Brandenburg Gate Reopens: Berlin Reunites at Last

Tens of thousands of people surged through the Brandenburg Gate on December 22, 1989, six weeks after the Berlin Wall first cracked open, in a ceremony that formally ended the division of Berlin into hostile halves. West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and East German Prime Minister Hans Modrow walked together through the gate as fireworks exploded overhead and the crowd chanted "Tor auf!" — open the gate. The Brandenburg Gate had served as the most potent symbol of Cold War division since August 13, 1961, when East German border guards sealed it with concrete barriers and barbed wire during the overnight construction of the Berlin Wall. Built in 1791 as a neoclassical triumphal arch modeled on the entrance to the Athenian Acropolis, it stood in the no-man land of the death strip between East and West, visible from both sides but accessible to neither. Presidents Kennedy and Reagan had both delivered speeches within sight of the gate, with Reagan famously demanding in 1987 that Gorbachev "tear down this wall." The wall had begun falling on November 9 when a confused East German spokesman accidentally announced that travel restrictions were lifted "immediately, without delay." Thousands of Berliners flooded the checkpoints, and overwhelmed border guards stood aside. Over the following weeks, crossing points multiplied, but the Brandenburg Gate remained sealed as a matter of symbolic dispute between the two German governments. The reopening ceremony was both a celebration and a negotiation. Kohl used the occasion to push his vision of rapid reunification, which many in Europe, including British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and French President Francois Mitterrand, privately opposed. German reunification was formally completed on October 3, 1990, less than a year later. The Brandenburg Gate, restored and floodlit, now stands as the centerpiece of a reunified Berlin and hosts the largest New Year Eve celebration in Europe each year.