Brandenburg Gate : This impressive structure, built in 1791, has gone through several symbolic incarnations. The gate was designed by the architect Carl Guthart Langhans to serve as a symbol of peace, while the winged goddess of victory and the chariot drawn by four horses standing at its head were added only two years later and turned the gate into a monument to Prussian power. The goddess and her horse spent some time in Paris, after Napoleon shaved them from the gate in 1806. Political groups with opposing ideologies adopted the multi-purpose Brandenburg Gate as a backdrop for their rallies and parades, until 1961 – when the wall was built, and the gate was sealed off in the no-man’s land. In 1989, after the abolition of the border, the area was reopened to the public. Today, traffic flows freely under the gate, and the square surrounding it is studded with stalls. Enterprising crooks here sell various types of military memorabilia and pieces of concrete that they claim were taken from the Berlin Wall – if the Berlin Wall had been rebuilt from its fragments sold to tourists, it would probably have encompassed all of Germany.
Brandenburg Gate : This impressive structure, built in 1791, has gone through several symbolic incarnations. The gate was designed by the architect Carl Guthart Langhans to serve as a symbol of peace, while the winged goddess of victory and the chariot drawn by four horses standing at its head were added only two years later and turned the gate into a monument to Prussian power. The goddess and her horse spent some time in Paris, after Napoleon shaved them from the gate in 1806. Political groups with opposing ideologies adopted the multi-purpose Brandenburg Gate as a backdrop for their rallies and parades, until 1961 – when the wall was built, and the gate was sealed off in the no-man’s land. In 1989, after the abolition of the border, the area was reopened to the public. Today, traffic flows freely under the gate, and the square surrounding it is studded with stalls. Enterprising crooks here sell various types of military memorabilia and pieces of concrete that they claim were taken from the Berlin Wall – if the Berlin Wall had been rebuilt from its fragments sold to tourists, it would probably have encompassed all of Germany.
