A few years ago I spent an evening at the German Ambassador’s residence in San Francisco. He had a room on the ground floor with a photo collage of before-and-after photos of East German city centers, showing how they looked on or near the day of reunification, and how they look today. East Germany, under the Socialists, never rebuilt after the war because they couldn’t afford it. So all the towns ravaged by war stayed that way for nearly 50 years, and then the mighty West German economic engine reconstructed them all. The ambassador joined me as I stared in rapt amazement at the transformation and we talked about what an amazing thing it was, and how much of a disaster Socialism is.
I visited this church a number of years ago and remember being quite moved to read about the rebuilding. Old photographs were used along with computer assisted design and a lot of manual working out to restore it as close to the original as possible.
I have seen rebuilt churches in Russia that had been dynamited by the Bolsheviks before. It has a remoralising effect to know that what has been torn down can be rebuilt.
Wonderful photos, thank you! The church and monument are a tribute to the indomitable, unbreakable human spirit, and the enduring desire for God in our lives.
All of the technical wizardry we have at our disposal cannot hope to match the grandeur and visual spirituality of the old church architecture. The modern mega churches just can’t compete from an emotional standpoint. I applaud the efforts to reconstruct these edifices to their original beauty.
My mom was 10 minutes out of Dresden when the firebombing started. She was with her younger siblings, hopping trains from Silesia because their home was bombed. Churchill was the biggest POS that walked the earth, at least one of them and I do not understand how he is made out to be a hero. He ORDERED the bombing of Dresden not just once but numerous times, they waited until people came out of their bomb shelters and hit them again, civilians. Absolutely disgusting.
I can't help thinking of my Mom who seeing bombs falling out of the sky in Eiffel as a tiny little kid was unnerved by fireworks for the rest of her life.
The wall came down in 1989 and the summer of 1990 I went on a driving trip with my then German boyfriend (future husband) through the DDR. I remember going through Karl Marx Stadt (later Chemnitz) and how people peered suspiciously behind their curtains to look at the car.
One of my college classmates a couple of years later moved to Berlin and we went to visit her. We went to the coolest bar- there were about 15 round tables and each of them numbered. And there was one phone in the middle, the phone was heavy phone from the 1940's - black and very cool. You could call the different tables to people you fancied and then flirt with them without them being able to be sure who you were talking to. It was a remnant that they had kept alive from the East.
I also visited Dresden and this church during the reconstruction process right after the fall of the wall. The tour guide was still very bitter at the Americans for having bombed Dresden and he told us right out loud. I'm actually an enormous fan of old architecture (including that in Germany) and watched as they tore down many beautiful buildings in Hamburg (the commissioner could be bribed to make the denkmal shutz (protection order) disappear).
“destroyed in the notorious Allied air raid of February 1945.” Yes. So sorry that the Nazis hadn’t surrendered before the bombings. Same with the Japanese at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
A few years ago I spent an evening at the German Ambassador’s residence in San Francisco. He had a room on the ground floor with a photo collage of before-and-after photos of East German city centers, showing how they looked on or near the day of reunification, and how they look today. East Germany, under the Socialists, never rebuilt after the war because they couldn’t afford it. So all the towns ravaged by war stayed that way for nearly 50 years, and then the mighty West German economic engine reconstructed them all. The ambassador joined me as I stared in rapt amazement at the transformation and we talked about what an amazing thing it was, and how much of a disaster Socialism is.
I visited this church a number of years ago and remember being quite moved to read about the rebuilding. Old photographs were used along with computer assisted design and a lot of manual working out to restore it as close to the original as possible.
I have seen rebuilt churches in Russia that had been dynamited by the Bolsheviks before. It has a remoralising effect to know that what has been torn down can be rebuilt.
Wonderful photos, thank you! The church and monument are a tribute to the indomitable, unbreakable human spirit, and the enduring desire for God in our lives.
All of the technical wizardry we have at our disposal cannot hope to match the grandeur and visual spirituality of the old church architecture. The modern mega churches just can’t compete from an emotional standpoint. I applaud the efforts to reconstruct these edifices to their original beauty.
My mom was 10 minutes out of Dresden when the firebombing started. She was with her younger siblings, hopping trains from Silesia because their home was bombed. Churchill was the biggest POS that walked the earth, at least one of them and I do not understand how he is made out to be a hero. He ORDERED the bombing of Dresden not just once but numerous times, they waited until people came out of their bomb shelters and hit them again, civilians. Absolutely disgusting.
Love seeing anything about this area of Germany. My wife’s parents and my father all grew up in the Erzgebirge.
I can't help thinking of my Mom who seeing bombs falling out of the sky in Eiffel as a tiny little kid was unnerved by fireworks for the rest of her life.
Germany has so many amazing churches. Thank you for sharing such beauty with us.
The wall came down in 1989 and the summer of 1990 I went on a driving trip with my then German boyfriend (future husband) through the DDR. I remember going through Karl Marx Stadt (later Chemnitz) and how people peered suspiciously behind their curtains to look at the car.
One of my college classmates a couple of years later moved to Berlin and we went to visit her. We went to the coolest bar- there were about 15 round tables and each of them numbered. And there was one phone in the middle, the phone was heavy phone from the 1940's - black and very cool. You could call the different tables to people you fancied and then flirt with them without them being able to be sure who you were talking to. It was a remnant that they had kept alive from the East.
I also visited Dresden and this church during the reconstruction process right after the fall of the wall. The tour guide was still very bitter at the Americans for having bombed Dresden and he told us right out loud. I'm actually an enormous fan of old architecture (including that in Germany) and watched as they tore down many beautiful buildings in Hamburg (the commissioner could be bribed to make the denkmal shutz (protection order) disappear).
"It's a good thing we won this war or we'd be charged as war criminals" - USA Air force General Curtis Lemay
I'm now also curious about the protest. was there supposed to be one. Or was that sarcasm about what should be happening.
“destroyed in the notorious Allied air raid of February 1945.” Yes. So sorry that the Nazis hadn’t surrendered before the bombings. Same with the Japanese at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Dresden: The little known Europe's Hiroshima.
Not a world traveler. Thank you kindly for sharing, very much enjoyed.
Fantastic that the church was rebuilt.
I'm glad it was rebuilt.