The mannequin is named Figura, and it was designed in 1984 by the Italian designer and architect Mario Bellini and his colleague Dieter Thiel for the Swiss firm Vitra.
Yet essentially the most notable facet of the chair is its color — vivid blue with a touch of purple. It has even been patented as “Reichstag blue.” All chairs within the Bundestag are this color.
Yet, the blue color scheme wasn’t at all times within the playing cards. When the Bundestag was redesigned by famend British architect Norman Foster between 1993 and 1999, he wished the chairs to be grey.
The architect, who prevailed in a contest towards his colleagues Santiago Calatrava and Pi de Bruijn, selected mild grey as the essential color of the brand new plenary chamber. The chairs had been to even be grey, as per Foster’s want.
The horror of gray
However, politicians within the Bundestag resisted this. At the time, Peter Conradi of the Social Democrats quipped, in keeping with German newspaper Tagesspiegel: “Grey men with grey hair in grey suits on grey armchairs in front of grey tables on a grey carpet with grey walls all around — who is not gripped by the horror?”
Thus, Danish designer Per Arnoldi was commissioned by Foster to discover a totally different shade. The consequence was the “Reichstag Blue,” which Foster was so enamoured with, that he promptly patented it.
Blue was additionally chosen as a result of it was a impartial political color which was unaffiliated with any of the events within the Bundestag on the time.
That modified when the far-right AfD social gathering got here into the German Bundestag in 2017. However, its shade of blue is way lighter than the so-called “Reichstag blue.”
“Reichstag blue is a well-chosen colour. It can create a calm atmosphere in the Bundestag,” color skilled Silvia Prehn advised DW. “It is a calm colour that conveys clarity and objectivity. Blue has a physically calming effect — one’s pulse and breath slow down as it relaxes and soothes.”
Blue can be the favorite color of Germans, in keeping with Prehn: “38% of surveyed Germans favour it. It’s no wonder because blue is also a protective colour: If you wear it, you make yourself invulnerable. Blue is very serious, and it also offers clarity and harmony,” she says.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel together with different world leaders on the G7 summit in Krun, Germany, June 7, 2015. (The New York Times/File)
Former Chancellor Angela Merkel repeatedly selected to put on blue — particularly when travelling overseas, as author Stephan Rabimov famous in Forbes journal: “Many remember the iconic G7 protocol photograph from the Bavarian Alps: a lineup of dark suits punctuated halfway with a single bright sky-blue jacket,” he wrote in a 2020 article. He referred to the color as “Merkel Blue.”
Continuing the ‘Merkel Blue’ custom?
“It is not surprising that Angela Merkel wanted to use the colour blue on trips abroad,” commented Silvia Prehn. “It’s a logical, clear colour that protects and inspires confidence.”
With all these associations, the color is also described as a “German blue,” which stands for contemporary Germany and the way the nation needs to be perceived on the earth, in keeping with Prehn.
Thanks to her blazers, it may be mentioned that Angela Merkel turned one thing of a vogue icon for her explicit type: “With a healthy 1.5 million following on Instagram, she is a bona fide global style influencer in her own right,” wrote Rabimov.
Will Olaf Scholz proceed the custom as the brand new Chancellor? “Olaf Scholz mainly wears dark blue. The darker the blue, the more solemn, serious and sincere it looks,” says Prehn. “It arouses feelings of trust, constancy and truth.”
The new overseas minister, Annalena Baerbock, can be extra more likely to be the inheritor to the “German Blue”: “Just yesterday she wore exactly the same colour as the chairs in the Reichstag, that is, aquamarine with a bit of purple,” says the color skilled. “She wants to be taken seriously.”
Whether high German politicians within the new authorities take up the blue once more or not, the chairs within the Bundestag will proceed to be “Reichstag Blue.”
“The blue stands for the thinkers, analysts, the people with the data, numbers and facts,” says Prehn. “Violet, on the other hand, represents the visionary and the foresighted.”
The mild grey within the plenary corridor is the right companion to this, explains the color skilled. “It is discreet, adaptable, stands for and encourages a willingness to compromise.”
Perhaps this color scheme can be a purpose why communication is relatively well mannered within the Bundestag, at the very least when considered from overseas. “Especially in the plenary hall, where so many heated debates take place, the blue can soothe people so that quieter, less emotional, angry discussions can take place,” says Prehn. “It’s a wonderful colour scheme. It would be bad if everything were red.”
