The area around the Wilhelmstraße intersection before World War II was one of the centres of German national administration, being the location of various governmental buildings. Near Leipziger Platz was the first seat of the German Reichstag parliament, before the inauguration of the Reichstag building in 1894. The neighbouring house, former residence of Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1776–1835), was purchased by the Prussian state in 1856 as seat of the Prussian House of Lords. The present-day building which now houses the Bundesrat, the upper house of the German Parliament, was erected between 1899 and 1903. After the House of Lords was abolished in 1918, the building became the seat of the Prussian State Council of the Free State of Prussia, where delegates from the provinces met for annual sittings. The Cologne mayor Konrad Adenauer served as president of this body until the Nazi "Machtergreifung" in 1933, when the building became the seat of the (Preußenhaus Foundation), controlled by Hermann Göring. The building suffered severe damage during World War II, but was repaired and used during the GDR period to house several government offices, where the East German government was seized by insurgents during the Uprising of 17 June 1953. The Bundesrat held its first session in this building in 2000.