Brandenburg Gate

In front of you is the Brandenburg Gate, but on this route we won't look at it as a postcard. We'll look at it as a border. For almost three decades, this was one of the most symbolic places of the Cold War.

1A gate for peace

Carl Gotthard Langhans built it between 1788 and 1791 for King Frederick William II, taking inspiration from the Propylaea of the Athenian Acropolis. In 1793 Johann Gottfried Schadow placed on top the quadriga driven by the goddess of victory. In 1806, after defeating Prussia, Napoleon carried it off to Paris as a trophy. It came back in 1814, and Karl Friedrich Schinkel then added the Iron Cross and the Prussian eagle to the staff.

2Locked in by the Wall

On 13 August 1961 construction of the Wall began. The gate ended up on the eastern side, inside the security strip: neither East nor West Berliners could pass through it. From the western side, on 12 June 1987, US President Ronald Reagan delivered his famous line here.

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” (Ronald Reagan, 12 June 1987)

The Wall fell on 9 November 1989, and on 22 December that year the crossing through the gate was officially opened, amid a crowd in the rain.

3What to look for

• The double row of cobblestones that, in the nearby streets, traces the line of the Wall.
• The Iron Cross on the staff, added after the quadriga returned.
• The five passages: the wider central one was reserved for the royal family.