During its 200 years of existence the ceremonial entry gate to the city of Berlin witnessed all significant moments in history of the capital and the nation, to became one of the vivid symbols of the city. Originally build as the symbol of peace in 1791 soon suffered the Quadriga from the top dismantled and take by Napoleon troops to Paris.
Branderburger Tor
On the triumphant returning back the statue was renamed to Victory ad the pole held by the lady was adorned with Prusian sitting eagle and the cross, on the initiative of king Frederic-William III. The Quadriga was ‘entering’ the city till the time, when Hitler turned it towards west to express the will to expand the German territory. Several years later the picture of a Russian soldier with the red flag atop of the gate became the iconic symbol of the end of World War II. Soon Brandenburger Tor get another meaning, this time as a closed gate on the border of a separated town. It happened to be located inside the Eastern Zone, surrounded by the infamous wall, long with Reichstag and other governmental buildings. Finally from close neighbourhood of the gate the demolishing of the wall started at the reunion in 1989.
[photo courtesy of rickz]
