Brandenburg Gate Timeline

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.

The gate was used as a firing position by government troops during both the Spartacist uprising of January 1919 and the Kapp Putsch in March 1920.

In 1939, a seven-kilometer-long section between the Brandenburg Gate and Adolf-Hitler-Platz (today Theodor-Heuss-Platz) was extended and put into operation.

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.

A Soviet flag flew from a flagpole atop the gate from 1945 until 1957, when it was replaced by an East German flag. During the 1953 riots in East Berlin, the Soviet flag had also been torn off by West Germans.

Despite postwar turmoil, the standard black, red, and gold tricolour flag flew from the Brandenburg Gate from 1949 until 1959, serving as a shared symbol before East Germany altered its design.

On 17 June 1953, amid the East German uprising of 1953, three men scaled the gate, removed the Soviet flag, and hoisted the black-red-gold flag shared by both German states.

Image source: East German uprising of 1953

On 21 September 1956, the East Berlin magistrate decided to restore the damaged monument, which was the only surviving city gate in Berlin.

The quadriga was entirely recreated using a 1942 plaster cast. Sculptor Otto Schnitzer and the traditional Hermann Noack foundry in Friedenau completed the reconstruction, and the restoration finished on 14 December 1957.

On 7 October 1959, the Flag of East Germany was raised on the roof of the gate to mark the 10th anniversary of the country's founding.

Image source: Flag of East Germany

Vehicles and pedestrians could travel freely through the gate until the day after construction began on the Berlin Wall on Barbed Wire Sunday, 13 August 1961. The wall passed directly by the western side of the gate, closing it throughout the Cold War period.

Image source: Berlin Wall

On 12 June 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan delivered his famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate challenging the Soviet Union, an iconic moment of the Cold War era at the divided monument.

Image source: Tear down this wall!

Thousands of people gathered at the wall to celebrate its fall on 9 November 1989. When the Revolutions of 1989 occurred and the wall was demolished, the gate symbolized freedom and the desire to unify the city of Berlin.

On 22 December 1989, the Brandenburg Gate border crossing was reopened when Helmut Kohl, the West German chancellor, walked through to be greeted by Hans Modrow, the East German prime minister. The wall had obstructed the gateway until its fall in 1989, serving for almost three decades as a marker of the city's division.

On 25 December 1989, less than two months after the Berlin Wall began to come down, conductor Leonard Bernstein conducted the Berlin Philharmonic in a version of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the newly opened Brandenburg Gate.

In 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.

On 2–3 October 1990, Germany was officially reunified, and the Brandenburg Gate was the scene of the official ceremony marking reunification. Since then, it has been considered not only a symbol of the tumultuous histories of Germany and Europe, but also of European unity and peace.

Image source: German reunification

On 12 July 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton spoke at the Brandenburg Gate, continuing its role as a venue for major international addresses.

The Brandenburg Gate was privately refurbished beginning on 21 December 2000, at a cost of €6 million.

The Brandenburg Gate was once again opened on 3 October 2002 following extensive refurbishment, timed for the 12th anniversary of German reunification.

The Brandenburg Gate has hosted street events at the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Athletics and repeated its role at the 2018 European Athletics Championships.

Image source: 2018 European Athletics Championships

The 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. Chancellor Angela Merkel walked through the gate with Russia's Mikhail Gorbachev and Poland's Lech Wałęsa. The high point was over 1000 colourfully designed foam domino tiles, each over 2.5 metres tall, lined up along the former wall's route.

On 13 August 2011, Germany marked the 50th anniversary of the day the Berlin Wall began construction with a memorial service and a minute of silence in memory of those who died trying to flee to the West.

On 19 June 2013, U.S. President Barack Obama spoke at the Brandenburg Gate, following in the tradition of presidential addresses at the historic site.

After winning the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the Germany national football team held their victory rally in front of the Brandenburg Gate, celebrating their fourth world title with hundreds of thousands of fans.

Image source: 2014 FIFA World Cup final

On the night of 5 January 2015, the lights illuminating the gate were completely shut off in protest against a demonstration held by far-right anti-Islamic group Pegida.

Image source: Pegida

In April 2017, Die Zeit noted that the gate was not illuminated in Russian colours after the 2017 Saint Petersburg Metro bombing, drawing commentary about the selective use of landmark illuminations.

Image source: 2017 Saint Petersburg Metro bombing

In February 2022, the Brandenburg Gate was lit up with the colours of the Ukrainian flag during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, as a show of solidarity.

Image source: Russian invasion of Ukraine

On 17 September 2023, German climate activists from the Last Generation group used fire extinguishers to spray paint the Brandenburg Gate's columns orange, damaging the monument in a climate protest.

Image source: Last Generation (climate movement)

On 7 October 2023, the gate was lit up with the flag of Israel after the October 7 attacks carried out by Hamas, demonstrating solidarity with Israel.

Image source: October 7 attacks