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Plan status before start of construction, not yet quite as executed

The only surviving elevation drawing from the workshop of architect Carl Gotthard Langhans, dating from around 1788, gives an impression of the planning status at the time in various sectional planes. The left-hand half is basically a view, but areas important to the construction are shown slightly offset to the rear and thus already sectioned. This makes it possible to see the foundations of the individual pillars, which are connected by a longitudinal bench, and the arches concealed in the entablature, which bear the loads of the parapet above. The right-hand half is a consistent section roughly along the longitudinal axis of the gate. It shows the wall panels with their longitudinal banquettes, the original roof, which was only made of wood, and the arrangement of the vaults above the central field, including their falsework; they are intended to bear the loads of the later quadriga.

According to recent investigations, the actual execution of the foundation deviates from this plan. So the entire gate with its pedestals rests at a depth of more than two meters on a continuous, 70-centimetre-thick base slab made of Rüdersdorf limestone. Another deviation is also noteworthy: unlike the later execution, the joints of the sandstone blocks are still visibly inclined in the drawing. They thus still illustrate the actual load flow in the vertical lintels. In the execution, they were "orthogonalized" in the visible area.

Plan status before start of construction, not yet quite as executed

The only surviving elevation drawing from the workshop of architect Carl Gotthard Langhans, dating from around 1788, gives an impression of the planning status at the time in various sectional planes. The left-hand half is basically a view, but areas important to the construction are shown slightly offset to the rear and thus already sectioned. This makes it possible to see the foundations of the individual pillars, which are connected by a longitudinal bench, and the arches concealed in the entablature, which bear the loads of the parapet above. The right-hand half is a consistent section roughly along the longitudinal axis of the gate. It shows the wall panels with their longitudinal banquettes, the original roof, which was only made of wood, and the arrangement of the vaults above the central field, including their falsework; they are intended to bear the loads of the later quadriga.

According to recent investigations, the actual execution of the foundation deviates from this plan. So the entire gate with its pedestals rests at a depth of more than two meters on a continuous, 70-centimetre-thick base slab made of Rüdersdorf limestone. Another deviation is also noteworthy: unlike the later execution, the joints of the sandstone blocks are still visibly inclined in the drawing. They thus still illustrate the actual load flow in the vertical lintels. In the execution, they were "orthogonalized" in the visible area.

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