Dresden

Twelve weeks before the end of WW II, on February 13 and 14, 1945, a multitude of airplanes bombed the city of Dresden. Estimates of the dead range from 60,000 to 245,000. Perhaps one-half of the city was destroyed, the fires raged for several days, and many beautiful buildings were demolished.

But! Unlike Berlin where the rubble was piled high to form man-made mountains, in Dresden the remains of the most important buildings were preserved for reclamation. Restoration did not begin until sufficient money and skilled workmen were available to do it right.

Picture postcards, photographed in August 1949, show ruins of building walls, arches, domes, and steeples, but except for one long wall and an underpass below the Brühl Terrace near the Elbe River, not one structure appears usable. Of some interest, far in the distance, these photographs show wind-blown smoke rising from a tall smokestack.

For some buildings in Dresden, records had been kept of the exact detail, such as the number and size of stones and bricks originally used. When the results of the war or of the aging process are removed, the resulting building is equal to, or even superior to the beauty and the design of the original.

The 102 meter (337 feet) long mosaic, “Füstenzug, The Princes’ Procession,” suffered only slight damage from the bombs. It consists of 24,000 Meissen china tiles, and shows the princes of the House of Wettin. Dating from 1907, the tiled mosaic portrays kings and princes astride horses, each entitled with names and dates. The detail of each is exquisite, and the border that surrounds the whole mosaic is resplendent with a motif usually associated with tapestries. How could it survive.

During our first visit, a department store was in a rather new, several-story building, with the name Karstadt, a Western chain, on a cloth banner hung from the roof. It was still under renovation, but open and very busy. Clerks, customers, and carpenters wandered among racks of clothes and piles of lumber, and the sound of cash registers competed with the sound of jack hammers. The look on some customer’s faces, reminded us of kids looking at gifts under a Christmas tree.

With much work, Dresden will again become a beautiful city, and will once more be the Florence of the North.