The only remaining town gate of Berlin, it is located at the western end of the avenue Unter den Linden.
Carl G. Langhans (1732–1808), who built the gate (1789–93), modeled it after the propylaeum of the Athenian Acropolis. On top was the "Quadriga of Victory," a statue of a chariot drawn by four horses. Heavily damaged in World War II, the gate was restored in 1957–58. From 1961 to 1989 the Berlin Wall shut off access to it for both eastern and western Germans; the gate was reopened in 1989 with the reunification of East and West Berlin.