ART & ARCHITECTURE / THE OLD TOWN / DRESDEN
Why was Dresden destroyed? In early 1945, it was clear that it was only a matter of time before Germany would acknowledge that they had lost the war. Known over the world for its architectural beauty, Dresden was often referred to as “Florence on the Elbe”, a northern version of Tuscan cultural centre by the river Arno. In a short period of time, between February 13 and 15, 1945, the Allies bomb raids all but completely wiped out the Saxony capital, hoping to create a surge of refugees within Germany, in this way weakening the Nazi regime. The bombings of Dresden would continue until April 17.
Dresden had until that moment been spared. Still today, historians remain divided, some claiming it to be a good example of strategic bombing, others viewing it a war crime. After the war, German and Soviet officials considered levelling the city completely, as not much of its former glory remained. A compromise was made, and the Saxon royal palace Zwinger was rebuilt, together with a few Baroque buildings around the palace, while a new city was built in just outside the former city centre, in typical Soviet style.
¨The aim was not only to restore it to resemble what it was once had been, but to recreate a past that had been lost to the terrors of war.¨
After the reunification of Germany in 1990, the work to reconstruct the old inner city was initiated. The aim was not only to restore it to resemble what it was once had been, but to recreate a past that had been lost to the terrors of war. In this process, old ideals and building techniques have been used, thus creating an anachronistic monument: the past reappearing in the now. Some say that this process was the very definition of bad taste, and that it would have been more architecturally appropriate to build something that reflect contemporary ideals, rather than to keep dreaming of a time and place forever lost. Others suggest that it is important to take back what had been destroyed in the bombings and fires, in order to show that civil society can overcome times of war, and that some cultural treasures have eternal value, resilient to the actions of individual generations.
Historically, Dresden was a Slav village, known as Drezdzany (or “forest Dwellers on the Plain”) on the Elbe’s north bank. It wasn’t until 1216 that a town was built also on the river’s south side. Eventually, the two merged into one. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the city was modernized in accordance with Baroque and Rococo styles. Dresden was for a long time synonymous with the finest European porcelain, before the porcelain industry moved 24 kilometres northwest, to neighbouring Meissen.
Dresden’s most prominent building, save the Zwinger (which was initially planned as the forecourt to a large castle, which was never being built) is the Frauenkirche. A Lutheran church, it was built (the first time) in the 18th century in the Baroque style, and its dome was one of the largest in Europe. The impressive size was deliberate, as it conveyed the (not very subtle) message that the citizens of Dresden wished to remain Protestant, even at a time when their leader converted to Catholicism. When the restored church was reconsecrated in 2005, it had a gilded cross on top of the dome, constructed by British silversmith Alan Smith, whose father had been a member of one of the aircrews that took part in the bombings of Dresden. This act was a symbol of time healing old wounds, and of new generations forging new alliances and friendships.
