The Tumultuous History of Berlin’s 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.  

In 1806 when Napoleon invaded Berlin, he took the bronze sculpture of a horse and chariot just above the Brandenburg Gate. After he was defeated, the statue was returned from Paris and an Iron Cross was added to signify victory.  

This was quite the victory for Germany, which led to an increased sense of national pride. Over the next 100 years, this sense of nationalism grew to dangerous levels and led to the rise of Adolph Hitler and his Fascist government in 1933.  

Berlin was bombed at the end of WWII. A symbol of victory, national pride, and the Nazis, the Gate was a frequent target. It was damaged but survived to see another tragedy when it was used to mark the border between Communist East Berlin and the Federal Republic of West Berlin.

The Gate saw a new era with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. It was no longer a dividing line but a unified passageway, confirmed when West Germany’s Chancellor Helmut Kohl walked through Brandenburg Gate to meet East Germany’s Prime Minister Hans Modrow on the other side.

The Brandenburg Gate now represents the symbol of unity, hope and peace it was originally intended to be.