Rebuilding Dresden: WWIIs Phoenix City
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- Опубликовано: 23 ноя 2024
- Discover the incredible story of Dresden's destruction and resurrection in this captivating video. From the city's stunning architecture to its tragic bombing, witness the ongoing restoration efforts and triumph over the devastation.
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Actual Dresdener here. Great video! Thanks for telling our story
You live in a beautiful city. I hope to return one day.
God be with our ancestors and forefathers who suffered atrocities in that city under the direction of those that must never be named in your country
@@User-1683x2 That whole "we didn't know line" is bs and you know it.
@@wowplayer160 didnt know what?
@@User-1683x2 Didn't know about the genocide by the Third Reich. There is some truth to that, as my grandfather, a Prussian Jew found out as a US Army Field Surgeon in WWII:
At one Concentration Camp Liberation a German woman came looking for her parents and my grandfather translated, having spoken German as his first language. Her father had gone looking for their dog and never returned. Her mother had gone looking for her father and never returned. Their dog and her parents were at the camp. The dog was fine, but her parents had been shot by the SS Guards once they entered the Concentration Camp and had discovered that it was a death camp and that the SS Guards were trying to kill all the prisoners they could before the allied forces arrived...
By the way almost no one alive knows what these camps were like as the horrible footage you can see is after a few days cleanup, after German Civilians were forced to help bury the dead. Most of the footage shot right after the camps were liberated was intentionally destroyed because viewing it caused physiological damage. During one liberation, a physician my grandfather trained with realized that he would never be able to forget the horrors he saw and thus went for a short walk and put his 1911 in his mouth and went home. His family was told he died from a stray bullet...
My Grandfather thought that the Soviets had the right idea because they would kill the SS Guards after interrogating them, as well as killing the Kapos. American forces looked the other way when prisoners killed Kapos. The Kapos were prisoners who worked for the SS Guards and were known as being more brutal than the SS Guards, just to get a little more food. If anyone survived more than a year at a Concentration Camp, then they were almost certainly Kapos and also brutal murderers...
When the fall fell, my parents decided to visit our east-german part of the family. in 1990 we went to Dresden to see some of the buildings like Semper-Oper or Zwinger. I was a little boy back then, but at some point we came across the ruins of the Frauenkirche, still untouched. I looked at my father and asked him "Will they rebuild this church too?" He looked at me and said "i dont know". However, a few meters away, was a man who had listen to me (i later learned he was one of the founders of the Dresden trust) He came over, padded me on the shoulder and said "Yes, they will....but it will take many many decades (at this point they thought of a timeframe of 40+ years, they couldnt know the amount of donations that would come) I looked at him and said "On the day, this church is complete, i will be back" he smiled back, perhaps thinking "This kid wouldnt remember this day, he is to young" .... I never forgot that day and on october 30th. 2005 my parents and i returned to Dresden. We watched the repurposing of the church and were among the first people who visited the church. Many people and friends asked me "You take days off, to visit a church?" .... Its hard to describe. You can only understand it, if you have seen the ruins for yourself. If you learn of all the "miracles" surounding the reconstruction. The donations allowing the project a timeframe of 12 years and not 40. The discovery, that the metal from the melting organ, back in the firestorm, had preserved the altar. That the old cross that sat on the dome, was found in 1994, when the last stones were lifted from the floor. Yes it was bend and yes the golden paint had gone, but the now 260 year old cross did not only survive the 1000° firestorm and a 90Meter fall, it also survived 49 years under 12.000 tones of stone. today it stands inside the church. The son of the bomberpilot who made that cross. .... sadly today shows us, how much has changed. During the repurposing act, german President said something "Gerhard Hauptmann, said in 1945, if people have forgotten forgot how to cry. They rediscoverd it, seeing (the bombed) Dresden. The rebuild Frauenkirche conects people. people, who lived ""peace, for all nations"", people who want to make sure, that there NEVER is another war, not in europe, nor anywhere on earth... peace, be with you. Who could have known....
I think many in Dresden died when Dresden catheddal was purposefully burnt to the ground and the local Jews charged to clean up the mess. The local citizens who laughed at the time were to cry when they got their karma. And of course lots of crying at nearby sonnenstein where disabled children were mudered.
Ooops meant synagogue, not cathedral
@@johnsmith-eh3yc Two wrongs don't make a right; what happened to the Dresden synagogue and at Sonnenstein was absolutely reprehensible, but so was the firebombing of Dresden.
@@Bj-yf3im but its not just the synagogue and sonnenstein is it. You seem to forget that dresden is german. And the germans were the ones who started the bombings in europe and even increased the killing of civilians after countries surrendered to them. If the germans surrendered when the knew they could not win the war in 1944 then innocent people in dresden would not have died. This was not the case for the dutch, polish french etc where the killing of innocent civilians continued. According to wiki dresden had several war effort factories and the ensuing chaos depleted the germans ability to continue the war murdering innocent civilians. Also to use a parable. If you were walking down the street and a guy randomly punched you in the face would you say 'ill let that go, two wrongs dont make a right'. Or would you punch him back, knee him in the groin, wack him on the back of the neck then when he falls to the ground, give him a little kick in?. Thats what happened in dresden. Bullying murderous insane bruted getting their karma
Thank you. I had never been to a German city. We stayed in the Neu Stadt part of town in 2006.
Visiting all of the new buildings...it's all so wonderful.
I'm so glad I found your story.
I was in Dresden in 2013 and 2021 and I really love it, it's just so beautiful. I recommended it to all my friends and they loved it too. I hope more German cities restore their historical inner city
Grüße aus Dresden
In Frankfurt am Main on the other side of Germany the destroyed medieval center of the city was never restored, save for a few landmarks. Given the business and financial center it has become, it's hard to imagine all of the modern construction ever replaced to try to restore the city that once hosted Charlemagne's court to its historical self. Which is practical and understandable but still regrettable.
my wife is from just outside of Dresden and we go over to see her family every year. Its an incredible place with amazing history and its constantly changing but still keeping the charm and character unlike most cities.
personally i've grown to love the place and theres always something new to learn each trip.
as a kid I lived in the neighbouring city of Meissen and visited Dresden regularly. I vividly remember the giant fenced off area, where all the black, broken pieces of the church of our lady (or "Frauenkirche") were stored and sorted. I was about 18 years old when I first saw her, fully restored, and I will admit - and I'm not a religious person - that I was so touched I cried. I am now a citizen of Dresden for about 20 years or half my life.
Dresden was a beautiful city. I truly wish that more of you could have seen it. It would have been a jewel in a world wherein brutalism is still the root of most architecture.
Ehhhhhmmmm. In the wider context of our history, Dresden isn't even old and its architecture is basically on the level of a Chinese copy. It's kind of a Saxon "Neuschwanstein".
Are you 90 years old, to remember it ? Brutalism was in style in the 60ies and 70ies. It just means "raw concrete" and has nothing to do with "brutal". Maybe you know "brut" from champaign. Same idea.
@@holger_p bru·tal·ism
/ˈbro͞odəliz(ə)m/
noun
"a style of architecture or art characterized by a deliberate plainness, crudity, or violence of imagery. The term was first applied to functionalist buildings of the 1950s and 1960s that made much use of steel and concrete in starkly massive blocks."
@@thalastianjorus the word still means "raw visible concrete", your definition does not contain ' brutal ' as the naive reader might think. Concrete brut -> brutalism.
@@holger_p I do not understand your point. I never said anything about the word Brutal... You did.
As a german i know all the war stories inside and out. Especially the story of Dresden and the Frauenkirche that burned for days before it collapsed. But it still brings me to tears to see what happened to my country. So much is lost to us forever. And for what?
for what? oh idk peace in europe maybe
@@JackScooter17 I obviously meant the entire war, Einstein.
Israel?
Money and power my friend .it's always been that way.
TRUE. Britain and France cared a shit about Poland. Otherwise they would also have had to declare on war Russia after it attacked Poland as well.@@777dragonborn
The British bombs later in the war were also designed to delay the explosion by several hours. They were specifically designed to blow up when the people were returning from the bomb shelters. I think despite it being clear which side was worse, all out war also brought out the worst in the Allies. Also, these bombs are now the ones that are the most difficult to defuse and there are still thousands that lie in the ground and remain dangerous.
The winner writes the history books.
@@shaiaheyes2c41 do you think the Nazis should have written the history books?
@@Butterratbee Americans 🇺🇸 were Nazis. General Motors supplied Hitler with much needed chemicals.
"War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it".
-William Tecumseh Sherman.
@@armorer94 Interesting that you quote Sherman, a victor in the US Civil War. I would claim that it was the losers, the Southerners, who wrote most of the history of the Civil War. The Lost Cause, R E Lee as hero (vs traitor), etc. Most successful Hollywood Civil War movies have been from the South's perspective. (This is all in my humble opinion, of course.)
Victor Gregg, a british soldier, who was in Dresden as prisoner, survived the bombing and only began speaking about it in his very late days. I will never forget his very detailed and gruesome memories about what happened. According to him, people in the main bunker just melted and when he was forced to clean up he hade to wade through a glibberish mass with bones sticking out. The day beforehe saw people boil to death who wanted to escape the flames by jumping into weĺls and mothers holding up their children while getting incinerated by the molted asphalt below them.
What he saw turned him into a psychopath, unable to speak aboutit for half a century and an eternal hate for those who ordered the bombings, but not for the pilots.
Victor passed away a few years ago. RIP
Omg. That last line gave me SUCH chills.
He's good at that
Yes, what a moving statement.
I visited Dresden as a young backpacker in 1996 and was amazed at the rebuilding of the church which was in very early stages. I saw the rows and rows of rocks being organized for the rebuild and couldn’t believe it was only happening then fifty years after.
We wandered around Dresden, and of course to the area where Slaughterhouse Five was and there was such a juxtaposition between areas still looking bombed out and Soviet style concrete brutalism. It was quite an eye opening experience for me that I will never forget. Thank you for this video as an update to my memories, I will have to dig out some pictures if I can find them.
Same here also in the the 1990s...
The slaughterhaus story is rather unknown in Germany. Maybe cause it has too much fictional elements. It also not part of any city tour, it's special interest.
@@holger_p I’m not surprised. Unusually do my own tours and most times it’s very random and most of my interests wouldn’t appeal to the mass public.
Grüße aus Dresden
I live in a small town near Cologne which was hit pretty bad as well, to say the least (Cologne. Not my town).
Seeing pictures taken after the bombing and what has become of the city makes me both cry and sending shivers down my spine. Crying over the loss of so many lives and architecture while still being in awe that people, similar to Dresden, found the strength and will to rebuild a whole city from basically nothing.
It just makes you...humble. Grateful.
And i do everything that something like this will never happen again.
Be nice. Respect others opinions. It's okay to disagree and to stand up against injustice and crime. But be respectful.
Grew up in Western Germany in the 1970s and 1980s and didn't have much hope to ever see it rebuild in my lifetime. My Mom who saw it as a child would say how beautiful it used to be. No longer living in Germany, I tried to follow the rebuilding after the fall of the wall. Finally visited in 2015, it's beautiful. Great video.
I visited Dresden last October. It was a stunning experience I highly recommend.
Grüße aus Dresden
I visited Dresden in 2003 with my parents; my mom had lived in a small town nearby until the family escaped the communists in the early ‘50s. Dresden made a huge impression on me. There were still bombed-out ruins downtown, and ugly soviet-era apartment blocks dotted the skyline. The occasional Trabant could still be found on city streets, in between the Audis and Mercedes. It was jarring and unsettling.
This was a city still healing from World War II, let alone from years of communist occupation. It was a sobering visit. I’m very happy to see that huge progress has been made in the intervening twenty years.
The GDR spent so much on surveillance of its citizens plus the high inefficiency of the Soviet style command economy that there wasn't the money available for reconstruction like in the West.
I first was in Dresden in Apr 1991 - 6 months after reunification; I very recently got the chance to visit again for the first time since '91 - I felt as if I just woke up after 30+ years, the contrast to what I remember from back then compared to now - it was stunning.
My family has lived in Dresden during the bombardement. The Sister of my grandmother described how she witnessed the burning city and how she lived there across her childhood. The people who experienced and lived in the destroyed city afterwards are called “Trümmerkinder”. There are still many victims living in Dresden I was proud and honoured to speak to some of them and to not let die there memories and stories.
I lived near Coventry for 4 years. The signs when entering the city say "Welcome to Coventry. City of peace and reconciliation" 🙂
The sign actually says:
Welcome to Coventry, مدينة السلام والمصالحة
@@engineeringvision9507 🤔😒
Yes... that is what the original comment said, as that is *EXACTLY* what it translates too, "City of peace and reconciliation!"
🤷♂️🙃
@@engineeringvision9507 what was the point of that comment?
@@engineeringvision9507 ???
My grandma was a refugee and worked in a shoe factory in Dresden. She was moved to Austria 10 days before the bombing. Lucky
14.45 To make things worse, the part of the old town, which was recently reconstructed, is around the Neumarkt (New Market). The part of the town it lies in, is called Altstadt (old town), but the Neustadt (new town) across the river has much more old infrastructure. The baroque Neustadt was formerly called Altendresden (Old Dresden), before it burnt down in a huge fire in the 17th century. It was competely rebuilt as Dresden-Neustadt, turning the former Neuendresden (New Dresden) into Dresden-Altstadt.
(Nearby Dresden Castle was also completely destroyed. On a weekend in 1977, a small group of people, led by Ulrich Aust, architect and employed by the Dresden State Art Collections, met privately at the Lion's Gate of the ruins and started to remove the rubble, which laid around for more than 30 years, because Ulrich Aust was fed up by the colossal failure of the East German state to allocate funds to even secure the ruins. This finally started the process of the rebuilding of the castle, which took another 40 years. The Lion's Gate became the first part to be reconstructed. But Ulrich Aust died before the full reconstruction finished.)
A few years ago I had to visit Dresden for work, in the middle of winter with snow attempting to reach our knees . . .
The rebuilding in the 'old town' area was most impressive, and I managed to get a few nice photos.
A return visit during summer would be nice 😊
Whaaat!? I would have never thought Simon would ever make a Video about my (not even that large) City!
❤ very nice and so well researched! Thank you!
Its such a beautiful city! I used to love travelling here with work :D
That statement at the end gave me insane goosebumps. Haunting.
Not what I was expecting... just so, so much more. Extremely beautifully written and exquisitely delivered 👏
Except for his estimates of the dead. 25,000 is the German's estimated number of bodies disposed.
However, those bodies were found in basements, fountains, etc. as bodies that were in many of the buildings and streets left no visible remains unless you count ash and fillings. The real number of Germans and Axis refugees killed is likely 35,000 to 50,000. If one trusts the Soviet estimates of Soviet POW's killed in the raid, the death toll could be 10,000 more. Of course, Stalin killed many of the Soviet POW's because he was an Alcoholic Sociopath with Nero-syphilis...
Thank you. Dresden is my hometown and I love what they accomplished over the years.
Grüße aus Radeberg
I love near Dresden and my grandpa always tells me about this night. He and his family survived and it is not believable what he lived through
There is a watch company from Dresden/Glashutte called A. Lange & Sohne who had been in the area since the early 1800s, and had their factory bombed the day before the war ended. The brothers who ran the company were separated by the wall, so the company stood still until the wall came down. Now they are regarded as one of the best watch makers in the world. Thanks for the history of this region as a whole!
I doubt 1% of the people watching this video and reading this comment section would ever be able to afford an A. Lange & Sohne watch. ;)
Yeah the problem was there where timers (for bombs) and nautic instruments for warships built in Glashütte, so it was part of the defense industry, thats why it was bombed. A. Lange&Söhne has some Interesting Watches, but waaaaaaaay Overpriced for the Amount of Automation the Production Involves.
The company not really stood still, it was run under the socialist regime. It was expropriated and came back to the family after 1990.
The entire watch industry has only the meaning of jewelry. They do it, cause they are able to do it.
There is not really a relation to Dresden, except in the time the cathedral was rebuild, they sold watches with little stones from the cathedral in the display, to help finance the rebuilt.
A friend of mine's mom has a desk clock that was made is Dresden before it's destruction. It's white porcelain with painted flowers, and it still works.
Probably from the city of Meißen AKA "Meißner Porzellan (Porcelain)" that is about 24 Kilometer from Dresden?
The City of Dresden has been rebuilt and it looks beautiful!!
Just another reminder of the cost of war. Not only are lives lost, but also history. At least we got Vonnegut out of it.
the largest kultural loss of that night are 500 Paintings that where being transportet out of the city that night. they might have burned and they might have been stolen. we actualy have a police taskforce trying to lookate them even today.
Nobody knows this guy in Germany or Dresden. (maybe a professor for literature does).
That's a shame I think he is one of the greatest Science Fiction writers of all time. What's more his books are funny and full of satire. I think slaughter house 5 was written during the late 1960s so I guess it wouldn't have been widely available@@holger_p
My father was a prisoner of war in a camp just outside Dresden when the bombing occurred. He and the other prisoners were sent into the city to recover bodies and look for survivors. What he saw haunted and horrified him.
@@Butterratbee So what your point? That he shouldn't have been horrified by bodies melted into blobs by extreme heat? Are you insane? I'm sure he would also have been horrified by the camps, but this is irrelevant to the context of this topic.
@@Butterratbeestop always trying to mention other stuff thats clearly not of relevance regarding the bombing of civilians. Yes the holocaust was a horrendous atrocity, we all know that. You're just trying to compare sorrow and pain which is totally embarassing and unnecessary.
Going to Dresden from here in Prague is an easy trip and well worth it. Went for the lovely Christmas markets but was blown away by the restoration - a stunning story and a city that can truly be called a “hidden gem”!
This works both ways. Love to go to Prague from Dresden. Always feels like a sibling city Dresden and Prague.
@@d4rktranquility Same! let’s hope the high speed rail will be finished in 15 years rather in 30 so we could visit our beautiful cities easily and faster than ever.
That last sentence...powerful...
That is a beautiful video. I live in Dresden and maybe the story of my city can bring some hope to the people in Ukraine where right now some cities are facing similar destruction in a terrible war.
Except Ukrainians are not responsible for unleashing the hell that has come to them
I went to Dresden last month, really beautiful city which looks a bit like my home city of Breslau, (Wroclaw) except it's much more clean, quiet, and it looks much safer. Shame that other German cities like Konigsberg weren't rebuilt after the war.
WRONG! The Ukranians didn't attack Russia like the Germans attacked everyone.
In the immortal words of sir Laurence Olivier, "Dresden, the great beautiful historic City, somehow barely touched by the war, believed by its inhabitants to be somehow inviolate , became in the technical language of the experts a severe case of over bombing". From the BBC documentary "The World at War". If I didn't get the punctuation right on the quote I apologize, although English is my only language, I am not very good at it. Thanks and thumbs-up for the video.
Other cities, including my city, were also destroyed, but it started with a few bombs in 1942 and ended with 70% destruction in 1945. The destruction lasted 4 years. What was special about Dresden was that this completely undamaged city, which was also considered a jewel among cities, was not only destroyed, but almost completely wiped out in a single night. This fact contributes to Dresden being the symbol of an apocalypse to this day. Everyone is happy today, and this goes beyond borders and former enmities, to see, that the beauty of Dresden has slowly risen again like a phoenix from the ashes. We are Europe today, and no matter what country we are in, we should be proud of our common heritage, which we want to preserve and never destroy again, from Warsaw to Rotterdam and from Coventry to Dresden.
One of your best videos, thank you Simon and team. I grew up just outside Coventry, long after the war, but long enough ago that some of the broken buildings and broken people were still around. The cathedral remains very poignant. I've always felt a kind of link to Dresden and other destroyed cities. I visited Dresden briefly in 1994, so I think I should go back to see the rebuilt Frauenkirche.
Toll gemacht! Vielen Dank für den schönen Beitrag.. Ich war dort und ich war sehr beeindruckt.
Lustig wie Du die deutschen Worte aussprichst.
Many people around the area that I live in, in germany, sometimes use the phrase "Sieht ja aus wie Dresden 45." to describe an absolute mess or chaos. The phrase means "Looks like Dresden in 45" that is how much the destruction of Dresden is ingrained. As a child I didn't know anything about WWII or WWI for that matter, but I knew that Dresden was obliterated in 1945.
A much needed video and a great summary of a city rising out of the ruins of war
Can you do one on rebuilding Coventry, Birmingham, London, Southampton, Brighton, Manchester, Liverpool etc etc?
Little of those cities had their old buildings rebuilt as they once were.
Not much restoration happened in the UK.
i mean they didnt have to the buildings still look like shit
My dad was born Dresden in 1944 and ultimately snuck out of East Germany and to the U.S. when he was a teenager. Can’t imagine growing up in that city during those times.
Grüße aus Dresden
stories like this go along way to restoring our faith in humanity
I know you've been doing this for a while on you're used to comments like this but I've been watching your stuff for a very long time now and I've learned so much from you are honestly my favorite youtuber And even though The content you put out is educational it has helped me learn and helped distract me through a lot of problems so I am really appreciative of all the work you do and how much time you put into your videos
As a lover of old architecture, I suffer when I see old ( beautiful) buildings destroyed/ demolished/ ruined. And yet, it is amazing how Dresden was reconstructed, my hometown never had to undergo massive bombings and yet it has by far much less kept than Dresden because of building speculation. That is worse than an atomic bomb😢.Well...and bad taste. Money and bad taste is a lethal combination, indeed.
An excellent accounting of the horrors of February 1945; & subsequent rebuilding of Dresden. We should never, ever forget what brought that destruction or history will repeat itself. Be safe!
I have stood in front of her crumbled remains and then watched her rise again.
It took me almost as long to learn and realize what my grandmother didn't tell me that day she brought me there.
I might be biased, but she's the most beautiful church I've ever seen. Many were impressive, but our fat lady is beautiful. The whole area is very well done, too.
There's a restaurant to the side of the church called Coselpalais. It has authentic saxon dishes on the menu and you sit sourrounded by astoundingly expensive Meißner porcelain figurines.
One of relatives survived as a girl the bombing of Dresden in 1945. Though, she got lost and reunited with the rest of the family in West Germany a few years later via the Red Cross. It must have been a terrifying experience...
My mothers side of the family originates from Dresden. My mom was born there, so was my gandmother and her brother. Both narrowly survived the bombings and the destruction. My grandmother was a small child. She still remembers the fire, the red sky and the heat. Her older brother had to endure as young boy to 'clean up' the dead or what was left of them. Until his death he never could forget what he saw and I believe he struggled all his life with those memories. My grandmother from my fathers side was a refugee from the eastern provinces, fleeing from the red army (there were a lot of refugees in Dresden at that time). She also witnissed everything from the outskirts. It always hits close to home seeing those pictures and hearing stories about it. Also about the RAF bomber crews, many of whom also struggled mentally later in their lifes for those atrocities. I was born in another city on the Elbe, a city which suffered a similar fate as Dresden did: Hamburg. So many similarities. You'd think those memories and sites would refrain us to engage in other wars..
The beautiful part is the reconciliation efforts from old enemies all around the world. Without forgivness those wounds would never had healed or would continue to heal.
I hope you realise the terrible destruction that Germany did to cities in England in 1940. I was a small child at the time. The
terrible things that Germany did to England makes me feel that we should have no conscience about the destruction at all.
@@valeriedavidson2785 Did I state anywhere that the destruction of english cities were ok, justified or not as bad as in Germany? This is beside the point. I told a part of my familiy history. The message I think is rather clear: war is fucked up, no matter how you look at it. I'm sorry for what happened to you. But your statement is rather sad and not really helpful. Both of our people suffered. Most of them were innocent. By your logic if the brits shouldn't have any conscience about the destruction, why should the germans have any in return? I mean you brits have as much blood on your hands as any other. But you see, that kind of thinking doesn't solve anything.
@@TheJeffSnickers The answer to your query is that Germany started the war and London was plummeted for months on end, daily in 1940. Nobody in Europe wanted war except Germany. That is your answer.
@@valeriedavidson2785 Sadly, that isn't the answer to my query. But thank you very much indeed for trying anyway. Good day.
The bombing of Dresden was a war crime. The German bombings of major cities in Britain were war crimes. Germany paid its dues and I am glad that Germany and Britain were able to reconciliate and are allies today. Many Germans felt very touched and honored by King Charles’s recent visit, were he held a speech in near perfect German.
Last I was in W.Germany, I wanted to see Dresden and Leipzig, but there was a little thing called The Iron Curtain or inner German border that got in the way. Cheers
the horrors of wars..I have no other words..
Amazing project. beautiful architecture. Many more cities should do the same
Live in Coventry right now. The rebuilding is fantastic
Read: "Hellstorm" by Thomas Goodrich, "Grusome Harvest" by Keeling, "Stalin's secret agents in the Roosevelt government" by M.Stanton Evans and Herbert Romerstein.
A beautiful episode Simon. Bravo.
Most interesting. Thank you. Greetings from Warsawian.
as a brit the fact that some people say dresden was "deserved" makes my blood boil but the fact it came back so gloriously makes me so happy
Tough,,. Those people leveled Polish cities and killed millions in their invasion. I'm sure you as a Brit dont want to remember them, as your country broke it's agreement with Poland. No one helped pay for rebuilding of apoland after the war,. Nor do they have a source of funds from part of the country that was actually saved. Sorry my blood boils when I read ignorant comments 😡
Brits just like americans with the nukes love to demonize all german ppl. Thanks for acknowledging that. In fact britain did commit atrocities in that very same war (look up british/alloed war crimes). Bomber Harris' reap the whirlwind was literally just him saying "i personally am doing this as revenge, all german people are icky killers and must pay!!". The problem with ww2 and why i have trouble sympathizong with soldiers and governments or people who grew up hating german japanese and italian people to the point of cheering when they were killed, interned, or r*ped because of racist beliefs that "anyone from a dictatorship = bad"
Great video, my family lives in Dresden, and I was fortunate to act as wedding photographer of a wedding in the Frauenkirche last year. What a privilege. My father has a watch with a small piece of one of the stones included, it was given to him for his donations to rebuild the church in the 90s.
One thing that you did not mention is that while some hundreds of Neonazis use occasion every year for their propaganda, they have tens of thousands against them every year on the street. Usually the neonazis have to be escorted by police to not get attacked, and in many years their protest march goes exactly nowhere since people simply blockade them.
The bombing of Dresden, like the Holocaust and other events that led to similar results, was a tragedy and it is so disgraceful that some groups use the suffering of others for their own political gains and to sow hatred and division. To me, the Frauenkirche (I visited last year 😍) is one of the greatest symbols of reconciliation I have seen.
Beautifully done, thank you, to you and the outstanding team behind the scenes.
The best episode in months!
I had the honour of visiting Dresden about 10 years ago and was able to visit the rebuilt Frauenkirche. It was stunning inside and impressive outside. It was fascinating to revisit East Germany after ten years to see how the once drab blocks of Soviet style apartments were being painted and given windowed balconies. The amount of pride in their country was evident.
A very well done video. I like Dresden very much and I'm happy that the city got finally back a great deal of its former architectural glory. 🙂The comparison with Prague was unnecessary, though. Even before the WWII, Prague was no "ugly sister" to Dresden, on contrary. While most of the splendor of Dresden dated only from the 18th and 19th centuries, the sheer beauty of Prague has evolved during a thousand years of history: from the oldest romanesque rotunda and magnificent gothic cathedral, through renaissance palaces, splendid baroque churches and ornate rococo houses, till the art nouveau and (rondo)cubist architecture. Each of these two beautiful cities has (and had) its own charm and any comparison is pointless. As for the tragic WW2 bombing, they share also one dark piece of history. The bombing of Prague was incomparably less destructive, but still cost many lives and damaged many buildings, including the gothic Emmaus monastery. However, the still not-so-well-known fact is that the last and most destructive bombing on 14 February 1945 by the US Army Air Forces was meant for Dresden, not for Prague, and it happened only because of a navigation mistake. The weather was bad on that day with cloudy skies and the American pilots confused Prague with Dresden because of the relative proximity and similar topography of these two cities (with the river running through both of them etc.).
This is incredibly well researched. I am from around Dresden and expected a shirt rundown of historic facts, but not this, with research to the 2020s and an emotional quote at the end. Well done, Simon and team!
Unlike the actual city of Phoenix, which is a boiling urban nightmare for anyone without air-conditioning.
I think Warsaw deserves the same treatment as this video, because your video on Warsaw didn’t even scratch the surface of what was really going on during the Warsaw Uprising and the incredible reconstructions after the war.
Keep in mind that Warsaw was destroyed by the Third Reich with high explosives, city block by city block.
So it's old buildings can't be rebuilt, but they can be recreated with modern building codes of course...
@@davidhollenshead4892 they rebuilt most buildings for they were not completely destroyed. Only prominent landmarks were systematically bombed and recreated years after the war. I think that makes it even more incredible.
Daytonian here. That sounds like high praise not offense
You do have that racetrack... wait, that is Daytona.
This may be nit picking, but it wasn't one air raid that started this conflagration, but consistent raids over 3 days.
I believe it was 4 raids in total by both British and American bombers.
There was also more air raids by American bombers in both March and April.
Great job on this video. Very moving.
Powerful presentation
Wowzas now this a Megaprojects on a massive scale
Much as I love vehicles, construction projects like this occasionally eclipse them!
I remember the ruins of the Frauenkirche in GDR times and in the early 90th's. I was delighted when they finaly cleaned the place and rebuild it. As a kid i could not understand why they let the ruins and all the rubble surounded by construction fence sit there for so long.
It was the GDR. Really, what did you expect?
@@wulferikgebhardt5312 That was after the GDR over. Very early 90ths. I was 6 or 7 years old by that time. The fences came after the GDR. Before that you could theoreticly climb that up that pile of rubble.
The reconstruction technique of using as much of original material was actually developed during the reconstruction of the old town of Warsaw. The Varsovians actually consulted on the reconstruction projects in Dresden and helped develop the reconstruction plans.
My grandpa toll me back then they were able to see the burning city even 70 km away in their home town
I’m from Dayton Ohio and that comment really put things into perspective for me…
Many places historically important locations and beautiful scenery has been destroyed throughout WW2. It burns to see the damage done to such beautiful properties across the world. Also don't forget not just dresdin fell into rubble and into a state of unrecognisable debris many places were the same. We all created a place of death and destruction which hurt us all very deeply which truly broke an awful lot of hearts.
The likes of the video had said though money was donated many millions to rebuild dresdin from the ashes which left behind as many didn't agree that those buildings should've fell. Yet though whilst the UK still sends money and people to help rebuild these beautiful places we neglect our own places. WW2 damage is still prominent in the UK many places untouched since the end of WW2. I remind myself that even now nearly 100yrs on we pay for the mistakes of our elders with pride as we want these buildings rebuilt once more. We don't get a thank you or a acceptance to help here in the UK, only due to the fact that the UK people have pretty much repaired and secured everything. We keep it there as it is as a reminder that we did worse in other areas and we help still to this day to keep the rebuilding of places like in dresdin with great pride. I only remind everyone that when all the damage that was done in Europe to think for 1 moment of the craftsmanship of the buildings etc but think if it weren't for the UK people it wouldn't be there today to see its beauty. The generosity of the UK since WW2 has been unmeasured in Europe to rebuild it and keep it going by rebuilding its infrastructures and its economic system. The EU superpower was made by the UK people saying we must help our allies in Europe to rebuild. 100yrs later nearly the UK still finds WW2 bombs unexploded in some areas that we truly can't believe we didn't see or even know they were there, many still active and we deactivate them pretty quickly nowadays.
The point is that whilst dresdin will be rebuilt as much as possible the original way, I remind you all that the UK can't do this until places like dresdin is completed. It's nice to have the older buildings in use and reconstructed to be used in the manner that they were designed for. Remember that the UK people will help but theirs a limit to our generosity as we need to rebuild our buildings like this as well. Let's focus our strengths and expertise over 100yrs nearly to Ukraine. Once this Ukraine war has ended we all need to do what we've done in dresdin in Ukraine as well. Unity is strength and that strength can't be broken. Dresdin is a beautiful place and WW2 destroyed a lot of beautiful places. We must also remember that blame game doesn't help and damages were done on both sides of Europe. Once I get my passport I'll visit dresdin and many other places to lay a rose etc in remembrance for all those needlessly died. 1 persons nasty behaviour spread across a vast range of the world that hatred killed millions of people. WW2 is over and we who live today are here to repair the damage and learn to use this as a lesson for the next generation of what not to do.
Live in peace and not war, we all lost loved ones who can't be reunited with their loved ones.
Never forget the fallen and never forget those who contribute to your survival or demise. Sometimes they can be both but different eras and different people who want only peace and seek forgiveness in past actions. Dresdin stands tall and proud once more which is great to see the donations from the UK etc has actually gone into what we wanted it to. Be proud and humbled by this great opportunity to keep these buildings alive.
Prague was hardly "an ugly stepsister." It's incredible architectural heritage, historic treasures, and it's setting, hardly warrants this backhanded and belittling view.
not ugly, but Prague is medeval (from around 1500) and Dresden was more Baroque (from around 1750), from the era everybody copied Lous XIV. Versailles.
Was there in 2019, our guide told us the plans of the city were lost in the fire, and they used paintings to recreate buildings.
greetings from Dresden 😃
thanks for bringing Dresden to youtube - a guy from Dresden ;)
Bravo! Another grand preference
The recent account chapter 10.03pm is downright scary. Lothar recalls how doors and windows flew out and why both the Kreuzkirche and Frauenkirche remained stumps until the 2000s.
It would be interesting to do a video about the rebuild of Darwin after cyclone Tracey
I always find that the terrible bombings of Hamburg (which cost 45,000 lives) and Pforzheim (18,000) tend to be forgotten given the huge publicity about Dresden. WW2 was the war in which civilians truly ended up on the front line, war was no longer about military staff only.
Dresden was devastated by the Allies but what the Germans did to Warsaw was even worst. There's a reason why Warsaw has the apt name Phoenix city!
As a german i diddnt even know that the Brits helped us to rebuild parts of that historic city which got bombed to ashes. Ive hear alot of storys from that bombing raids and what happened down there and it imo for sure a huge crime that was done there. Originally it was done to break the morale of the citizens, which at that point already were dwindeling. Anyways, nice video, i learned something new from my own country.
Yes, it was indeed a textbook case of unnecessary terror bombing......
a moving video indeed.
You showed a picture of my appartement complex! Truly lots of beauty has been lost to war, not only in Dresden, but in all bombed cities of WW2.
The plaque on "Altmarkt" had recently been removed without any democratic process and then rebuilt as the mayor had made a mistake. Sadly the protests against it was overtaken by far-right activists.
I encourage everyone interested to take part in the "Menschenkette" (human chain) around the old town. It is held every year in commemoration of the dead civilians and in recent years it needs support of open minded people to withstand the force of far right or even neonazi groups trying to instrumentalize it.
Great video as always however, I think the missing mention of the siege of Budapest is a shame. While I don't think it is ever justified to bomb a marvel like Dresden, I would be remised if I didn't point to the potential of another long siege, and therefore the allied powers decided to completely destroy the city instead.
Never thought my hometown would make it into this series. Thanks a lot, impressive. Go visit, it’s really that nice. Oh, I should also visit again 😂
1:25 - Chapter 1 - Paradise lost
5:50 - Chapter 2 - Ashes to ashes
9:10 - Chapter 3 - Across the waves
11:40 - Chapter 4 - The cathedral reborn
14:55 - Chapter 5 - The new old town
- Chapter 6 -
The video rather focused onto the destruction and then the rebuilding of a single church, unlike the title made us expect to see rebuilding of the city
Dresden is back to being one of the most majestic cities in Europe thanks to the Germans and the British. During the Soviet era it was an awful, ugly and destroyed city. Russians didn’t do anything to rebuild the city. It is interesting how Russians always manage to destroy everything while making it even more ugly than before. Thank God for German efficiency and dedication and for the British realization of its guilt in the destruction of Dresden.
Soviet Communists ,would be the more accurate appellation. Does your obvious bias against the Russian people apply to the fact that they have painstakingly restored many of the palaces built under the Tsars in St.Petersburg, and have not only rebuilt in a magnifent fashion, historic churches in Moscow, but have built so many beautiful churches throughout Russia, that the numbers will soon equal to what formerly existed under Tsardom? At least Russians have an excuse to build churches, in order to address their increase of faith, unlike the secular and humanistic, West, where Christianity is being relegated as a marginal influence and thus a relic.
While I think this is a loveley video and overall well researched, I just have to comment and correct some of the information you gave. I grew up in Dresden in the 90s, and I absolutely HATE this narrative that the whole City Centre was either ruins or communist buildings till the fall of the Iron Curtain. It is so disrespectful to the people who fought for the rebuilding of their city during the communist era, when money and material was scarce. Most of the important Landmarks were already rebuild by 1990, the Zwinger being one of the first in the 50s. The Hofkirche, Kreuzkirche, all the buildings along the Brühlsche Terrasse...and finally the Semperoper in 1985. The only big Landmarks still missing were the Frauenkirche and the Schloss.
I'm sorry, it is a touchy subject for me, lol. With that being said, thank you for making a Video on my Hometown, and thank you for the anti -war message, which is more important than ever in these times
There was little information about the actual topic of the video: rebuilding Dresden ... except some about the Frauenkirche.
I’ve been watching Simon since he was just at today I found out he really made an empire for himself
the problem with the number 25.000 is that it's either completely random or just accounts for residents of the city killed. On the night the city was bombed, the streets were filled with thousands and thousands of refugees from the eastern german territories, East-Prussia, Pomerania but most of all, Saxony's direct neighbour, Silesia. Those three territories were in large parts already conquered by the red army so the number of displaced people was huge. In 1939 the population of those three territories amounted to 10 million germans (Silesia 5 m, Pomerania and East-Prussia each 2.5 m). If you consider that almost every german civilian that was still able to move, fled west from the Red Army about 8 million germans were displaced within Germany mid February 1945. The initial prime hubs for those displaced people from the east in February 1945 were Berlin and Dresden, due to their vincinity to those terrotories but also Germany's vast rail and road network.
Nobody accounted for those displaced people or kept registers with names and places of birth. The refugees that camped in the streets and public parks and places in Dresden in the night of the air raid simply vanished together with the city. Many were baked alive or got swallowed by the liquified asphalt through the enormous heat produced by the firestorms that engulfedin the city. The first hand accounts of those circumstances that february night include eyewitnesses from POWs of the British Army that were kept in the city like Victor Gregg.
We will never learn the exact number of civilians who vanished that night, but to claim it were 25.000 and contrary to every first hand account that night and the day before by eye witnesses, is like throwing a dart blindfolded....
Facts: In May 1939, the German Empire had 79.375.281 inhabitants
In October 1946, Germany still had 65.137.274 inhabitants
That's 14 million people less. The official numbers for german soldiers and civilians killed in WW2 are 5.533.000 soldiers and 2.167.000 civilians, that's not even 8 million people in total.
What happened to the other six million germans unaccounted for ?
You don't have to be part of any agenda or any specific political spectrum to come to the conclusion that the number of 25.000 is completely pulled of thin air. 25.000 inhabitants of Dresden died, sure, but who accounts for the thousands of displaced germans residing on Dresden's streets at the time, in particular Silesian refugees ?
So what
@@Butterratbee what about watching kitten videos?
The German movie Dresden. I recommend it.
Such an uplifting story of humans finding the capacity for tremendous positive growth, even as a response to unspeakable human madness and cruelty.
And the strange part is how easy it is to think this is all from a bygone era. Yet unspeakable human madness and cruelty is being reenacted for no discernably "good" reason in Ukraine, right now, as we blithely watch youtube.
I don't think we, as a species, will ever learn :(
Thank you
unlike with dresden, coventry never rebuilt to anything like the worth of its past- in fact most buildings that did remain were demolished anyway to build said indetikit flats, and it is now a car infested hellhole, there are but maybe 10 or so timber buildings left and little of anything else save the intimidating towers that the council was so keen on. this was the same in exeter and countless other cities. i wish we had rebuilt too.