Pariser Platz
Bus: 100
Subway: Unter den Linden
The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin is an early
neoclassical triumphal gate that stands on the west flank of the
square Pariser Platz in Berlin's Mitte district. It was built
between 1789 and 1793 at the end of the central boulevard of
Dorotheenstadt, the boulevard Unter den Linden, on the instructions
of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm II, based on designs by Carl
Gotthard Langhans. The Quadriga sculpture crowning the gate is a
work designed by the sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow. To the west
of the Brandenburg Gate are the extensive green areas of the Großer
Tiergarten, which are crossed by Straße des 17. Juni in a straight
line extension of Unter den Linden. The area immediately to the west
of the gate is called 18th March Square.
The gate is the only
surviving one of the last 18 Berlin city gates. In terms of the
language of form, it represents the turning from the Roman to the
Greek model. It is one of the first classicist buildings in Prussia
and thus marks the beginning of classicism as state-supporting
architecture in Prussia.
The gate is the most famous Berlin
landmark and a German national symbol, with which many important
historical events of the 19th and 20th centuries are connected. Up
to the Second World War, the end of Napoleon's rule in 1813-1815 was
associated with the building. Until the fall of the Iron Curtain, it
stood directly on the border between East and West Berlin and thus
symbolized the meeting of the Warsaw Pact and NATO during the Cold
War at the most sensitive point in world politics on their common
border. Accordingly, since 1990 the Brandenburg Gate has also been
seen as a symbol of overcoming the division of Germany and Europe.
After severe war damage, the gate was restored by 1958. A
comprehensive, almost two-year renovation took place in 2002 by the
Berlin Monument Protection Foundation.
With the construction of Dorotheenstadt around 1670 and its inclusion
in Berlin's city fortifications, the first gate was built on the site of
today's Brandenburg Gate. It consisted of a breach through the raised
wall and a drawbridge over the dug moat.
With the construction of
the customs wall of the city of Berlin in 1734, a predecessor of today's
Brandenburg Gate was built by Philipp Gerlach as a city gate on the road
to Brandenburg an der Havel. The gate system consisted of two baroque
pylons decorated with pilasters and trophies, 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. The building for the guard was already
inside the customs wall to the south of the gate and the building for
the tax authorities to the north.
For the impending new
construction of the gate, the fire station north of the wheelhouse was
first demolished in May 1788 in order to create a temporary bypass
around the gate construction site. The demolition of the old Brandenburg
Gate then began in the summer of 1788.
The
Brandenburg Gate was rebuilt to represent Friedrich Wilhelm II's
rulership both internally and externally. In the first drafts, there was
therefore a suggestion that Federigo be written on it in bronze letters.
By modeling the gate after the Propylaea of the Acropolis of the
Parthenon Temple in Athens, Frederick William II compared himself to
Pericles and portrayed himself as a ruler who would bring a golden age
to Prussia. Pericles stood for a clever alliance policy combined with a
long period of peace and for the supremacy of Athens in the Attic sea
confederation. This is exactly how Friedrich Wilhelm II wanted to be
perceived after he had pacified the Republic of the United Netherlands
by force in 1787 through the invasion of Prussian troops and brought
about an alliance between Prussia, the Netherlands and Great Britain.
In this sense, the name originally chosen for the gate was "Peace
Gate". In addition to Friedrich Wilhelm II, his sister Wilhelmine von
Orange, hereditary governor of the Republic of the Netherlands, was to
be praised as the bringer of peace. It was she who, through her tactics,
persuaded Friedrich Wilhelm II to intervene in the Netherlands and
ultimately brought about Prussia's supremacy in Europe. The concept of
the "Peace Gate" does not contradict the crowning of the gate with a
goddess of victory, but harmonizes with the absolutist idea of power of
the 18th century.
The gate was directed inwards, both in terms of
the structure of the wing structures and the decorative equipment. The
ruler's power should therefore not be made clear to those who arrive,
but to those who live in the city. Like a theater backdrop, the gate
served to provide the king with decorative and enhancing accessories on
his arrival in Berlin.
The Brandenburg Gate is an early classicist architectural ensemble of
a triumphal gate, consisting of the actual gate structure and two
flanking wing structures. The wings not only create the transition
between the gate and the adjacent buildings, but also form a kind of
baroque court of honor due to their prominent position.
Carl
Gotthard Langhans had been appointed by Friedrich Wilhelm II as head of
the Oberhofbauamt and was therefore entrusted with the implementation.
He received the instructions, probably directly from Friedrich Wilhelm
II, to build the gate based on the model of the Propylaea, the entrance
gate to the Acropolis in Athens. Since Langhans was not in Greece
himself, he used the descriptions and drawings by Julien-David Le Roy,
James Stuart and Nicholas Revett as templates. Furthermore, Friedrich
Wilhelm II demanded "to connect the large and beautiful parts of the
city and the adjoining Thiergarten in such a way that the gate is given
as much free opening and transparency as possible." For this reason
alone, various changes had to be made compared to the model. Langhans
significantly reduced the depth of the goal. He also made the columns
narrower and higher than in the prototype. The columns therefore cover
less of the area and the higher architrave allowed a sufficiently clear
view of the horizon.
The gate consists of two rows of columns,
each with six fluted Doric columns with bases, the ridges inserted
between the flutes being of the Ionic order. Between each pair of
columns is a brick and plastered wall. This was necessary because the
slender columns alone could not have carried the load of the upper
component with the Quadriga. The six rows of columns and walls form five
passages, of which the middle one is wider, analogous to the Propylaea.
Above the columns is the entablature, which, unlike the Greek model, was
not made of large blocks of stone, but was bricked up horizontally. In
order to reduce the weight on the columns, the entablature is not solid,
but encloses (together with the attic) a room of about 250 m², the
so-called "soldier's chamber", which is accessible via the roof of the
gatehouse. The entablature is decorated on both sides with a metope
triglyph frieze followed by the geison. The flat Greek triangular gable
does not follow above the geison, but an attic. The Greek triangular
gable is symbolized by the flat steps in front of the attic, which lead
up to the center of the building. On the attic stands the Quadriga as
the crowning glory above the central gateway.
Both sides of the
gate were originally short sections of wall with niches for the
sculptures of Mars and Minerva, which flanked the gate on the right and
left as seen from the Quarrée (today's Pariser Platz). Two-storey depots
followed further outwards, which then merged into the excise wall. The
coach houses were located directly behind the wings, so that they could
not be seen from the Quarrée. Coach buildings and wing buildings were
connected by a common roof, which spanned the inner path on the city
wall and thus enclosed the area in front of the gate. With the fall of
the excise wall in 1867/1868, the sheds were also demolished and the
gate was connected to the wings in 1868 by new columned halls, which
were designed by Heinrich Strack. An additional passage for pedestrians
was created on both sides of the gate. The sculptures of Mars and
Minerva lost their prominent positions during this conversion and were
"parked" in the outer walls of the gate. Today's grand pianos no longer
correspond to the originals. These connected to the building with their
outer flanks and only had Doric colonnades in front of the facades
facing the square. During the Second World War, the wings were destroyed
and then rebuilt with colonnades all around. This release results in
another pedestrian passage on the side of the wings facing away from the
gate.
The structure is 20.3 meters high, the top of the quadriga reaches a height of about 26 meters. The width of the gate is 62.5 meters and the depth is 11 meters. The columns are 13.5 meters high and 1.73 meters in diameter at the base. The middle passage is 18 feet (5.65 m) wide, the others 12 feet and 1 inch (3.80 m) wide.
In addition to the effect of the architecture, the gate was artistically enhanced by numerous sculptural works. Both fully plastic sculptures and reliefs were used. Some decisions about the artistic design of the gate were only made during the construction phase. Johann Gottfried Schadow produced most of the designs in his capacity as head of the court sculptor's workshop and director of sculptures at the Oberhofbauamt. It was executed by numerous different sculptors, so that the construction of the gate can also be seen as an employment program for Prussian sculptors.
The Quadriga is the main
artistic adornment of the Brandenburg Gate, which Langhans had already
envisaged during the architectural development. The mausoleum of
Halicarnassus - one of the seven wonders of the world - probably served
as a model for him. With the entry of the (Roman) goddess of victory
Victoria in a chariot, the entry of peace to Berlin should be
represented. The goddess Victoria is mentioned by name in the oldest
known minutes of the meeting on the design of the Quadriga dated March
13, 1789: “[It] was decided that Mr. Schadow was to produce a model […]
that clearly expressed the dimensions of a group of 4 horses and a
carriage along with the Victoria.” Even during the construction phase,
the Roman goddess of victory was not reinterpreted and master plumber
Koehler received his payment from 1791 “for the copper figure Victoria”.
Interpretations other than Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, or
Eirene, the Greek goddess of peace, are not currently documented and do
not correspond to the current state of research. In her dissertation
published in 2014, Zitha Pöthe writes: “It needs to be investigated why
a goddess of victory adorned the triumphal quadriga and not a goddess of
peace […]. It is unlikely that the choice was based on a purely
aesthetic decision; the striking visual difference between the two is
the depiction of wings on Victoria's back. It was much more her use in
antiquity that secured Victoria the representative place on the
Brandenburg Gate" and "Victoria could be seamlessly integrated as a
symbol into the visual language of absolutism. It consequently served
Friedrich Wilhelm as […] legitimacy for his own military action in the
autumn of 1787 and the subsequent alliance policy, which pursued a peace
intention.” Likewise, up to the end of the 19th century, there are
statements in reputable publications that the Quadriga initially started
the other way around, i.e. facing towards Charlottenburg. However, Emil
von Siefart already refuted this in detail in 1912.
On March 13,
1789, a conference was held, chaired by Langhans, to determine the
execution of the quadriga ("Char de Triomph") to be placed on the gate.
Among others, the sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow, who like Langhans
was employed by the Oberhofbauamt, and the coppersmith Emanuel Jury were
present. It was decided that Schadow should make a 1:8 scale model of
the Quadriga. The horses were originally supposed to be about 10 feet
(3.15 m) tall. A full-size wooden model was then to be made from
Schadow's model. The jury had the task of translating the wooden model
into a copper version. In order to simplify the making of the horses, it
was decided to make only two horses in different poses, but four
different head poses. The production of the wooden models was assigned
to the sculptors Johann Christoph Wohler (1748-1799) and Michael
Christoph Wohler (1754-1802), brothers from Potsdam. Already during the
development of the wooden models, the Academy of Fine Arts decided on
changed proportions of the quadriga, according to which the horses
should now be 12 feet (3.77 m) high.
Since the progress on the
Quadriga in 1791 was not enough for the Oberhofbauamt, Jury was urged to
award the copper version of the Victoria to the Potsdam master plumber
Koehler, who had already made the figure on the French Cathedral in
Berlin and a group of figures on the Belvedere in Charlottenburg .
In mid-1793 the Quadriga was brought to the gate and anchored there.
At this point it was still unclear whether the quadriga should remain
copper or be gold-plated. The surface of the quadriga had already been
determined for possible gilding (2276 square feet = 223 square meters).
However, the Academy of Fine Arts recommended not to gild the quadriga,
and so Friedrich Wilhelm II decided on July 11, 1793.
Only after
the formation of the Quadriga two changes were decided. Originally, the
victory mark worn by the Victoria consisted "of a helmet fastened to a
spear, armor and two shields." However, since the victory mark is said
to have looked more like a lantern from a distance, Schadow left a pole
as a replacement based on a Roman aquila finished with oak wreath and
eagle. Also at relatively short notice, at the suggestion of Schadow, it
was decided that the Victoria should be equipped with a "flying robe"
because "she looked so stiff and bare from behind".
After the
Fourth Coalition War, the victory sign was replaced in 1814 by a design
by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The pole was now crowned by an oak wreath
enclosing an Iron Cross and on which sat a crowned eagle with
outstretched wings. The reason for the new version of the victory sign
is not completely clear. Under certain circumstances, the old victory
sign was blown off the gate and destroyed in a storm in 1806 and only
replaced after the war.
In 1942 a protective cast of the horses
and the goddess of victory was made. Starting in 1957, models were made
from these molds, with the help of which a replica of the Quadriga could
be produced as copper work. Finally, in 1958, after difficult
negotiations between East and West, the reconstruction was erected on
the Brandenburg Gate. Only a horse's head remains from the original
Quadriga, which is in the Märkisches Museum.
In 2020, the Art
Advisory Council of the German Bundestag, the plaster molding workshop
of the National Museums in Berlin and the Berlin State Monuments Office
joined forces to create a joint project: From October 30, 2020, all
remaining plaster casts of the Quadriga will be on display in an open
exhibition at the Wall Memorial of the German Bundestag. brought
together, documented, restored and assembled in the workshop in the
Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus of the German Bundestag.
Below the Quadriga, on the side of the gate facing Berlin, there is a
large sandstone relief in the attic. Langhans' specification was a
relief that should show "the protection of the righteous weapons, which
they render to innocence". The design for this was carried out in 1791
by Bernhard Rode. Schadow made a model on this basis. The sculptors
Conrad Nicolaus Boy and Christian Unger were entrusted with the
execution. In a letter dated August 1791, Schadow explained the meaning
of the relief and described the figures depicted:
"The design for
the bas-relief to be placed in the attic of the Brandenburg Gate shows
the consequences of bravery in a series of figures.
Hercules, as the
oldest image of bravery, drives away discord, with snake hair and kills
envy and other monsters.
The goddess of victory hands him trophies
and palm trees.
Prudence stands with her, she holds in her hand the
mirror entwined with the serpent.
On a chariot drawn by genii comes
the goddess of peace with the olive branch and the laurel wreath,
followed by Comus, the god of joy.
And the goddess of abundance, who
pours out her cornucopia to the people.
Architecture, as the oldest
of the fine arts, is dressed as a matron, it shows two youths, painting
and sculpting a plan, a young genius eager to learn stands by her.
This is followed by the muse of music and Urania, the goddess of
wisdom.”
– Quoted from von Siefart 1914, p. 44.
Since the
relief refers entirely to Greek mythology, the goddess mentioned is
Nike, the goddess of peace is Eirene and the goddess of abundance is
Euporia.
Bernhard Rode described the figures identically in terms
of content. His description also shows that unity and friendship are
walking directly in front of the triumphal chariot with the goddess of
peace.
Originally, an attic relief was also planned on the
outside of the gate. This should refer to the inner relief and show how
through the "righteous arms [...] seven scattered arrows are again bound
into one." This relief would have clearly referred to the intervention
of Prussia in the Dutch conflict. The seven scattered arrows would have
represented the seven Dutch provinces reunited by Frederick William II
and his sister Wilhelmina. It is not known why the relief was not
executed. The spot on the outside of the gate is empty to this day.
The metope triglyph friezes are located
on both the east and west sides of the entablature of the gate and
consist of 16 square reliefs, each about one square meter in size. The
metope reliefs on the west side are the only decoration on the outside
of the gate.
The subject of the reliefs, which show "the dispute
of the Centaurs with the Lapiths", was determined by Langhans and was
based on the metope triglyph frieze on the south side of the Parthenon.
The 32 reliefs there were distributed 16 on each side of the gate. The
quarrel between Centaurs and Lapiths arose when, at the wedding of the
Lapith king Peirithoos, the Centaurs who had been invited as guests
tried to rape the bride Hippodameia. A fight ensued, in the course of
which the Lapiths gained the upper hand, also thanks to the support of
Theseus, who was a friend of Peirithous. Since ancient times, this
struggle has served as a parable of barbarism's assault on civilization,
which ultimately triumphs over barbarism. The reliefs at the Brandenburg
Gate were intended to be an allegory of the wars waged by the House of
Brandenburg against other peoples.
The metopes on the west side
of the gate were made according to Schadow's models. The sculptor Johann
Eckstein from Potsdam was responsible for the eastern metopes. The first
metopes were completed by the end of 1789.
It was not until around the time the gate was opened in 1791
that a commission, including Langhans and Schadow, discussed decorating
the gate with reliefs. It was decided to decorate the five passageways
with two reliefs per side, i.e. a total of 20 reliefs. Schadow later
criticized the reliefs as "bas-reliefs in the 5 passages that nobody can
see". The Hercules legend was chosen as the theme for the passage
reliefs. The powers and exploits of Hercules are intended to serve as an
allegory to the exploits of Frederick the Great. In March 1792, the
orders for the reliefs were given to the sculptors Emanuel Bardou,
Heinrich Bettkober, Conrad Nicolaus Boy, Johann Eckstein, Johann Daniel
Meltzer, Johann David Raentz, Johann Christoph Wohler, Michael Christoph
Wohler, Christian Unger and the son of the sculptor Wilhelm Christian
Mayer forgive. The designs were drawn by Bernhard Rode, who had already
designed the attic relief. The sculptors first had to make models that
had to be presented to Schadow before the actual work was carried out.
The reliefs show the following scenes (from south to north):
Hercules fighting a giant. (above)
Hercules as a youth at the
crossroads with Minerva pointing to the Temple of Glory. Behind both
lies Venus. (below)
Hercules defeats a giant. (above)
Hercules in
the underworld. Hercules boards the boat of the ferryman Charon with
Alkestis, whom he wants to bring back to the upper world. Pluton and his
wife Persephone look after them. Under their throne lies Cerberus.
(below)
Hercules kills the Stymphalian birds. (above)
Hercules
breaks his bonds and kills the cruel Egyptian king Busiris. (below)
Hercules kills the Nemean lion. (above)
Hercules kills the centaur
Nessos, who is carrying Deïaneira in his arms. (below)
As a boy,
Hercules strangled the serpents sent by Hera. (above)
Hercules saves
Hesione from the sea monster. (below)
Hercules kills the dragon Ladon
and steals the apples of the Hesperides. (above)
Hercules fighting
the centaurs. (below)
Hercules leads Diomedes' horses to Mycenae.
(above)
Hercules supports the Olympian gods in their fight against
the giants. (below)
Hercules kills the Hydra of Lerna. (above)
Hercules in the robe sent by Deïaneira. (below)
Hercules tames the
Cretan bull. (above)
The death of Hercules at the stake. His friends
lament him, Philoctetes torch in hand. (below)
Hercules crushes the
giant Antaios. (above)
Hercules is admitted to Olympus. Mercury,
standing next to Minerva, adorns Hercules with a laurel wreath. Juno
hands him a bowl and Jupiter welcomes him. (below)
In the outer walls of the gate, facing the two porticos
erected in 1868, there are niches in which sculptures of Mars (south
side) and Minerva (north side) are placed.
Originally, the two
sculptures were presented in a much more visible way. They were located
with their niches in the pieces of wall that connected the gate with the
sheds behind the wings. Visually, they stood between the gate and the
wings in the main view.
In March 1792 a decision had already been
made about the placement of two sculptures in niches on either side of
the gate, but the depiction had not yet been determined. Schadow
suggested depicting diligence and vigilance as statues. Alternatively,
he suggested depicting Berlin and Prussia. However, the Academy of Arts
decided that Mars and Minerva should be depicted. Schadow provided
sketches and models for this in September 1792. He depicted Mars, the
Roman god of war, seated with his sword in its sheath. Minerva, the
goddess of wisdom and protector of city gates and doors, is also seated,
her arm resting on her shield and her spear in her hand. In March 1793,
the Academy of Arts agreed to Schadow's designs and ordered the
sculptors Johann David Meltzer and Conrad Nicolaus Boy to sculpt the
statues in sandstone. Meltzer made the statue of Minerva and Boy was to
make that of Mars. However, since Boy died in May 1793, Schadow himself
made the model of Mars. The execution in sandstone was then entrusted to
the sculptor Karl Wichmann. In July 1794 the statues were erected.
The Minerva statue was destroyed during World War II and replaced by
a copy by the Kranolda sculptor collective between 1951 and 1952.
Originally, the ceilings of the gate passages were decorated with
ceiling paintings. These represented trophies and were painted gray on
gray. The work was carried out and designed by Bernhard Rode. From south
to north the following paintings could be seen:
a martial trophy, as
a sign of heroism and strength,
the lyre of Hercules next to his mace
entwined with laurel, as a sign of the union of bravery and music,
the shield of Minerva with a Medusa head, as a sign of the arts,
two
intertwined cornucopias with a caduceus of mercury, as a sign of unity
and abundance,
an eagle with a wreath of oil, as a sign of peace.
The original ceiling paintings were replaced by ornamental
decorative paintings in 1841. A round center field showed an eagle in
the central passage and rosettes in each of the four lateral passages.
These ceiling paintings were renewed in 1875 by Gustav Eilers. During
the refurbishment in 1926/1927, it was decided against renewed renewal
of the ceiling paintings, as the scale of the paintings was felt to be
too small compared to the gate and the circular element on the ceiling
did not harmonize with the round reliefs. At that time, the ceilings
were painted in a single color light grey.
In
addition to representation, the gate also had a purely functional task.
Thus, when passing through the gate, the excise was raised and watched
over who entered and left the city. The guard also had the task of
preventing soldiers from deserting. The southern wing served as
accommodation for the guards, the tax authorities resided in the
northern wing.
Except for the middle passage, the passages of the
gate could be closed with two gates each consisting of two gate leaves.
It was a wooden gate and a lattice gate. The wooden gates were only
locked at night so as not to impair the view of the Tiergarten through
the gate during the day. For this very reason, the lattice gates had a
relatively large lattice spacing of 5 inches. The middle passage was
only equipped with a wooden gate. This passage was usually reserved for
the "equipages of the court" and there was a guard post on the outside
of the gate to secure the passage. Niches for the gates were cut out in
the brick walls of the gate, so that they did not protrude when open.
These niches are still present in the gateways. A smaller gate had been
cut into the large wooden gate in the central passageway so that two
gates would not have to be opened at night. The heavy goals caused
difficulties from the start. As early as 1795, the wooden gates were in
need of repair and the large wooden gate in the middle passage had
become so crooked that it could no longer be locked. The iron gate
leaves were finally abolished in 1840 after they had not been used for
several years. The wooden gates became redundant with the city expansion
of 1861 and were dismantled.
Since the gate was built, it was
also equipped with gas lanterns.
After the Prussian army had been defeated
against France in the battles of Jena and Auerstädt in the Fourth
Coalition War, Napoleon and his troops entered Berlin through the
Brandenburg Gate on October 27, 1806. Napoleon was accompanied by
Dominique-Vivant Denon, who commissioned him to collect art treasures
for the Musée Napoléon, now the Louvre, in the conquered territories. On
Napoleon's instructions, the Quadriga was taken from the Brandenburg
Gate in early December 1806 under Denon's supervision and sent to Paris
as a trophy. For this purpose, it was dismantled, packed in twelve
crates and set off for France on December 21, 1806. First we went by
water to Hamburg, from there by ship across the North Sea. The Quadriga
was then transported across the Rhine and via French canals to Paris,
where it arrived at the port of Saint-Nicolas on May 17, 1807.
Originally, Napoleon wanted the Quadriga to be erected on a triumphal
arch that was to be newly built. Later he decreed the installation at
the Porte Saint-Denis. A lot of damage was caused by dismantling,
dismantling and transport, so that the Quadriga in Paris had to be
restored first. For this purpose, the individual parts of the quadriga
were brought to the Louvre and set up in the orangery there. The work
was carried out by the coppersmith and chaser of the Louvre, Christian
Caulers. When the orangery was needed again for the orange trees in
autumn, the quadriga was moved to the Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs. After
the restoration was completed, the Quadriga was returned to the Louvre
in June 1808 and exhibited there. There was no further construction on
the Porte Saint-Denis.
In Prussia, the movement of the Quadriga
was perceived as "bitter disgrace and mockery". After dismantling, only
the Victoria's vertical mounting iron remained on the Brandenburg Gate,
which acted like a spike on the gate. More than the absence of the
quadriga itself, this “spike” reminded Berliners time and again of the
humiliation they felt they had endured.
After winning the wars of
liberation, the Prussian army marched into Paris on March 31, 1814. On
April 4, Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (according to
another source, General War Commissar Friedrich von Ribbentrop) reported
to Berlin that the Quadriga had been found and the king had ordered its
immediate return to Berlin. The Quadriga was packed in 15 cases and
shipped in early April 1814 by land via Compiègne, Noyon, La Fère,
Saint-Quentin (April 21), Beaumont, Brussels (May 4), Louvain,
Tirlemont, Saint-Trond, Liège ( May 8), Aachen (May 9), Jülich,
Düsseldorf (May 10), Elberfeld (May 12), Schwelm, Hamm (May 16),
Bielefeld (May 20), Minden (May 22) , Hanover (May 24–27), Halberstadt
(June 1), Schönebeck, Magdeburg, Brandenburg/Havel, Werder and Potsdam
(June 8) were sent back to Berlin. The leader of this platoon and the
Prussian convoy, Rittmeister von Machui, reported on this in Soldiers'
Friends (No. 758 in 1848). Since the heavily laden wagons in Louvain,
Tirlemont, Sint-Truiden and Aachen could not pass through the city
gates, they are said to have been torn down without further ado,
although this statement is at least doubtful. On Prussian territory,
i.e. from Düsseldorf, the transport accompanied by Blücher became a
triumphal procession. The floats were greeted with jubilation and
decorated with garlands and patriotic inscriptions. On June 9, the
freight arrived in Zehlendorf near Berlin and was taken to the Grunewald
hunting lodge for renewed restoration. For the restoration, the kitchen
in the east wing of the castle was converted into a smithy.
The
building assessor and later building officer Johann Friedrich Moser was
commissioned to manage the reinstallation. As early as April 18, 1814,
Moser had work begun on the Brandenburg Gate. An opening was cut in the
ceiling of the central passageway to allow building materials and tools
to be pulled up into the hollow entablature of the gate. Furthermore,
the copper cover of the gate, which was damaged during the dismantling
of the Quadriga, was taken up, a protective grille was set up and a
temporary workshop set up in the beams, for which a hearth was built
there.
The restoration of the quadriga lasted from June 19 to
July 18, 1814. It was carried out by mechanic Hummel. Emanuel Jury, who
had previously made parts of the Quadriga, again supplied individual
parts that had to be made from scratch. In addition to the elimination
of the transport damage, the Viktoria also received a new victory sign.
Karl Friedrich Schinkel made the draft for this on behalf of Friedrich
Wilhelm III. at. The previous laurel wreath was replaced by an oak
wreath enclosing an Iron Cross with the year '1813'. The Berlin sculptor
Haensch made a wooden model based on the design. Since there was not
enough time before the king entered the Brandenburg Gate to make the
copper victory sign, the wooden model was painted with oil paint, the
Iron Cross was framed with silver-plated brass strips and mounted on the
Victoria.
Between June 24 and 27, 1814, the individual parts of
the Quadriga were transported in two wagon trains from the Grunewald
hunting lodge via Charlottenburg to the Brandenburg Gate, again with
lively public participation. The parts were lifted onto the gate with a
crane, assembled under a tent by Jury and Hummel and attached to the
gate. On Sunday, August 7, 1814, the troops entered Berlin with a
ceremony. King Friedrich Wilhelm III rode at their head, and on reaching
the gate the tent coverings covering the quadriga fell down. To
celebrate the day, the gate also received a festive decoration. The
quadriga was surrounded by twelve candelabra and decorated with foliage.
In the evening, braziers lit up the scenery.
Remaining work on
the Quadriga lasted until September 10, 1814. This included the
production of the new victory sign in copper. Coppersmith Thiemann made
the eagle, while Hummel made the oak wreath and cross. The wreath
consists of 169 oak leaves in three different sizes and 90 acorns. The
Iron Cross had been fire-lacquered black and wore silver-plated
surrounds. For Berliners, the Quadriga was popularly known as the
"retour carriage" after its return.
The end of the Franco-Prussian War and the founding of the
German Reich were celebrated on June 16, 1871 with a pompous victory
parade that ran from Tempelhofer Feld via the Brandenburg Gate to the
Lustgarten.
Until Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated in 1918, only
members of the imperial family and their visitors were allowed to use
the middle passage.
After 1900, due to weathering and
environmental damage, smaller and larger boulders increasingly fell from
the gate. In 1913, extensive renovation work began, which had to be
interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War and was only
completed in 1926. In the meantime, the events of the November
Revolution had led to further considerable damage, particularly to the
Quadriga. The restoration measures under the direction of Kurt Kluge
took place on the spot. For this purpose, the Quadriga was housed in a
wooden structure. The Berliners spoke of the “highest horse stable in
Berlin”, regardless of weather influences, the work could be carried out
in the dry without any delay. The numerous sandstone reliefs were
restored and partially renewed under the artistic direction of Wilhelm
Wandschneider, who remodeled one of the centaur metopes with a different
motif.
On January 30, 1933, the
National Socialists celebrated their "seizure of power" with an SA
torchlight procession through the Brandenburg Gate.
As part of
the transformation of Berlin into the so-called "world capital
Germania", the gate was located on the east-west axis. A seven-kilometer
section between the Brandenburg Gate and Adolf-Hitler-Platz (today:
Theodor-Heuss-Platz) was expanded and put into operation in 1939. With
the further expansion of the east-west axis, which never happened again,
the columned halls on the side of the Brandenburg Gate were to be moved
away, among other things. Traffic would then not only have been guided
through, but also around the gate.
During the Second World War,
the Brandenburg Gate was badly damaged but remained standing. Both
gatehouses burned out, the quadriga was largely destroyed, only a
horse's head, which is on display in the Berlin Märkisches Museum,
survived.
June 17, 1953
In connection with the uprising of
June 17, 1953, three men caught the red flag on the roof of the
Brandenburg Gate and, shortly after midday on June 17, 1953, hoisted the
common black-red-gold flag of the GDR and the Federal Republic. One of
the three men, Wolfgang Panzer, probably paid for this action with his
life and was never seen again.
On September 21, 1956, the East Berlin
magistrate decided to rebuild the only surviving but damaged former city
gate. The corresponding press release states specifically: "Restoration
of the Brandenburg Gate according to the original urban planning concept
of its master builder Langhans, which means that the buildings on both
sides of the gate give way to green areas and traffic has to be diverted
around it". Despite heated arguments and mutual reproaches, both parts
of Berlin worked together to restore it. The Quadriga could be
completely recreated on the basis of a plaster cast from 1942; the
reconstruction was carried out by the sculptor Otto Schnitzer, and the
traditional Hermann Noack foundry in Friedenau was responsible for the
execution. On December 14, 1957 the restoration was finished. The
often-heard assertion that the Quadriga was at times standing in the
opposite direction of travel is incorrect.
During the night of
August 2nd to 3rd, 1958, the Quadriga was secretly taken to the New
Marstall and the Prussian eagle and the Iron Cross were removed or
soldered out. The East Berlin city council declared that the "emblems of
Prussian-German militarism" should no longer be displayed.
When the Berlin Wall was built on August 13, 1961, the
building stood in the middle of the restricted area and could not be
crossed from either the west or the east. Only the GDR border guards and
the groups of visitors led to the visitor platform by the staff of the
Brandenburg Gate information center (mostly state guests in the GDR)
were able to approach the building.
The later Federal President
Richard von Weizsäcker remarked on this during the Cold War:
"As long
as the Brandenburg Gate is closed, the German question is open."
–
Richard von Weizsacker
On June 12, 1987, the US President Ronald
Reagan spoke the following sentence during a visit to Berlin in front of
the Brandenburg Gate:
"Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr.
Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
–Ronald Reagan
28 years after the Wall was built, the
Brandenburg Gate was reopened on December 22, 1989 during the political
change in the GDR to the cheers of more than 100,000 people. The
barriers were then completely removed.
On New Year's Eve
1989/1990, spectators climbed onto the gate and stole various
attachments to the Quadriga (e.g. the bridle). The subsequent
investigation, however, revealed much more serious damage: nothing had
been done to preserve the Quadriga since the Wall was built, and a
number of internal steel parts had rusted through. The Quadriga was
therefore immediately dismantled and was given back the Iron Cross and
the Eagle during the subsequent restoration. The annual maintenance
costs amount to 200,000 euros.
After a long period of neglect and
due to significant environmental damage, the gate (especially the
sandstone) was extensively renovated by the Berlin Monument Protection
Foundation and ceremoniously unveiled again on October 3, 2002 after a
22-month restoration. In this context, a new lighting concept was
developed by the Berlin office of Kardorff Ingenieure, in which the gate
is highlighted as the most important building on Pariser Platz.
Discussion about traffic connection and integration and current
situation
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, there has been debate as
to whether or not the gate should be open to car traffic. Arguments
against the opening were above all massive damage to the sandstone gate
from car exhaust fumes and the desired traffic calming of Pariser Platz.
In August 1990, the red-green Senate under Walter Momper presented a
traffic concept for bypassing the Brandenburg Gate. Within the
subsequent black-red Senate under Eberhard Diepgen, there was no
agreement on the transport issue. The CDU wanted to keep the Brandenburg
Gate open at least for bus and taxi traffic, which the SPD rejected. In
May 1992, both parties agreed to keep the gate open for BVG buses,
taxis, cyclists and pedestrians. The Greens, who had advocated
completely blocking the Brandenburg Gate for motorized traffic, blocked
the opening by Traffic Senator Herwig Haase on May 26, 1992 with a
parliamentary group meeting that they held on the street.
Urban
development senator Volker Hassemer (CDU) wanted to reopen the
Brandenburg Gate to general traffic in November 1992, which according to
his plans should drive through at a maximum of 10 km/h. Another
suggestion from the CDU was a direct bypass instead of a wide one.
Within the coalition, this led to a controversy between the governing
parties, the CDU and the SPD. In addition, from talks with the federal
government, there was a proposal to be able to pass through the gate by
building a tunnel underground, for which the Minister for Regional
Planning, Building and Urban Development Irmgard Schwaetzer from the FDP
spoke out in particular.
The construction work on the bend in the
Spree and the associated closure of Dorotheenstraße was an opportunity
for transport senator Jürgen Klemann from the CDU to open the
Brandenburg Gate to two lanes of traffic in an east-west direction on
March 6, 1998. After the construction work was completed in 2000, the
new Senator for Urban Development, Peter Strieder (SPD), again
restricted access to buses, taxis and bicycles for the two-year
renovation of the Brandenburg Gate. Meanwhile, a new traffic concept
should be developed. There was disagreement within the SPD about a full
ban.
The majority of Berliners spoke out in favor of a closure
after the renovation. In May 2002, the gate was completely closed to
motorized traffic under the red-red senate of Klaus Wowereit and Senator
for Urban Development Peter Strieder. The CDU spoke out against the
blocking because there were no concepts, and the traffic policy
spokesman for the CDU parliamentary group, Alexander Kaczmarek, called
for the population of Berlin to vote on the issue. The FDP criticized
the blockage as a "traffic and economic policy attack on the center of
Berlin". However, the decision of the Senate was welcomed by the Greens
and business associations. In August 2002, the Red-Red Senate initially
agreed to keep the passage open again for local public transport and
taxis from October of the same year. Transport Senator Peter Strieder
later pushed through a complete ban on motorized traffic, which was also
supported by the coalition partner PDS.
In accordance with the
Berlin Mobility Act, eleven high-speed cycle connections are to be built
in the city. According to the proposals of the commissioned planning
office, the 'Ost-Route' high-speed cycle connection could lead through
the Brandenburg Gate. This route, which was presented to the public at
an information event on December 9, 2019, is "currently the route with
the best technical rating". The CDU parliamentary group then spoke out
against a cycle route through the Brandenburg Gate because it would
unnecessarily endanger pedestrians and devalue the quality of stay. The
traffic club for pedestrians FUSS also criticized the plans and
commented that "Berlin's symbolically most important urban space would
be cut up".
In the area of the Brandenburg Gate, the S-Bahn lines
S1, S2, S25 and S26 run underground in the "North-South Tunnel". The U5
underground line also passes under the gate. To the east of the gate is
the Brandenburg Gate station, which is also underground, and where these
lines intersect.
Originally, the federal roads B 2 and B 5, which
ran on a common route, crossed the Brandenburg Gate. Since the
transformation of Pariser Platz into a pedestrian zone in 2002, the
route of both federal roads has been led north around the Brandenburg
Gate via Ebertstrasse, Dorotheenstrasse and Wilhelmstrasse.
In the northern gatehouse there has been a meditation room since 1994, modeled on the room of silence that Dag Hammarskjöld had set up for himself and his staff in the UN building in New York. The aim is to offer a place of quiet contemplation in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the big city. The place of tolerance between nationalities and religions is a reminder of peace.
At
around 11:30 p.m. on January 15, 2023, a motorist coming from the
direction of Unter den Linden crashed into the fifth pillar of the gate
(seen from the east) at excessive speed and died. The vehicle caught
fire at one point. Hot oil must have penetrated "deep into the pore
structure of the sandstone"; the pillar was "significantly damaged" and
a wheel deflector was completely destroyed. However, the static is
apparently not endangered. The area between the fourth and sixth pillars
has been closed. The renovation is expected to take a month and a half.
The Brandenburg Gate as a location for opera and film
In 1814 the
Berlin opera composer Giacomo Meyerbeer created a Singspiel entitled Das
Brandenburger Tor (libretto: Johann Emanuel Veith), which, however, was
only premiered on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his birthday
(September 5, 1991) in the Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt.
In 1961,
shortly before the Wall was built, Billy Wilder played important
sequences from his film Eins, zwei, drei (with Horst Buchholz) at the
Brandenburg Gate.
Over the course of time,
the Brandenburg Gate has repeatedly been depicted as a symbol of German
unity:
The Indivisible Germany Board of Trustees, which was dissolved
in 1992, used it on posters and collection boxes.
The backs of the
German euro coins of 10, 20 and 50 cents show the goal. On the last
series of Deutsche Mark banknotes, the Brandenburg Gate was depicted on
the back of the 5 DM note. The gate was depicted on five values of a
stamp series of the Deutsche Bundespost. Since October 24, 2008, there
has been a Deutsche Post machine stamp that also shows the Brandenburg
Gate.
Phantasialand, an amusement park in Brühl, had a Brandenburg
Gate from 1972 to early 2009. This represented the end of a simplified
replica of a street in the city of Berlin. The gate in the park was
smaller (scale 1:2) and shown in a much simplified way.
A treillage
in the park of Mückenberg Castle, which was destroyed in 1945 and fell
victim to a hurricane in 1912, was modeled on the Brandenburg Gate.