Hausmannsturm
Semperoper
Fürstenzug
Anleger der Elbdampfschiffahrt. July 2019
[from FB post: October 19, 2019]
I visited East Germany in 1987 and it was so tightly controlled, the only place that was "easy" to visit was East Berlin. I had really wanted to visit Dresden, but -- didn't happen. Fast forward 30 years and now Dresden is a day trip from Prague (without any passport check) AND, extra bonus, it is now largely rebuilt! I guess it was worth the wait.
Dresden. I finally made it. On my long journey back from Japan [see: Beijing to Athens], I had to miss out on Eastern Germany due to strict visa regulations. In the EU that rose from World War II and Cold War ashes and with the Schengen Agreement of free movement of people and goods, I was one of said "people" in Prague and could freely hop the train for a day's excursion to Dresden. In a lucky financial bonus, the train was operated by Czech Railways rather than the super-pricey Deutsche Bahn.
Dresden's main station was a modern reconstruction of an old style station. It left me a little flat, although the place was cavernous and filled with all the sorts of shops that I had come to love in European train stations. The station had no bustle or vibe, even if it was amazingly restored. The station served as a harbinger of sorts.
I exited and walked down Prager Strasse toward the Altmarkt through a very bland, modern part of town. Upon arriving in Altmarkt, I found a market square, but nothing much was "alt" about it except for the name. The entire square was modern and disappointing. Nearby was the Kreuzkirche which allowed visitors to climb its bell-tower for a sweeping view of the city and the River Elbe. The palaces and towers of "old Dresden" weren't far away and at least the climb gave me some bearings. The Dresden Rathaus was also nearby and I had a look around. It was reconstructed, beautiful, yet unremarkable - again a kind of emptiness. From that Rathaus tower was taken the iconic photo that came to represent the devastation of the city after World War II. Duly noted. Due to train timings, I arrived closer to meal time than usual for a day trip, so I had a lovely early lunch (with great beer - the thing I loved most about visiting Germany) on the Altmarkt square.
Across Wilsdruffer Strasse from the Altmarkt was the heart of what Dresden was famous for - palaces, churches, and a grand opera house. I first walked toward the Elbe and into the Brühlscher Garten along its river edge terrace. It was pleasant, nothing more. I arrived at the Elbe and looked across at the Sächsischen Staatskanzlei (State Chancellory of Saxony) set amongst fine riverside gardens. Looking upriver I saw all the buildings I had come for, the heart of old Dresden, Florence on the Elbe.
316 B-17 Flying Fortresses bombed Dresden, dropping 771 tons of bombs. The remaining 115 bombers from the stream of 431 misidentified their targets. Sixty bombed Prague, dropping 153 tons of bombs, while others bombed Brux and Pilsen. The 379th bombardment group started to bomb Dresden at 12:17, aiming at marshalling yards in the Friedrichstadt district west of the city centre, as the area was not obscured by smoke and cloud. The 303rd group arrived over Dresden two minutes after the 379th and found their view obscured by clouds, so they bombed Dresden using H2X radar. The groups that followed the 303rd (92nd, 306th, 379th, 384th and 457th) also found Dresden obscured by clouds, and they too used H2X. H2X aiming caused the groups to bomb with a wide dispersal over the Dresden area. The last group to attack Dresden was the 306th, and they finished by 12:30.
(Wikipedia)
In 13 minutes Dresden was bombed to dust and the remainder burned.
Walking by the line of tourist boats that took passengers up and down the river to see the reconstructed skyline of Dresden, I skirted the old city palace. I marveled at the use of the original, fire-damaged stone to rebuild it. The old tilework horse-mounted procession of the Fürstenzug, which miraculously escaped damage in the bombing, honored the Family Wettin, the hereditary rulers of Saxony. The ceramic freize ran down one narrow street next to the former royal stables. The Opera House stood grandly in its vast square and next to it, the Zwinger Palace, now an art museum, was brought back to its glory along with lovely gardens. The imposingly rebuilt Frauenkirche's ornate exterior juxtaposedly enclosed an interior that was all white, plaster - it wasn't plain, it was "unfinished", like an echo with no preceding sound.
Unlike Warsaw's old town square and city center that had been reconstructed and was now loved by the people of that city, Dresden felt like it had been dealt a death blow from which its residents never recovered. All the grand reconstructions appeared as soulless architectural zombie buildings. After reunification, Germany had spent millions of euros on bringing Dresden back, but perhaps it was just too far gone to be resuscitated. Florence could not be created a second time in Saxony.
The bombing had been horrific:
To my left I suddenly see a woman. I can see her to this day and shall never forget it. She carries a bundle in her arms. It is a baby. She runs, she falls, and the child flies in an arc into the fire. Suddenly, I saw people again, right in front of me. They scream and gesticulate with their hands, and then—to my utter horror and amazement—I see how one after the other they simply seem to let themselves drop to the ground. (Today I know that these unfortunate people were the victims of lack of oxygen.) They fainted and then burnt to cinders. Insane fear grips me and from then on I repeat one simple sentence to myself continuously: "I don't want to burn to death". I do not know how many people I fell over. I know only one thing: that I must not burn.
— Margaret Freyer, survivor.
(Wikipedia)
The approximate death toll after the bombing of Dresden was put at 20,000. After only 13 minutes of fire bombing, most casualties died of asphyxiation and burned. My ex-German teacher from Georgetown, Heidi Byrnes, and her family were escaping Silesia in front of the Russian advance. Their goal had been Dresden since it remained relatively unscathed until late in the war. She said, "we were headed to Dresden, but couldn't make it that day. Oh what a light show were were treated to". I think as a child, perhaps that was the only thing that made it understandable. Had they come one day earlier she may well have perished.
I am not sure if my expectations of Dresden were too high? Everything had been wondrously restored by a country with the deepest pockets in Europe and it really was beautiful. The place was like a museum reconstruction, yet it had no heart. I returned to Prague satisfied I had seen Dresden and perhaps even relieved I hadn't visited back in 1987 when almost none of it would have been reconstructed to the degree I had just witnessed.
I am not sure I would return to Dresden, but I learned from the experience that it is possible to kill a city. How depressingly sad.
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