Being Tourists

Before we left NZ, everyone assured us that we would get on just splendidly in Germany, ‘cos they ‘all speak perfect English’. This may well be the case in some parts of Germany, but isn’t in Dresden. Most people we have encountered in our tourist travels speak a little English. This, combined with our teaspoon of German, means that sometimes we don’t exactly know what’s going on! While out last week, we had seen a bus / walking tour and thought that that might be a good way to see some of the city. So, on Saturday we approached one of the many street-sellers. As she spoke little English, we did a lot of miming and pointing in order to try and figure out what we were buying. Eventually it transpired that we had purchased a full day ticket for the following day… not quite what we thought, but workable!

Anyway, the tour ended up being great and it really inspired me to take a tour in Welly- it’s a fantastic way to find out about a place. We spent the morning on a get-on / get-off bus and got to see parts of Dresden that we hadn’t been to, as well as scoping out bits we would like to get to.

In the afternoon, by virtual of being idiot-monolingual-tourists, our little English-speaking group of 4 got its own guide, rather than being part of the German-speaking mob of about 20. This turned out to be brilliant and we had the most fascinating tour around the bits of central Dresden that had been bombed and rebuilt. Our guide, Al, was in his 50s and originally from Syria. He came to Dresden to study Physics in the 80s but unfortunately for him, the wall came down, unemployment skyrocketed and he couldn’t find a job. So he went to tour-guide school (not kidding) and became a tour guide!

WARNING: HISTORY GEEK ALERT
Not being able to help myself, I have written a bit about the history of Dresden for those of you who like that kind of thing…. No hard feelings if you feel like you have done your good-reading-deed for the day……

Dresden is the capital of the state of Saxony- population about 400 000 people. It straddles the Elbe River (which runs from Czechoslovakia all the way to the Baltic Coast) and as a town / city dates back to about the 1100s. It has, however, been settled in one way or another since around 7500bc. Between 1806 and 1918 Dresden was the capital of the Kingdom of Saxony. In 1918 the state joined the German Republic and the monarchy was disestablished. Apparently Dresden was recently ranked in the 10 best European cities to live in (Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft).

On the 13th and 14th of Feb 1945, as you probably know, around 80% of the city area was destroyed by bombing in WWII and the effects of this are evident all over the city. When you come to Germany, one of the things people say is “Don’t mention the War!” This is certainly not the case in Dresden and the city takes great pride in the way that they have rebuilt despite the devastation. Slightly scarily, Dresden also seems to be a hot-bed for neo-Nazis and in 2005, was host to the largest Neo-Nazi demonstration in the post-war history of Germany. Between five and eight thousand Neo-Nazis took part, mourning what they called the "Allied bomb-holocaust". And there are little neo-Nazi stickers and symbols all over the city. In Dresden’s defence, there is also a fair amount of anti Nazi material.

Since reunification, there has been a lot of unemployment in the area. Dresden was a predominantly industrial city under the Soviets but there was little investment in infrastructure. When the wall came down, lots of the factories were bought by companies from the West, run for a few years and then shut down. Sound familiar, anyone? 5 years ago unemployment was at around 15-16% and they are quite pleased that it is now down to 12%!

Dresden has a number of claims to fame, including:
It was the centre of the German cigarette industry in the 1900s (Phillip Morris still have a factory here… luck old Dresden, eh?)
Residents of Dresden (at various times) have been credited with inventing / developing:
Condensed milk
Peppermint essence
Mouthwash
Rat poison
Porcelain in Europe

The area is also thought to be the seat of Protestantism- the royal family protected Martin Luther for some time and he translated the Bible into German while in Dresden. There is even a statue of Luther in the Altstadt. Like most areas of Germany, Dresden is predominately Lutheran, however, there is a beautiful Catholic church (Hofkirche) beside the Elbe that was commissioned by Augustus III when he had to convert to Catholicism so that he could become King of Poland.

Cool fact of the day for you: Vladimir Putin was a KGB officer in Dresden from 1985-1990. Apparently he didn’t think much of the placement.

Some key tourist spots in central Dresden:
After WWII
The Zwinger (means cage)
The Zwinger is the city palace but was never residential. It was built by Albert the Strong (father of Augustus) to be used for picnics and entertaining etc… nice, eh? The Zwinger currently has 3 museums within it and houses many of the state treasures. The hills around Saxony are conveniently laden with silver and the area became quite prosperous on this back of this. Apparently when WWII was getting underway, lots of the state goodies were moved out of Dresden for safe keeping and thus, they survived the bombing. Unfortunately, when the Russians arrived in 1956, they pillaged many of the artifacts. Many of these have been returned over time but according to Al, the Russians still have over 400 items (and Dresden would like them back, please).

The Zwinger was almost totally destroyed during WWII but was the first building to be restored. The city set-to in 1945 and completed the reconstruction in 1965 and, as far as possible, as with all of the reconstructions, have tried to exactly replicate the original building. The city now spends over E2 million a year on restoration and upkeep and the grounds of the Zwinger are free to all visitors (not so the galleries, which may be next weekend’s outing).

The Palace

The 'family album'- a mosaic of all the kings of Saxony
This building was the home of the royal family right up until 1918. The palace reconstruction has been going on since 1986 and they expect to finish within the next year… hopefully. My favourite bit was the horses’ accommodation- second floor of the palace, with their own entry ramp and swimming pool!

Frauenkirche
This Baroque-styled church (Church of Our Lady – originally Catholic but now Lutheran) was one of the most recent reconstructions. It was begun in 1993 and completed in 2005 at a cost of around E180 million. The church was destroyed in the war, but not in the manner you might expect…. It actually collapsed a couple of days after the bombing, as a consequence of the vibrations, rather than the actual bombs. As a result, the building literally collapsed downward and because of this they were able to reposition the stones during the reconstruction. 45% of the stones are original and are thought to be in exactly the same place they were in (some nifty computer work involved here). Eventually, the new sandstone blocks will turn black, and you won’t be able to tell what’s old and what’s new.

Incidentally, the English donated quite a large sum of £££ towards the reconstruction of this church and, in fact, the gold cross on the top of the church was built by an Englishman whose father was a bomber during WWII.

Phew, well that’s enough for all of us for one day. Well done if you made it this far :)