An early 19th-century engraving comparing the recently constructed Brandenburg Gate to (an imagined restoration of) its historical model: thePropylaea of theAcropolis of Athens
The central portion of the gate draws from the tradition of the Romantriumphal arch, although in style it is one of the first examples ofGreek Revival architecture in Germany.[2] The gate is supported by twelveflutedDoric columns, six to each side, forming five passageways. There are also walls between the pairs of columns at front and back, decorated with classicizingreliefs of theLabours of Hercules. Citizens were originally allowed to use only the outermost two passageways on each side. Its design is based on thePropylaea, the gateway to theAcropolis of Athens,[2] which also had a front with six Doric columns, though these were topped by a triangularpediment.
The central portion is flanked by L-shaped wings on either side, at a lower height, but using the same Doric order. Next to, and parallel with, the gate these are open "stoas", but the longer sides, stretching beyond the east side, have buildings set back from the columns. These are called "custom houses" for theBerlin Customs Wall, which was in force until 1860, or "gatehouses".
TheDoric order of the gate mostly, but not entirely, follows Greek precedents, which had recently become much better understood by the publication of careful illustrated records. The Greek Doric does not have bases to the columns, and the fluting here follows the Greek style forIonic andCorinthian columns, with flat fillets rather than sharparrises between the flutes, and rounded ends to the top and bottom of flutes. Theentablature up to thecornice follows Greek precedent, withtriglyphs,guttae,metopes, andmutules, except that there are half-metopes at the corners, the Roman rather than Greek solution to the "Doric corner conflict". The 16 metopes along each of the long faces have scenes from Greek mythology in relief; many echo theParthenon in showingcentaurs fighting men. Statues in niches at the furthest side wall ofMinerva andMars were added in the 19th century.[3]
After anattic storey that is plain apart from wide steps at the sides receding in both directions, leading, on the east side only, to a large allegorical relief of theTriumph of Peace, the figures mostly women and children. Above this there is a second cornice, with a projecting central section. On top of this is a "bronze" sculptural group byJohann Gottfried Schadow of aquadriga—a chariot drawn by four horses—driven by a goddess figure. This was initially intended to representEirene, the Greek goddess of peace, but after theNapoleonic Wars was rebranded asVictoria, the Roman goddess of victory, and given anIron Cross standard with a crowned Imperial eagle perched on top, rather than awreath. This faces into the city centre. It is the first quadriga group to be made since antiquity, made from copper sheets hammered in moulds; fortunately these moulds were kept, as they would be used more than once to renew the sculpture.[4]
The side wings have plain metopes, and simple angled roofs, ending in gable pediments with a small circular relief in the tympanum.
TheBerlin Customs Wall with its eighteen gates, around 1855. TheBrandenburger Thor (Brandenburg Gate) is on the left.The old Brandenburg Gate in a 1764 engraving, 30 years before itsneoclassical reconstruction
In the time ofKing Frederick William I (1688), shortly after theThirty Years' War and a century before today's Brandenburg Gate was constructed, Berlin was a small walled city within astar fort with several named gates:Spandauer Tor, St. Georgen Tor, Stralower Tor,Cöpenicker Tor, Neues Tor, andLeipziger Tor(see map). Relative peace, a policy ofreligious tolerance, and status as capital of theKingdom of Prussia facilitated the growth of the city. With the construction ofDorotheenstadt around 1670 and its inclusion in Berlin's city fortifications, a first gate was built on the site, approximately at the level of today's Schadowstraße, consisting of a breach through the raised wall and a drawbridge over the dug moat.[5]
With the expansion of Dorotheenstadt to the west and the construction of theBerlin Customs Wall (German:Akzisemauer) in 1734, the latter of which enclosed the old fortified city and many of its then suburbs, a predecessor of today's Brandenburg Gate was built by the Court ArchitectPhilipp Gerlach as a city gate on the road toBrandenburg an der Havel.[6] The gate system consisted of twoBaroque pylons decorated withpilasters andtrophies, to which the gate wings were attached. In addition to the ornamental gate, there were simple passages for pedestrians in the wall, which were decorated with ornamental vases at this point.[7]
Frederick William II of Prussia was in his early forties when he came to the throne in 1786. He was determined to establish his capital of Berlin as a cultural centre.[8] The military triumphs of his uncleFrederick the Great had made theKingdom of Prussia a power that could not be ignored in European politics, but Berlin lacked the monuments and cultural life ofVienna, Paris or London. His uncle's tastes had been those typical of his generation, drawing on French classicism and EnglishPalladianism,[9] and hisBrandenburg Gate inPotsdam (1770–71) was a much smaller monument, poised betweenRococo and a Roman-influencedNeoclassical architecture.
Frederick William II summoned new German architects to Berlin, includingCarl Gotthard Langhans from the city of Breslau (todayWrocław in Poland),[8] who was appointed head court architect ("Oberhofbauampt", or Court Superintendent of Buildings) in 1788.[3] Though he had designed many Neoclassical buildings, this was his first significant work in the Greek style, and his last major one; by 1792 he had designed a smallneo-Gothic building for theNew Garden in Potsdam. The gate was the first element of a "new Athens on the river Spree" by Langhans.[10]
The gate was originally called theGerman:Friedenstor or "Peace Gate"; themilitary victory it celebrated had been very complete, but almost fatality-free, so the name seemed justified.[11] Frederick William II had restored his brother-in-law to power in the Netherlands. But theFrench Revolution began while construction was underway, and only a few years after it was completed, theBatavian Revolution sent the Dutch royal couple into exile in 1795, the first of many political upheavals throughout the gate's history.[12]
The new (current) Brandenburg Gate in 1796, following reconstruction
Floor plan of the Brandenburg Gate in its original (reconstructed) state
Soldiers firing round the quadriga in theSpartacist uprising, 7 January 1919
The Brandenburg Gate has played different political roles in German history. After the 1806 Prussian defeat at theBattle of Jena-Auerstedt, Napoleon was the first to use the Brandenburg Gate for a triumphal procession,[13] and took its quadriga to Paris.[14] After Napoleon's defeat in 1814 and the Prussian occupation of Paris by GeneralErnst von Pfuel, the quadriga was restored to Berlin.[15] It was then redesigned byKarl Friedrich Schinkel for the new role of the Brandenburg Gate as a Prussian triumphal arch. The goddess, now definitely Victoria, was equipped with the Prussian eagle andIron Cross on her lance with a wreath of oak leaves.[11]
The quadriga faces east, as it did when it was originally installed in 1793. Only the royal family was allowed to pass through the central archway,[14] as well as members of thePfuel family, from 1814 to 1919.[16][17] The Kaiser granted this honour to the family in gratitude to Ernst von Pfuel, who had overseen the return of the quadriga to the top of the gate.[18] In addition, the central archway was also used by the coaches of ambassadors on the single occasion of their presenting theirletters of credence to council.
After 1900, due to weathering and environmental damage, smaller and larger pieces of stone began to fall from the gate. Comprehensive renovation work began in 1913, which had to be interrupted by the outbreak ofWorld War I and was not completed until 1926. Meanwhile, the events of theNovember Revolution had led to further significant damage, particularly to the quadriga. Indeed, the gate was used as a firing position by government troops during both theSpartacist uprising of January 1919 and theKapp Putsch in March 1920.[19] The restoration work was carried out on site under the direction of Kurt Kluge. For this purpose, the quadriga was encased in a wooden structure. Berliners spoke of the "highest horse stable in Berlin", but regardless of the weather, the work could be carried out in the dry without any delay.[20] The numerous sandstone reliefs were restored and partially renovated under the artistic direction of Wilhelm Wandschneider, who remodeled one of the centaur metopes with a different motif.
View fromPariser Platz in June 1945, after the fall of BerlinIn 1945, damaged state just after the end ofWorld War IISoviet troops raising the Red Banner on the quadriga after the fall of Berlin
When theNazis ascended to power, they used the gate as a party symbol. As part of Berlin's transformation into the so-called "world capital Germania", the gate was located on the east–west axis. A seven-kilometer-long section between the Brandenburg Gate and Adolf-Hitler-Platz (todayTheodor-Heuss-Platz) was extended and put into operation in 1939. During the further expansion of the east–west axis, which never materialised, one of the plans was to move the side porticos away from the Brandenburg Gate. Traffic would then have been routed not only through, but also around the gate.[21]
The gate survivedWorld War II and was one of the damaged structures still standing in the Pariser Platz ruins in 1945 (another being the Academy of Fine Arts). The gate was badly damaged with holes in the columns from bullets and nearby explosions. One horse's head from the original quadriga survived, and is today kept in the collection of theMärkisches Museum. Efforts to disguise the government district of Berlin and confuse Allied bombers had included the construction of a replica Brandenburg Gate located away from the city centre.[22]: 452
After Germany's surrender at the end of the war, the Brandenburg Gate was located in theSoviet occupation zone, directly next to the border to the zone occupied by the British, which later became the border betweenEast andWest Berlin. In connection with theEast German uprising of 1953, three men took down the red flag on the roof of the Brandenburg Gate and, shortly after noon on 17 June 1953, hoisted the joint black-red-gold flag of East Germany and West Germany. One of the three men, Wolfgang Panzer, probably paid for this action with his life and was never seen again.[23]
On 21 September 1956, the East Berlin magistrates decided to restore the only surviving but damaged former city gate. Despite heated arguments and mutual accusations, both parts of Berlin worked together on the restoration. The holes were patched, but were visible for many years. The quadriga was completely recreated based on a plaster cast from 1942; the reconstruction was carried out by the sculptor Otto Schnitzer and the traditional foundry Hermann Noack inFriedenau. The restoration was completed on 14 December 1957. The Iron Cross standard above the quadriga was replaced by a wreath, as originally intended, but the Iron Cross returned afterGerman Reunification, and remains in place in 2025.
Vehicles and pedestrians could travel freely through the gate until the day after construction began on theBerlin Wall onBarbed Wire Sunday, 13 August 1961. West Berliners gathered on the western side of the gate to demonstrate against the Berlin Wall, among them West Berlin's mayor,Willy Brandt, who had returned from a federal election campaign tour in West Germany earlier the same day. The wall passed directly by the western side of the gate, closing it throughout the Berlin Wall period, which ended on 22 December 1989.[24]
Aerial view of theBerlin Wall near the gate, summer/autumn 1961
East German troops line up along the border, August 1961
In 1984,East Berliners and others were kept away from the gate, which they could view only from this distance.
The Berlin Wall in front of the gate, shortly before itsfall in 1989
When theRevolutions of 1989 occurred and the wall was demolished, the gate symbolized freedom and the desire to unify the city of Berlin. Thousands of people gathered at the wall to celebrate its fall on 9 November 1989. On 22 December 1989, the Brandenburg Gate border crossing was reopened whenHelmut Kohl, the West German chancellor, walked through to be greeted byHans Modrow, the East German prime minister. Demolition of the rest of the wall around the area took place the following year. In 1990, the quadriga was removed from the gate as part of renovation work carried out by the East German authorities following the fall of the wall in November 1989. Germany wasofficially reunified in October 1990.
The Brandenburg Gate was privately refurbished on 21 December 2000, at a cost of €6 million. It was once again opened on 3 October 2002 following extensive refurbishment, for the 12th anniversary of German reunification. On this occasion, the Berlin office of Kardorff Ingenieure developed a new lighting concept that emphasises the gate as the most important building on the Pariser Platz.[25]
The Brandenburg Gate became the main venue for the 20th-anniversary celebrations of thefall of the Berlin Wall or "Festival of Freedom" on the evening of 9 November 2009. The high point of the celebrations was when over 1000 colourfully designed foam domino tiles, each over 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in) tall, were lined up along the route of the former wall through the city centre. The domino "wall" was then toppled in stages converging here.[26]
The Brandenburg Gate is now again closed to vehicle traffic, and much of the Pariser Platz has been turned into acobblestonepedestrian zone. The gate, along with the broadStraße des 17. Juni avenue to the west, is also one of the large public areas in Berlin where over a million people can gather to watch stage shows or party together, watch major sport events shown on huge screens, or see fireworks at midnight on New Year's Eve.[27] After winning the2014 FIFA World Cup, theGermany national football team held their victory rally in front of the gate.
ASoviet flag flew from a flagpole atop the gate from 1945 until 1957, when it was replaced by anEast German flag. Since the reunification of Germany in 1990, the flag and the pole have been removed. During the 1953 riots in East Berlin, the Soviet flag was torn off by West Germans.[28]
In 1963, U.S. PresidentJohn F. Kennedy visited the Brandenburg Gate. The Soviets hung large red banners across it to prevent him looking into East Berlin.
In the 1980s, decrying the existence of two German states and two Berlins, West Berlin mayorRichard von Weizsäcker said: "The German Question is open as long as the Brandenburg Gate is closed."[29]
General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev,tear down this wall!
On 25 December 1989, less than two months after the Berlin Wall began to come down, the conductorLeonard Bernstein conducted theBerlin Philharmonic in a version of theNinth Symphony ofBeethoven at the then newly opened Brandenburg Gate. In the concluding choral movement of the symphony, the "Ode to Joy", the wordFreude ("Joy") was replaced withFreiheit ("Freedom") to celebrate the fall of the Wall and the imminent reunification of Germany.
On 2–3 October 1990, the Brandenburg Gate was the scene of the official ceremony to mark the reunification of Germany. At the stroke of midnight on 3 October, theblack-red-gold flag of West Germany—now the flag of a reunified Germany—was raised over the gate.
On 12 July 1994, U.S. PresidentBill Clinton spoke at the Brandenburg Gate about peace in post–Cold War Europe.[32]
On 9 November 2009, ChancellorAngela Merkel walked through the Brandenburg Gate with Russia'sMikhail Gorbachev and Poland'sLech Wałęsa as part of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.[33][34]
On 13 August 2011, Germany marked the 50th anniversary of the day the Berlin Wall began construction with a memorial service and a minute of silence in memory of those who died trying to flee to the West. "It is our shared responsibility to keep the memory alive and to pass it on to the coming generations as a reminder to stand up for freedom and democracy to ensure that such injustice may never happen again," Berlin MayorKlaus Wowereit said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel—who grew up behind the wall in Germany's communist eastern part—also attended the commemoration. German PresidentChristian Wulff added, "It has been shown once again: Freedom is invincible at the end. No wall can permanently withstand the desire for freedom."[35][36][37]
On 19 June 2013, U.S. PresidentBarack Obama spoke at the Gate about nuclear arms reduction and the recently revealed U.S. internet surveillance activities.[38]
On the night of 5 January 2015, the lights illuminating the gate were completely shut off in protest against a protest held by far-right anti-Islamic groupPegida.[39][40][41]
In April 2017,Die Zeit noted that the gate was not illuminated in Russian colours after the2017 Saint Petersburg Metro bombing. The gate was previously illuminated after attacks in Jerusalem and Orlando. The Berlin Senate only allows the gate to be illuminated for events in partner cities and cities with a special connection to Berlin.[42]
On 17 September 2023, Germanclimate activists used fire extinguishers to spray paint the Brandenburg Gate's columns orange. Fourteen people connected to the vandalism were detained byBerlin Police. The incident received criticism from themayor of Berlin,Kai Wegner, who condemned the tactics, saying they "go beyond legitimate forms of protest". The mayor went on to say, "With these actions, this group is not only damaging the historic Brandenburg Gate, but also our free discourse about the important issues of our time and future".[46]
^Laurenz Demps:Der Pariser Platz. Der Empfangssalon Berlins. Henschel, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-89487-215-2, S. 24
^Laurenz Demps:Zur Baugeschichte des Tores. In:Das Brandenburger Tor 1791–1991. Eine Monographie. Willmuth Arenhövel, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-922912-26-5, p. 20
^Willmuth Arenhövel, Rolf Bothe (Hrsg.): Das Brandenburger Tor 1791–1991. Eine Monographie. Mit Beiträgen von Laurenz Demps, Sibylle Einholz, Dominik Bartmann u. a. 2. verb. Auflage. Willmuth Arenhövel Verlag für Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-922912-26-5.
^Ward, Graham, "The Making of the Modern Metropolis" inThe Oxford Handbook of Theology and Modern European Thought, p. 68., Oxford University Press, 2013.
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