The Brandenburg Gate amid the ruins of Berlin, June 1945.

The Brandenburg Gate is Berlin's most famous landmark. A symbol of Berlin and German division during the Cold War, it is now a national symbol of peace and unity.

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The Brandenburg Gate was erected between 1788 and 1791 according to designs by Carl Gotthard Langhans whose vision was inspired by the Propylaea in Athens' Acropolis.

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During WW2 Brandenburg Gate was damaged but not destroyed by allied bombing. Efforts to disguise the government district of Berlin and confuse Allied bombers had included the construction of a replica Brandenburg Gate located away from the city centre.

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After 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. The gate was located in the Soviet occupation zone, directly next to the border to the British occupation zone, which later became the border between East and West Berlin.

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Vehicles and pedestrians could travel freely through the gate until the day after construction began on the Berlin Wall on 'Barbed Wire Sunday', 13th August 1961. West Berliners gathered on the western side of the gate to demonstrate against the Berlin Wall, among them West Berlin's mayor, Willy Brandt, who had returned from a federal election campaign tour in West Germany earlier the same day. The wall passed directly by the western side of the gate, which was closed throughout the Berlin Wall period, which ended on the 22nd December 1989.

Source: Wikipedia

The Brandenburg Gate in 2010.