Berlin Last defence : Charlottenburger Tor

[Carsten135]

hi all


Last summer i was on one of my regular trips to Berlin visiting friends and exploring places in the area thats not normal in a guide or listed as a hot historical target but in every way this is a very historical place thats still visual seen today and ready to be told. Maybee you will find it intresting to visit the gate in the future, let me invite you all to look trough my lens on this historical place where several major events has happend.
ill start whit the beginning of the gates history by telling it was built in 1907 in honour of Frederick William I of Prussia and it mark the place where the town area of charlottenburg begins, the gate is placed on what today called Strasse the 17 juni, before the war it was named charlottenburg Chaussee and during the nazi era it was called Paradenstrasse ( parade street ) Ost-West-Achse, it is just between the victory collum and the Technische University near Ernst Reuter Platz placed or intigrated whit the charlottenburger bridge that partens the berlin mitte whit the charlottenburger town area by the landwerkanal. here is some of the first pics from the time it was born. The berlins first public transport was established here whit horse- omnibusse going from brandenburg gate to the town area charlottenburg lateron they was eletricfied.
the gate was rebuild several times during history and was badly damaged during the 2 ww the 22 meters high candelabra ( lightpoles ) which were razed to their foundations shortly after the war, were rebuilt in 2009.

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[Carsten135]

for some years it was covered for resturation and was not accesable for the public. i was visiting the gate shortly after very bad wether so heres a sunshine pic from the grid.

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[Carsten135]

some of the surrounding buildings is still intact, most of the buildings was used by the nazis during this timeperiod.

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[Carsten135]

when you get to the gate , there you will find a little historic exebition inside the gate wich is very intresting, it dont cost much to enter and i can highly recomend you to take this offer for arround 2 eur and you will also meet 1-2 guides at the place whit a very polite attitude and eager to telll the history arround the gates and nearby area, i was luckey the day i was visiting that the main conservators was present and i had a really nice talk whit these guys arround the history and presevation on this very historical monument, i can only respect and admire these guys for preservering history in its contex and admire the details they resturated. well lets visit the inside ...


it feels like a bunker when you get inside and space is not for the claustrophopic types, and you cant take a wrong turn it all leds up to the top...

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[Carsten135]

some of the old gear reused? and the pasage underneath the passing

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[Carsten135]

the entrence to passing across the strasse 17 juni, i had to be a dworf to continue climbing..... and imm not so the highest point is the passing

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[Carsten135]

the passage and the view towards the victory collum, just under the gate a fleemarked is present and a pretty big one whit art and old stuff, in the old days i had some very good finds here but be carefull today bec the germans deffently know the price of there historical goddies now on days.when you see the lower pic then you will descover the light poles designed by Albert speer, most of this area has the original "Speerleuchte" still intact

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[Carsten135]

a closer look on the speer lights

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[Carsten135]

well lets run to the top again an here u see the area towards the tecnical university and Ernst reuters platz, 3 very important nazi event happend here : Hitlers 50 years birthday the 20 april 1939 where a tribune was build infront the tecnical university where he sat in whole 4 hours stiff and was looking at at major military parade selebrating for him, a major parade when he got back from Victory over france and last and proberly most important event, the last official defeceline of the crumbling 3 reich.

where you se the white "new" building is the tecnical university and where hitler did watch the major parade, the university was badly damaged during air raids and the last days of the 3 reich was extremly hard battle by the SS was also destroying the gate and the university
the lower pic show the brigde and the landwehrcanal

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[Carsten135]

well lets run down again for a short while, it was here hitler placed himself during the 4 hour long parade, and some of the destintive marks of berlin is that old and new is build together, note the endwalls of both side of the old university has been reused, the mid of the university was destroyed during the war and the rubbles cleared after the war, ill guess that the german okonomy was a main factor in reuse old parts and for us today as history intrested i can only say its a buttercake.

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[Carsten135]

some pics found on the grid showing the gate during his 50 years birthday, this area was highly guarded by the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler by few meters between every SS guard.

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[Carsten135]

looking down towards the victory collum from the area of hitlers stage, the parade from nazi time from the same road

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[Carsten135]

flag holders on the same street , ernst reuter platz in the lower pic was almost destroyed completly not meny of the old buildings survived and today you will mostly see new buildings

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[Carsten135]

well lets go inside the gate or as the german says the Säulenhalle again, where a little exebition is present, the exebition is in the former transformator room tht provided the eletiricity for the omnibusses, during the last defence of the 3 reich it was used as schelter for the SS during airraids etc.

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[Carsten135]

the transformator room, the exebition is absolut wort a visit here is some of the original parts from the gate and some war remains found during resturation, a really nice setup

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