Brandenburg Gate The Brandenburg Gate ( ) is a former city gate , rebuilt in the late 18th century as a neoclassical triumphal arch , and now one of the most well - known landmarks of Germany . It is located in the western part of the city centre of Berlin , at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße , immediately west of the Pariser Platz . One block to the north stands the Reichstag building . The gate is the monumental entry to Unter den Linden , the renowned boulevard of linden trees , which formerly led directly to the city palace of the Prussia n monarchs . It was commissioned by King Frederick William II of Prussia as a sign of peace and built by Carl Gotthard Langhans from 1788 to 1791 . Having suffered considerable damage in World War II , the Brandenburg Gate was fully restored from 2000 to 2002 by the Stiftung Denkmalschutz Berlin ( Berlin Monument Conservation Foundation ) . During the post - war Partition of Germany , the gate was isolated and inaccessible immediately next to the Berlin Wall , and the area around the gate featured most prominently in the media coverage of the opening of the wall in 1989 . Throughout its existence , the Brandenburg Gate was often a site for major historical events and is today considered a symbol of the tumultuous history of Europe and Germany , but also of European unity and peace . Design and history . In the time of Frederick William ( 1688 ) , shortly after the Thirty Years ' war and a century before the gate was constructed , Berlin was a small walled city within a star fort with several named gates : Spandauer Tor , St . Georgen Tor , Stralower Tor , Cöpenicker Tor , Neues Tor , and Leipziger Tor " ( see map ) " . Relative peace , a policy of religious tolerance , and status as capital of the Kingdom of Prussia facilitated the growth of the city . The Brandenburg Gate was not part of the old fortifications but one of 18 gates within the Berlin Customs Wall ( ) , erected in the 1730s , including the old fortified city and many of its then suburbs . The new gate was commissioned by Friedrich Wilhelm II to represent peace . The Gate was designed by Carl Gotthard Langhans , the Court Superintendent of Buildings , and built between 1788 and 1791 , replacing the earlier simple guard houses siding the original gate in the Customs Wall . The Gate consists of twelve Doric columns , six to each side , forming five passageways . Citizens originally were allowed to use only the outermost two on each side . Atop the gate is the Quadriga , a chariot drawn by four horses driven by Victoria , the Roman goddess of victory . However , the new gate was originally named the " Peace Gate " ( German : Friedenstor ) and the goddess could then also be interpreted as Eirene , the goddess of peace . The Gate ' s design is based upon the Propylaea , the gateway to the Acropolis in Athens , Greece and is consistent with Berlin ' s history of architectural classicism ( first , Baroque , and then neo - Palladian ) . The Gate was the first " Athens on the River Spree " by architect Carl Gotthard von Langhans . The capital Quadriga was sculpted by Johann Gottfried Schadow . The Brandenburg Gate has played different political roles in German history . 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 . It was now redesigned by Karl Friedrich Schinkel for the new role of the Brandenburg Gate as a Prussian triumphal arch ; the goddess , now definitely Victoria , was equipped with the Prussian eagle and Iron Cross on her lance with a wreath of oak leaves . The Quadriga faces east , as it did when it was originally installed in 1793 . Only the royal family was allowed to pass through the central archway , as well as members of the Pfuel family , from 1814 to 1919 . In addition , the central archway was also used by the coaches of Ambassadors on the single occasion of their presenting their letters of credence to council . When the Nazis ascended to power they used the Gate as a party symbol . The Gate survived World War II and was one of the damaged structures still standing in the Pariser Platz ruins in 1945 ( another being the Academy of Fine Arts ) . The gate was badly damaged with holes in the columns from bullets and nearby explosions . Following Germany ' s surrender and the end of the war , the governments of East Berlin and West Berlin restored it in a joint effort . The holes were patched , and were visible for many years following the war . During 1990 , the Quadriga was removed from the gate as part of renovation work carried out by the East German authorities following the fall of the wall in November 1989 . Germany was officially reunified in October 1990 . On 21 December 2000 , the Brandenburg Gate was privately refurbished at a cost of six million Euros . On 3 October 2002 , the twelfth anniversary of German Reunification , the Brandenburg Gate was once again reopened following extensive refurbishment . The Brandenburg Gate is now again closed for vehicle traffic , and much of Pariser Platz has been turned into a cobblestone pedestrian zone . The gate , along with the broad " Straße des 17 . Juni " avenue to the west , is also one of the gathering points in Berlin where over a million people gather to watch a stage show , party and see fireworks go off at midnight on New Year ' s Eve . Berlin Wall and its fall . Vehicles and pedestrians could travel freely through the gate , located in East Berlin , until the Berlin Wall was built , 13 August 1961 . Then one of all together eight Berlin Wall crossings was opened on the eastern side of the gate , usually not open for East Berliners and East Germans , who from then on needed a hard - to - obtain exit visa . On 14 August West Berliners gathered on the western side of the gate to demonstrate against the Berlin Wall , among them West Berlin ' s governing Mayor Willy Brandt , who had spontaneously returned from a federal election campaigning tour in West Germany earlier on the same day . Under the pretext that Western demonstrations required it , the East closed the checkpoint at the Brandenburg Gate the same day , ' until further notice ' , a situation that was to last until 22 December 1989 . The Wall was erected as an arc just west of the gate , cutting off access from West Berlin . On the eastern side , the " baby Wall " , drawn across the eastern end of Pariser Platz rendered it off limits to East Berliners as well . When the Revolutions of 1989 occurred and the Wall fell , the gate symbolized freedom and the desire to unify the city of Berlin . Thousands of people gathered at the Wall to celebrate its fall on 9 November 1989 . On 22 December 1989 , the Brandenburg Gate crossing was reopened when Helmut Kohl , the West German chancellor , walked through to be greeted by Hans Modrow , the East German prime minister . Demolition of the rest of the Wall around the area took place the following year . Brandenburg Gate became the main venue for the 20th anniversary celebrations of the fall of the Berlin Wall or " Festival of Freedom " on the evening of 9 November 2009 . The high point of the celebrations was when over 1000 colorfully designed foam domino tiles , each over 2 . 5 meters tall , were lined up along the route of the former wall through the city centre . The domino " wall " was then toppled in stages converging here . Political history at the gate . A Soviet flag flew from a flagpole atop the gate from 1945 until 1957 , when it was replaced by an East German flag . Since the reunification of Germany , the flag and the pole have been removed . In 1963 , U . S . President John F . Kennedy visited the Brandenburg Gate . The Soviets hung large red banners across it to prevent him looking into East Berlin . In the 1980s , decrying the existence of two German states and two Berlins , West Berlin mayor Richard von Weizsäcker said : " " The German question is open as long as the Brandenburg Gate is closed . " " On 12 June 1987 , U . S . President Ronald Reagan spoke to the West Berlin populace at the Brandenburg Gate , demanding the razing of the Berlin Wall . Addressing the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , Mikhail Gorbachev , Reagan said , " " On 25 December 1989 , less than two months after the Berlin Wall began to come down , the conductor Leonard Bernstein conducted the Berlin Philharmonic in a version of the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven at the then newly opened Brandenburg Gate . In the concluding choral movement of the symphony , the famous " Ode to Joy " , the word " Freude " ( " Joy " ) was replaced with " Freiheit " ( " Freedom " ) to celebrate the fall of the Wall and the imminent reunification of Germany . On 2 – 3 October 1990 , the Gate was the scene of the official ceremony to mark the reunification of Germany . At the stroke of midnight on 3 October , the black - red - gold flag of West Germany — now the flag of a reunified Germany — was raised over the Gate . On 12 July 1994 , U . S . President Bill Clinton spoke at the Gate about peace in post – Cold War Europe . On 9 November 2009 , Chancellor Angela Merkel , walked through Brandenburg Gate with Russia ’ s Mikhail Gorbachev and Poland ' s Lech Wałęsa as part of the 20 - year celebration of tearing down the Berlin Wall . On 13 August 2011 , Germany marked the 50th anniversary of the day the Berlin Wall started to go up with a memorial service and a minute of silence in memory of those who died trying to flee to the West . " It is our shared responsibility to keep the memory alive and to pass it on to the coming generations as a reminder to stand up for freedom and democracy to ensure that such injustice may never happen again , " Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit said . German Chancellor Angela Merkel — who grew up behind the wall in Germany ' s communist eastern part — also attended the commemoration . German President Christian Wulff added , " It has been shown once again : Freedom is invincible at the end . No wall can permanently withstand the desire for freedom . " On 19 June 2013 , U . S . President Barack Obama spoke at the Gate about nuclear arms reduction and the recently revealed U . S . internet surveillance activities .