Dresden is a wonderful and interesting city. We spent the day enjoying the sights in the old town that’s been reconstructed in more recent years. Dresden and Nuremberg were two of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany during the war. Most of what we saw today was reconstructed from rubble, an amazing thing.
As you can see in the map below, most of the city center is concentrated in one area.
The Frauenkirche is the gem of this old city. Originally built 1726 to 1743, it was destroyed during the air raids on Dresden on the night of 13/14 February 1945. It collapsed, burnt out, on the morning of February 15th. The rubble was left for many years as a memorial against war and destruction.
In 1993, the clearing of the rubble began and in 1994 the reconstruction was started. The work, completed in 2005, was largely financed by donors from all over the world. On 30 October 2005, a consecration service and ceremony took place in the Frauenkirche. The memorial against war and violence has now become a beautiful symbol of reconciliation.
This large chunk of rubble fell from the dome during the bombing. It stayed in one piece.
The metal plaque on the stone shows the hole where it once fit in the dome. It’s hard to imagine the loss when the cathedral fell.
In a German class at BYU, we all were invited to watch the film Dresden, which my professor said had one of the most realistic depictions of the bombing of a major city during the war. It’s got English subtitles and is worth a 3 hour watch.
This gives you an idea of what the destruction looked like:
The line to get into the Frauenkirche wasn’t long and moved quickly. Stepping inside was like stepping into another world. It was breathtakingly beautiful.
Looking up into the dome was like looking up into heaven. Because today is Easter Saturday, there were services going on, almost on the hour, with different pastors and preachers speaking to the visitors and beautiful organ music playing. We enjoyed listening and soaking it all in.
John climbed up into the dome and took these pictures while I enjoyed more music and sermons.
Our Frankfurt Germany Mission 