A German City, part I - Czech Blog post #12

Monday, September 29, was our second-to-last day in the Czech Republic. That morning, we headed out of the country to the German city of Dresden. You may know that my dad was born in Germany way back in 1915 – yikes, that was 110 years ago! Anyway, I've always wanted to go there. When we were trying to decide what trip to take this fall, Germany was on the short list, but for whatever reason, the trip to the Czech Republic sounded more interesting. Don't worry, Germany is still on the list, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for next spring.

Okay, so much to see in Dresden, I'd better get going. 

Dresden has been called "Florence on the Elbe", because of its beautiful Baroque and Rococo architecture and culture, which reminded many of Florence, Italy. The Elbe River, one of Central Europe's major rivers, winds its way through Dresden. 

Dresden was first established in the early 13th century and soon became an important trade center. Of course, way back then, it wasn't Germany. In the early years, much of Europe vacillated between different dynasties and kingdoms, including being run by the Holy Roman Empire and the whole Middle Ages thing. Even though I read about it on Wikipedia, much of the history is lost on me.

So, let's start with what most of us remember about German history. World War II.

By 1945, Hitler and his Nazi regime were losing a lot of ground. They weren't, however, ready to give up altogether.

Because Dresden had been a major communications and manufacturing center, the Allied forces believed there were munitions factories within the city. Beginning on the night of February 13, 1945, the British and United States Air Forces dropped thousands of tons of bombs on the city center. By the time they were done, two days later, they had flattened the historic center of the town, and nearly 25,000 people, mostly women and children, had been killed.

Coincidentally, I'm reading the book, "Where The Birds Never Sing: The True Story of the 92nd Signal Battalion and the Liberation of Dachau", and I just read the part where the men reach Dresden. After being in the war for nearly a year, they were still shocked by the destruction. 

The truly amazing thing is that near the start of the war, officials in Dresden packed up as much artwork as they could, along with detailed plans of the historic buildings, and hid those artifacts in the mountains. They never imagined their city would be destroyed; they were worried about looters coming through at some point in the war.

Okay, that's way too much history. 

Our first stop, as we listened to all of that history, was the Residenzschloss or Dresden Royal Palace. 

Construction of the former residence of the Electors and Kings of Saxony began in 1548 and wasn't completed until 1901.

It was destroyed in 1945, along with the rest of the buildings in the area. Reconstruction didn't begin until 1986 and has not yet been completed. 

Recreating the plasterwork on the large inner courtyard is a painstaking, slow process. 

The technique is called Sgraffito, a term meaning to scratch. When you were a kid, did you ever color a piece of paper with all the colors of the rainbow, then color over that with black crayon? Then you'd scrape off the black with a knife to make a design that showed all the colors. Know what I'm talking about? That's kind of what this was like, only on a much grander and more refined scale.   

There are multiple museums throughout the castle complex, but we had a lot more of the city to see in our few hours there. More about that – and less history (maybe) – on Friday.