Berlin's city government was hoping to stage a huge public party on Monday when the Bundestag holds its first session in Sir Norman Foster's newly renovated Reichstag. Brass bands would play rousing tunes by Paul Linke, the Schoneberg Boys' Choir would sing local ditties, and a giant ornamental balloon would float overhead while the public munched on Currywurst.
But the austere president of the Bundestag, Mr Wolfgang Thierse, vetoed the party plans, insisting that the new Berlin republic should have a more sober, modest start. How times change. When the Reichstag first opened in 1894 after 10 years in construction, Kaiser Wilhelm II was present, surrounded by all the pomp and splendour the Prussian army could muster.
The Kaiser described the building, which is a curious melange of architectural styles, as "the summit of tastelessness" and never visited it again. Hitler was no admirer of the Reichstag either and, once he had used a fire in the building as a pretext for scrapping most of the Weimar Republic's civil liberties, the dictator moved his puppet parliament across the road to the Kroll Opera House.
Almost destroyed during the second World War, the Reichstag was restored during the 1960s to house a permanent exhibition on German history. But it was not until German unification in 1990 and the subsequent decision to move the capital from Bonn to Berlin that the Reichstag returned to the centre of national life.
Four million people saw the conceptual artist Christo wrapping the building in silver fabric in 1995. As soon as the wrapping was removed, Sir Norman moved in to transform Paul Wallot's gloomy, 19th-century structure into a temple of transparency and democratic values.
For five days after Monday's inaugural session, ordinary Germans will be able to visit their parliament's new home. When the move from Bonn is completed in September, the public will watch from the Reichstag's giant glass dome while their representatives debate below.
Politicians and public will eat the same food, prepared by the Munich-based celebrity chef Michael Kaefer, although four of the building's five restaurants will be closed to the public. Visitors will be greeted by a giant electronic message board created by the American artist Jenny Holzer, which will deliver a constant stream of famous speeches made in the Reichstag.
The building will house monumental works by most of Germany's leading artists, including Anselm Kiefer, Georg Baselitz and Gerhard Richter. Among the more controversial exhibits is a work by Bernhard Heisig, an artist who enjoyed official favour in communist East Germany.
One reason the restoration of the Reichstag has been accompanied by controversy is that Monday's ceremony marks the start of Berlin functioning as a capital. The government is eager to reassure Germans and foreigners alike that the move away from Bonn does not imply any abandonment of the liberal, democratic values that underpinned West German society after the defeat of Hitler.
They are also determined that the Berlin republic should remain thoroughly federal in spirit as well as structure and that there should be no move towards a centralised state.
The Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, will be staying in Berlin, moving into new quarters with his wife, Doris, and her daughter. For Mr Schroder, the inauguration of the Reichstag has a special significance, offering his government an opportunity to make yet another fresh start.
The decision by the European Central bank to cut interest rates by half a percentage point could be enough to stimulate Germany's sluggish economy into producing the jobs Mr Schroder needs to keep his promise of cutting dole queues. If this happens, Monday's ceremony at the Reichstag will not only herald the dawn of a new era in German history but the start of spring time for the first post-war Chancellor to govern from Berlin.
