How Germany's most beautiful city was miraculously rebuilt

Telegraph

13-02-2025

Eighty years ago today, on the evening of Feb 13 1945, my German grandmother stood at the attic window of her apartment, on the outskirts of Dresden, and watched the night sky light up as the RAF and the USAAF reduced Germany's most beautiful city to a sea of rubble. Her youngest son, my father, had been born here in 1942. He was just a toddler. If they'd been living in the centre of the city, I doubt I'd be here to tell their story.
Eighty years on, that fateful night still dominates British discussions about Dresden. 'What about Coventry?' we ask, understandably. What about all the other British cities which were blitzed by the Luftwaffe years before? Yes, the bombing of Dresden was especially horrific, over 20,000 killed in one night – but it was the culmination of a war which was begun by Germany.
Over the last 30 years I've visited Dresden many times, and most Germans I've met there share this British point of view. They mourn the loss of life, the obliteration of countless treasures – but they see Dresden in a wider context, alongside cities the Nazis destroyed, such as Rotterdam and Warsaw.
To my mind, it's a good thing that the bombing of Dresden isn't forgotten. It's an important reminder of the horrors of modern warfare. But because of that focus on the war, many Britons assume there can't be much left to see there – and most of us are unaware that British links with Dresden aren't confined to 1945.
In Edwardian times the British community in Dresden was so extensive that the city had its own daily English newspaper, The Dresden Daily the only one in Germany. 'Dresden is second to no city in Germany in the attractions it offers to travellers in search of the picturesque,' declared the inaugural edition, in February 1906, anticipating an 'increased influx of English visitors.'
When I first came to Dresden, 50 years after the bombing, that boast rang pretty hollow. After the war, Dresden had ended up in East Germany, and though the East Germans had patched up a few antique landmarks, the communist regime had neither the money nor the inclination to conduct a full-scale reconstruction of the cityscape obliterated in 1945.
German reunification, in 1990, dramatically accelerated this restoration process, and during the 1990s and 2000s, I was thrilled to see how many ruined buildings were revived. Nevertheless, I thought this process would take a lifetime, which is why my latest visit (my first since Covid) was such a wonderful surprise. I'm delighted to report that during the last decade, the city has been transformed, not just by the renovation of old buildings, but by the construction of many new ones, built in sensitive baroque style.
The crowning glory of this renaissance is the Frauenkirche, whose huge dome dominates the skyline in Canaletto's paintings of the city. Flattened in 1945, for half a century this iconic church was a melancholy heap of rubble, until Dresdeners set about rebuilding it – an exact replica, blending new and extant masonry. The golden cross and orb upon its dome were made by British goldsmith Alan Smith, whose father Frank was an RAF airman in the bombing raid – a profound, uplifting symbol of Anglo-German reconciliation.
Since it reopened in 2005, the Frauenkirche has been a catalyst for the regeneration of the surrounding Neumarkt. In 1995, this broad cobbled square was a drab and dreary car park. In 2005, it was an empty space. Now, it's the centre of the city once more, just as it was in Canaletto's day. Neo-baroque buildings replicate the 18th-century street view he saw and painted, built in harmony and sympathy with the surviving relics.
One of Dresden's finest rejuvenated relics is the Taschenbergpalais, built by Augustus the Strong, the unenlightened despot who transformed Dresden from a sleepy provincial capital into the so-called 'Florence of the Elbe'. Augustus built this palace to house his favourite mistress – he was (in)famous for having sired 365 children, one for every day of the year. It was burnt out in 1945 and left empty by the communists. It's now Dresden's smartest, most spectacular hotel. Reopened a year ago after a lavish year-long refit, it's hard to believe that trees once grew within its ruined walls.
You can easily spend several days wandering around the reconstructed city centre, gawping at baroque buildings, trying to work out which ones are original and which are brand new. Yet as The Dresden Daily reported in 1906, the Saxon capital has always been equally renowned for 'health and recreation'. Spread along the valley of the River Elbe, cradled by rolling hills, the surrounding countryside is only a tram ride away. Quaint steamships chug along this wide, languid river, north to Meissen (a medieval citadel, home of the eponymous porcelain) and south to the craggy peaks of Saxon Switzerland (actually nothing like Switzerland, but charming all the same).
On my last day, I went on a grand tour of this bucolic hinterland. I started off in Moritzburg, Augustus the Strong's fantastical version of Versailles – a cluster of follies and pleasure gardens surrounding an opulent hunting lodge. Then I travelled on to Schloss Wackerbarth, a historic winery in nearby Radebeul, to sample their light and subtle Rieslings.
I finished up in Pillnitz, a baroque palace beside the Elbe built in faux oriental style, like the pagoda in Kew Gardens – a willow pattern plate brought to life. Although I'd been to Dresden lots of times since my first visit in 1995, I hadn't been back to Pillnitz for 30 years. After all the dramatic changes I'd seen in Dresden, a city that's been to hell and back, it felt strangely reassuring to end up in a place that hasn't changed in centuries.
There's an island in the river, densely wooded, and as dusk fell I heard a solitary trumpeter playing a mournful melody, somewhere on that island, out of sight. If I'd seen it in a movie, I would have dismissed this as implausible – a ridiculously romantic, melodramatic detail – but here in lovely, melancholy Elbland it felt like the most natural thing on earth.
My German grandmother fled from Dresden, ahead of the Red Army, and ended up in Hamburg, with her three children, where she met a British officer called Gerry Cook, a journalist back in civvy street, who married her and brought her back to Britain. She never went back to Dresden. I wish she was still around so I could take her back there with me today. She would have loved to see how my father's birthplace has been reborn.
What to see and do
The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister is one of Europe's greatest art galleries, with an amazing array of renaissance art. The flamboyant building in which it's housed, the Zwinger, is an artwork in its own right. The Military History Museum is a more modern architectural marvel, with a striking new extension by Polish-American starchitect Daniel Libeskind.
Dresden's Stadtmuseum covers the 19th- and 20th-century history of the city, while the Albertinum displays a superb selection of German art, from Caspar David Friedrich to Gerhard Richter.
Where to eat and drink
There's plenty of traditional German grub in Dresden but it's not all sausages and sauerkraut. Housed in a historic building on Theaterplatz, the Alte Meister serves Teutonic staples with a modern twist. Lohrmanns is a lively microbrewery in a former factory – now a thriving cultural centre. It's fun to drink their fresh, fruity beer in this gritty post-industrial setting, amid the big vats where it's brewed.
Where to stay
The Taschenbergpalais is more than just a grand hotel – it's also an architectural meisterwerk, an integral part of the historic fabric of the city. If you're not on a five-star budget, the Dresden Hilton is a pleasant four-star alternative. Like the Taschenbergpalais, it has its own pool.
Getting there
Lufthansa fly to Dresden from London Heathrow, London Stansted, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and Newcastle, with a change in Frankfurt or Munich. Dresden is around two hours by train from Berlin. For details of train connections from Berlin and elsewhere in Germany, visit www.bahn.de
William Cook travelled to Dresden as a guest of Visit Dresden. For more information visit www.germany.travel