Landtag Nordrhein-Westfalen

Transcription

1 Landtag Nordrhein-Westfalen Tour of North Rhine-Westphalia s Parliament House, the Landtag Welcome at the building of the Parliament of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Please enter and take time to look around. This small guide is designed to help you navigate your way through the building, completed in 1988, and get a proper view of what is going on behind the façade. Regina van Dinther President of the Landtag NRW

2 Foyer You are now in the Citizens Hall (1), the lightdrenched central foyer of Parliament House. At ground-floor level, two vestibules (2) to the left and right provide access to conference rooms of various sizes, used by committees and working groups. They are adjoined by parliamentary staff offices (3). On either side of the corner, Aurora and Ave, the two smoke pictures created by the artist, Otto Piene (4). Their theme relates well to the foyer s unique transparent construction. To the left of the glass visitor lift (5) is a visitor auditorium (6). The wide stone stairs (7) lead down to cafeteria and dining facilities for MPs, staff and visitor groups. Also facing the river and visible from the main hall is the library s reading room (8). Sixty

3 thousand volumes, covering politics, law and contemporary history, are available to interested users for reading on the premises. Facts and figures around Parliament can also be obtained from the Media Column or the two Web terminals next to the espresso bar (9). Continuing past the cloakroom, a small corridor leads to the offices Parliament provides for Premier and Cabinet. (10). Beneath the flight of stairs on the right, Phoenix (11), created by Ewald Mataré in 1949, symbolises the reemergence of democratic rule following the demise of the Nazi dictatorship. The closed-off area to the right of the entrance is used exclusively by members of the State Press Gallery (12).

4 Stairs (on left) The staircase on the left (1) leads to the Lobby. To your right, surrounding the library s reading room, you can see an assembly of wells, created by Heinz Mack, like Otto Piene a member of the Zero group of artists. Shape and material of the shallow, water-filled steps, arranged at a 150 degree angle, reflect the building s architectural style and detailing. The large floor-to-ceiling plate window to your left overlooks the river Rhine and the harbour. Parliament house, built on the foundations of an old harbour basin, is part of a public park. The only activi-

5 ties banned within the relatively small exclusion zone are political marches, demonstrations or protest rallies. In the grounds you can see one up, one down - eccentric (2), a mobile, or kinetic, sculpture done by US artist George Rickey, which, even more than Heinz Mack s well, provides perceptual experience of movement and dynamism. Protruding 13 metres towards the river are the President s reception room and office (3). Facing the entrance to the President s suite, on the Debating Chamber s external wall, hang the portraits (4) of the former Presidents. Each of them was elected during the first session of a new parliamentary term, having been nominated by the majority parliamentary party. Current President is Regina van Dinther. Her job is to safeguard the dignity and rights of Parliament, act as chief executive of the House and chair the plenary meetings in turn with her deputies. As the official owner of the building, she has also, for instance, the power to have people evicted. Lobby Walk past the works (5) of eminent artists from North Rhine- Westphalia to the entrance of the Debating Chamber (6). As the venue of political debate and decision making, the Debating Chamber, along with the parliamentary parties meeting rooms, forms the centre of Parliament. Whilst the Green Party (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) (7) and the Liberals (FDP) (8) meet in the two smaller rotundas opposite, the caucus rooms of the Social Democrats (SPD) (9) and Christian Democrats (CDU) (10) are at

6 either end of the Lobby. Especially when Parliament is in session, the Lobby can be a very busy place, with Members engaged in animated discussions among each other or with representatives of interest groups. To the left of the entrance doors hangs an exceptional artwork, Interferenzen, by Günther Uecker (11), who used paint and nails to create the swirling effect of the overlapping circles. The entrance doors themselves are marked Yes, No and Abstention, for the Hammelsprung, a voting procedure somewhat similar to the Division of the House in Westminsterstyle parliaments. During the Hammelsprung, MPs enter the Chamber through the appropriate door, depending on their vote. Debating Chamber The Landtag is in session on about 30 days per year. That is when the 187 MPs meet to debate Bills and discuss political issues, for Question Time or debates on Ministerial Statements to the House. As part of the lawmaking process, the full plenary meetings, where Bills are debated, primarily serve as a source of information to the public and reflect - albeit in a condensed manner - the many months of opinion-forming at committee and caucus level. Like any other large organisation, Parliament likes to delegate the nitty-gritty details, as it were, to smaller units, with the final decision always reserved to the full plenary meeting. During plenary sessions, attendance registers with the names of Members present are placed on the lecterns to the left and right of the entrance doors. A circular seating arrangement replaced the German tradition where MPs sit like a church congregation in rows of pews facing the Speaker. Plus, the government benches were lowered and ministers now sit at eye level with Members in the North Rhine-Westphalia Parliament, underscoring the equal status of legislature and executive government. The elevated chairs of the President and her deputies, however, reflect the position of Parliament s presiding officers. Of the 187 Members, 89 belong to the CDU, 74 to the SPD, 12 to the FDP and 11 to Bündnis 90/Die Grünen. One MP is not attached to a parliamentary party. The large seating plan at the entrance tells you where each Member sits.

7 Visitors gallery The interesting construction features of the Debating Chamber s roof will appeal not only to the technicallyminded. The main load of the folded-plate roof is taken by twelve lattice trusses radiating from a central node to meet concrete supports at the periphery of the chamber. Due to the irregular shape of the roof, the trusses extend over the concrete columns at varying lengths, between 3.8 and 20.5 metres. The fifth floor is for the public. Two hundred seats

8 are reserved for interested members of the public. The soundproof booths behind the glass are used by radio reporters. During live television broadcasts, journalists work from the semi-enclosed pods on the gallery. The outer section of the gallery to the right is reserved for newspaper correspondents from the big dailies and weeklies as well as the news agencies. The adjacent section is reserved for civil servants from cabinet departments, church representatives, civil organisations and diplomats.

9 Facts and figures Site Site area: Area covered by the building: Building Overall width Overall length Height (six levels) Primary use (offices etc) Secondary use (toilets, plant rooms) Maintenance and utility areas Circulation space Enclosures 30,064 square metres 10,630 square metres 105 metres 195 metres 21 metres 19,233 square metres 2,207 square metres 7,041 square metres 39,806 square metres 347,768 cubic metres Rooms Number of rooms 495 Number of conference rooms 18 Debating Chamber Area 725 square metres Diameter 30 metres Seats 250 Public gallery Area 413 square metres Seats 336 Car parks 800 spaces Building costs 163 million Built Architects Eller, Maier, Moser, Walter und Partner

10 Visitor Service If you would like to know more about how the NRW Parliament works, or attend a plenary meeting, contact the Visitor Service for an appointment: Besucherdienst des Landtags Postfach D Düsseldorf Telephone Fax besucherdienst@landtag.nrw.de For more information visit our website at Published by The President of the North Rhine-Westphalia Parliament Content editor: Irmgard Birn Photography: Bernd Schälte, Thomas Schneider Design: Printed by: WAZ-Druck GmbH & Co.KG Landtag Nordrhein-Westfalen Landtag Nordrhein-Westfalen