Brandenburg Gate been turned into a cobblestone pedestrian zone. The gate, along with the broad "Straße des 17. Juni" avenue to the west, is also one of the large public areas in Berlin where over a million people can gather to watch stage shows or party together, watch major sport events shown on huge screens, or see fireworks at midnight on New Year's Eve. After winning the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the German national football team held their victory rally in front of the gate. It has also hosted street events at 2009 IAAF World Championships in Athletics and will repeat its
Brandenburg Gate (Kaliningrad) hundred years later the gate was torn down and replaced by a brick structure by order of King Frederick II of Prussia. During restoration work in 1843 the gate was significantly altered and decorated with sharp decorative pediments, cruciform sandstone color, stylized leaves on the tops, coats of arms and medallions. Sculptures of Field Marshal Hermann von Boyen (1771–1848), a war minister and reformer of the Prussian army, and Lieutenant-General Ernst von Aster (1778–1855), chief of the engineering corps, and one of the initiators of the second strengthening of the city walls, were added as well. The Brandenburg Gate is