6609 This is the Semperoper in Dresden. You can see the WWII raid damage on the darkened stones.
6642 Frauenkirche, The Church of Our Lady, its name notwithstanding a Lutheran church. You can see the reused original stones as dark spots on the facade. The part that was not knocked down is on the extreme left. That darkness is not shadow but the original wall that was completely scorched but still standing. That's the original bronze of Martin Luther in front of the church. It was undamaged in the bombing and was restored to this position when the church was rebuilt.
6664 The Furstenzug, Procession of Princes of Saxony done in Meissen porcelain.
6691 Bruhl's Terrace and the Academy of Fine Arts along the Elbe River.
6696 From left to right: The Royal Palace, the Hofkirche (Now the Dresden Cathedral) and the Semperoper with the Elbe River in front.
4400 The entire Furstenzug. Don't know how it will show up on the blog.
June 27 – Berlin to Prague, Czech Republic. Today we are leaving Germany and heading to Prague in the Czech Republic. On the way we are stopping in Dresden, site of a very large Allied air raid late in the war that has been criticized as 'unnecessary'. These critics are probably the same people who deem the A-Bombs dropped on Japan as unnecessary. My theory is that if you come into someone's house and smack him hard you have no reason to complain when he smacks you back harder. All the Axis powers used treachery and stealth as a weapon early in the war and atrocity and crimes against humanity during the war. For any of them to complain about the treatment they got during and after the war is offensive and nonsensical to me and will definitely be treated with the distain it richly deserves.
Uh, oh, Here I Go Again Note: There were plenty of militarily justifiable targets in the city of Dresden. Much is made of the fact that the factories outside town were not damaged very much but downtown was destroyed. What they won't tell you is that the Germans were using distributed production methods for the really critical parts of their equipment. For example, avionics. You can build all the bombers you want but if you can't equip them with navigation, instrumentation, bomb sights, etc. you have a pretty worthless aircraft. The bombers may have been built in large factories but the critical equipment and especially the optics and sensitive electronics were not built there. They were manufactured and assembled in small workshops scattered throughout the city. Those production facilities for the sensitive elements of the aircraft were much harder to repair or replace as the machines needed to produce them are not readily available. If you knock them out the German's ability to produce aircraft is hampered for a much longer time than if you knock out the airframe factory. Short message is, "If you don't want us to destroy a city, don't use it for military purposes." Pretty simple actually. Also, if you get paid back for your bad actions, don't whine about it.
I had avoided using italics for so long I actually thought I was mellowing out at bit. I guess if the NAZIs can't get your dander up, you might just be brain dead.
Anyway, back to Dresden. The efforts to rebuild the oldest parts of the city have been amazingly successful. The buildings surrounding the Schloβplatz (I just love German using the β instead of two esses (ss) saves you almost nothing. They tried to ban the letter some years ago but it just won't die. Schloβplatz=Schlossplatz=Castle Plaza), the Theaterplatz (Theater Plaza) and Neumarkt (New Market) are all or mostly all reproductions of the originals. Those that aren't are new buildings with facades in the style appropriate for the surroundings. It's really a wonderful place.
Paul dropped us off at the Theaterplatz because that's one of the few places in old town where he can stop. One side of the plaza is the River Elbe and there's a very wide street there. The
Semperoper (The State Opera House) is right across the street from where we were dropped. It has seen some wonderful things including premieres of compositions by both Richards, Wagner and Strauss. The original building was a bit of an enigma. It exhibited two main styles, Renaissance and Baroque but it had Corinthian columns from Greek Classical Revival. It's classification has been debated for a long time because it didn't fit any of the styles very well. This dilemma was solved when the building was destroyed by a fire in 1869. The new building is Neo-Renaissance style for the most part and it is magnificent. The inside had to be rebuilt after WWII but the outer shell of the building survived. You can see the charring and other damage from the bombing and fire on the structure.
From there you walk past the large church behind you and you're in the Schloβplatz (Palace Plaza). Here the Royal Palace, the Hofkirche and the Standehaus (Assembly of the Government) are all brilliantly reconstructed.
The Katholische Hofkirche (The Catholic Church of the Royal Court of Saxony), also known as the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity since 1980 when it was elevated to cathedral status. The building was damaged during WWII but was reconstructed during the Communist era. It was built in 1783 by Frederick Augustus II (aka Augustus the Strong), Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. He was a Catholic because you couldn't be king of Poland if you weren't. Earlier, in 1726, the Protestant city of Dresden had built the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), a Lutheran Church. The Hofkirche (Palace Church) was connected to the Royal Palace by a second story enclosed bridge, like Venice's Bridge of Sighs, so the royals wouldn't have to mix with the commoners on their way to church. In fact, Frederick built it to balance out the beliefs of the Frauenkirche.
As I mentioned the Dresden Palace is connected to the Hofkirche and right next door to it. The palace is now an art museum and home to the famous Green Vault. It was opened by our buddy Augustus the Strong in 1723 making it one of Europe's oldest museums. By the way Augie got his name from the fact that he was unusually strong. He used to amuse his friends and neighbors by breaking horseshoes with his bare hands.
A fairly narrow street, Agustusstraβa connects the Palace Plaza to the New Market. The wall on the right side of the street is the outer wall of the stables of the Royal Palace. On this wall is the Fürstenzug (Procession of Princes). This display shows the princes of Saxony from the start, Konrad I (aka "der Grosse (the Great) or "the Pious" - 1127), to the last, Prince Georg (1904). When the monarchy was abolished Prince Georg joined the Franciscans and became a priest. He found Franciscan life to intellectually limiting so he became a Jesuit. Priest. He was adamantly anti-NAZI and helped Jews escape from Germany. He was shadowed by the Gestapo and his home searched several times. He saw the views of NAZIism as an affront to the traditions of the Saxons and his family in particular. They had long held that there was equality among people, Catholic, Protestant or Jew. He was also ecumenical in his religious views and a member of the Una Sancta Movement. They held that the true Church was the Spirit inspired Body of Christ in the world and that if you accepted that Christ was the Son of God and the way of establishing a personal relationship with God then you were in the Church regardless of the name of your detonation or religious group. It's amazing how often the practice of 'religion' gets in the way of the true purpose of the Gospel, redemption and a personal relationship with God. But that's the way of humans, take something good and make something distracting and irrelevant out of it.
I guess I got carried away with Georg. Back to the Procession of Princes. It became obvious that the painted version of this list was not going to be permanent so in the early 1900s 23,000 Meissen porcelain tiles replaced the painting. Its 335 feet long by 34 feet high and is the largest porcelain display in the world. Miraculously is escaped with only minor damage in the WWII bombing raid. There's a very liberal use of gold in the background of the tiles. The figures are done in line drawing style. The nobles are show on horseback with their name inscribed below them; they are accompanied by artisans, craftsmen, soldiers, farmers, scientists and children. One of the children is a girl, the only female in the parade. The very last person in the display is Wilhelm Walther, its original creator.
At the other end of the Procession of Princes is the New Market Plaza home to the oddly named Church of Our Lady (Frauenkirche). I say oddly named because it's a Lutheran church and always has been. In the center of the plaza is a large statue of Martin Luther in case there would be any question. All the previous Churches of Our Lady I've seen are Catholic, either Roman or Eastern Orthodox. I'm sure there's an answer to the question why but at this time I don't know what it is.
The 12,000 ton sandstone dome is one of the largest domes in Europe. At the time it was built there was a question as to its stability as it rests on 8 rather slender columns. These doubts were answered when in 1760 the dome withstood hits by over 100 cannon balls fired by the Prussian Army during the Seven Years' War. They just bounced off with no effect.
Unfortunately, the art of war advances and it was totally destroyed in the WWII bombing raid. The Communists decided to let the ruin stand as a memorial to the war but after reunification the structure was rebuilt, inside and out. It was finished in 2005. Structural fragments had been saved all those years and were used in the rebuilding. You can tell the original stones because they are charred and dark whereas the new stones are light grey. One side of the church was not knocked down and it stands almost completely dark.
The original church organ was dedicated on November 25 and Johann Sebastian Bach gave a recital on it on December 1. That organ was not rebuilt.
By way of contrast, the exterior of the Church of the Holy Cross on Old Market Plaza was not destroyed although the interior was completely burned. The tower stands in dark testimony to the firestorm that overtook the city after the bombing. It's almost completely black. The interior has been completely remodeled with no attempt to recreate the original. It is minimalist to the extreme. The area behind the altar is a golden relief of someone's coronation of installation of some sort. In 1539 it became the first Lutheran church in Dresden. There are some reliefs around the circumference of the church. They are very detailed and quite attractive.
One in particular caught my eye. They've just taken Jesus off the cross and are laying him on a sheet. It's pretty obvious that Mary, his mother, Mary Magdalene and John the disciple is at his side. Joseph of Arimathea is holding his shoulders and Nicodemus his feet. Joseph is rich and probably a member of the Sanhedrin. He was able to approach Pilate to ask for Jesus' body. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and also a member of the Sanhedrin who met with Jesus to discuss his teachings. It's during this discussion that John 3:16 occurs, probably the clearest teaching on the Gospel in the Scriptures. He defended Jesus before the Pharisees in John 7 and he assisted Joseph in obtaining Jesus' body in John 19.
Later I walked out onto the Augustus Bridge to get a better perspective on the Palace Plaza and Brühl's Terrace, a large waterfront terrace that started out as a defensive battlement but later became the riverfront porch of a noble's palace.
The Elbe is still very high. There's a street down at the riverside that is currently underwater and unusable. By the look of the park benches that are partly covered with water there's a park or at least a promenade that's also underwater.
Soon it was time to reboard the bus and head for Prague.
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