Built on the corner of ul. Nowe Ogrody and ul. 3-go Maja (at what was Neugarten 23) at the end of the 19th century, the Volkstag’s original function was to house the authorities governing the province of West Prussia. The design was inspired by the Gdansk/Danzig renaissance and integrated elements of monuments in the city and cost around 500,000 Marks. Following the first elections to the newly formed Volkstag (the People’s Parliament) of Freie Stadt Danzig on May 16, 1920, the building became home to the city’s government. A notable element of the functioning of the Volkstag was that it ran continuously rather than debated in sessions like most places of its kind. The members of the Volkstag then elected members of the Senate which could be found across the street (where today stands the offices of Gdansk City Council, and functioned until 1939. Like many buildings it was seriously damaged at the end of WWII and demolished. The place where it stood is today taken up by the car park sitting in front of what is now Gdansk’s central prison.