The guerrilla designers fixing an iconic, but hideous, symbol of Berlin

2016-08-09T13:55:00-04:00

The Brandenburg Gate is Berlin’s most famous monument. In 1788, King Frederick William II of Prussia commissioned the Gate, which was designed by architect Carl Gotthard Langhans, to represent peace following the Thirty Years’ War.

The Nazis used the Brandeburg Gate as a party symbol and it was heavily damaged during the War. It backgrounded Ronald Reagan’s 1987 speech when he famously challenged the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall!” After the fall of the Berlin wall, the gate became a symbol of reunification. Today, it adorns mugs, t-shirts, keychains. It’s also the logo of the of the BVG, Berlin’s public transport company, which runs the U-Bahn.

But, as 1843 Magazine notes, the logo is hideous. The perspective is inaccurate and the lines are heavy and awkward. So a couple of Brazilian-Berliners took it upon themselves to clean up the logo. They’ve printed the revamped illustration on clear stickers and passed them out to the public.

Now the BVG has promised a...

Archinect - News

The guerrilla designers fixing an iconic, but hideous, symbol of Berlin