Leaving Berlin and Tempelhof Airport behind, we cruised over the ever-smooth roads of the German autobahn toward Dresden…at one time a most unlucky city. Between 13 and 15 February 1945, almost 4,000 tons of high explosive and incendiary devices were dropped on Dresden destroying the center of the city and killing almost 25,000 citizens.
It was considered by many as an unnecessary strike that succeeded in obliterating a cultural landmark of little or no military significance. The debate goes on today but what is done is done.
Much of that has been undone though. Almost everything you see here was damaged or destroyed by that raid and has been rebuilt to the original design…many times using the same building stones.
One outstanding example is the Frauenkirchen (Church of Our Lady,) a church that became prominent in the reformation. It was destroyed in those awful bombing nights and was left by the Communist regime as an example to the German people.
Reconstruction began in 1994 and was completed in 2004. It, too, was rebuilt to match the original plans and fire-blackened stones were reassembled using a plan somewhat akin to a jigsaw puzzle.
Standing in a prominent spot, just in front of the church, is a statue of Martin Luther. The Frauenkirchen was his home church from whose pulpit he announced his radical ideas that changed the face of religion up to today.
Today Luther is visited daily by tourists with their cameras and serenaded by various forms of musicians and their instruments, One we had never seen before was this guy playing popular music from a grand piano right out in the open.
Along with the usual bucket or hat for tips, he had a little stand that sold his CD’s and his piano appeared to be sponsored by Facebook. To add a little class while playing, he wore white gloves.
I wanted to stick around to watch him strike his piano at the end of the day, but we had to move on. I wanted to see if he disassembled it at the end of the day or loaded it onto a pickup truck. I’m still curious.
We located another Evi and Michael Stadler recommended restaurant. The Sofienkeller is located very near the church and apparently very popular.
We filed down a curving staircase and came upon women, in costume, preparing the evening’s fare. It was 7:45 PM and we had to promise the maitre dame that we’d be finished by 9:00 PM since the table was promised. Didn’t seem like much of a challenge until we were seated.
