Dresden is the state capital of Saxony. The much-visited city lies on the Elbe River, which previously made its way through Saxon Switzerland. The city is world-famous for its beautiful baroque architecture. The Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) was rebuilt in 2005, along the Zwinger, the Semper Opera House, and the Brühl Terrace, but also for the Elbe Valley. The city is often called Elbflorenz because of its beauty and the influence of Italian master builders in the Baroque period.
Dresden is divided into 10 city districts and nine localities. Since the points and facilities of tourist interest are predominantly clustered in the Altstadt and Neustadt areas, while the others are mainly residential, the following division makes more sense for the purposes of this guide.
Old Town / Dresden Altstadt
The historical center with the baroque splendor buildings of the former princely and royal courts. The most famous sights are concentrated here: Frauenkirche, Residenzschloss, Zwinger and Semperoper. During the Second World War, the old town was almost wholly destroyed. Since then, however, the most important buildings have been gradually rebuilt. There are also numerous hotels here, as well as shops and restaurants geared towards tourists. Beyond the Inner Old Town, this article also includes the adjacent districts of Seevorstadt (with the shopping mile Prager Straße), Pirnaische Vorstadt, Wilsdruffer Vorstadt, Friedrichstadt, and Johannstadt, as well as the Great Garden.
New Town / Dresden Neustadt
Paradoxically, more historic buildings have been preserved in the New Town than in the Old Town, thanks to less destruction during the war. The Neustadt includes two districts with very different characters: the Inner Neustadt with the baroque district Königsstraße from the time of August the Strong and his Golden Rider statue; and the Outer Neustadt, which attracts students, artists, and creative people as Dresden’s alternative scene district. This is also Dresden’s central nightlife district, with countless cafés, restaurants, pubs, and bars, as well as independent cultural institutions and shops offering ecological or handicraft products. Also covered in this article are the northern and northwestern districts such as Albertstadt, Pieschen, Hellerau, Klotzsche, and Langebrück.
Blasewitz, Loschwitz, Weißer Hirsch
These are the three most famous and noblest villa districts of the city. They represent the eastern parts of the city, on both sides of the Elbe. But they also include Striesen, Laubegast, Leuben, Pillnitz and Schönfeld-Weißig. In this area, not only the architecture of the villas and Elbe castles worth seeing attracts, but also the beautiful nature of the Elbe meadows, Elbe slopes and Dresden Heath as well as the suspension and funicular railway.
Cotta, Plauen, Prohlis
These three are representative of the southwestern districts, including Südvorstadt (with the Technical University), Löbtau, Strehlen and Gorbitz. Off the beaten tourist track, these are mainly residential areas, ranging from the Gründerzeit quarter to Dresden’s two sizeable prefabricated housing estates and suburbs that were only incorporated in more recent times and still have a village or suburban structure.
Tourism in Dresden
Dresden ranks fourth among the most visited cities by tourists in Germany with about 10 million visitors and about 4 million overnight stays annually. After German reunification, the city’s population dropped to about 469,000 in 1995, but the trend subsequently reversed and Dresden now ranks 12th among German cities with a population of about 555,000. The title of the largest city of the Free State Dresden had to give up several times to Leipzig.
Dresden was first mentioned as a city in 1206 in a document by Dietrich the Distressed concerning a border dispute between Burgrave Heinrich II von Dohna and the High Diocese of Meissen. However, it can be assumed that the place had already been inhabited for a longer time by Slavs, from whose language the word Drježdzany is also derived, after the Old Sorbian Dreždany for swamp or alluvial forest dwellers.
The High Middle Ages were also a time of prosperity for the young city on the Elbe, and in 1216 Dresden was described for the first time as a civitas, or “city”, in a document of the Margrave of Meissen, to whose possessions it belonged at that time.
However, the great European plague of 1349 and 1350 set back development just as much as the siege and partial destruction by the Hussites. An important turning point was marked by the year 1485, when the Wettins made Dresden their permanent headquarters, which remained so until 1918. During the era of Elector Johann Georg II., in the years 1656-1679 splendid baroque buildings, as well as the Great Garden and the first manufactories, were built. In 1694 Elector Friedrich August I, mainly known as August the Strong, took up his reign at the Dresden court. This marked the beginning of Dresden’s classical period of history, which lasted until the beginning of the Seven Years’ War. No other epoch was so determined by the electoral court as the reign of August the Strong. The highest achievements in arts and crafts were reflected in the magnificent baroque buildings, which were built in large numbers during this time. Generous court festivities represented an understanding of art and at the same time a desire for power. Several pleasure palaces and gardens were built. With the acquisition of the Polish royal crown, Augustus the Strong made Dresden a residential city of the highest European rank.
Technological progress also soon took hold, for example in the form of the first long-distance railway connection in Germany between Dresden and Leipzig. However, the heavy industries were never the dominant ones during the industrial revolution, but the optics, electrical and precision engineering industries, which, by the way, is still true today.
A large part of the classical and baroque buildings in the city center fell victim to the bombing raids in February 1945. Between 20,000 and 30,000 people were killed in the firestorm (the historical commission convened by Dresden’s mayor Roßberg concluded in 2010 that at most 25,000 people died) and almost the entire Old Town was destroyed. During the Cold War period, the GDR leadership placed little emphasis on restoring the historic fabric of the buildings. Instead, apartments and wide streets in the familiar socialist style were built quickly and as cheaply as possible between the remains. However, because the people of Dresden love their city, after years of pressure they were able to push through the complete restoration of important buildings such as the Semper Opera House, which was completed in 1985. 1989/ 1990 Dresden was a center of non-violent upheaval in the GDR. The year also marked the starting point for an extensive reconstruction program that has made Dresden once again one of the most beautiful major cities in Europe today. The architectural and also emotional highlight of the reconstruction is undoubtedly marked by the Frauenkirche in the heart of the city, rebuilt with donated funds (including many contributions from England).
As the anniversary of the bombing, February 13 still plays a more significant role in Dresden than comparable anniversaries in other cities and is more controversial in local politics than elsewhere. This is not least due to the neo-Nazi demonstrations of recent years, which at times were the largest Nazi march in Europe. On 13 February, there are therefore always (sometimes violent) (counter-) demonstrations, which also attract national attention.