The Brandenburg Gate. April 2024
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For me it is exciting to explore this city on foot. I have to admit that I am standing directly in front of the Brandenburg Gate for the first time, walking through it and looking down on the Unter den Linden boulevard and on the other side at the Victory Column.
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The Brandenburg Gate is the only remaining city gate in Berlin.
The early classical triumphal gate was built between 1789 and 1793 at the instigation of Emperor Friedrich Wilhelm II.
The Quadriga is a work by the sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow.
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It is Berlin’s most famous landmark and a German national symbol associated with the Napoleonic era, World War II, the division of Germany and Berlin, and reunification in 1989.
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After Napoleon’s victory, he and his troops marched into Berlin through the Brandenburg Gate in 1806. The Quadriga was transported to Paris as a war trophy.
After winning the wars of liberation, the Prussian troops marched into Paris and the Quadriga was brought back to Berlin as a “return coach” – as the Berliners called it after it was brought back from Paris.
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This building could tell many stories.
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Prussia has now disappeared as a state. Only the buildings, to the extent that they are still preserved, bear witness to the former power and splendor. Today there is no country that bears this name, nor is there a Prussian language.
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Photo: Peter J. Spoerer © – All rights reserved
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