The fire bombing of Dresden in February of 1945 effectively destroyed the city center of what had been known as the Florence on the Elbe. Much of what I knew about Dresden before visiting came from reading Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five as a kid. Vonnegut had been a POW in Dresden during the raid, and drew heavily from that experience for the book. This is what Dresden looked like following the air strikes:

Image found on Wikipedia here. Bombing info can be found here.

That’s nearly a reverse view of my shot that opened this post. The dome in the upper right of the historic photo is on the left in my photo. The bridge on the left of the historic photo is in the foreground of mine. The pile of rubble just left of center in the old photograph is the remains of the Frauenkirche, which you can see has been rebuilt in the recent photo — it’s the white dome at the center.

The reconstruction that has taken place in this city is unbelievable. Just when you think that the only things humans are capable of building anymore are Walmarts and Home Depots, you see something like this and realize that true craftsmanship and vision are not a thing of the past. I’m sure it would have been much easier for Dresden to have rebuilt in a modern style with reinforced concrete and steel towers but they didn’t. They respected their traditions and heritage and look at what they achieved.