Editing Brandenburg Gate (section)

===18th-century reconstruction===
[[Frederick William II of Prussia]] was in his early forties when he came to the throne in 1786. He was determined to establish his capital of Berlin as a cultural centre.{{sfn|Watkin|1986|p=356}} The military triumphs of his uncle [[Frederick the Great]] had made the [[Kingdom of Prussia]] a power that could not be ignored in European politics, but Berlin lacked the monuments and cultural life of [[Vienna]], Paris or London. His uncle's tastes had been those typical of his generation, drawing on French classicism and English [[Palladianism]],{{sfn|Watkin|1986|p=354–355}} and his [[Brandenburg Gate (Potsdam)|Brandenburg Gate]] in [[Potsdam]] (1770–71) was a much smaller monument, poised between [[Rococo]] and a Roman-influenced [[Neoclassical architecture]].

Frederick William II summoned new German architects to Berlin, including [[Carl Gotthard Langhans]] from the city of Breslau (today [[Wrocław]] in Poland),{{sfn|Watkin|1986|p=356}} who was appointed head court architect ("Oberhofbauampt", or Court Superintendent of Buildings) in 1788.{{sfn|Pohlsander|2008|p=176}} Though he had designed many Neoclassical buildings, this was his first significant work in the Greek style, and his last major one; by 1792 he had designed a small [[Gothic Revival architecture|neo-Gothic]] building for the [[New Garden, Potsdam|New Garden]] in Potsdam. The gate was the first element of a "new Athens on the river Spree" by Langhans.<ref>[[Graham Ward (theologian)|Ward, Graham]], "The Making of the Modern Metropolis" in ''The Oxford Handbook of Theology and Modern European Thought'', p. 68., Oxford University Press, 2013.</ref>

The gate was originally called the ''{{langx|de|Friedenstor|link=no}}'' or "Peace Gate"; the [[Patriottentijd|military victory it celebrated]] had been very complete, but almost fatality-free, so the name seemed justified.<ref name=DenkmalBT>{{cite web|title=Denkmale in Berlin. Brandenburger Tor|url=http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/cgi-bin/hidaweb/getdoc.pl?DOK_TPL=lda_doc.tpl&KEY=obj%2009065019|publisher=Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung und Umwelt, Berlin|access-date=5 August 2013}}</ref> Frederick William II had restored his brother-in-law to power in the Netherlands.  But the [[French Revolution]] began while construction was underway, and only a few years after it was completed, the [[Batavian Revolution]] sent the Dutch royal couple into exile in 1795, the first of many political upheavals throughout the gate's history.<ref>[http://www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/friedens-statt-triumph-symbol-das-brandenburger-tor-und-sein-geheimnis/10858278.html Das Brandenburger Tor und sein Geheimnis], ''Der Tagesspiegel''</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" heights="180">
File:Berger nach Lüdtke Brandenburger Tor Aquatinta 1796.jpg|The new (current) Brandenburg Gate in 1796, following reconstruction
File:1820-Grundriss-Brandenburger-Tor.jpg|Floor plan of the Brandenburg Gate in its original (reconstructed) state
File:Brandenburg Gate cross sections (5960).jpg|Synopsis of two cross sections of the gate, by [[Carl Gotthard Langhans]]
</gallery>