
For more than 200 years the Quadriga on the Brandenburg Gate has been riding east towards the old city centre of Berlin. But instead of reaching the Spree river, it arrived at the Seine in Paris when the troops of the French emperor Napoleon conquered Berlin. Not until the victory of the European allies did the Quadriga return to Berlin - and is since then called "Retourkutsche" (literally: returning carriage, a German expression meaning "a tit-for-tat response").
This and much more you can hear on Tour 1 – The historical centre.
Note: Carnival of Cultures 2012 (Blücherplatz, May 25 to May 28, 2012)
„In the night from October 2 to Oct 3 1990, the mood here was electric - comparable only to New Years Eve. Thousands stood huddled in front of the Reichstag building. Laughter, joy and champagne kept everyone warm. This was the night of the re-unification, the consummation of German unity in a common democracy...“
(excerpt from station 3, tour 1)
Karen Schulz-Vobach, Paul Sonderegger and Peter Farkas