Capital City
The movie
The American President
proudly states
that Washington, D.C., was specifically designed to affect the greatest
home-field advantage on the planet. Germany's CAPITAL CITY of Bonn is exactly
the opposite -- and yet power and politics run rampant in both places.
Nestled in a small grove of trees next to the river a few miles from the city center is the government quarter. Legislative offices, the chancellor's residence and government agencies are just a two-minute walk from each other, and in the center of it all is an astounding structure -- one that would make U.S. Secret Service agents cringe.
The Bundestag building was built with the philosophy that the German government has nothing to hide; thus, the medium chosen was that of glass. Standing outside, a person can see through the glass exterior wall and the glass interior wall to the circular legislative floor where five major parties decide the future of Germany. Three public balconies overlook the floor where the action takes place, and guards walk around with either concealed handguns or no weapons at all.
With the decision to move the capital back to a reunited Berlin, the feel of German politics is undergoing a transformation. The Reichstag in Berlin is a massive stone structure. It is being rebuilt, though, with a clear glass dome -- the openness of Bonn combined with the "homefield advantage" of D.C.
-- Charles Klein
This item appeared in the Features section of the September 20, 1996 issue.
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