Potsdam Gate

The Potsdam Gate of Berlin was part of the Berlin Wall inch ( Akzisemauer ). It was built in 1734 and 1824 replaced by a new building. The remains of the gate were demolished in 1961.

The old Potsdam Gate

The Potsdam Gate was built in 1734 during the construction of the Berlin Akzisemauer, which included the newly formed Electoral towns and other suburbs and in consequence of the old fortress walls were pulled down. The Akzisemauer limited by Frederick William I again advanced Friedrichstadt at this point. The gate, which marked the passage way through the customs wall toward the royal city of Potsdam, it took over the function of the previous Leipzig door on the same stretch of road from Berlin to Potsdam between Friedrichstadt and Friedrichswerder - hence a long time the old Potsdam Gate was also synonymous Leipzig as New gate called. The old Leipzig gate near the later Spittelmarkts had replaced the Gertraudentor the old city wall of Berlin / Coelln after the construction of the Berlin fortress in the 17th century.

Built in 1734 the Potsdam sandstone gate had pillars were decorated in the baroque style with columns and trophies. On its inside was an octagonal space that has been " Octagon " is created, which was named in memory of the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 Leipziger Platz in the enlargement of the Friedrichstadt as the end point of the old Leipziger Straße. On the outside of the ring road crossed the Akzisemauer the incipient road to Potsdam, today's Potsdamer Straße, which was expanded in 1792 as Prussian state highway.

The new Potsdam Gate

As the old gate had become dilapidated, was founded in 1824 by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, who is also responsible for many other important buildings of this time in Berlin, the, new Potsdamer Thor ' erected. The two gate pillars were replaced by two new gatehouses in the Classicist style that were built into town a bit at the output of Leipziger Platz. Schinkel built two facing buildings with a four-membered row of columns in front of it in the Greek style. In place of the old Potsdamer gate he put a green area that should receive the Berlin visitor. These - called first square in front of Potsdamer Thor - facility was renamed in 1831 in Potsdamer Platz.

The gatehouses of Schinkel's Potsdamer gate were maintained during the demolition of the Berlin Wall in 1867 and Customs stamped with its neo-classical architecture, the spaces on either side of the now open doorway. During World War II the New Potsdam Gate was, however, almost completely destroyed, in ruins remained only the foundations and seated stumps. These residues were the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 in the way and were dragged out of the occasion.

As part of the redevelopment of Potsdamer Platz and Leipziger Platz in the 1990s, two new, open, rebuilt only each a parapet, additions were exactly at the points on which stood the two gatehouses, built the underground S-Bahn and regional train station Potsdamer Platz. Two originally at these locations provided, designed by Oswald Mathias Ungers, simple pavilions were not realized.