Der Bevölkerung, Installation artwork in Reichstag building, Germany.

Der Bevölkerung is a 21 by 7 metre trough edged with wooden planks, set in the northern light court of the Reichstag. It is filled with gravel and earth from which plants grow, and from its centre white neon letters spell the title upward. The text is legible from the plenary hall, the press and party floors, and the roof.

Hans Haacke's work was approved by the Bundestag on 5 April 2000 by a margin of 260 votes to 258, after a cross-party motion against it failed by the same two-vote difference, and it was inaugurated in September 2000. Critics such as Norbert Lammert called it a "bizarre federal garden show"; the FAZ and a CDU-commissioned legal opinion deemed it unconstitutional. It was funded with about 200,000 euros of public money under the art-in-architecture programme.

Members of the Bundestag contribute soil from their home regions, which then grows naturally within the wooden frame. This ongoing practice transforms the work into a living representation of diversity from across the country.

You can view the installation from several levels of the Reichstag, including the main assembly hall and rooftop areas. Choose your vantage point depending on whether you prefer to see the neon text from below or from above.

The title deliberately contrasts with the older inscription 'DEM DEUTSCHEN VOLKE' on the building's exterior. Haacke chose this phrasing to express a different understanding of nation, one that emphasizes diversity rather than uniformity.