75 years of the Parliamentary Council: Ceremony at Museum Koenig Bonn

"We are delighted that our country's democracy is being honoured here at Museum Koenig Bonn today," emphasises Prof. Dr Bernhard Misof, Director General of Museum Koenig Bonn, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB). "As a research museum, we are a place where scientific findings and different interests in dealing with nature are discussed. We offer visitors and organisations a forum for negotiating conflicts of interest and reflecting on different social value systems."

The ceremony on 1 September, with a welcome address by Bundestag President Bärbel Bas and a speech by former Federal President Joachim Gauck, opens a series of events organised by the German Bundestag to mark 75 years of the Basic Law - 75 years of the German Bundestag. Following the ceremony, pupils from Potsdam and Bonn presented what the Basic Law means today with their perspectives on "The freedom to be me! What the Basic Law has to do with me".

In 1948, the Parliamentary Council drafted the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany in just 265 days and made groundbreaking decisions for the development of democracy in Germany. As there were no premises for the Federal Chancellor's official residence, Konrad Adenauer initially took up his duties in the Museum Koenig Bonn on 15 September 1949.

He ruled door to door with large and small animals, including the so-called federal giraffe. She was a silent witness at the opening ceremony on 1 September 1948 and watched the events from behind curtains. This was because the two giraffes, which have been placed in the atrium since the museum opened, could not be pushed into the side aisles at the time - unlike the other exhibits on display. To this day, the myth persists that the "federal giraffe" was watching the parliamentarians - either from behind the curtains or directly.