Brandenburg Gate
The Brandenburg Gate[a] is the only remaining town gate in Berlin, Germany. It was built between 1788 and 1791.[1][2]
Location
The Brandenburg Gate is located between the Platz des 18. März and the Pariser Platz. To the north is the Reichstag building. During the Cold War, the Reichstag was located in West Berlin, while the Brandenburger Tor in East Berlin.
Structure
The Brandenburg Gate has twelve columns: six on the entrance side and six on the exit. The columns form five roadways. Citizens were originally allowed to use only the outer two, while the central roadway was reserved for royal officials.[1] Admiralty Arch in London is similar.
The Quadriga
In 1793, Johann Gottfried Schadow placed a bronze sculpture called the Quadriga on top of the gate.[2] It depicts Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory, carrying a peace symbol and driving a horse-drawn chariot (called a quadriga). The sculpture was meant to symbolize peace entering the city.[2]
History
Napoleon's era
In 1806, during the First French Empire, Napoleon's army defeated Prussia at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt. After the victory, Napoleon stole the Quadriga and took it to Paris. When Prussian forces defeated Napoleon in 1814, Prussian General Ernst von Pfuel occupied Paris and took the Quadriga back to Berlin. The sculpture's olive wreath was changed to an Iron Cross, and the Goddess Viktoria became Nike, the goddess of victory.
World War II
When the Nazis came to power, they used the Brandenburg Gate as a symbol. They included the symbol in a lot of their propaganda. Allied bombings targeted the Brandenburg Gate because it was a highly visible and important symbol of Nazi power.[3] It was badly damaged, but not destroyed. After the war, it was restored by the governments of East Berlin and West Berlin.
Berlin Wall
When the Berlin Wall was built in 1961, the Brandenburg Gate was closed because it was in the middle of the death strip. In 1963, when U.S. President John F. Kennedy visited it, the Soviets hung large banners across the gate to prevent him from seeing into East Germany. In the 1980s West Berlin mayor Richard von Weizsäcker said:[4]
| “ | The German question will remain open as long as the Brandenburg Gate is closed. | ” |
In 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan gave his famous speech "Tear down this wall!" outside of the gate.
Fall of Berlin Wall
In 1989, the Berlin Wall was torn down. West and East Germany were reunified the following year under President Richard von Weizsäcker. On the 22nd of December 1989, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl walked to the Brandenburg Gate to be greeted by East German Prime Minister Hans Modrow, officially reopening the gate and the pathway between East and West Germany.[1] After that, the Brandenburg Gate symbolized the freedom to unite the City of Berlin.
Post-Cold War
Between 2000 and 2002, the Brandenburg Gate was privately refurbished.[1]
Gallery
Napoleon entering Berlin through the Gate
The Brandenburg Gate in 1871
United States President Ronald Reagan giving a speech on June 12, 1987
The Brandenburg Gate, 2007
Brandenburg Gate during UEFA Euro 2024, July 2024.
Archway of the Brandenburg Gate during UEFA Euro 2024, July 2024.
Brandenburg Gate Media
An early 19th-century engraving comparing the recently constructed Brandenburg Gate to (an imagined restoration of) its historical model: the Propylaea of the Acropolis of Athens
The Berlin Customs Wall with its eighteen gates, around 1855. The Brandenburger Thor (Brandenburg Gate) is on the left.
The old Brandenburg Gate in a 1764 engraving, 30 years before its neoclassical reconstruction
Soldiers firing round the quadriga in the Spartacist uprising, 7 January 1919
View from Pariser Platz in June 1945, after the fall of Berlin
In 1945, damaged state just after the end of World War II
Soviet troops raising the Red Banner on the quadriga after the fall of Berlin
The Berlin Wall in front of the gate, shortly before its fall in 1989
Ronald Reagan speaking at the gate section of the Berlin Wall on 12 June 1987, challenging Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!"
Vandalism by Last Generation activists using orange paint, 17 September 2023
Footnotes
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Brandenburg Gate | Iconic Monument, Berlin, Germany | Britannica". Britannica. 2024-07-26. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 City of Berlin (February 24, 2023). "Brandenburg Gate". Berlin.de.
The Brandenburg Gate is Berlin's most famous landmark ... A symbol of German division during the Cold War, it is now a national symbol of peace and unity.
- ↑ "Brandenburg Gate: A National Icon". CyArk. 2024. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
- ↑ "President Ronald Reagan: Speech at the Brandenburg Gate". www.au.af.mil. United States Air Force. June 12, 1987. Archived from the original on July 17, 2019. Retrieved September 6, 2016.