Dresden: An Overview

Dresden's rebuilt Frauenkirche was only finished two years ago, 60 years after it was destroyed by the infamous firebombing of Dresden in February 1945.


Dresden is located in former East Germany, halfway between Berlin and Prague. It’s the capital of Saxony, or Sachsen, and the population here is right around 490,000. Most of the city's livelihood today revolves around microchips and biotechnology. But that, of course, isn't the Dresden the world is most familiar with. Against all the city’s best efforts, most people in the world know of Dresden because of its apocalyptic destruction in World War II.

In one night, Feb. 13, 1945, British and American planes pummeled the city, especially the historic and central Old City, which was home to Dresden’s most beloved cathedrals, palaces and museums, with firebombs, also known as incendiaries. Firebombs, which originated in World War II, were used by both sides to destroy urban targets with fire, rather than from blast, as was the case with their bulkier counterparts. From 10 p.m. until noon the next day, the bombs didn’t stop, and the separate fires created by them grew into one massive firestorm that swallowed the entire heart of the city. Historians still don’t know for sure how many people died during those 14 hours, but the estimate now is between 25,000 and 35,000. Bodies were still being recovered as late as the mid-’60s. The death toll was so high that burials for the victims were out of the question. Bodies were piled in city squares and incinerated en masse.

Structurally, the city was gone. Dresden, which had been Germany’s crown jewel, a cultural haven housing celestial-looking Baroque palaces, awe-inspiring churches and priceless works of art, was rubble and ashes. The writer Kurt Vonnegut, an American POW who witnessed the bombing of Dresden and the aftermath, immortalized the whole thing in the novel “Slaughterhouse 5”. “Dresden was like the moon now,” he writes, “nothing but minerals.”

The city has been rebuilding for 62 years. And it’s not finished. The big things are. The Frauenkirche, an angelic, dome-roofed Lutheran cathedral among the final major landmarks to be restored, was only completed two years ago. But there are still scars. Among them is the city's population, which even now at 490,000 lags far behind Dresden's prewar population of 642,000.



JEM