Brandenburg Gate

The Brandenburg Gate: Every Era Left Its Mark

The Brandenburg Gate was completed in 1791 as a city gate and symbol of peace, the name “Friedenstor,” peace gate, was part of its original designation. Napoleon marched through it in 1806 after defeating Prussia and had the Quadriga (the four-horse chariot sculpture on top) removed and shipped to Paris as a trophy. Prussia recovered it in 1814 after Napoleon’s defeat, added an Iron Cross and a Prussian eagle to the chariot, and returned it to Berlin. Under the Nazis, the gate became the backdrop for massive military parades. After World War II, it sat directly on the border between East and West Berlin, accessible from neither side. The Wall built in 1961 went directly behind it. When the Wall fell in November 1989, the gate was where hundreds of thousands of Berliners gathered. Reagan had given his “tear down this wall” speech two years earlier in front of it; the sentence is better remembered than the fact that the speech otherwise contained nothing about Berlin.

The gate now stands in the centre of reunified Berlin, on Pariser Platz, surrounded by embassies, hotel terraces, and year-round tourist activity. It’s free to walk through at any hour.

What to See Around the Gate

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is 150 metres south: 2,711 concrete steles of varying heights arranged on an undulating surface. You can walk between them at ground level; the effect becomes disorienting as you move toward the centre, which is presumably deliberate. The underground information centre has documentation of individual Holocaust victims’ stories and is worth the time.

The Reichstag Building, 400 metres north, contains the Norman Foster glass dome installed during the 1990s renovation, a glass cupola open to the public that allows visitors to look down into the plenary chamber from above. The symbolism (citizens looking over their lawmakers) was explicit in Foster’s design. Free entry, but reservations required online at least 3 days ahead at bundestag.de. The view from the dome rooftop over central Berlin is the best free panorama in the city.

Unter den Linden, the main boulevard extending east from the gate, was historically Berlin’s grandest processional route and retains its rows of linden trees. The Humboldt Forum (the rebuilt Berlin Palace, housing ethnographic and cultural collections) and Museum Island are both 1-1.5km along it.

Eating Near the Gate

The hotel and café operations immediately around Pariser Platz are tourist-priced. Walking 10-15 minutes east toward Mitte or west toward Tiergarten gives better food at better prices. Hackescher Markt (15 minutes east) has a cluster of restaurants and bars worth exploring for dinner. For a proper lunch near the gate, the Café Einstein Stammhaus on Kurfürstenstrasse (25 minutes west) is a Vienna-style coffeehouse that has been serving Viennese Schnitzel and Gulasch in a grand townhouse since the 1970s.

Where to Stay

Hotel Adlon Kempinski at Pariser Platz 3 faces the gate and has been Berlin’s grand hotel since 1907 (rebuilt after WWII); rooms from around €400-600 per night. For mid-range, the many business hotels around Potsdamer Platz and Mitte offer reliable quality at €120-200. Staying near Hackescher Markt puts you in a more interesting neighbourhood at comparable prices to the gate area.

Getting Around Berlin

Berlin’s U-Bahn and S-Bahn network covers the city comprehensively; a 24-hour ticket at €9 covers all zones. The S-Bahn circles the city centre on the ring line; the U2 and S1 both serve Unter den Linden/Brandenburger Tor station. The city is large but manageable with the transit network.