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13 Monday Jan 2020

Posted by larrymuffin in Dresden, Uncategorized

≈ 8 Comments

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Architecture, art., GDR, life, Saxony, war

Dresden is a city in Saxony, Germany we have often visited since 1998. This city was until 1989 in East Germany after the partition of 1945.  It survived the war unscathed because it was a city known for arts and culture with no military vocation. However all that changed on the nights of February 14 and 15, 1945 just 2 and a half months before the end of the war, when the British launched massive aerial fire bombing of the city.

The old Dresden was completely destroyed and tens of thousands died. After the war under the communist dictatorship of the GDR, the old city was left pretty much as it was with its pile of rubble. Since 1990 it has been rebuilt completely and now there are no traces of the destruction. This in itself presents a problem,  if visitors are told the story of the City they will think it odd that no visible sign remain. On the other hand it all looks pretty new though built in the same style as before the destruction of 1945.

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This is the old public square by  the Frauenkirche, the lutheran church of our lady. None of the buildings in this photo including the church existed prior to 2010. It was all rebuilt to look and feel exactly as it use to be. Queen Elizabeth II gave the new cross atop the Church lantern in a gesture of reconciliation.

The most impressive reconstruction in Dresden is the lutheran church of our Lady ”Frauenkirche” built by Georg Bahr between 1726-43, measuring 90 meters in height and all made of stone. We saw it being rebuilt during 3 visits to the city. The interior is beautiful in its baroque decor. The original church like the reconstructed one was built with donations from Lutherans and others. Originally it was a protest by the people against their King August the Strong who had wild ambitions. He decided that he wanted to be King of Poland and of Saxony. The problem was that he would have to convert to the Roman Catholic Faith of the Poles to achieve his goal. He did and built a Catholic cathedral next to his palace. The population was not happy with his decision.

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Photo of 1920 of the Frauenkirche

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Photo from 1970 the Frauenkirche a ruin, we first saw it in this state prior to the start of the reconstruction. The building itself survived the fire bombing but on 16 February 1945 in the morning the Ministers of the Church went in to see about the damage and while inspecting it the cooling stone of the Church started to crack violently and crashed on top of them. In this photo you see a vast empty field compared with the reconstructed area today.

If you have a chance to visit Dresden, it is well worth it, located halfway between Berlin and Munich.

 

Dresden, Potsdam and other cities

26 Monday Aug 2019

Posted by larrymuffin in Architecture

≈ 1 Comment

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Dresden, GDR, Germany, Potsdam

What is very interesting from an architectural point of view in Germany today and since re-unification in 1989 is the amount of reconstruction in various cities in what was once East Germany also known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR) under communist rule. From 1946 to 1989 the Communist government of the GDR did very little to preserve and protect historical monuments, palaces and the architecture of Germany prior to 1939. In many cases like the city of Leipzig in Saxony, where Bach spent most of his life working and where he is buried in the famous St-Thomas Church, the Communist authorities rebuilt the city in modern realist style and simply destroying buildings they did not like because they belonged to a part of history they simply wanted to erase.

Cities like Dresden the capital of the Kingdom of Saxony which was fire bombed by the Allies twice on 14 and 15 February 1945 and totally destroyed was not rebuilt but left in ruins, some modern buildings were built by the authorities but are ugly and soulless. Potsdam the Capital of Royal Prussia and the State of Brandenburg was equally re-modelled and rebuilt with little care for history. It is as if for the communists the past had no meaning or they had no past, only a future along a Soviet vision of the world.

We visited Dresden several times in the last 25 years and each time to our astonishment we saw more and more building resurrected, the Federal Government of Germany in an elaborate program sought to rebuild the historical past in an effort to reunify the country and its people and recreate a Germany dating to a time prior to the horrors of the Nazi dictatorship.

Here are some photos of Dresden taken in the last 12 months.

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The old historical centre with its art museum and academy, we walked in this area along the river Elba.

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On the left of the picture the 93 meter high dome of the Frauenkirchen (Lutheran Cathedral) and on the right the distinctive lemon grate glass dome of the Art academy with its gold leaf angel of victory.   All of these buildings had to be rebuilt in some case from scratch only rubble was left in 1945. The art collection in Dresden including the celebrated Meissen Porcelain collection is well worth the visit.

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This famous panorama was painted by Canaletto in the 18th century

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However inside the building you will find this look of undressed and stark reminder of the destruction of war. It is done deliberately so that people will not forget what was lost.

Some buildings were more protected from the war and the February 1945 fire bombing like the treasury rooms of the Royal Palace because the windows had steel shutters. But that was not the case for other buildings all around.

The rebuilding of the Old city of Dresden has been extensive and I often wonder if the memory of what happened is not somewhat erased by this re-birth of all the old buildings including the street scapes.

Dresden was the capital of the princely Wettin family who are relatives of the British royals, the family name Wettin was considered by the British government in 1917 when it was suggested to King George V that he change the German family name of Saxe-Cobourg Gotha to Wettin, in the end the name Windsor was chosen  to hide the german origins of the British royals. Dresden is also linked to the French King Louis XVI whose mother was Maria-Josepha of Saxony. Louis spoke fluent German something that is not widely known.

Potsdam which is a suburb of Berlin in Brandenburg was the royal capital of the Hohenzollern dynasty. The city had many canals and was extensively built by the Kings of Prussia in an elegant baroque and rococo Italianate style. A city of palaces and gardens but also of military monuments. Under King Frederick Wilhelm I, it became known for its garrison of soldiers, his son Frederick II the Great continued this tradition but also favoured the arts and progressive policies like general education for all and the abolition of the death penalty.

I visited Potsdan several times in the last 22 years. Currently the Garnison Church is being rebuilt with funds from the private sector and the Lutheran Church.

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City Palace Potsdam rebuilt today as the seat of the Parliament of Brandenburg

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The GarnisonKirche of Potsdam as it will look in a few years with its tower at 57 meters in height.

Potsdam has seen enormous rehabilitation work in the last 20 years and the old communist era buildings are being demolished and replaced by historical buildings brought back from oblivion. Including street scapes and gardens from the 18th century. Work that will require many more years to complete, employing an army of stone cutters, artists, painters, historians and archivists. In all cases voluminous archives of paintings and drawings, architectural design of the time and photography help in the re-building effort.

Berlin is another example of massive re-creation of the city as it was before 1930 and more along the lines of the 18th century in the age of enlightenment. Mixed in new modern buildings that blend in but also offer a contrast to the older architecture.

In the case of Berlin entire neighbourhoods and city squares have been rebuilt in what was the Eastern Sector of the City, in some cases street lighting of the 1920’s was re-created to replace the communist rusting lamplights made of aluminium. The wall is gone, don’t go look for it, and small touristic sections are left but are a poor reminder looking insignificant. In Berlin the City Council, the Government of Brandenburg and the Federal Government with the Parliament have all worked together to remake the image of Berlin as a unified city, dedicated to the ideals of the 18th and 19th century like the Humboldt brothers, Wilhelm and Alexander, proponents of Liberal Classicism ideals.

 

 

 

 

 

photo not PEI

28 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by larrymuffin in Uncategorized

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Alexanderplatz, Berlin, BRD, FRG, GDR, Germany, Spree river

This photo of central Berlin, the Capital of the Federal Republic of Germany, re-united and once again the Capital since 1990. It had lost that title in 1946 with the division of Germany by the Allies when the Capital moved to Bonn for the Western part of the Country and the Eastern part kept Berlin, half demolished, bombed out as their capital.

The photo below is East Berlin now known as Mitte or central Berlin. The Princes and Kings of Prussia lived on the island on the Spree River as of the 15th century until 1918. The buildings on the left side of the photo, you have the great dome of the Lutheran Cathedral it was connected to the Imperial Palace across the street, heavily damaged in 1944 it was lovingly restored to what it was like in 1918, the crypt is full of coffins of the Royal Prussian family members. The cathedral is surrounded by several museums all fully restored since 1989 at great expense. The collections are breathtaking, varied and shows the knowledge and quality of the curators who worked for the Hohenzollern family. The long gray facade building on the Spree river is the old stables of the Palace, housing hundred of horses and carriages at one time. The empty space between the cathedral and the stables is occupied today by the reconstruction site of the great City Palace of the German Emperors. On the middle of the photo is St-Nicholas neighbourhood also heavily damaged by aerial allied bombardments in 1942-1944, the churches have been restored and so has the red brick tower and building of Berlin’s City Hall. The modern towers you see in the background is Alexander Platz built to celebrate the visit to Berlin of Russian Tsar Alexander I in 1805, it was re-imagined by the Communists East German government and turned into a typical soulless ugly brutalist architectural monstrosity for army parades, think Red Square or Tien An Men Square in Beijing.

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Same area another shot taken around 2007

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