How Did Cities Protect Themselves?
Why Old German Walls and Gates Are More Than History

Germany’s city gates were once symbols of power, protection and control. Today, many have become tourist attractions or historic monuments. What can these old walls and gates tell us about Germany, and what do they have in common with those found in India?

By Robert Fischman

People in Germany barely notice city gates anymore. They are simply part of the landscape in many towns and cities. Some, like the Holstentor in Lübeck, are so impressive that they are part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site together with their historic old towns. The almost 2,000-year-old Porta Nigra in Trier is also a World Heritage Site. The Romans built it as a gateway to Augusta Treverorum, their city on the site of what is now Trier, Germany’s oldest city.

The best-known former city gate in Germany is probably the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Until the 19th century, it stood at the western edge of the city. Many city gates were named after nearby towns or villages. Travellers heading west from Berlin towards Brandenburg an der Havel, for example, would pass through the Brandenburg Gate.

In Munich, the Isartor stands on the eastern edge of the old town and takes its name from the River Isar. The Sendlinger Tor is named after the former village of Sendling, which once lay southwest of the city and is now a district of Munich.

Since ancient times, and even earlier, people have built ramparts and walls around settlements to protect themselves from attackers. While farmers in the countryside were vulnerable to raiders and marauding armies, fortified towns offered a safer place to live. Gates were built into the high, often several-metre-thick walls to control who could enter and leave. Iron grilles and drawbridges provided an additional layer of protection. When an attack threatened, defenders lowered the grilles, closed and locked the gates, and raised the drawbridges. Moats surrounding the walls offered further protection.

Guards, usually young men, stood watch on the walls and looked out for approaching enemies. Some of the old defensive walkways can still be seen on surviving city walls in Germany, including those in Nuremberg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and Templin in the Uckermark. Soldiers once used these walkways to defend the city. If attackers tried to climb over the walls, defenders could pour hot, sticky mixtures of pitch and sulphur over them.

The City as a Treasure Chest

The gates served purposes beyond defence. They could also function as customs stations, guard posts, and even prisons. Anyone who arrived after the gates had closed had to spend the night outside or find a way to get in. The German expression “Toresschluss” is still used today to describe a deadline or the end of a specified period. It comes from the time when city gates were closed at a fixed hour. Once that time had passed, nobody could enter or leave until the gates reopened the following morning.

During the Middle Ages, many German and European cities grew wealthy through international trade. That wealth made them tempting targets for poorer neighbours and rival armies. Cities were repeatedly besieged by armies hoping to seize their riches. The strategy was straightforward: if a city refused to surrender and open its gates, the besiegers could prevent people from entering or leaving and wait until supplies inside the walls ran out. The people inside could defend themselves only as long as they had enough food and water. In many cases, however, the besieging army gave up first because its own supplies ran out.

Gates as Status Symbols: Who Had the Grandest?

Nuremberg, Frankfurt and other cities became free imperial cities under the medieval German emperors. This gave them a high degree of autonomy and allowed them to govern their own affairs. At the city gates, they collected customs duties from merchants bringing goods into the city or taking purchases back out. The wealthier the city, the more elaborate its gates could be. They became visible symbols of wealth, power and independence.

Over time, however, the gates lost their military importance. During the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), which devastated large parts of Germany, armies developed increasingly powerful cannons. The old city walls could no longer withstand the new artillery. In the decades that followed, many walls were demolished to make room for growing populations.

The process accelerated during industrialisation in the 19th century. Thousands of people left impoverished rural areas and moved to cities in search of work. A similar pattern of rural-to-urban migration can still be seen in India and its neighbouring countries today. New residential districts grew around the historic city centres. In many places, simple tenement blocks were built quickly and cheaply for industrial workers during the second half of the 19th century. Working-class families with many children often lived in extremely cramped conditions, sometimes in a single room without a bathroom or running water.

Disease spread easily in these overcrowded neighbourhoods. In Hamburg, for example, thousands of people died of cholera in the 1890s. The city responded by building a sewer system that is still in use today. Many former working-class neighbourhoods have since been renovated and are now popular, and often expensive, places to live. Examples include Kreuzberg in Berlin, the Gängeviertel in Hamburg, and Haidhausen in Munich.

As cities expanded, walls and gates were demolished to make way for housing, roads and railway stations. Some structures survived, often as monuments or as homes for museums. The outline of former city walls can still be traced on old maps of many European cities. In Munich, for example, traffic on the four-lane Altstadtring follows almost exactly the route of the former city wall. Elsewhere, the land once occupied by the walls has been turned into parks, including in Rostock and Bremen. In the historic towns of Lemgo and Detmold, much of the medieval and early modern townscape has survived. Streets that run along or near former city walls often have names such as “Am Wall”, meaning “by the wall” or “at the wall”.

What Do German Gates Have to Do with India?

Historic city gates and walls can be found far beyond Europe. In Jerusalem and in the Moroccan cities of Fez and Meknes, for example, historic gates and walls have survived and now attract visitors from around the world.

India also has its own tradition of monumental gateways and fortified city entrances. Examples include the India Gate in Delhi, a war memorial, and the gates incorporated into the historic walls of Jaipur. These structures are often larger, more colourful and more elaborate than their European counterparts.

There is an important difference in their historical function. Indian gateways were often part of palace complexes or temple sites, while German city gates primarily served defensive and commercial purposes. Yet gates carry symbolic meaning in both cultures. They mark a transition between inside and outside, safety and the unknown.

In both countries, some historic gates have also found new uses. In India, former gate structures have been converted into markets or homes. In Germany, they have become museums or tourist attractions, as in the case of the Holstentor in Lübeck.