Berlin, Brandenburg Gate

President Ronald Reagan’s demand, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall,” was issued on a platform right at the Berlin Wall, just a few yards from the Brandenburg Gate, during his visit to Berlin on June 12, 1987. And on November 10, 1989, two years and five months after President Reagan’s request, or rather his demand, Mr. Gorbachev obeyed, and the Berlin Wall came down. A photo taken during the years of the Berlin Wall, would show the Wall ran from left to right, just a few yards this side of the Gate.

The portion of the Berlin Wall built right across the many-lane Straße des 17 Juni, at the Brandenburg Gate, was built much thicker than elsewhere. Since the wide street permitted a vehicle to gain high speed, East Berlin authorities had been afraid someone would drive a bulldozer or an Army tank, crash through the Wall, and celebrate at the Brandenburg Gate, just a few yards away. The portion of the Wall built in front of the Brandenburg Gate, was much too thick for any vehicle to crash. Before WW II, the United States Embassy stood just to the right of the Gate, and would have been in East Berlin all those years, had it not been destroyed during the war.

The Brandenburg Gate (215 feet wide, 36 feet thick, and 85 feet high) was built starting in 1788, with the Quadriga (four horses pulling a Roman chariot) on top. In spite of its weight of ten tons, during Berlin's occupation by France in 1806, Napoléon “claimed” the Quadriga, packed it in 14 boxes and moved it to Paris. After his defeat in the Battle of Waterloo in 1814, it was returned to its place on the Gate.

In 1957, after WW II damage, a West Berlin foundry recast the Quadriga, using the original plaster models, stored in the West. It was damaged during the over-ambitious victory party (celebrating the removal of the Wall) on New Years Eve 1989, so once more it was removed and repaired.