Rebirth in a German City, part II - Czech Blog post #13

Today’s massive amount of information surrounds the Frauenkirche, or Church of Our Lady in Dresden.

The original Baroque Lutheran church was built between 1726 and 1743. 

The church had a distinctive high dome, measuring 220 feet high, and was called the "Stone Bell". When it was being built, no one thought the building would hold up the weight of the 12,000 ton dome. Despite those doubts, the dome proved to be extremely stable. In 1760, the dome was hit by over one hundred cannonballs fired during the Seven Years' War and held strong.

Sadly, the building was no match for two days and nights of bombing by the Allied Forces in February of 1945.

At first it seemed as if the church had a will of its own, or God’s arms were supporting it, because it stood long enough for three hundred people who had sheltered there to escape.

From the extreme heat from fires inside, the dome finally collapsed at 10 a.m. on 15 February.  The walls shattered and nearly 6,000 tons of stone plunged to earth.

Somehow, the altar was only partially damaged during the bombing raid and fire.

The blackened stones would remain in a pile in the city center for 45 years as Communists took over the entire region, which had become the country of East Germany, under the Russians. 

During that time, residents would salvage stone fragments from the church, numbering them for future use in reconstruction. It would be many years before the rebuilding could begin.

By 1989, tens of thousands of East German citizens were protesting against the Communists rule. Finally on November 9, the Berlin Wall came down, and the way was paved for Germany to be reunited.

Very soon after that, the residents of Dresden began meeting to find a way to rebuild their beloved church. It would take thousands of dedicated people years to realize their dream. 

But this is how I know I have German roots – when we are dedicated to something, we will dig in our heels and get it done. 

And so, the people of Dresden raised the support they needed. And not only financially.

Hundreds of architects, art historians, and engineers were recruited to sort through the massive piles of stones and determine which ones were safe to reuse. Computer technology helped to figure out where each stone belonged. On the new church, you can easily pick out the old stones by their dark color. 

Using original plans from the 1720s, reconstruction finally began in February 1992.

The goal was to finish the ambitious project by 2006, in celebration of the 800-year anniversary of the city of Dresden. It was completed a year early in 2005.  

The new golden tower cross was donated by the British people and the House of Windsor. Made by a British silversmith company, one of the main craftsmen on the project was the son of one of the bomber pilots who destroyed the church in 1945. 

The cross that once topped the dome, now twisted and charred, is displayed to the right of the new altar.

A bronze statue of reformer and theologian Martin Luther survived the bombings and now stands in front of the church. 

After we toured the main church and were going to leave, a small sign by a staircase caught my eye. I whispered to my friend, “let’s go down there”. Turns out the basement of Frauenkirche has a large display of documents and artifacts from the church's destruction in WWII. In a catacomb-like setting, each room told a story of faith and resilience. I was respectful of the signs asking to not take pictures, but it was such a moving place to visit. You can look up pictures of it yourself on line. 

(All these pictures were, of course, taken in September 2025 when I there and don't all reflect what I was writing about by each one. I can't do it all.)