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Message:: [QUOTE="chrisild, post: 144626, member: 39"]Right, both pieces are medals - and I am not sure whether the second one is actually gold. Maybe gold plated silver. The gate passage was open until 1961; the construction of the Berlin Wall actually closed it. If you watch Billy Wilder's hilarious movie "One, Two, Three", you see (more or less) how it was before August '61. Between then and November '89 the Brandenburg Gate was closed. It was on East Berlin ground but so close to the border that even from the East (Unter den Linden) nobody was allowed to approach the Gate. The other medal commemorates the "re-unification" in 1990, ie. when the Eastern states joined the Federal Republic. That was on 3 October 1990. On the side depicting the 16 German states it apparently says "1. Oktober" though; not sure why. The other side shows an eagle which is supposed to resemble the German federal eagle. Except that this bird has some kind of CoA in the middle which I cannot recognize ... and is looking in the wrong direction. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> The words on the "map side" mean "Germany reunited". And the text on the eagle side are the first words of the national anthem - Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit, ie. Unity and Justice and Freedom. Christian[/QUOTE]