Dresden, of former East Germany – a city risen from the ashes

Leaving the Czech Republic, we entered the former Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), formerly East Germany until the collapse of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and subsequent unification of the east and west in 1990.  We have been in Germany 5 days now and visited 3 old cities – Pirna, Dresden and Meissen.  I haven’t been feeling very well though for the last few days and have had no enthusiasm for posting a blog; however, I am over it now – whatever ‘it’ was, and am now on blog catch up.

Mel is taking us on a tour of his old haunts around the former East Germany, with Dresden being one of them when he worked for the British Spy Mission in the 1980s and when Russian Leader Vladimir Putin was a KGB spy here in Dresden. Mel doesn't recall their paths crossing but who knows!

We crossed the Czech border at Petrovice and were surprised to come across a duty-free shop, where a mix of Germans and Czechs were stocking up with cheap booze and perfume.

 It made us laugh calling it ‘Europe’s No 1 border shop’ – yet another claim by a country to be a number 1

With both Czech Republic and Germany being in the Schengen there were no border controls, just signs to let us know we had changed countries and we were now entering the Saxony region of Germany.

Before getting to Dresden we stopped a couple of nights at Pirna, just to break the journey up.  Mel hadn’t been here before and we were surprised at what a pretty little town it was.  We parked up right by the Elbe overlooking the castle (Schloss Sonnenstein) it’s a free and official Aire for motorhomes.  (N50.96654 E13.93775).

To get across to the town it’s about a 2km walk via a bridge or alternatively you can take the little passenger ferry, that takes all of 2 minutes to cross to the other side.

Ferry across the Elbe

Crossing on the ferry, looking towards Schloss Sonnenstein

Pirna is a 780 year-old city.  For centuries sandstone has been a way of life for the city, with traces of it everywhere in its buildings, sculptures and architecture, and the sandstone blocks were shipped all over the world.

View from the castle on the hill.

We get the feeling we are being watched from the eyes in the roof!  Similar to ones we had seen on Romanian buildings.

Three signs are marked on this building that show how far the Elbe rose.  The top one is marked 17 August 2002, then on 31 March 1845 and the lower one of 7 September 1890 – that must have been scary in all 3 cases.

Leaving Pirna, it was a short drive (25kms) to Dresden, capital of the eastern German state of Saxony.  We parked up on an Aire, about 500m from the city centre. (N51.04426 E13.74371).  It costs €15 to park for 24 hours, €4 for electric and €1 for water and €1 to dump all your waste – a whopping €21 for parking in what is basically a car park, we’ve been paying less for staying on 4-star campsites!

Before it was bombed in World War II, Dresden was known as ‘the Florence of the Elbe’ and was regarded as one of the world’s most beautiful cities for its architecture and museums.  But unfortunately, the war reduced virtually all the town to rubble and over the years the old town has been reconstructed.  A little bit of history about it is posted at the end of the blog.

The most well-known symbol of the rebuilding of the city centre is Dresden Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady, completed in 1743) – the magnificent domed Baroque church.  The pile of rubble remained untouched in the square for half a century, as a war memorial.  Reconstruction process started in 1994 and completed in 2005.  Around the square the typical Baroque gabled houses were rebuilt section by section - the city’s ‘new’ old centre has returned.

 

Semper Opera House – another victim of the 1945 bombing.  Today considered one of the loveliest opera houses in the world and is home to the Dresden Saxon State Orchestra.

Zwinger Palace

Procession of Princes – 101 metre mural tiled with Meissen porcelain depicts the rulers of the House of Wettin in a mounted procession.

The famous and very expensive Dresden Pottery.

Mel used to visit a little house back in the 1980s to purchase it, as there were no shops selling it in those days – and bought it for a lot less than what it sells for today!

On the right-hand bank of the Elbe sits the mounted statue of the Saxon electoral prince and King of Poland, Friedrich August I (Augustus the Strong) – known as the Golden Horseman.  Originally the oldest district in the city, but following a fire in 1685 he had it rebuilt as a Baroque quarter.

Leaving the old town we came across some street music, these guys were so good and were advertising themselves on the street for an up and coming Jazz Festival in Dresden.

So, as I said in the early part of the blog here is a little bit of history for those interested:

In February 1945 the British/American Airforce carried out a firebombing attack on the city of Dresden.  The attack is said to be a payback bombing for Hitler bombing Coventry, which apparently he had done in retaliation for us bombing Munich.  There is a lot of controversy around the bombing of the city, as it has been said that the civilian town had no military significance and after a few days of bombing the city was virtually flattened and hundreds of thousands of innocent lives lost.  Equally abhorrent was Germany’s bombing of the British cities and war is hell, but tit for tat doesn’t make it right in my eyes and if there was no strategic reason for the bombing then not even the passing of time can make it right.  Churchill later wrote that “the destruction of Dresden remains a serious query against the conduct of Allied bombing”.  Although, I have read that after the war it was discovered that the city had a poison gas factory there and manufacturing establishments producing items associated with war production.  The cities of Coventry and Dresden are now twinned and Dresden continues to rebuild itself.

From Dresden we moved on to Meissen.

Sally x