________________
_____________________________
______________________
_________________________________
_______________________________________________
________________________________
________________________
______________________________________
____________________________________________
___________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________
_________________________
________Home____________________
___________History of the Reichstag_____
_____________________________
__________________________________
_______________________
___________________
_______________________
_______________________

________________________
___________________
____________
___________________________________

Is Glass Architecture Open Architecture?_____

Deborah Ascher Barnstone's book, The Transparent State; Architecture and Politics in Postwar Germany, takes a very narrow view in relationship to it’s broad title. The book focuses on three buildings which have been built or refurbished in Germany--the three national parliaments. She focuses on the first, Bundeshaus in Bonn, by Hans Schwippert (1949), the second Bonn Bundeshaus, by Günter Behnisch (1972 to 1989) that opened in 1992, and the renovated and transformed Reichstag, designed by Sir Norman Foster, that opened in 1999. Through this book, Barnstone suggests that democracy should be transparent. She goes on to explain that citizens should be able to see, understand, and access what it is that their government is doing. Each of the three government buildings explored throughout this book took this concept of transparency and reflected it in their architecture.

This is especially apparent in the giant glass dome that Foster added to the Reichstag in 1999 which makes the spaces occupied by the parliament (in theory) visible to the general public from above. Glass is the most transparent material and therefore was used on new aspects of the Reichstag so that people are actually physically able to “see” the government in action. Many buildings use glass to symbolize these same ideas of transparency and access but in this book, transparency is purported to be used to only demonstrate the themes postwar German politics.

The political debates over the addition to the Reichstag were numerous. Sir Norman Foster, because of his previous work with glass as well as his ideas about the concept of transparency, was an obvious choice for the renovation, given the needs of the program. Foster had his own design, centered on the idea of a glass canopy over a hallowed-out version of the Reichstag, but eventually gave in to the demands of the Parliament and altered the plan to center on a glass dome for the top of the Reichstag, the abandoned remains of which would be restored and allow the building to act as what Barnstone calls a “living museum of German history.” During the building of the original structure, Kaiser Wilhelm II allowed "Dem Deutsche Volke" to be engraved on the portico, although history has taught us that he did not believe that he was "of the German People" in any way. Could we say that Foster also gave in to the wishes of the German government to build the dome as the addition? According to Barnstone, he was initially resistant to the idea, even refusing to call it a "dome" once it was the centerpiece of the final plan. It should further be noted that the original Reichstag, completed in 1897, featured a glass cupola (albeit not a dome). In this sense Foster’s contribution, as it was dictated to him by Parliament, is far from revolutionary.

While the Reichstag's dome is today one of Berlin's most visited attractions, access to the Parliament remains very limited, in some ways failing Foster's vision of the new Reichstag's transparency as giving the public a vision of "government in action." Stringent security measures, as well as the members of Parliament’s refusal to have working chambers (aside from the appointment-only debating chamber) visible to the public, has resulted in a building grappling with a strong public/private division. This despite its reinvention as a public building which adopts the language and aesthetic of “transparency” in trying to make a departure from the building’s former, less “transparent” forms of ruling government.

Deborah Ascher Barnstone is an architectural historian, and this is greatly reflected in the book through her lack of engagement in the political arguments she makes. There is a very lengthy discussion on the German constitution in almost every chapter but this discussion is not as interesting as her attention to details of the building which reflects, perhaps, that the author was incorporating the politics to add depth to the book but had no personal interest in what she was incorporating. The pictures are interesting and slightly represent her interest in architecture. All information given on the history of each building and the designers of them or the extensions is very interesting but defiantly lacking in length. Curiously, the book also reflects some poor math skills and opinions not founded in stone. She refers to the Reichstag as the "antithesis" of "democratic values" (p. 2) but how could that be true if Hitler--surely the nemesis of modern, democratic Germany-- never held meetings in this building? The Transparent State; Architecture and Politics in Postwar Germany focuses mostly on politics instead of architecture although the title suggests differently. All of the examples of buildings in this book are both political and physical (architecture) so buildings should also be viewed as a key component of the book by the author. Barnstone focuses way too much on the fact that the German government is not completely transparent (looking over the fact that no democracy is completely transparent) instead of thinking of transparency as the basis of the government.

In conclusion, if you are looking to read a book that is about the German constitution and the politics of Germany, this may be a book for you. If you want to read about the overall state of architecture in postwar Germany, ignore the title and move on to another book. If you are interested in exploring a section on individual buildings, especially the Reichstag, you will find much of interest in this because of the already interesting history of the Reichstag and because of the photographs and diagrams that are included.