The Bundestag is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The Bundestag was established by Title III of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 as one of the legislative bodies of Germany and thus it is the historical successor to the earlier Reichstag.
The Reichstag is a historic building in Berlin which houses the Bundestag, the lower house of Germany's parliament.
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, also known as the Holocaust Memorial, is a memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold. It consists of a 19,000-square-metre (200,000 sq ft) site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or "stelae", arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. The original plan was to place nearly 4,000 slabs, but before the unveiling a new law was enacted mandating memorials to be wheelchair accessible. After the recalculation, the number of slabs that could legally fit into the designated areas was 2,711. The stelae are 2.38 m long, 0.95 m wide and vary in height from 0.2 to 4.7 metres. They are organized in rows, 54 of them going north–south, and 87 heading east–west at right angles but set slightly askew. An attached underground "Place of Information" holds the names of approximately 3 million Jewish Holocaust victims, obtained from the Israeli museum Yad Vashem.
Wolfgang Thierse is a German politician (SPD). He served as the 11th President of the Bundestag from 1998 to 2005.
Bernauer Straße is a street of Berlin situated between the localities of Gesundbrunnen and Mitte, today both belonging to the Mitte borough. It runs from the Mauerpark at the corner of Prenzlauer Berg to the Nordbahnhof. The street's name refers to the town of Bernau bei Berlin, situated in Brandenburg.
Hellmuth Guido Alexander Heye was a German admiral in World War II and politician in post-war Germany. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany.
The Soviet War Memorial is one of several war memorials in Berlin, the capital city of Germany, erected by the Soviet Union to commemorate its war dead, particularly the 80,000 soldiers of the Soviet Armed Forces who died during the Battle of Berlin in April and May 1945.
Günter Litfin was a German tailor who became the second known person to die at the Berlin Wall. Litfin was the first victim to be killed by East German border troops, the first to succumb to gunshot wounds, and was the first male victim.
The Memorial to Homosexuals persecuted under Nazism in Berlin was opened on 27 May 2008.
Marienetta "Micki" Jirkowsky was a German woman who became the one-hundred and twenty-fifth known person to die at the Berlin Wall. Jirkowsky was shot and killed by East German border guards during an escape attempt, and at 18 years was one of the youngest victims and the youngest of the 8 women killed at the Berlin wall.
The Dorotheenstadt Cemetery, officially the Cemetery of the Dorotheenstadt and Friedrichswerder Parishes, is a landmarked Protestant burial ground located in the Berlin district of Mitte which dates to the late 18th century. The entrance to the 1.7-hectare (4.2-acre) plot is at 126 Chaussee Straße. It is also directly adjacent to the French cemetery, established in 1780, and is sometimes confused with it.
Heinz Sokolowski was a German man who became the sixty-fourth known person to die at the Berlin Wall. Sokolowski, a former political prisoner, was shot and killed by East German border troops while attempting to cross the Berlin Wall near to the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag building.
The Monument to Freedom and Unity is a planned national German monument in Berlin commemorating the country's peaceful reunification in 1990 and earlier 18th, 19th and 20th century unification movements.
Platz der Republik is a square in Berlin, Germany. It is located in the Tiergarten, directly in front (west) of the Reichstag building. The square has an area of about 36,900 square meters and is almost completely covered by grass but is decorated with some hedges and a few trees.
The Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer commemorates the division of Berlin by the Berlin Wall and the deaths that occurred there. The monument was created in 1998 by the Federal Republic of Germany and the Federal State of Berlin. It is located on Bernauer Straße at the corner of Ackerstraße and includes a Chapel of Reconciliation, the Berlin Wall Documentation Centre, a 60-metre (200 ft) section of the former border, a window of remembrance and a visitor center.
The Memorial and Information Point for the Victims of National Socialist Euthanasia Killings is a memorial in Berlin, Germany to the victims of Nazi Germany's state-sponsored involuntarily euthanasia program. Over 70,000 people were murdered between 1940-41 under official order of Aktion T4. Despite the program's technical cessation in August 1941, the killings continued in state-run institutions and care facilities until Germany's surrender in 1945. This amounted to a death toll of approximately 300,000.
Alfred Burgemeister was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and former member of the German Bundestag.
The artwork DER BEVÖLKERUNG by Hans Haacke was as commissioned and installed in 2000. It was erected in the north courtyard of the German Reichstag building in the year 2000 by resolution of the German Bundestag. The work consists of a trough measuring 21 x 7 meters, bounded by wooden beams, from the center of which the words "DER BEVÖLKERUNG" radiate toward the sky in white neon letters. The words can be seen from all levels of the building: from the assembly hall, the floor reserved for the political parties and the press, as well as by visitors on the roof. The public funds allocated to the project were the equivalent of approx. 200,000 euros. The artwork was realized within the framework of the Reichstag's art in architecture program.
Wolfgang Mischnick was a German liberal politician (FDP). From 1961 to 1963 he was Federal Minister for Expellees, Refugees and War Victims and from 1968 to 1991 Chairman of the FDP parliamentary group and opposition leader from 1968/69.
