A composite image of the Brandenburg Gate, as photographed in 1941 with Nazi banners and in 2022 with a Jewish menorah in front of it.
Culture Club/Contributor via Getty Images/Markus Schreiber/AP/Business Insider
A giant Jewish menorah was erected in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, last week.
The 234-year-old historic monument once stood in the backdrop of Germany's tumultuous history.
Commissioned in the late 1700s, Berlin's only surviving historical city gate was once seen as a symbol of Nazi power.
Hanukkah celebrations began in the city of Berlin as hundreds of people gathered at the historic Brandenburg Gate to witness the lighting of a giant 33-foot menorah. This is the largest of nearly 50 public menorahs placed throughout the city.Rabbis Yehuda Teichtal (L) and Shmuel Segal sing and dance as they consecrate a giant menorah in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on December 16, 2022, as preparations are under way for Hanukkah (or Chanukkah), an eight-day Jewish celebration.
The Brandenburg Gate was commissioned by Prussian Emperor Frederick William II in the late 1700s and was Berlin's first Greek revival building. At 85-feet high and 215-feet long, it was built to symbolize peace and unity in Europe. Its original name translates to the "Peace Gate."Carriages at the Brandenburg Gate, based on an etching of Daniel Chodowiecki in 1764.
The monument stood at the center of a number of historical events postmarked throughout Germany's history, including the occupation of French forces under military leader and Emperor Napoleon in the early 19th century.Napoleon's entrance into the city of Berlin, via the Brandenburg Gate, Germany, 27th October 1806. Published 1825.
The gate quickly became a symbol of national pride, represented by the Quadriga statue, featuring a two-wheeled chariot pulled by four horses to signify peace entering the city.A German flag waves above the Brandenburg Gate, as seen in 1900.
But Nazi leader Adolf Hitler took that sense of nationalism to an extreme in the 1900s, turning the gate into a symbol of Nazi power during the Holocaust.Members of the Nazi party parade through Berlin, Germany, in 1942.
Given the politicized role the monument played for the Nazi party and Hitler's fascist government during WWII, the Brandenburg Gate was bombed toward the end of the war as the British occupied Berlin.Scenes showing rubble and destruction at the Brandenburg Gate in the German city of Berlin as the British Army occupied the city at the end of WWII.
WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images
But the second World War wasn't the last historic moment to transpire before the monument. Standing just steps away from the Berlin Wall that separated communist East Germany (East Berlin) and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Berlin) from 1961 to 1989, the Brandenburg Gate also lay witness to the infamous fall of the wall.People gather on one side of the Berlin Wall as German soldiers stand on a raised platform before the Brandenburg gate during the destruction of the Berlin Wall separating Potsdam Platz from the Brandenburg Gate.
Jacques Langevin/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images
Today, the gate has become an important cultural and national site where people have protested climate change, shown solidarity with protesters in Iran, and stood against antisemitism.People carry an Israeli and a German flag during a rally in solidarity with Israel and against antisemitism, in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, May 20, 2021.
More than two centuries after it was first commissioned, the Brandenburg Gate is now the site where Hanukkah can be observed on a grand scale, symbolizing hope and light in a place that once harbored fear.Christian Lindner, Federal Minister of Finance, and Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, Chairman of the Chabad Jewish Education Center, light the first light on the Hanukkah candelabrum in front of the Brandenburg Gate.
Christoph Soeder/picture alliance via Getty Images
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