Brandenburg Gate role in 2018 European Athletics Championships. It is also the usual finish line of the Berlin Marathon. A Soviet flag flew from a flagpole atop the gate from 1945 until 1957, when it was replaced by an East German flag. Since the reunification of Germany, the flag and the pole have been removed. During the 1953 riots in East Berlin the Soviet flag was torn off by West Germans. In 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy visited the Brandenburg Gate. The Soviets hung large red banners across it to prevent him looking into East Berlin. In the 1980s, decrying the
Brandenburg Hauptbahnhof Railway from Treuenbrietzen via Brandenburg to Neustadt (Dosse) went into operation in 1904. Today, only the section between Brandenburg and Rathenow is still in use. The Brandenburg Towns Railway had its own station called Brandenburg Neustadt (Brandenburg new town) next to the main station and it later became part of the main station. The West Havelland District Railway ("Westhavelländische Kreisbahnen") line (opened in 1901 and closed in the 1960s) did not reach the main station. The terminus of the route in the city of Brandenburg was at the Krakauer Tor (Cracow Gate) station in the north-east of the town, a