3D model of Brandenburg Gate

The Brandenburg Gate was commissioned by the Prussian Emperor Frederick William II in the late 1700s. Its original name meant ‘Peace Gate’. For a time it divided East and West Berlin, but now it is an icon of peace that has shaped German identity throughout its turbulent past.

Completed in 1791 by architect Carl Gotthard Langhans and sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow, Brandenburg Gate immediately became one of the most recognizable structures in Berlin.

Langhans modeled the Brandenburg Gate on the Propylaea, the entrance gate to the Athenian Acropolis, which includes Doric columns, a capped pediment, and adjoining temples.