The extension of the Reichsbank building in Berlin symbolises Germany\'s 20th-century history. Built in 1934-39 as the first state building realized in the Nazi period, the edifice became the seat of Communist state control in 1959, when the Central Committee of the SED took up residence. Since 1999 the edifice has housed the central administration of the German Federal Foreign Office. Redesigned by Hans Kollhoff and the artist Gerhard Merz and completed with a new extension by the architects Thomas Müller and Ivan Reimann, the House at Werderscher Markt meets both the requirements of the historic site and the new task.