09 October 2004

A Day in Dresden

And now for the final installment in my "Adventures in Eastern Germany" series...

Ever since we moved to Germany, one of the cities that I have wanted to see was Dresden.

The reason that I wanted to visit Dresden is because of Anne Rice. One reason that she is my favorite author is because I love her descriptions of cities. I am convinced that New Orleans, Paris, and San Francisco are my favorite cities as a direct result of her writings.

Anyway, in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, one of my favorite characters, Marius, spends some time in Dresden during the 17th century in search of his long lost love, Pandora. Strangely enough, Rice doesn't describe Dresden in the intricate way that she does Paris, New Orleans, and San Francisco, but it still made enough of an impression on me that I wanted to go there.

Finally, on October 3, the day of "Deutsche Einheit" we made it there. It was a perfect fall day: it was warm, the sun was shining, and the sky was blue with just a few clouds. In addition to my desire to see Dresden for "Anne Rice" reasons, I also wanted to see its world famous opera house, the Semperoper. So that is where our tour of Dresden began. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, the opera house tours were over for the day and we didn't get to see the inside. However, the outside is gorgeous, and in my opinion, rivals the Opera House in Paris. We then wandered over to the square where the Frauenkirche is being rebuilt.

Actually, there is quite a bit of reconstruction going on in Dresden. For those of you not familiar with it, let me give a two sentence modern day history of Dresden: In February of 1945, the Allies bombed Dresden. The bombing was so intense that not only did it flatten Dresden, but a huge fire gutted the city.

A. gave me this quick history lesson on our way to Dresden, and then I learned more after seeing an exhibit showing pictures and other artifacts of the city in the aftermath of the bombing campaign and fire. The destruction was complete and even over fifty years later the sights were still very moving. Along with the photos were excerpts of diary entries of those days and other objects. One thing that caught my attention were the "Lebenszeichen." After the fire, the Allies allowed the survivors to fill out "Lebenszeichen" (life signs) so that relatives would know that they had survived. However, they were only allowed ten words, apparently so that no code messages could be sent. One that was on display simply stated, "Wir haben erlebt. Der Stadt ist weg." (We survived. The city is gone.)

Apparently, during the time of the DDR, very little was reconstructed in Dresden (or in all of eastern Germany for that matter). I asked A. if this was because they didn't have the money, or if it was because it wasn't deemed an important task, or if it was simply left as a reminder of the past. He stated he simply didn't know. For whatever reason East Germany hadn't been rebuilt, once Germany was reunited, lots of money went to former East Germany to help them reconstruct and modernize. While I didn't see much evidence of this in Chemnitz, in Dresden one way the money is being used is to renovate landmarks such as the Semperoper, the Frauenkirche, the Residenzschloß, and the Zwinger.

Renovation and Destruction
photo by blondelibrarian
This photo shows "Das Residenzschloß". The part of the building that houses the tower has been rebuilt and is open to the public. However, the south side is still being renovated.

From what I understand, in comparison to most places in the former DDR, Dresden is a bustling city and a moderate economic success story. I found it livelier and far more attractive than Chemnitz and would visit it again in the future.

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See more photos from my trip in my photo gallery!

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