Along the Elbe
Although I’ve lived in Berlin for nearly seven years now, I’d never been to Dresden! Shame on me. I’d passed through on the way to and from Prague. I’ve even hiked in the Sächsische Schweiz. But I’ve never actually stopped to see the city. It was about time to change that, so when I had a visitor I took the chance to go for the weekend. It was pretty cold and we slipped over the sidewalk towards the train station on Saturday morning. In about two hours, in which the train slowly made its way through Brandenburg and Saxony, we reached the Neustadt train station. After check in at the hostel we walked towards the old town. On the way we really enjoyed a stroll along the Elbe. A chilly wind blew, but plenty of people were out and about on this sunny day. A few ships lay docked on the old town side. We passed the impressive government building and then crossed the bridge over the river.
Dresden-Neustadt
Dresden lies on both sides of the Elbe, for a long time a border between the East and West of Europe. I’m glad we decided to stay in the New Town. Although historically new, many of the old town buildings are actually newer than the new town, due to the heavy bombing of Dresden in World War Two. The New Town has different parts. We found a long winter market beyond the statue of the golden rider, August the Strong. It was a type of Xmas market with foods from all over the world, along with the typical German stands. It’s actually a really pretty neighborhood, which we only found out because our train home on Monday had a delay of more than one hour. This made us walk around to find a café. Around the Königstraße are some really cute passage ways and inner courtyards. It totally fit the cute café we found in one of them.
But I was also pleasantly surprised with the area of our hostel. It’s the party corner of the city, but that also meant many different restaurants and cosy-looking cafés. Many artists have left their mark and you can find some unique shops and boutiques. We particularly liked the Kunsthofpassage. It links Alaunstraße with Görlitzer Straße and has some very artsy courtyards. There’s a blue facade with playful rain pipes that let the water come down as if it were a marble track for kids. Even our hostel was kind of funky, with lots of decorations and mini themes in the rooms. We also had an excellent meal at Grubers Welt, which has some Czech beer on tap and has delicious hearty food.
The old town
The not so old town has totally been renewed in the years after 1990. While Germany was split into East and West, the local government only spent money on renovating the Zwinger palace. But most of the old town was in pieces, with only some walls still standing after the bombing in 1945. Take the Residenzschloss. Some walls were still standing, but all the inner building, including the painting on the walls of the courtyard were completely destroyed. Luckily they had pictures of an old model on which they could base the renovations. These are still ongoing! On photos of the GDR time of Dresden you can see the center is pretty empty, with the ruined church of our lady, Frauenkirche, in the middle. Many of the buildings surrounding the church may look like 18th century, but are actually as modern as anything built these days. Only the facades had to be reconstructed like the good old days, to give the inner city its glory back. The Frauenkirche itself was rebuilt for 180 million! It’s interior is surprisingly un-protestant. It’s got beautiful pastel colors and decorations. When August the Strong was ruling, he converted to catholicism to become king of Poland. He built a beautiful catholic church and appeased the regular people by ensuring the protestant church was pretty too.
Much of Dresden was destroyed by the fire that was caused by the bombs, so luckily this spared the Fürstenzug, a massive porcelain artwork displaying the former rulers of Saxony’s Wettin family. The porcelain comes from the famous town of Meissen and could withstand the heat. Beyond the recently renovated center is the old market square. Here stands the Dresden that was done up in GDR times. It’s evident in the Kulturpalast, for which the government had big plans. However, its wallet wasn’t so big, so concessions were made and instead of a multistory building, there is now a big rectangle. On its side is a socialist propaganda mural. It shows how great the socialist society is, especially compared to the evil that happened in Germany before the GDR was formed. There is some debate about what to do with this kind of propaganda. According to our guide, the mural was covered with a big green net while the city debated whether or not to tear it down. But eventually it was kept to preserve history. However, there couldn’t be too much propaganda in the city, so some trees were planted in front of it, obstructing the view of the mural.
The old market is interesting too. At first the GDR government wanted to made it look prestigious again and they started rebuilding where you can now find a shopping center. The facades really look beautiful. The plan was to make the city of Dresden look like this. But then our guide lead us through a time progression by pointing at different buildings. Across from the Kulturpalast are two buildings many inhabitants of Dresden really dislike. At this time much of the money had run out and thus the buildings were simplified. This kept going and the further away you are from this point, the more it starts to look like the typical Plattenbau of building panels that you see in so much of the East of Germany.
The town really is a museum in itself and there is a lot of history hidden in the buildings. Being the former seat of a king, there is also a lot of richness hidden behind the walls. There are many museums and we decided to visit the Grünes Gewölde, the baroque treasury in the royal palace. You enter into a courtyard covered with a see-through roof. I found the ticket price quite steep, but it displays the collection of August the Strong (1670 – 1733) himself. Even then, he intended to share the beauty with the public, so it’s really a very old museum. The rooms were particularly designed to show and complement the splendor. This means there are lots of mirrors and much gold. We walk passed sparkling diamonds and gemstones. There is a big cabinet made of amber, with drawers that all hid some kind of treasure. I enjoyed the mother of pearl shells that were turned into boats and the many viking style drinking horns. We spent two hours going through it!
So Dresden was great. I wish we had had more time to visit its surroundings, like the Basteibrücke, but that will have to wait for another time.
