Axel Schultes

One of the first decisions taken by the new Federal Republic of Germany on June 20, 1991, after reunification, was the re-establishment of Berlin as the capital of the entire nation, which implied the relocation of all central government offices from Bonn, the transitional capital of the FRG since 1949. The area chosen for the new government offices, the so-called Spreebogen (Spree bend), offered the right factor of continuity and symbolism, due to its proximity to the Reichstag building.

In 1992, the German Federal Government and the Federal State of Berlin launched an international ideas competition for the urban development of the area, in which the Reichstag extension was also proposed. The competition was a great success and 813 proposals from 54 countries were submitted, from which the jury, consisting of 23 leading figures from the worlds of politics and architecture, chose four winners: Axel Schultes from West Berlin won the first prize, while the other three went to Miroslav Volf from Saarbrücken, Gartenmann Weren Jóhri from Bern, and Klein & Breucha from Stuttgart. However, Bonn was not satisfied with the results and forced a restricted competition between the first, second and fourth prizes, the result of which was none other than the ratification by the same jury, in June 1993, of the first prize to Schultes' project, favored by the Berlin administration...[+]