Spring in Bavaria

My hometown Dresden - Germany

Dresden (etymologically from Old Sorbian Drežďany, meaning people of the riverside forest, Sorbian: Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German Federal Free State of Saxony. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area.

Dresden has a long history as the capital and royal residence for the Electors and Kings of Saxony, who for centuries furnished the city with cultural and artistic splendour. The controversial bombing of Dresden in World War II by the British Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force, plus 40 years in the Soviet bloc state of the German Democratic Republic as well as contemporary city development changed the face of the city broadly. Considerable restoration work has settled the damage.

Since German reunification in 1990, Dresden has emerged as a cultural, political, and economic centre in the eastern part of Germany.

Location

Dresden lies on both banks of the river Elbe, mostly in the Dresden Elbe Valley Basin, with the further reaches of the eastern Ore Mountains to the south, the steep slope of the Lusatian granitic crust to the north, and the Elbe Sandstone Mountains to the east at an altitude of about 113 meters. The highest point of Dresden is about 384 meters in altitude.

With a pleasant location and a mild climate on the Elbe, as well as Baroque-style architecture and numerous world-renowned museums and art collections, Dresden has been called "Elbflorenz" (Florence of the Elbe). The incorporation of neighbouring rural communities over the past 60 years has made Dresden the fourth largest urban district in Germany after Berlin, Hamburg, and Cologne.

Nature

Dresden claims to be one of the greenest cities in Europe, with 63% of the city being green areas and forests. The Dresdner Heide to the north is a forest 50 km² in size. There are four nature reserves. The additional Special Conservation Areas cover 18 km². The protected gardens, parkways, parks and old graveyards host 110 natural monuments in the city. The Dresden Elbe Valley is a world heritage site which is focused on the conservation of the cultural landscape in Dresden. One important part of that landscape is the Elbe meadows which cross the city, 20 kilometers long.

Sandstone mountains

Post-war period

After the Second World War, Dresden became a major industrial centre in the German Democratic Republic with a great deal of research infrastructure. Many important historic buildings were rebuilt including the Semper Opera House, the Zwinger Palace and a great many other historic buildings, although the communist leaders of the city chose to reconstruct large areas of the city in a "socialist modern" style, partly for economic reasons but also in order to break away from the city's past as the royal capital of Saxony and a stronghold of the German bourgeoisie. However, some of the bombed-out ruins of churches, royal buildings and palaces, such as the gothic Sophienkirche, the Alberttheater and the Wackerbarth-Palais were razed by the Soviet and East German authorities in the 1950s and 1960s instead of being repaired.

From 1985 to 1990 the KGB stationed Vladimir Putin, the future present President of Russia, in Dresden. On 3 October 1989 (the so-called "battle of Dresden"), a convoy of trains carrying East German refugees from Prague passed through Dresden on its way to the Federal Republic of Germany. Local activists and residents joined in the growing civil disobedience movement spreading across the German Democratic Republic by staging demonstrations and demanding the removal of the non-democratic government.

Post-reunification

Dresden has experienced dramatic changes since the reunification of Germany in the early 1990s. The city still bears many wounds from the bombing raids of 1945, but it has undergone significant reconstruction in recent decades. The Dresden Frauenkirche, as symbol of the more comprehensive reconstructions was completed in 2005, a year before Dresden's 800th birthday. The urban renewal process, which includes the reconstruction of the area around the Neumarkt square on which the Frauenkirche is situated, will continue for many decades, but public and government interest remains high, and there are numerous large projects underway — both historic reconstructions and modern plans — that will continue the city's recent architectural renaissance.

Frauenkirche 1945

Dresden remains a major cultural centre of historical memory, owing to the city's destruction in World War II. Every year on 13 February, the anniversary of the major American fire-bombing raid that destroyed most of the city, tens of thousands of demonstrators gather to commemorate the event. Since reunification, the ceremony has taken on a more neutral and pacifist tone (after being used more politically in Cold War times). In recent years, however, white power skinheads have tried to use the event for their own political ends. In 2005, Dresden was host to the largest Neo-Nazi demonstration in the post-war history of Germany. Between five and eight thousand Neo-Nazis took part, mourning what they call the "Allied bomb-holocaust".

In 2002 torrential rains caused the Elbe to flood 9 m above its normal height, i.e. even higher than the old record height from 1845, damaging many landmarks (See 2002 European flood). The destruction from this "millennium flood" is no longer visible, due to the speed of reconstruction.

The United Nations cultural organization UNESCO declared the Dresden Elbe Valley to be a World Heritage Site in 2004. After being placed on the list of endangered World Heritage Sites in 2006, the city is most likely going to lose the title in July 2007 due to the construction of the Waldschlößchenbrücke. UNESCO stated in 2006 that the bridge will destroy the cultural landscape. The city council's legal moves to prevent the bridge being built failed.

Frauenkirche

Zwinger

Semperoper

posted by: Moosecow at 08:15 | link | comments (4) |
towns i visited, east germany - west germany

Comments:

#1  23 March 2008 - 19:57

 

Beautiful Place! I love the sandstone mountains. I like the non-modern architecture as well..(most modern architecture is really bad in my opinion). Is most of the rebuild, either after the flood or after the bombing during the war, along traditional lines or are the pictures atypical.

piankhy

#2  23 March 2008 - 20:11

 

I love the sandstone mountains too. When I was a young girl I was often camping without any equiptment like a tent in it.
Lot of buildings where built up in the German Democratic Republic like before the bombs went down with using the same style and material. The "Frauenkirche" was rebuilt in the 90s, a long time after the war.
The flood destroyd not so much of the buildings but the houses had to dry for months. The historical paintings were rescued by lots of helper.
I was a helper in this time too but in the town "Meißen". The famous Porcellain cames from there (Meißener Porzellan). It was scary when the hole city had no electricity and we heard the water running down. My grandfather died on the 15th of August, the second day of the flood, and it was a great deflection from pain to help others to rescue their homes. I´ll never forget this time.

Moosecow

#3  19 April 2008 - 21:46

 

This is a very fine essay about Dresden and a pleasure to read - even for me who knows the town 30 years now. But there's something wrong with that foto of the Altstadt - where is the Frauenkirche? It shows only the Hofkirche! :)

Anonymous

#4  24 April 2008 - 17:00

 

Thank you for your comment, your are right. I changed the pictures. Sorry, I will manage it the next time when I'm home.

Moosecow

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