Hi, I've been working on this 1:1.5 scale model of the Reichstag (and some surrounding buildings) for about a year on and off.

This recreation of the Reichstag is likely the most accurate attempt at a total reconstruction done in Minecraft. I used many hundreds of source images from various places on the internet such as google images, Pinterest, Wikipedia, the original plans before the Norman Foster renovations, the Berlin buildings registry, all the tourist pamphlets I could find and more.

Of course, it is not 100% done, there are many areas that I cannot find accurate or any data at all. This is a politically and historically significant piece of German architecture and security is taken very seriously (as it should be). Because of this I will never be able to properly finish the building and have reached a point where I must choose to make up the floor layouts of the bottom floor (below the chamber), the interior of the rear entrance, the offices on the top floor (an addition done by the Foster renovations, this is probably where somewhat sensitive information and work is done hence the lack of information), and the towers (no clue what is on the inside).

Beyond the Reichstag itself, I started constructing some surrounding buildings and a basic road network. The Reichstag faces directly west which makes it easy to build on a Minecraft axis, along with the modern German Government buildings nearby. As seen in a few images, the Paul Lobe Haus has stated construction, however, there are also few plans out there so I am unsure how accurate the interior will be


History
The basic timeline of the Reichstag goes like this (with some important German history thrown in as well):

1) There was a series of three Reichstag buildings originally, with construction on the third and final Reichstag commencing in 1884. Designed by architect Paul Wallot, the newly completed building became the home of the Imperial Diet (‘Reichstag’) or parliament of Germany in 1894. For its time, the new structure was state of the art. It had temperature-controlled central heating, its own electrical power station, telephones, toilets with running water, and double-glazed windows.

2) The German monarchy collapsed at the end of World War One in 1918. With the proclamation of the Weimar Republic in 1919, the Reichstag continued to be used by the lower house of the German parliament.

3) Adolf Hitler became Chancellor on 30 January 1933. A month later, on 27 February, the famous Reichstag fire took place, completely destroying the plenary chamber. The rubber-stamping parliament of the Nazi era moved to the nearby Kroll Opera House, leaving the ruined Reichstag building as a disused shell.

4) The Reichstag became further damaged by heavy allied bombing towards the end of the Second World War. As the Soviets stormed from the east, they took the Reichstag in May 1945 (the bullet holes still visible today), inscribing anti-Nazi and pro-Soviet slogans into the walls (also still visible today).

5) At the conclusion of the war, the heavily damaged Reichstag lay just outside the Soviet-controlled eastern half of Berlin (by only a few metres). In 1961, the Berlin wall was erected right outside the building.

6) The capital of West Germany became Bonn, and consequently, the building was not used for government purposes.

7) in 1955, the Bundestag decided to renovate the building, with reconstruction taking place between 1961 and 1964. After 1971, it was essentially made into a museum.

8) The reunification of Germany occurred on 3 October 1990, with Berlin becoming the capital of the federal republic. Famously, the Reichstag was wrapped as an art piece in 1995 by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

9) The renovations of the Reichstag were completed in 1999. An almost complete interior removal and construction was carried out, with the addition of the iconic glass dome, designed by Sir Norman Foster, the famous British architect.

10) Finally, the Bundestag was able to hold convenings in the newly renovated Reichstag, the first official sitting occurring on 19 April 1999.


Scale
I like to build at a 1:1.5 scale in Minecraft. It is generally agreed that one block is about 1 metre in all three dimensions, at a 1:1 ratio. However, this always feels too small for me, hence using a slightly larger scale. Granted, it does make building take longer, but you can fit much greater detail and realism into a build.

I used World Edit extensively in the build to make sure everything was as efficient and accurate as possible. Basic Measurements and scale guides were done using Google Maps and Google Earth measuring tools. Google Earth offers a 3D model and 3D measuring tool which is very handy for builders FYI.


Resource Pack
This map uses a modified version of 'Mizuno's 16 Craft' (https://www.planetminecraft.com/texture-pack/mizunos-16-craft/). I love this resource pack for the variety of brick and stone textures. The pack also adds more textures to the game through the use of assigning new textures to double slabs.


Shaders
SEUS Renewed is good but the internal structure is quite dark (due to limited lighting options) so I would recommend you use SEUS PTGI (~)10 to get the best possible results. Vanilla isn’t the worst option either.


To summarise, this is a very high detail reconstruction of the Reichstag in Minecraft at a 1:1.5 scale, it is incomplete and will probably remain that way to a significant degree.

I hope you like what I have done and any ideas on how to gather information would be appreciated (without popping up on a German or Interpol watch list would be ideal haha).