"Entschuldigung, haben Sie ein bißchen Zeit für ein Interview?"

With a little smile and a nod, a variety of people agreed to be a part of our International Studies project. Our purpose was to interview a large gamut of people, the result of which turned out to be both former East and West Berliners, German tourists, as well as Eastern European and American ones. With the camera rolling, the Brandenburg Gate served as an appropriate historical backdrop as we immortalized their responses to our questions on Pariser Platz on film.

We found out that the majority of educated Germans were well informed on the history of the Brandenburg Gate and the Quadriga. In contrast, most American tourists were poorly informed on the events that happened around the Gate.

However, both Germans and non-Germans were aware of the symbolism of the Gate during the Cold War, namely a mark of division. A former West Berliner who currently works at a bar by the Gate, added that the gate was not only the division between East and West Berlin, but also between Eastern and Western Europe. Similarly, a Canadian tourist, in his 20s, said that the most visible sign of the Iron Curtain was in Berlin, and more specifically by the Brandenburg Gate. A German tourist from Köln, instead, believed that the Gate was not the most powerful symbol of the division between East and West, because it was never closed off all the way. In fact it was the only open passage between East and West Berlin, for all the surrounding area was divided by the Wall.

The week before we arrived in Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate had been opened for the first time to traffic. We asked the people we interviewed how they felt about the situation. Most tourists were of the opinion that there should have been less traffic, as were some locals. Other Berliners, however, thought that this was inevitable in a big Metropolis like Berlin, and should not, and cannot be taken away. We then asked what they thought of the various buldings that surround the Gate, i.e. the Dresdner Bank, the Embassies, and the Adlon Hotel. Here the opinions varied greatly, and it is pretty much hard to group them together. Our final question on the symbolism of the Gate today was pretty much answered in unison as a symbol of freedom and re-unification.