When I booked my tickets to Dresden, I had Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5 in mind. Of course, when I reached the colourful Neustadt on a bright Wednesday morning, I was overwhelmed by the art that was spilling from the walls and seeping out of alleyways. The shop fronts were quirky and there was a house with windows which were held by cute little armoured heads fixed into the walls. The entire area is a jumble of pocket-friendly youth hostels, pocket-friendlier restaurants and lively clubs. I had a dorm bed at Lolli’s Homestay, which embodied the definition of a hostel (there was a free dinner that night!) Neustadt is a delight to explore, the most creative place being the Kunsthofpassage, a web of courtyards, each decorated to refresh the senses. The Neustadt also has some famous old ice-cream shops, where pure happiness is doled out in large cones for less than two euros. A shop next to Café Komisch reportedly serves its softies from the same machine that was built in East Germany 60 years ago!
There are several things to do in Dresden. The Altstadtis packed with museums and palaces, the Großer Garten is enormous and filled with attractions, and there are a dozen castles nearby. Dresden was the Saxony capital for many centuries and cultivated artists and innovators. Dresden’s manufacturing industries were mostly concerned with precision instruments and fine objects like cameras and typewriters. European porcelain was invented in Meissen near Dresden in 1710, and Meissen is a very popular day trip.
However, I had set my heart on another castle, somewhat less famous but enormously interesting-Schloss Weesenstein, 16 kilometres southeast of Dresden. Cycling along the Elbe, the route to the castle included every kind of road, from stony sloping paths through the countryside to well-marked cycling tracks and even a stretch on the state highway (where I was on the look-out for any signs of the German police). The castle had been built for the burgraves of Dohna, and therefore was not stuffy and pompous like most castles tend to be- there was a ‘Dog Corridor’, a passage lined with paintings of the family dogs! Additionally, it is a jumble of architectural styles since it was built over the centuries as ownership changed. The most interesting thing about the castle is its topsy-turvy architecture- the banquet halls are beneath the roof and the horse stables on the fifth floor. Fittingly, the audio guide tour occurs in a reverse order, starting with Saxon history in the 19th century and ending at the chapel built in the Middle Ages!
There are several things to do in Dresden, but for anyone who has read about the bombing of 1945, even the train station is a place to visit. During the Second World War, many cities in Europe and Great Britain suffered from air raids. Dresden was no exception. It was a beautiful city and had been an artistic and literary hub for years, but during the war, it became a target because it was an important railroad junction and had a number of military industries. Troops were sent to the eastern front through Dresden. The factories which made cameras were used for manufacturing gun sights; the machines used for making cigarettes were adapted for filling bullets. So it goes.
I had read Dresden: Tuesday, February 13, 1945 by Frederick Taylor. The author presents a detailed history of Dresden and the sequences of events leading up to the bombing. The narrative involves interviews of the people who survived that night as well as RAF pilots who took part in the bombing, along with some recently declassified archival material. Walking from Großer Garten to the Altstadt, I could imagine the horrific firestorm that had raged on the fateful night. The road had been used by people fleeing the burning city towards the green expanse of the garden, but the second wave of bombs fell on areas that were not burning, and people were trapped in the heat and the fire. Twenty-five thousand died.
“I was born in the most beautiful city in the world. Even if your father, child, was the richest man in the world, he could not take you to see it, because it does not exist anymore.” These were the words of Erich Kästner in his autobiography, and when I reached the Altstadt which had been painstakingly rebuilt from the rubble, tears pricked my eyes. It was so beautiful.
The Frauenkirche looked tall, but had a benign air about it. The rich Baroque work had been recreated so diligently, because really, what would life be without art? The surrounding Neumarkt square was bustling and tempting smells wafted from the restaurants. There was a most wonderful florist in one corner. The ambience was relaxed and romantic, just like life should be. The Schloßplatz looked like a sumptuous banquet of beautiful buildings- the Dresden palace, the Katholische Hofkirche(Dresden cathedral), and the Semperoper (opera house) giving the illusion of stepping into a magical land. The Augustus Bridge over the river Elbe completed the picture.
Climbing a few steps I found a bench on Brühlche Terrasse, the fabled “Balcony of Europe”. The sun was setting and lights were twinkling across the river. When darkness fell, I involuntarily shivered, expecting a squadron of bombers to emerge in the horizon.
Dresden remembers the war in many ways. The Military History Museum has engaging exhibits about the links between different aspects of our lives and war. The most striking exhibit is the exterior architecture- the 19th century armory is a symmetric, neo-classical building, but in 2011, Daniel Libeskind added a 100 feet high arrowhead which protrudes from the center. The building seems to reflect one of the indisputable things about wars: war creates an interruption and leaves a mark, for good or bad.
Dresden is a city that has many stories to tell. There are amazing galleries with artwork and the jewels of the Saxon court. There is rich accordion music to accompany the view of Fürstenzug (Procession of Princes), the 101-meter-long panel made of 24000 porcelain tiles. The New Synagogue speaks of an important chapter in Dresden’s history. There are castles to visit and a thumping club scene and lively street art and friendly people (one of the Indian restaurants offered me free mango lassi!). So it goes.