Landmark re-emerges after two years under wraps

BERLIN -- The Brandenburg Gate, Germany's most famous landmark, has been stripped of decades of grime in an extensive renovation that has shrouded it from view for two years as the capital's new government quarter took shape around it.

To mark the 12th anniversary of German reunification, dignitaries will undo a giant zipper today in the wrapping to reveal its gleaming sandstone.

"We're glad to have the gate back with new splendor," said Mayor Klaus Wowereit. "No day is better suited than the day of German unity to present this symbol without scaffolding again."

Filmmaker and fashion entrepreneur Willy Bogner, organizer of the unveiling ceremony, thought better of plans to raise the veil with a helicopter -- too noisy -- or balloons -- too weather-dependent.

"We quickly came upon the idea of treating the gate like a person," Bogner wrote in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. "We're not unveiling it, but carrying out a stone striptease."

Completed in 1791, the Brandenburg Gate is the only one of 18 original city gates still standing, and has served as a backdrop for French and Prussian triumphs, German militarism and the Cold War, when it sat in the no man's land dividing East and West Berlin.

Historical backdrop

Communist authorities in what was then East Germany festooned the monument with red banners when President Kennedy came to see it in 1963; and it was here, in 1987, that President Reagan issued his famous challenge to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev -- "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

President Clinton will join Mayor Wowereit among the guests at today's ceremony.

The gate stands near the restored Reichstag, home to reunited Germany's parliament, and the planned new U.S. Embassy which is to be rebuilt where it stood before the war. The gate, transformed into a symbol of unity as Germans partied atop the newly breached Berlin Wall in November 1989, adorns Germany's new euro coins.

Standing 66 feet tall and 213 feet wide, and topped by the copper Quadriga, a sculpture of a goddess riding into the city aboard a chariot, the Brandenburg Gate was badly damaged as the Soviet army fought its way into the capital in 1945.

Inaccessible to both East and West Germans during its time as part of communist East Germany's fortified border, it was neglected for decades. When they started work in October 2000, restorers found unrepaired World War II bullet holes.

and cement that was mixed into the sandstone columns during a 1950s repair.

Laser devices have been used to remove the sooty black color from the gate and the holes have been plugged using 120 shades of mortar to match the differing colors in the original masonry.

The foundations have also been repaired, and as a further protection, the gate will be closed to private cars.

Deutsche Telekom, the partially government-owned telephone operator, paid for most of the $3.8 million restoration -- and in return received the rights to some of the most heavily trafficked advertising space in Berlin.

Its logo graced ever-changing scaffolding covers throughout the renovation, often reflecting current events. The first cover showed a view of Moscow from the western side and another of Paris from the east, highlighting Berlin's place in the heart of Europe, and this year it sported soccer-booted columns during the World Cup final.

After the Sept. 11 terror attacks, a plain black banner read: "We mourn."