History Overview Dresden was once known as the Florence on the Elbe, but all of that ended on the

night of February 13th 1945. Arthur Bomber Harris had finally decided to send off his 1300 bombers in the direction of Saxony s capital. The result of the raid was catastrophic. Tens of thousands of humans were killed in the firestorms and thousands of buildings were destroyed. After the war, Dresden ended up in the Soviet Zone, finally becoming one of the most depressed areas of East Germany. The destruction of Dresden by Allied bombers in 1945 has become a worldwide symbol of the horrors of 'carpet bombing'. On that night more than 4,500 tons of high explosives and incendiary devices were dropped on Dresden, capital of the German state of Saxony. A terrible firestorm resulted, creating temperatures of up to 1000degrees Celsius in parts of the city. Current estimates suggest that 35,000-40,000 people were killed; and at least eight square miles of the city were totally devastated. The areas of strategic and military significance, like the transport system, were left relatively untouched. The strategy of bombing German cities owed much to Arthur Harris, chief of Britain's Bomber Command. Harris believed that 'area bombing' would erode the morale of the German population and hasten the end of the war; the earlier strategy of attacking economic and industrial targets had not proved very successful. The public was generally supportive of the strategy, partly in reaction to the Blitz, the German air-raids of 1940/41 which killed 30,000 Londoners and destroyed the centre of Coventry. But there were doubters too (for example George Bell, then Bishop of Chichester), who felt such methods of waging war were morally indefensible. After the bombing, and in subsequent decades, many others became uneasy about the ethics of the raid.

So why was Dresden chosen as a target? Arthur Harris, head of Bomber Command, had always held the view that any city that had anything to do with the Nazi war effort was a target. A number of theories do exist as to why Dresden was chosen so late in the war. 1) The city was in Nazi Germany and for this reason was a legitimate target for attack as the Allies were at war with Nazi Germany. 2) The city was not simply a cultural centre there were factories there producing weapons and equipment for the Nazi war effort. Therefore, the city was

a legitimate target. It was also a rail base to send troops to the war front with the Russians. 3) Though the Russians were allies, Churchill and Roosevelt had already decided that Stalin would be a major problem after the end of the war. Therefore, as the Red Army advanced against an army that was effectively defeated, it had no idea as to what an equal and possibly superior military force could do. Therefore, Dresden was bombed to show the Russians the awesome power of the Allies and to act as a warning to them not to stray from the agreements they had made at the war conferences. Dresden to Date Much of Dresdens old city has been rebuilt in a pristine approximation of the Baroque city it had once been. In the early 1990s a group of Dresdeners launched an international appeal for help with the reconstruction of the Frauenkirche. By 1994 they had cleared the pile of rubble, laying out as many stones as possible (about 35% of the material needed) for re-use. The appeal met with broad support within Germany and from the United Kingdom, the United States, France and elsewhere. The British Dresden Trust raised money to finance a window and to replace the golden Orb and Cross which was placed on top of the dome in 2004. In April 2004, the last sandstone block was lifted and fitted to restore the grand design of the Frauenkirche (Church of the Lady) in Dresden. After being completely destroyed in 1945 and left as a ruin monument for the last 50 years, the churchs huge dome now rises again above the citys famous skyline. After two events of destruction within fifty yearsfascist war and socialist dogmathe scarred German city regains its charm, its historical identity. The Florence on the river Elbe greets the new millennium in grand old style and proudly reinstates its reputation as one of Europes foremost cultural centres.