Palace of the Republic, Berlin

Palace of the Republic
Palast der Republik
The Palace of the Republic in July 1990, three months prior to German reunification
General information
Status	Demolished
Type	Cultural building, Parliamentary building
Architectural style	Modernist
Location	Mitte, Berlin, Germany
Coordinates	52°31′03″N 13°24′10″E / 52.51750°N 13.40278°E / 52.51750; 13.40278
Construction started	1973
Completed	1976
Inaugurated	23 April 1976 (1976-04-23)
Demolished	6 February 2006 – 2008
Cost	485–1,000 million East German marks
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Heinz Graffunder and the Building Academy of the German Democratic Republic

The Palace of the Republic (German: Palast der Republik) was a building in Berlin that hosted the Volkskammer, the parliament of East Germany, from 1976 to 1990.

Also known as the "People's Palace", it was located across the Unter den Linden from Museum Island in the Mitte area of East Berlin, on the site of the former Berlin Palace between the Lustgarten and Schlossplatz, near the West Berlin border. The palace was completed in 1976 to house the Volkskammer, also serving various cultural purposes including two large auditoria, art galleries, a theatre, a cinema, 13 restaurants, five beer halls, a bowling alley, billiards rooms, a rooftop ice skating rink, a private gym with spa, a casino, a medical station, a post office, a police station with an underground cellblock, an indoor basketball court, an indoor swimming pool, private barbershops and salons, public and private restrooms and a discothèque. In the early 1980s, one of the restaurants was replaced by a video game arcade for children of Volkskammer members and staff.

In 1990, the palace became vacant following German reunification and was closed for health and safety reasons, due to there being more than 5,000 tonnes of asbestos in the building (despite asbestos being outlawed in construction in East Germany in 1968).^[1] In 2003, the Bundestag voted for the demolition of the palace and replacement with a reconstruction of the Berlin Palace which had been demolished in the 1950s, after being heavily damaged by Allied air raids. The building was demolished between 2006 and 2008, and the reconstruction of the Berlin Palace began in 2013 and was completed in 2020.