Denkmalschutz Berlin) began a full restoration of the
Brandenburg Gate. It opened to the public again two
years and six million US dollars later on October 3rd, 2002,
the twelfth anniversary of German Reunification.
Today, the Brandenburg Gate is regarded as one of Europe’s
most famous landmarks.
Carl Gotthard Langhans (December 15, 1732–October 1, 1808)
was born in Landeshut, Silesia (now in Poland). He was not
originally educated as an architect. Instead he studied law
from 1753 to 1757 and then mathematics and languages. He
taught himself architecture using the antique texts of the
Roman architecture theorist Vitruvius.
His first draft of “Zum Schifflein Christi” for the
Protestant Church in 1764 in Groß-Glogau earned him both
his first recognition as an architect and an appointment as
building inspector for the Count of Hatzfeld, whose war-
ravaged palace he had rebuilt to his own design between
1766 and 1774. Through the intervention of the Count of
Hatzfeld, Langhans also became known at the royal court
in Berlin, and this would eventually lead to arguably his
greatest work: the Brandenburg Gate. He died at Grüneiche
near Breslau (now in Poland) in 1808.
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