ABSTRACT
The saying suggests that democracy is transparent and for this reason, a see-through federal parliament building exemplifies this transparency both in its workings and in its architecture.4 “He who builds a democracy makes a transparent society, government, and economy” would be an accurate inversion of the trope to delineate certain goals of postwar West German political renewal. Indeed, the move towards transparency lies at the heart of the Federal Republic: open public access to the political process especially to the elected representatives, active public participation in the political system, an open market economic system, a free press, and guaranteed civil liberties such as freedom to express one’s opinion, freedom of conscience, and freedom to dissent. But a drive towards transparency is not the same as transparency achieved. Rather, it is the expression of a desire, a goal, an ideal, but not the real state of things. The drive towards transparency, then, was a weapon
against the past, intentionally incorporated into the West German constitution, the Basic Law, to militate against a potential relapse into totalitarianism, state-sponsored racism, and a closed society. Translated into architecture, this interest has evolved since the late 1940s into a dominant ideology for state buildings, especially the national parliaments, although neither the meaning intended by its proponents, nor the possible interpretations, have remained static over time.5
