Berlin - Brandenburg Gate

The most recognizable site in Berlin has to be the famous Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor) located on Pariser Platz (Paris Plaza).  As the national symbol of Germany, during the Cold War, it stood between East and West Germany as part of the impassable Berlin Wall. It is the only remaining gate of a series through which Berlin was once entered. 

The Gate closed when the Berlin Wall was built in 1961, but reopened in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell following a peaceful revolution that ended the Cold War and again united the country.  It now stands as a symbol of a reunified Germany.

Commissioned by Friedrich Wilhelm II to represent peace, the Gate was designed by Karl Gotthard Langhans.  Built in 1791 in a design based on the Propylaea, the gateway to the Acropolis in Athens, it served as the grand entrance to the boulevard “Unter den Linden” leading to the palace of the Prussian monarchs before the destruction of the city castle.  The bas-reliefs of scenes from Greek mythology took another four years to complete. 

The Gate has twelve columns, six on the entrance side and six on the exit.  The columns form roadways, and citizens originally were allowed to use only the outer two.  Only the royal family was allowed to pass through the central archway.  The Gate was topped in 1793 by the bronze Quadriga, a four-horsed chariot driven by Victoria, the winged goddess of victory, which faces east.

The Brandenburg Gate has witnessed much in history.  During the Napoleonic Wars in 1806, Napoleon took the Quadriga sculpture back to Paris as a war trophy.  After the Battle of Waterloo, it was returned to Berlin as a symbol of victory.

And it was through the Brandenburg Gate in 1933 that Nazismarched to celebrate Hitler’s rise to power.  Heavilydamaged during World War II, the Brandenburg Gate was refurbished in 2000 and reopened to the public in December 2002.  In June 1987, President Ronald Reagan made his famousspeech at the Gate and urged, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Some of the Gate’s most beautiful photographs are ones shot at night as it is lighted against the evening sky. This 360degree panorama of Pariser Plaza and the Brandenburg Gate is gorgeous.  It does need Java to run, but my computer had a popup to click “Run this time” and it worked.  The widescreen view is the best.

This BBC documentary about bringing down the Berlin Wall, “BBC Brandenburg Gate,” (2:14) is quite informative.  This video is an interesting modern and historical perspective of the gate and shows it from various views, “Carl Gotthard Langhans: Brandenburg Gate, Berlin” (4:00).