.

According to Maasberg, the ruins were used as a black market center right after the war and it was about this time that the place was stripped by Communists and souvenir hunters.