"Macht das Tor auf": Brandenburg Gate model at the inner-German border, east of Lübeck

A gate of striped pillars in the outline of the Brandenburg Gate stands across a road that ends at the inner-German border; a red banner on top reads 'MACHT DAS TOR AUF' (Open the gate). The Berlin landmark, closed off by the Wall, is borrowed as the symbol of division, and the slogan asks the other side to open it.

Date: November 1962
Period: Cold War
Made by: Erecting body not named in the source (the slogan matches the Kuratorium Unteilbares Deutschland's 'Macht das Tor auf' campaign); photograph by Don O'Brien
Region: Western and Central Europe
Country: West Germany
Medium: Signs and banners
Issuer type: Mixed
Regime: Adenauer Government
Leader: Konrad Adenauer
Audience: Mixed
Purpose: Persuade or win support
Themes: Migration, Security and surveillance
Event: Cold War
Techniques: Transfer
Source: Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
Source: Flickr (Don O'Brien) via Wikimedia Commons, retrieved September 29, 2026
Rights: CC BY 2.0 (Flickr licence confirmed by Commons upload bot; file page states it)
Don O'Brien / Flickr, CC BY 2.0