Brandenburg Gate

The Brandenburg Gate stands on Pariser Platz at the western end of the boulevard Unter den Linden, in the Mitte district of Berlin, with the Tiergarten park behind it and the Reichstag a short walk to the north. King Frederick William II of Prussia commissioned it, and the architect Carl Gotthard Langhans built it between 1788 and 1791 on the site of an earlier city gate on the road to the town of Brandenburg an der Havel.

Langhans based the design on the Propylaea, the gateway to the Acropolis in Athens. The gate is about 26 metres high and 62.5 metres wide, with twelve Doric columns forming five passages. The central passage was once reserved for the royal family.

On top stands the Quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses and driven by Victoria, the goddess of victory, designed by Johann Gottfried Schadow and added in 1793. After defeating Prussia in 1806, Napoleon took the Quadriga to Paris. It returned to Berlin in 1814, when the goddess was given an iron cross and a Prussian eagle on her staff.

The gate was badly damaged in the Second World War and later restored. From 1961 it stood in the restricted zone of the Berlin Wall and could not be reached from either side. It reopened on 22 December 1989, weeks after the fall of the wall, and has since been the main symbol of German reunification and the site of New Year's Eve celebrations and public events. The Room of Silence in the northern guardhouse is open as a place for quiet reflection.

The gate is free to visit and can be seen at any time, and it is lit at night. Brandenburger Tor station on the S-Bahn and U5 line is right beside Pariser Platz. Early morning is the quietest time for photographs.

Kennedy, Reagan and the gate in the Cold War

The Brandenburg Gate was the backdrop for two famous American visits. When John F. Kennedy came in 1963, the East German side hung large red banners across the gate to block his view into East Berlin. On 12 June 1987 Ronald Reagan spoke to West Berliners in front of it and called on the Soviet leader, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

The crossing reopened on 22 December 1989, when West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl walked through and was greeted by the East German prime minister, Hans Modrow. A private foundation paid for a refurbishment costing 6 million euros, which began on 21 December 2000. The gate reopened on 3 October 2002, the 12th anniversary of reunification, with new lighting by Kardorff Ingenieure.

The Quadriga on top today is not the original. After wartime damage, restoration was finished on 14 December 1957, with the chariot group recreated from a plaster cast taken in 1942. The gate measures about 26 metres high and 62.5 metres wide, and it is closed to vehicles, so Pariser Platz in front of it is a pedestrian square.