You are standing next to one of Europe's most famous landmarks and the most iconic site
in Berlin; the Brandenburger Tor.
This monument, also known as "the Brandenburg Gate", was designed by Carl Gotthard Langhans
and constructed 1788-1791 on order by the Prussian king, Fredrik Vilhelm II.
The gate used to be a part of the old city wall and was one of a total of eight gates
leading into the city.
As much of the architecture at that time, the gate design is inspired by ancient Greek
architecture and has many resemblances to the gateway to the Acropolis in Athens.
The gate itself is 26m high, 65,5m wide and 11m deep.
As you can see; on the top of the gate stands a large statue.
This is the quadriga; the four horse drawn chariot.
The chariot is driven by Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory.
The quadriga was built 1793 and designed by Johann Gottfried Schadow as a symbol of peace.
What many people do now know is that even though the gate itself has remained more or
less intact over the years, the statue on top of it has been changed several times.
After the Prussian defeat against the French commander Napoleon I in 1806, Napoleon ordered
that the statue would be transported to Paris as a sign of the French superiority.
It only remained there for eight years until the Prussians recaptured it and brought it
back to Berlin.
The roman goddess driving the chariot, Victoria, originally carried an olive wreath with a
roman eagle on top of it.
However, back in Berlin the statue underwent a drastic change.
Instead of carrying the olive wreath, symbolizing peace, a banner-like symbol was added instead.
As you can see, on the top of the banner is now the Prussian coat of arms; the Prussian
eagle.
Under the eagle you can see a wreath of oak leaves and inside it the Iron Cross.
The Iron Cross was the military symbol of the Prussian kingdom and was later used by
Germany as well.
With that the so called "Gate of Peace" became the "Gate of Victory".
After the statue had been brought back from Paris, the neighboring square was also renamed
"Praiser Platz", the Paris Square, as a symbol of the Prussian victory.
After the Second World War, the Brandenburg Gate was one of the few standing buildings
in the area; though it was badly damaged by bullet holes and nearby explosions.
After the war had ended and Berlin had been divided into two, both the West Berlin and
the East Berlin governments restored the monument in a joint effort.
The west was in charge of restoring the statue while east was in charge of restoring the
gate itself.
Not surprisingly, the cooperation did not proceed without complications.
Before moving the statue to the top of the gate, the communist government removed the
Iron Cross and sawed off the Prussian eagle from Victorias banner, as it was seen as a
symbol of the Prussian and the Nazi military.
Let's just say it didn't improve the relationship between West and East.
During the Cold war and the rise of the Berlin wall, the gate became inaccessible to West
Berliners and in a large extent also to East Berliners.
As the walls collapsed, the gate once again became the symbol of freedom and unity it
is today.
On December 22, 1989, the Brandenburg Gate re-opened when Helmut Kohl the West German
chancellor, walked through to be greeted by Hans Modrow, the East German prime minister.
The gate became the central place of celebration and the icon for the German reunion.
After the German reunification, the Prussian eagle and the Iron Cross were restored in
1990, which until then had been kept in an East Berlin museum.
Some argued that restoring the eagle and the cross was wrong, as they were symbols that
had been used by the Nazis.
However, as the symbols originally were founded during the liberation war against Napoleon,
and not during the world war one and two, the protests had little support.
The monument has received several restorations during the last decade and luckily for you
and I, no traffic is allowed through the gate anymore.
This to ensure that the gate is as accessible to visitors as possible and to make sure it
remains intact.
During the years, many famous speeches as been held at the Brandenburg Gate, including
speeches by John F Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Dalai Lama, to name a few.
As you now know, the monument and its symbolism have played a central part throughout the
history and will surly continue to in the future.