Brandenburg Gate

The Brandenburg Gate is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, built on the orders of Prussian king Frederick William II. It is located in the western part of the city center, at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, immediately west of the Pariser Platz. One of the best-known landmarks of Germany, it was built on the site of a former city gate that marked the start of the road from Berlin to the town of Brandenburg an der Havel, which used to be capital of the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Completed in 1791, the gate has become an iconic symbol of Berlin and German division and unity. Throughout its existence, the Brandenburg Gate has often been a site for major historical events and is today considered not only as a symbol of the tumultuous history of Europe and Germany, but also of European unity and peace. After the 1806 Prussian defeat at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, Napoleon was the first to use the Brandenburg Gate for a triumphal procession, and took its Quadriga to Paris. After Napoleon's defeat in 1814 and the Prussian occupation of Paris by General Ernst von Pfuel, the Quadriga was restored to Berlin and placed atop the gate once again. The Quadriga faces east, as it did when it was originally installed in 1793. During the Cold War, when the gate was located in the Soviet sector of Berlin next to the Berlin Wall, the gate symbolized a divided nation. It became the backdrop for U.S. President Ronald Reagan's 1987 famous speech where he called on Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "open this gate" and "tear down this wall". When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, thousands of people gathered at the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate its opening, making it a powerful symbol of German reunification.