It is especially significant that the Room of Silence is located in the Brandenburg Gate, because this city gate, built by Langhans about 200 years ago, was conceived as the Gate of Peace. On top of the gate Schadow’s Quadriga with the Goddess of Victory enters the town. But underneath there is a Attic Relievo which shows the Goddess of Victory leading the triumphal procession of Eirene, the Goddess of Peace. Also the statue of Mars in the southern part of the gate is engaged to peace, for the God of War sheaths his sword. During the course of history, however, the gate’s message of peace receded into the background. In the wake of World War II – and even more so as the Berlin Wall was built along it in 1961 – the Brandenburg Gate was the symbol of a divided city and a divided world. When the Wall fell in 1989 the Brandenburg Gate became a symbol for a peaceful future in Germany and in Europe. Its Room of Silence picks up on the idea of the Gate of Peace in accordance with the original spirit of this locality.

As a place of thoughtfulness, brother- and sisterhood it will – we hope – confer honour and blessings to our city and to its symbol as a representation of peace here and elsewhere in the world.