By Ansgar Klein (Editor)

To build up the book The covering of the Reichstag by the action artist Christo and Jeanne-Claude is already a political issue from the choice of the property. Since 1971, the artists and their team have tried to implement their Pro Jektidee "covered Reichstag". The long way from this idea up to the realization taking place in June 1995 is also a lesson to the relationship between art, symbolism and politics. The artists' project met with skepticism and rejection as well as sympathy and enthusiastic approval. With the fall of the wall in 1989 and finally the decision of the German Bundestag for Berlin as a seat of government, the Reichstag building was suddenly again at the center of public interest. The Reichstag interference was no longer just a monument of the changeable German history of democracy, which, with its location on the Berlin Wall, was also a symbol for the division of Germany, but now also applies to the future seat of the federal government. The past and future expectations of the German demo Kratie condense in the aesthetic view that invites you to think. In the political discussion, under these conditions, the leaf turned in favor of the "Wrapped Reichstag" project. After a passionate controversy, Lichen will finally have the divorce of the German Bundestag of February 25, 1994 the realization of Reichstag. The contributions from politics gathered in this volume provide an overview of this discussion. The background and course of the political discussion Who also analyzes and commented on critical observers (chapter).