Placed for MiGO Winter Social 2020.
The cache is in a cemetery so please be respectful and NO night caching.
The Brandenburg Gate is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, built on the orders of Prussian king Frederick William II after the temporary restoration of order during the Batavian Revolution. One of the best-known landmarks of Germany, it was built on the site of a former city gate that marked the start of the road from Berlin to the town of Brandenburg an der Havel, which used to be capital of the Margraviate of Brandenburg.
The gate consists of twelve Doric columns, six to each side, forming five passageways. Citizens were originally allowed to use only the outermost two on each side. Its design is based on the Propylaea, the gateway to the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, and is consistent with Berlin's history of architectural classicism. The gate was the first element of "Athens on the River Spree" by architect Langhans. Atop the gate is a Quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses driven by Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory.
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. 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. 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, but were visible for many years following the war. Some can still be seen today. Vehicles and pedestrians could travel freely through the gate, located in East Berlin, until the day after construction began on the Berlin Wall on Barbed Wire Sunday, 13 August 1961. It was closed throughout the Berlin Wall period, which ended on 22 December 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.
Throughout its existence, the Brandenburg Gate was often a site for major historical events and is today considered not only as a symbol of the tumultuous history of Europe and Germany, but also of European unity and peace.
I was stationed in Germany during an Army tour in the mid 80's when the wall was still up. My wife CoachO and I were able to visit Berlin and the Brandenburg Gate while on a Baltic Sea cruise in 2019. If you happen to go you will also be able to grab not one, but THREE caches while you are there. A virtual, and earthcache, and a multi! GC7B91A - Brandenburger Tor , GC5HW7H - Das Brandenburger Tor, GCKAFZ - Brandenburger_Tor
