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reichstag

noun German History.

the lower house of the parliament during the period of the Second Reich and the Weimar Republic.

noun

Also called: diet (in medieval Germany) the estates or a meeting of the estates
the legislative assembly representing the people in the North German Confederation (1867–71) and in the German empire (1871–1919)
the sovereign assembly of the Weimar Republic (1919–33)
the building in Berlin in which this assembly met and from 1999 in which the German government meets: its destruction by fire on Feb 27, 1933 (probably by agents of the Nazi government) marked the end of Weimar democracy. It was restored in the 1990s following German reunification

“German imperial parliament” (1871-1918), earlier used of the chief deliberative body of the North German Confederacy, 1867, from German Reichstag, from Reich (see Reich) + Tag “assembly,” literally “day” (see day). The Reichstag Fire was Feb. 27, 1933.