Brandenburg Gate by Audrey118
Brandenburg Gate is located at Strasse des 17June.. Street of the 17th June - it is named in honour of victims of the uprising on that day in 1953. It was organised by workers and was particularly vehement in East Berlin, but Russisn tanks put it to an end quickly. The Brandenburg Gate was once the entrance to the city from the west.
It is 65 ft. high, 213 ft. wide and 36 ft. thick was built from 1788-1791
by architect Carl Gotthard Langhans to be a symbol of peace, using the Propylaea in Athens as his model. On top stands Quadriga (which is a 4-some horse and cart including the goddess Eirene) by Schadown. In 1806 Napoleon took the Quadriga to Paris where it was shown in the Louvre as a sign of victory.
General Marshall Blucher took the Quadriga back to Berlin after the victory over the French in 1814 and the peace goddess Eirene became the goddess of victory Victoria. She received the laurel wreath, the Prussian eagle and the iron cross designed by Friedrich Schinkel as a sign of victory. After the German Nazis took over, the gate became a symbol for fascist Germany. The Quadriga and the Brandenburg was badly damaged during WWII but emerged anew in 1958 in a West Berlin foundry.
The Brandenburg Gate was seriously damaged and was restored in the 1950's by the 2 governments of the cites. The East government rebuilt the gate itself, while the west reconstructed the Quadriga.
In 1961 when Berlin wall was built, the gate sealed off in no-man's-land and became the symbol of the divided city.
In 1989, after the dissolution of the border, the area was reopened to the public - albeit only later in the year, much later than other checkpoints.
On New Years' Eve of 1989-90 when the Germans celebrated all around the Brandenburg Gate, the Quadriga was damaged and had to be restored. During this restoration the statue of Victoria got back its Prussian sign of victory.
