Invitation to Germany 7 of 7
including near the city center, that were lined with buildings that appeared to be built long before WW II. The former authorities did not tamper with the medieval quarter, and in the Altstadt, twisted alleyways remain full of character.
In other parts of Germany, such as an occasional street in Berlin, Bonn, Dresden, Saarbrücken, and Magdeburg, some buildings built before WW II, escaped the bombing. But in Görlitz, street after street were lined with buildings with an architectural style peculiar to Germany.
These buildings can be recognized by what we must call “heavy relief,” only because we can’t find another word that describes this style of architecture. The fronts of the several-story buildings have decorations that consist of pediments, cornices, half columns, small balconies, and in general a variety of heavy stone protrusions. These features do not extend far from the building, and the balconies for example, appear to be more for decoration than use.
Information received from Architektenkammer Berlin shows pictures of buildings similar to the ones mentioned here and calls them, “ … late nineteenth century tenements … .” It goes on to say, “The four-story clinker façades are heavily decorated and articulated with half columns and pilasters … .”
%DRESDEN
Dresden’s celebrated baroque and rococo architecture included the Roman Catholic Hofkirche, or Court Church, built in the 1700s; the baroque Zwinger Palace; the Semper Opera House; The Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady); and many other buildings of note. Twelve weeks before the end of WW II, on February 13 and 14, 1945, hundreds of airplanes dropped thousands of tons of bombs on the city of Dresden, and some of the most beautiful buildings in Europe were demolished — just piles of rubble remained. Perhaps one-half of the city was dismantled, and the fires raged for several days. Since the city was crowded with refugees, estimates of the dead range from 60,000 to 245,000.
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, four years after the bombing, show the Neumarkt area with the Frauenkirche, Museum, Academy of Arts (with its dome almost intact), and other buildings on both banks of the Elbe River, still devastated. There are ruins of walls, arches, domes, and steeples, but except for one long building wall and an underpass below the Brühl Terrace near the Elbe River, not one structure appears usable. Portions of a wall and an arch of the Frauenkirche, shown soaring into the sky in these photos, was exactly the same when we first arrived 42 years later. Of some interest, far in the distance, these photographs show wind-blown smoke rising from a tall smokestack.
In the intervening years some buildings had been restored, but when we arrived in 1991 several were still undergoing restoration, and others, some with weeds and small bushes growing from niches and crannies in the pediments and on the roof, awaited their turn.
The restoration of the Zwinger Palace was nearly complete, with its most recognizable feature being the several more-or-less onion shaped domes, covered with golden decoration, in a three dimensional, or heavy relief motif. In all our travels (and in reference books), we have seen no others like the unique domes at the Zwinger in Dresden, the foremost example of exquisite, elegant Dresden architecture. The dome on the Academy of Arts (on the Brühl Terrace) is quite different from those on the Zwinger, but is still unique to this city. We don’t remember others like either of them elsewhere, and we have no idea how to describe them. We are not unusual in that respect, none of the guide books or coffee-table books that specialize in architecture, even attempt a description.
At one place on the upper level of the Zwinger, a Krankenhaus (hospital) for statues contained dozens of sculptures undergoing refurbishment, awaiting installation in their proper location.
RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
As we visited residential neighborhoods beyond the city center, it was interesting to note many were crowded with post-war buildings, built with rather uninteresting architecture. Other streets, that most likely suffered little or no bomb damage, are still lined with pre-war buildings, designed and constructed with a much more interesting architectural style. While some of the older buildings await restoration to their former glory, and others appear already renovated, most would require more rejuvenation to reclaim their former splendor.
On the south side of Dresden, on the road to Prague, situated on top of a long low hill, an apartment complex was built with an attractive architectural style not usually seen in Communist Eastern Europe. A streetcar ride to the northwest part of the city ended at a large area filled with 10 to 15 story apartment buildings built in the “early Socialist” architectural style, copies of which are seen by the hundreds throughout Eastern Europe.
This streetcar ride was the time Jim talked to the young lady, mentioned earlier, who bemoaned the day to day decisions and choices she was permitted or required to make in a democratic, capitalist society. For example, she said, “Why doesn’t the Government just determine which TV is best, and only sell that one. Why do we need a variety to select from.” She was the only person who expressed this sentiment, but she was but one of a group of college students who were anxious to express their opinions (in English) in response to Jim’s questions.
At one street corner, using Emmy’s limited German, we talked to two elderly ladies who had lived through the terrible bombing. We are unable to communicate well enough to recount a complete story, but here again, we lament the fact that we have found no books that relate how the real people, the “little” people, not members of the government or military, lived or existed throughout the war years, and the years of Communist oppression.
Across the street from Dresden’s campground they were building a large development of two and three-story individual houses. The outside walls were made of 12” thick cement blocks, clear up to the very peak of the roof. Floors and interior walls were concrete, staircase structures were of steel, with cement or granite steps. Everything is just built so strong, no wonder they expect it will last for hundreds of years.
NEU - STADT, (NEW TOWN)
On the north side (right bank) of the Elbe River, a broad grassy, tree lined area called Straße d. Befrei, is bordered with stores and restaurants. The old picture postcards of Dresden show the steeple (with clock) of the Dreikonkirche (Three Kings church), survived the bombing with relatively little damage. Restoration now appears complete, and the church organ was being played with grand acclaim. Inside, the portion of the church auditorium with pews seems to be much smaller than it must have been before the bombing, as the pews fill only a small section of the whole building. The remainder of the space is occupied with offices and museum areas.
Near the right bank of the Elbe River stands a huge statue of August the Strong on his horse (both painted gold), called the “Goldener Reiter.” He is given credit for building many of the beautiful baroque structures in Dresden.
ALT - STADT, (OLD TOWN)
Most of what might be considered “downtown Dresden,” extends from the Elbe River, south a mile or two, to the Hauptbahnhof, or main train station. There are many beautiful old buildings, some renovated, and some still in ruins. Leading to the train station, Prager Strasse, a wide pedestrian-only shopping street, is lined with fountains, stores, hotels and restaurants.
Most of the buildings that made Dresden famous are located in Alt-Stadt, on the left bank of the Elbe. The Semper Opera, Theater-Platz, and The Katholische Hofkirche, are downstream from the Georgij-Dimitroff Brücke (bridge). While both the Hofkirche and the Semper Opera (1985) have been restored and are in use, the exteriors are splotchy with a mixture of old and new stones. We have no idea if they will clean the old to look like the new, blacken the new to look like the old, or permit the bespattered look to continue as a reminder of the cataclysm of WW II.
The Brühl Terrace, sometimes called Germany’s front porch, is a broad walkway, built high above the left bank of the river, right in front of the Museum, the Academy of Arts, and other beautiful buildings. From here the vista includes the Elbe River, tourist boats, river barges, bridges, and the interesting buildings of Neu-Stadt, on the right bank. During both of our visits the renovation of Dresden could be seen from the Brühl Terrace, which itself was in final stages of refurbishment in 1995.
The Zwinger, the Frauenkirche, and museums and public buildings are a block or so from the river, and distributed among these buildings are hotels (Hilton and others), restaurants, stores, and block after block of sidewalk cafes.
Of more interest to Emmy, during our 1991 visit we met a group of uniformed Russian soldiers. We tried to communicate with them, without much success. One of them, who Emmy still remembers as the most handsome man she has ever met, said he was from Leningrad. Jim remembered that just a few weeks earlier that city name had been erased, and the original name of St. Petersburg had been restored to his hometown. At first the solider was taken aback, then we could tell it dawned on him what we were trying to say, and he smiled broadly, nodded his head, shook our hands as if to say he was happy we were aware of that historic name change.
FÜSTENZUG, THE PRINCES’ PROCESSION
The 1949 postcard picture, mentioned earlier, was taken from the top of the Rathaus, while facing north across Alt-Stadt and the Elbe River. The photo shows a wall near an underpass, a block from the left bank of the River. On the north side of that wall, in the midst of buildings that were demolished by the bombing, the 102 meter (337 feet) long mosaic, “Füstenzug, The Princes’ Procession,” remained almost undamaged. Dating from 1907, it consists of 24,000 Meissen china tiles and shows the princes of the House of Wettin, from Margrave Konrad the Great, to King Georg who died in 1904. The beautiful 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.
We were told the “Füstenzug” suffered slight damage on that terrible February night, and it has been refurbished, cleaned and polished since the bombing. That the long, beautiful, fragile mosaic could survive in the midst of all that destruction, is incredible.
DRESDEN FRAUENKIRCHE
We have visited a thousand cities and towns in a host of European countries and found that whole towns, and considerable parts of others, have not only been preserved, many have been freshened and revitalized, and thousands of ancient buildings, bridges, and streets are in everyday use. In many places, records had been kept of the exact detail (and we mean really exact, such as the number and size of stones and bricks originally used), so when the results of a war or of the aging process are removed, the resulting building or town is at least equal to, and sometimes superior to, the beauty and the design of the original.
The Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), a huge single dome building of baroque design, had lain as a mound of rubble with portions of a wall and an arch soaring into the sky, since the horrendous bombing of February 1945, awaiting the money and man-power to rebuild, precisely. When we visited the rubble and remnants of Dresden in 1991, there was a large statue of Martin Luther standing next to the remainder of the Frauenkirche.
When we returned in 1995 we saw the beginnings of the renovation. Using photos taken in the 1920s, detailed specifications of the Frauenkirche were recorded. They knew exactly how many blocks of stone, the dimension of each block, and exactly where each stone had been, in respect to all others.
Most of the original stones had been damaged or melted by the fire-storm following the bombing, but ten thousand blocks were in good enough condition to be reused. They had been carefully identified, numbered, tagged, and organized on a city-block of shelves and bins. As we wandered through the storage area we couldn’t help but be amazed at the detailed effort required to return this beautiful building to its original state. The original church clock, still in its damaged state, was displayed along with the reclaimed stones.
With the help of a computer the stones will be placed in their original location in the building’s walls, intermixed with tons of newly quarried stones.
In the mid-1990s IBM presented advertisements in prestigious magazines, bragging that one of their computers was being used to help restore this fascinating building. The architects and builders had determined in which direction the church had fallen, so as each block was removed from the rubble its exact location in the pile was carefully documented. Each stone was painstakingly inspected and measured, and this data was studiously documented.
Detailed information describing each stone and its location in the rubble was entered into the computer’s memory, then using an elegant “virtual reality” computer program, the collapse was “reversed” and the computer program placed the old stones in their “original” location among the tens of thousands of new stones. Computer-generated photographs of the restored church portray what to expect in the years to come. Jim has been in the computer business since the late 1940s, so was thrilled to be able to discuss a few of the technical details with a man in the nearby construction office, who was happy to answer his questions.
In 1995 we saw the beginnings of the Frauenkirche renovation. The reusable age-blackened stones were being intermixed with tons of bright new building-stones obtained from the same Elbe River quarry where the original stones had been selected hundreds of years before. The reconstruction, expected to cost well over $100,000,000, is planned to be completed by the year 2006, Dresden’s 800th anniversary. If all goes well, the Frauenkirche’s 312-foot-tall lanterned dome will once again dominate the splendors of this exquisite city’s skyline.
NEU - MARKT, ALT - MARKT
The Neu-markt (in the Alt-Stadt) is surrounded by the Frauenkirche and the ruins of several other buildings, and is just south of the Museum and the Academy of Arts, which front on the Brühl Terrace. Golden Arches nearby confirmed the availability of clean restrooms, but the days we visited there were no signs of street-market activity in the Neu-markt. Just a couple of blocks south, across Ernst-Thälmann-Strasse, the Alt-markt was filled with vendor booths and vehicles, selling a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and articles of clothing.
This market was in the midst of a shopping area that includes a copy of the British store, Peek and Cloppenburg. Just beyond the Alt-markt, an archeological dig was under way, but we saw no sign indicating what they were looking for, or what they had found.
Just across the street from that excavation, the Rathaus had a tall, slim tower that appeared climbable, but Jim was satisfied to climb the tower of the Kreuzkirche, next door, for photographs and video of this fascinating city.
KREUZKIRCHE
The main Protestant Cathedral in Dresden, right next to the Rathaus, was founded in 1206, and has been damaged or destroyed a half dozen times over the centuries, the last time from the bombing in WW II. This church is built with very large, dark colored stone, with blocks and columns much larger than building blocks usually seen — a very unusual, neither Gothic nor Romanesque, beautiful auditorium. An organ recital, or perhaps organ practice, was under way each time we visited. With its ample main floor and huge balconies, this church could seat a gathering of several thousand people.
A large display of photographs portrayed the city of Dresden and this cathedral, before and after the bombing in WW II. Some of the pictures of the church displayed damage of a disastrous fire, a hundred years ago.
One cold rainy day Jim climbed the church tower to observe the layout of this beautiful city. In spite of the rain and wind he was able to balance an umbrella and keep both himself and the video camera approximately dry. While the dark gloomy weather interfered, the resulting video is a great reminder of buildings already restored, and the ruins awaiting their allotment of money and man power.
PRAGER STRASSE, SHOPPING STREET
In 1991 a rather new, several-floor building, formerly an East German Government Konsum store, was now a Karstadt Department Store, a member of the West German chain. It was still under renovation, but open and very busy. Clerks, customers, and carpenters wandered among racks of clothes and piles of lumber, the sound of jack hammers competed with the sound of cash registers. The customers were so happy to have such a store, they just weren’t inconvenienced by the construction work. Since it was so new, the store name was just a cloth banner hung from the roof. But by 1995, business had been so good, Karstadt was in the process of building a larger new store just across Prager Strasse from the original.
On the plaza area outside the large store, Emmy bought a sweater from vendors who were selling a wide variety of clothes from a dozen sidewalk booths. Pizza and other food items were available from street kiosks. Other stores on the Prager Strasse pedestrian shopping mall, were busy with customers who still appeared amazed at what they were seeing.
A few blocks away, in 1991, at a newly opened Spar Supermarket we saw people who were just sightseeing, enjoying their first look at how the West had lived all these years. The look on their faces reminded us of kids looking at gifts under a Christmas tree.
Continuing south on Dresden’s Prager Strasse, hotels, stores, office buildings, three large decorative fountains, and restaurants including among others, McDonald’s, Burger King, and Häagen-Dazs, line both sides of the walking area and a large plaza.
The Hauptbahnhof, Dresden’s Main Train Station, had recently been renovated. Train-dispatch signs directed passengers to trains going to Köln, Copenhagen and other destinations that Dresden’s citizens could only dream about during the years of Communist rule. Huge signs advertised products such as Panasonic, and Sony. Next to the Hauptbahnhof, and in fact throughout the city, miles and miles of worn-out streetcar tracks were being rebuilt.
We are quite sure that Dresden will again become one of the more beautiful cities in Europe, and with much work, Dresden will again be the Florence of the North.
Tidbit by Jim and Emmy HumberdSimilar tidbits in: Book = Invitation to Germany, Travel Tidbits
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