216. Which symbol can be seen in the plenary chamber of the German Bundestag?

Answer options

1. the flag of the City of Berlin
2. the Federal Eagle (Bundesadler)
3. the Imperial Eagle (Reichsadler)
4. the Imperial Crown

Explanation

In the plenary chamber hangs the Bundesadler, the Federal Republic’s coat of arms; its design and use are governed by the Federal President’s Order on the Federal Coat of Arms and the Federal Eagle of 20 January 1950 (Federal Law Gazette I p. 26). It continues the heraldic eagle tradition of the Holy Roman Empire and the Weimar Republic while marking a deliberate constitutional break with the “Reichsadler” of the monarchical and National Socialist past. As an oversized emblem in the Reichstag building, it symbolizes the unity of the federation (federal statehood) and the democratic chain of legitimacy by which all state authority derives from the people and is exercised by Parliament (Art. 20(2) Basic Law). The colloquial nickname “Fette Henne” points to the Bundestag’s specific iconography and its distinct parliamentary tradition.