Fotoeins Fotografie

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Posts tagged ‘Reichstag’

My Berlin: Wrapped Reichstag at night, 30 years on

Above: “Wrapped Reichstag 1995–2025” light show.

In 1995, the artist duo Christo & Jeanne-Claude carried out a bold but contentious project by covering Berlin’s landmark Reichstag parliament building. Plans for the project had taken over 20 years, even though the artwork had always meant to be temporary and all expenses had been covered without corporate sponsors. Over 5 million visited in a period of 12 days in the summer of 1995 to look at the undulating “silver dream” in the German capital city. The timing was ideal. After reunification of the two Germanys in 1990, the new home of the federal parliament would be Berlin’s Reichstag. Renovations to the building began in the autumn of 1995 with the federal parliament opening in the spring of 1999.

From 9 to 22 June 2025, the Reichstag building was illuminated nightly with a light show in a 30-year anniversary tribute to the famous 1995 artwork. In a 20- to 30-minute cycle, the light-show appeared to first envelop the building in silver fabric. The fabric cover flapped in artificial breeze, before the cover lost its shape and fell onto the ground at the base of the building. The free-of-charge light show began shortly after sunset at about 930pm and continued until 1am. Whatever Christo and Jeanne-Claude chose to cover and transform, their art works posed questions of perception, origins, shape, functionality, and permanence.

•   DW: Germany Arts
•   Visit Berlin

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25T40 30 years to draping Berlin’s Reichstag

E39, B34.

In 1995, I had just moved from Vancouver to Toronto for postgrad studies. I knew little of the world, and even less of the natural world into which I threw myself.

In 1995, Berlin had seen some big changes over the years. Yes, this is a deliberate understatement: 2 World Wars, an economic crash in between, a Cold War complete with partition of the city within the first 60 years. In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell; a year later in 1990, the two Germanys reunified into a single nation.

In 1995, the iconic legislature building, the Reichstag, was completely enveloped in white shiny fabric: this was “Wrapped Reichstag” by Christo & Jeanne-Claude. Their enormous artwork set talking heads in both cultural and political arenas on fire in Berlin and around the world.

It’s 2025, and over 14 nights in June, a light-display every evening on the Reichstag building commemorates the 1995 “wrap”. The free show runs every 20-minutes between 930pm and 1am, from 9 June to 20 June inclusive.

Room for the space (sky) above.
0.5x magnification, with room in the plaza below.
Added in 1916, the inscription at the front of the legislature building is “to the German people.” The design and font were made by renowned city architect Peter Behrens; the bronze letters were made from 2 French cannons captured during the Napoleonic Wars of 1813-15.
2.5-minutes: “covering” the Reichstag with light.
1-minute: the “draping” comes down.

I made all media above with an iPhone15 on 16 June 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

My Berlin: autumn colours in the German capital

Above/featured: A swath of “Mitte” colour in the fog – 16 Nov 2012 (450D).

Berlin doesn’t have the easy natural landmarks of mountains or open waters immediately adjacent to the city. But there’s plenty more urbanity in Berlin which includes countless green spaces inhabited by deciduous trees whose leaves reveal their colours as temperatures drop with the change in season. The colour change by day gives way to night-time illuminations of colour and pattern onto buildings and landmarks during October’s annual Festival of Lights. I found myself absorbing and remembering the colours to tie me through the subsequent cold dark grey doldrums.

I made all photos on multiple visits to the German capital between 2006 and 2021 with the following devices: Canon PowerShot A510 (A510), Canon EOS450D/Rebel XSi (450D), Canon EOS6D mark1 (6D1), and Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime (X70). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-LK.

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