Brandenburg Gate: Symbol of Separation and Unity

Why is it significant?

Stand right here in the center of Pariser Platz, gazing up at the monumental sandstone columns of the Brandenburg Gate and the copper Quadriga sculpture crowning its pediment.

Key Facts

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Stand right here in the center of Pariser Platz, gazing up at the monumental sandstone columns of the Brandenburg Gate and the copper Quadriga sculpture crowning its pediment. For almost three decades, from nineteen sixty-one until November nineteen eighty-nine, the ground beneath your boots was an empty, forbidden wasteland: the gate stood trapped inside the East German death strip, ringed by tank traps, barbed wire, and armed watchtowers. Look closely at the Goddess of Victory driving her four-horse chariot above. In eighteen zero six, Napoleon Bonaparte captured Berlin and shipped the entire bronze Quadriga back to Paris as war booty. Eight years later, after Prussian troops defeated Napoleon, the sculpture was triumphantly retrieved, and architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel added an Iron Cross and Prussian eagle to her victory wreath. On June twelfth, nineteen eighty-seven, United States President Ronald Reagan stood on a bulletproof glass stage just behind this gate in West Berlin. Addressing Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev across the concrete barrier, he issued the immortal challenge: General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, tear down this wall! Two years later, on the chilly night of November ninth, nineteen eighty-nine, tens of thousands of cheering citizens flooded this plaza, dancing on top of the Wall as history turned on its hinges. Walk south along Ebertstraße toward the field of concrete stelae.