Photo Challenge 02-16-17

Last photo challenge garnered the following responses:

Berlin: 9 votes
China: 1 vote

Berlin indeed is the correct answer. (See photo in the right column.) The image is of the Brandenburg Gate at night, surrounded by a PA system and partially hidden by a light display screen – a music concert had taken place there earlier that night. I tried to make the image a little harder to identify by cropping out the ‘Quadringa of Victory’ on top. A quadringa is a sculpture of a four horsed chariot representing victory or triumph, used by the Greeks and Romans, and copied in later European monuments. The Brandenburg Gate (or Tor, in German) was built in 1788-1791, and during the cold war, when Berlin was divided into East and West, the Brandenburg Gate was inaccessible to residents of either side. The gate was part of East Berlin, and had a large wall just to the west of it. However, a smaller wall was built by the East Berlin government on the east side, thus restricting its access to East Berliners too. The gate was restored in 2000 and is impressive to behold. I had visited Berlin both in the years before the Berlin Wall came down, when the Brandenburg Gate was desolate behind the wall, and during the summer the wall was being dismantled – in 1989 – and the gate was reopened. It is now the symbol of a reunified Berlin.

And last week’s winner is: Dr. Morris Blount. Congratulations Morris! And what’s exciting is that 1) Dr. Blount wrote that he was in Berlin when he replied with his correct response. And 2) I know Morris from my training program at the University of Illinois. He still practices psychiatry in Chicago, serving an underserved community on the south side of Chicago. Way to go, Morris!