Amazing pic: Lightning rages behind Berlin's famous Reichstag building

Rex

Berlin's Reichstag parliament building looked as if it was under attack by lightning as a storm raged behind it this week.

The parliament building is a top tourist attraction and well-known Berlin landmark.

Built in the late 19th century to house the German parliament (Bundestag), the Reichstag was set on fire in 1933, apparently by Nazi supporters, bombed by the Allies during World War II and also stormed by Russian troops in 1945 - there are even traces of the graffiti that the Russians left behind.

The Reichstag has recently undergone some renovations and is once again home to the united German parliament, for the first time since 1933.

Probably one of the strangest things ever to happen to this building was in 1995, when conceptual artist Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude wrapped the whole building up in 100,000 metres / 328,000 feet of shiny grey polypropylene and tied it with a deep-blue rope.

This work of art lasted for just a few weeks during the summer and the project involved several hundred people at a cost of around £5 million.

Other wonderful Berlin buildings to visit include the Charlottenburg Palace (Schloss Charlottenburg), a majestic Prussian monument, the Olympiastadion, the home of the 1936 Olympics, and the Gendarmenmarkt, one of Berlin's most splendid plazas, which houses beautiful neoclassical buildings.

See our guide to Berlin here.

Check out these weird and wonderful weather phenomenons around the world:

%VIRTUAL-Gallery-124445%