Free Republic

In the 1830s, the 200ha (495 acres) large Tiergarten, a Royal hunting estate, was turned into a park. Centrally located between Mitte and Charlottenburg it is a favorite picnic and barbecue place. At the center of a large roundabout in the Tiergarten, known as the Grossers Stern or great star stands the tall Siegessäule. The cocky looking triumphal column was built from 1864 to 1873 after a design by Johann Heinrich Stack to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Prusso-Danish war of 1864. The 8.3m gilded figure at the top was added after further Prussian victories in wars against Austria...

U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama has decided against using the Brandenburg Gate as a backdrop for a speech in Berlin, his aides said on Friday. The Democratic White House candidate plans to travel soon to Jordan, Israel, Britain, France and Germany. The Berlin speech will be one of the major events of the tour.

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) will not be making his speech in Berlin before the Brandenburg Gate but at Victory Column, German news agency Deutshe Well said on Friday. Obama will leaving for Europe and the Middle East next week in what pundits say is a bid to bolster his foreign policy and national security credentials. The presumptive Democratic nominee will make the much-awaited speech in Berlin on July 24. Obama will still have the Brandenburg Gate as backdrop since the iconic site sits at the opposite end of a tree-line boulevard from the Victory Column. The...