Berlin art installation evokes Syria's war at Brandenburg Gate

Three upended buses appeared in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on Friday as part of an art installation by Syrian-German artist Manaf Halbouni.

The artwork, a reminder of a barricade erected in Aleppo in 2015 during a regime bombardment on the besieged eastern sector, was installed a day after the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

"The Brandenburg Gate is a symbol of destruction and of the end of war. It was also a symbol of division, but then came to represent unity," Halbouni told Reuters TV.

The 12-meter high buses evoked a scene from the siege of Aleppo when opposition fighters sought to protect residents from regime snipers.

The installation, entitled "Monument" was designed to show opposition "against war and against all that is going wrong in this world," Halbouni said.

The artwork was part of the Berliner Herbstsalon, or "Autumn Salon", which includes 100 cultural events organized by the Maxim Gorki Theatre across the German capital.

The exhibit was shown in the east German city of Dresden last February, where it drew protests by far-right German groups.

In the past two years over one million refugees and asylum seekers have arrived in Germany, with around half of them from Syria.

Syrian regime forces retook Aleppo at the end of last year with the help of Russian air raids and Iranian-backed militia in a merciless bombing campaign after months of a crippling siege.

The aerial bombardments, which targeted hospitals, schools, markets, water stations, and residential buildings, left East Aleppo in ruins.