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As promised, I'm going to post some IPhone pics of my recent 3 week trip to Germany - in travel sections by and large. But I'm going to start with some pics from Dresden, a city that I have been fascinated with for many years. This was toward the end of the trip, but it was one of the major highlights for me.
In 1990, right after the Berlin Wall fell, I was able travel to Soviet occupied Eastern Germany for the first time - with the exception of many visits to East Berlin during the Cold War. At that time the Dresden Altstadt was still in ruins. Fortunately the East Germans in the GDR had left many of the formerly beautiful Barock facades of the now burned out buildings intact. A few of the buildings, including the entire Zwinger, had been restored, but the old city was still largely a negative reminder of the brutal end of WWII. It had been fire bombed for two long days by the British and American Air Forces in February, 1945, and many thousands of German civilian war refugees seeking sanctuary as well as allied prisoners of war were victims of the aerial bombing attacks. The crowning feature of the Altstadt was the Frauenkirche, a beautiful and unique Barock Cathedral that was completed in 1743, (but whose history goes back over a thousand years), . The church withstood the bombing, but collapsed into a heap of broken stones one day after the bombing had stopped.
This is what the Frauenkirche looked like before it was destroyed:
That's a statue of Martin Luther that stands in front of the structure.
The first time I saw it it looked like this (my photo from 1990):
These two photos are from the 50s and 60s during the time of the GDR. The first is a view when walking up from the Elbe.
The rubble had been left for some 50 years as a war memorial.
After what is called the German "Wende" and after Germany was reunited, in 1994, there was a major worldwide interest in restoring the Frauenkirche. Funds came in from all over the world, including major contributions from the US and Britain. But the major decision was made by the East Germans.
The architects attempted to use as much of the original material as was possible. They salvaged and cataloged some 8,600 pieces of the original stone before beginning the reconstruction (typisch deutsch !).
The church was finished in 2004, and was reconsecrated in 2005. Meanwhile many of the original Barock buildings had also been restored to their former condition.
I was teary eyed when I saw it. I sat in awe, listening to the organist play Bach oratorios.
The architect, George Bähr, had based his original design on this 1687 Barock church in Venice; the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute.
That German beer tastes great sitting with your bud in Neumarkt Square next to the Frauenkirche... (Rich Helt is a Professor Emeritus of German Literature and a former colleague at Rice U.)
And a rainbow would cap it off!
...while listening to the young folks playing Barock music for tips out by the statue.
I took a trip to Germany
!).
Wow, some story, nicely done Jim. I'm ready for a
