The Brandenburg Gate is a neoclassical triumphal arch in the center of Berlin, built for the Prussian king Frederick William II and completed in 1791. It was designed by Carl Gotthard Langhans, who took inspiration from the Propylaea, the gateway of the Acropolis in Athens, and it is crowned by the Quadriga, a sculpture of a chariot drawn by four horses driven by the goddess of victory, made by Johann Gottfried Schadow. Napoleon took the Quadriga to Paris as a trophy after defeating Prussia in 1806, and it was returned in 1814. During the Cold War the gate stood in the no-man's-land by the Berlin Wall, and it became a symbol of German reunification after the wall opened in 1989.
Before and after
- 16 December 1790Birth of Leopold I of Belgium
- 23 December 1790Birth of Jean-François Champollion
- c. 1791Publication of The Magic Flute
- 1791Discovery of titanium
- 1791Brandenburg Gate
- 23 April 1791Birth of James Buchanan
- 27 April 1791Birth of Samuel Finley Breese Morse
- 3 May 1791Constitution of May 3, 1791
- from 14 August 1791 to 1 January 1804Haitian Revolution
More in Art, literature & culture
- from 18th century to 19th centuryRomanticism
- 1 November 1800Construction of White House
- 1886Statue of Liberty
- c. 1900sRise of modernism
- 1907Rise of cubism
- c. 1910sRise of Dada
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 18th century.