Pete

The Frauenkirche in Dresden is almost completely restored.
But is that the last building being restored in Dresden?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3830135.stm


Pete

Lennart Petersen

"Pete" <[email protected]> skrev i meddelandet
news:[email protected]...
    > The Frauenkirche in Dresden is almost completely restored.
    > But is that the last building being restored in Dresden?
    > http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3830135.stm
    > Pete
Depends. If the aim is to rebuild the old Dresden there's an endless work
left.
The GDR regime did the best to rebuilt it with a Stalin architecture.
And b.t.w wasn't there much damage in the recent floodings a few years ago ?

Gregory Morrow

Lennart Petersen wrote:

    > "Pete" <[email protected]> skrev i meddelandet
    > news:[email protected]...
    > > The Frauenkirche in Dresden is almost completely restored.
    > > But is that the last building being restored in Dresden?
    > > http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3830135.stm
    > > Pete
    > Depends. If the aim is to rebuild the old Dresden there's an endless work
    > left.
    > The GDR regime did the best to rebuilt it with a Stalin architecture.
    > And b.t.w wasn't there much damage in the recent floodings a few years ago
?

The flood damage has been prertty much cleaned up AFAIK....

The Prager Strasse (which is the main drag that leads north from the
railroad station) was rebuilt in the late 60's as a pedestrian promenade
lined with shops, hotels, cinemas, etc. I wouldn't exactly call it
"Stalinist" but it's not so different from other such new construstions that
you would find in many other European cities at the time, e.g. relatively
boring modern architecture.....

I'm very glad that the the Frauenkirche got restored. I remember it as a
pile of rubble from my visit there in 1978. There were plenty of other
ruins in the area, too. The DDR government did not have a lot of money for
reconstuction and they had to carefully choose their projects (one being the
restored Dresden Semper Opera which re - opened in 1985). And the church
was rebuilt using lots of advanced computer techniques, which simply weren't
available earlier...

There is a site where you can donate funds for the reconstruction (google
it, I think it's UK - based). I gave them a small donation several years
ago. It's the least I could do as an American, since we helped to destroy
it. It's reconstruction is a symbol of hope and rebirth for all that the
people of Dresden suffered through from 1933 to 1989. Dresden is a fine
town and unlike other places in the former DDR it is relatively thriving....

--
Best
Greg

Richard

    >There is a site where you can donate funds for the reconstruction (google
    >it, I think it's UK - based). I gave them a small donation several years
    >ago. It's the least I could do as an American, since we helped to destroy
    >it. It's reconstruction is a symbol of hope and rebirth for all that the
    >people of Dresden suffered through from 1933 to 1989. Dresden is a fine
    >town and unlike other places in the former DDR it is relatively thriving....


Really? I wonder how many germans were donating thier deutsche marks
to rebuild London?

Tim

"Richard" <refrots(nospam)@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > >There is a site where you can donate funds for the reconstruction (google
    > >it, I think it's UK - based). I gave them a small donation several years
    > >ago. It's the least I could do as an American, since we helped to
destroy
    > >it. It's reconstruction is a symbol of hope and rebirth for all that the
    > >people of Dresden suffered through from 1933 to 1989. Dresden is a fine
    > >town and unlike other places in the former DDR it is relatively
thriving....
    > Really? I wonder how many germans were donating thier deutsche marks
    > to rebuild London?

Quite. When in Dresden I read the sign suggesting that as a foreigner
I might like to contribute. Maybe it was a translation problem, but I
found the implication in the way that it was written that I was somehow
responsible somewhat insulting (and there's a similar implication in
the sign by the broken bell in Lubeck cathedral).

tim

Gregory Morrow

Richard wrote:

    > >There is a site where you can donate funds for the reconstruction (google
    > >it, I think it's UK - based). I gave them a small donation several years
    > >ago. It's the least I could do as an American, since we helped to
destroy
    > >it. It's reconstruction is a symbol of hope and rebirth for all that the
    > >people of Dresden suffered through from 1933 to 1989. Dresden is a fine
    > >town and unlike other places in the former DDR it is relatively
thriving....
    > Really? I wonder how many germans were donating thier deutsche marks
    > to rebuild London?


FYI the war ended in 1945.

ISTR that some German charity money went towards the rebuilding of Coventry
Cathedral.

While we are on the subject many German citizens contributed many millions
of marks in food and other aid to the USSR when that country was having dire
food supply problems in 1990 - 91 (the "Hilft Russland" charity
campaign)....a goodly number of Germans have a conscience too, you see.

Having Germany split and 17 million of their people living in the vile slave
state that was the former DDR for 45 years is not too shabby of a punishment
if it is retribution you are seeking.

--
Best
Greg

hermann Mueller

Richard schrieb:

    >>There is a site where you can donate funds for the reconstruction (google
    >>it, I think it's UK - based). I gave them a small donation several years
    >>ago. It's the least I could do as an American, since we helped to destroy
    >>it. It's reconstruction is a symbol of hope and rebirth for all that the
    >>people of Dresden suffered through from 1933 to 1989. Dresden is a fine
    >>town and unlike other places in the former DDR it is relatively thriving....
    >
    >
    >
    > Really? I wonder how many germans were donating thier deutsche marks
    > to rebuild London?
    >
    >
http://www.bundesfinanzministerium.d...g-bis-2002.pdf

Germany paid 97091 billion Euros from 1953 to 2001 (1Euro=2DM), among
others for England as well. As a result of WWII it is the paymaster of
the European Union.

Enough?

In some sick brains wars never end.

hermann Mueller

Richard schrieb:

    >>There is a site where you can donate funds for the reconstruction (google
    >>it, I think it's UK - based). I gave them a small donation several years
    >>ago. It's the least I could do as an American, since we helped to destroy
    >>it. It's reconstruction is a symbol of hope and rebirth for all that the
    >>people of Dresden suffered through from 1933 to 1989. Dresden is a fine
    >>town and unlike other places in the former DDR it is relatively thriving....
    >
    >
    >
    > Really? I wonder how many germans were donating thier deutsche marks
    > to rebuild London?
    >
    >
http://www.bundesfinanzministerium.d...g-bis-2002.pdf

Germany paid 104 billion Euros from 1953 to 2001 (1Euro=2DM), among
others for England as well. As a result of WWII it lost 30% of its
territory and is the paymaster of the European Union till now.

Enough?

In some sick brains wars never end.

Pete

    > Depends. If the aim is to rebuild the old Dresden there's an endless
    > work left. The GDR regime did the best to rebuilt it with a Stalin
    > architecture. And b.t.w wasn't there much damage in the recent
    > floodings a few years ago ?

Lennart, you were the only person who actually tried to answer my
question, thanks. Everyone else turned it into an opportunity to discuss
WWII again. Do we have ANY person living in Dresden who can
give a report on the reconstruction efforts? I was under the impression
that Dresden was not being reconstructed, but was going to look like
Wurzburg, with pockets of rebuilt buildings next to pockets of postwar
construction. Too bad, because Wurzburg looks like it was a Prague-
like city before the war. Mozart wrote about its beauty in a letter (or
so I have read).


Pete

Jph

"Pete" <[email protected]> a écrit dans le message de news:
[email protected]. net...

    > Lennart, you were the only person who actually tried to answer my
    > question, thanks. Everyone else turned it into an opportunity to discuss
    > WWII again. Do we have ANY person living in Dresden who can
    > give a report on the reconstruction efforts? I was under the impression
    > that Dresden was not being reconstructed, but was going to look like
    > Wurzburg, with pockets of rebuilt buildings next to pockets of postwar
    > construction. Too bad, because Wurzburg looks like it was a Prague-
    > like city before the war. Mozart wrote about its beauty in a letter (or
    > so I have read).

I'll be in Dresden in a few weeks (and I've never been there) but I wonder :
Did they ever consider rebuilding the city as it was until 1945, I mean, not
only rebuild the main monuments, but also the urban shape, houses, etc ?
As you can see here,
http://www.dresden-altmarkt.de/
there is a project going on in the very centre, but it certainly doesn't
look like they're rebuilding the altmarkt as it once was. It more looks like
some postmodern or neoclassical stuff, generic-traditional-european-urban
architecture, and not like they're trying to rebuild the square as it once
looked.

JPh

M.Berger

Pete schrieb:
    >>Depends. If the aim is to rebuild the old Dresden there's an endless
    >>work left. The GDR regime did the best to rebuilt it with a Stalin
    >>architecture. And b.t.w wasn't there much damage in the recent
    >>floodings a few years ago ?
    >
    >
    > Lennart, you were the only person who actually tried to answer my
    > question, thanks. Everyone else turned it into an opportunity to discuss
    > WWII again. Do we have ANY person living in Dresden who can
    > give a report on the reconstruction efforts? I was under the impression
    > that Dresden was not being reconstructed, but was going to look like
    > Wurzburg, with pockets of rebuilt buildings next to pockets of postwar
    > construction. Too bad, because Wurzburg looks like it was a Prague-
    > like city before the war. Mozart wrote about its beauty in a letter (or
    > so I have read).
    >
Dresden was the Elb-Florence before it was destroyed. The whole city
will never be reconstructed, like Wuerzburg or Pforzheim or Heilbronn
and other german cities, too expensive. In 1945 the whole country lay in
ruins. A thousand years of culture and architecture are lost forever.
Thanx to Adolf and Bomber Harris. (No, I don't wanna discuss WWII) ;-)

    >
    > Pete
    >
    >

Pete

    > Did they ever consider rebuilding the city as it was until 1945, I mean,
    > not only rebuild the main monuments, but also the urban shape, houses,

Considering that the Soviets were in control of the city (and the region),
no such plans were ever made. The Frauenkirche was left as a pile of
rubble until after the breakup of the USSR. This was a real tragedy, as
Dresden was one of Europe's most beautiful cities before the war (if you
like baroque, as I do).


Pete

Steffen Pfeiffer

"Pete" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

    > Lennart, you were the only person who actually tried to answer my
    > question, thanks. Everyone else turned it into an opportunity to
    > discuss WWII again. Do we have ANY person living in Dresden who can
    > give a report on the reconstruction efforts? I was under the
    > impression that Dresden was not being reconstructed, but was going to
    > look like Wurzburg, with pockets of rebuilt buildings next to pockets
    > of postwar construction. Too bad, because Wurzburg looks like it was
    > a Prague- like city before the war. Mozart wrote about its beauty in
    > a letter (or so I have read).

if you wanna know how Dresden (or any other german city) looked before
the war, check this site out:

www.bildindex.de (sometimes the site doesn't work, then check back
later... it's an amazing project!)

go to the top, click "orte" then "d" and "Dresden" on the left and
browse. if you click on a picture you can enlarge it with "vergößern".
The most beautiful town in my opinion was Brunswick/Braunschweig, the
city of Henry the Lion, but Danzig/Gdansk or Halberstadt were beautiful
too.

And a few words about the reconstruction of Dresden: the center was
completely destroyed and rebuilt in a mix of communist architecture and
a few historic buidings. the old city structure of the center is gone,
but at least the Canaletto view was restored. A few other parts of the
city like Neustadt (new town) and some districts on the outskirts with
beautiful villas were not, or not that much, destroyed and look like
before the war. PS: the reconstruction of the Church of our lady
(Frauenkirche) is almost completed.


Ciao, Steffen