TITLE>Murray's look at Dresden. Join Murray as he visits Dresden one summer's day in 1999. Dresden, and so it goes....
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Dresden on the Elbe.. nice old town, full o' culture and stuff.
On our day off we visted Dresden. It's a very pretty old city on the banks of the Elbe river and a cultural centre of Europe. Lot's of very nice old bits of arkitexture around the place and lot's of scaffolding too. That's where they're repairing more old buildings. You see, between 13th and 15th February 1945, the centre of Dresden was flattened by bombing.
'..he looked over Dresden and wept...'




Only man can do evil on this scale, animals only kill to eat. Us apes are gentle creatures, I mean who ever heard of 'Gorilla Warfare'?

'Anyone who has forgotten how to weep learns it anew with the destruction of Dresden.'
                Gerhart Hauptmann
bombing and the Zwinger.. before and after
It suffered one of the very worst raids of the entire war, the old part of the city was worst hit and there was a firestorm that killed between 35,000 and 135,000. So it goes. It was virtually the only time it was bombed... and the bombers still managed to miss anything of vital military importance...

ruined city, 1945
an arch in Dresden Not long after the Russians marched into town. It took ten's of thousands of volunteers until 1950 to clear the rubble. Then they set about restoring the place. The Zwinger Palace (shown left..) was one of the first places restored. Many important buildings were restored... but many others were just given up on, and were replaced with those boring communist apartment blocks... the economic situation did not help either...
Nadine videoing Patrick. Behind is much scaffolding
Leah, well balanced individual, will bend over backwards for you!
Here is Leah testing the lawn in the centre court yard at Zwinger.
aaaarggghh ! leggo, you silly gargoyle!Ancient german waterslide, bit bumpy tho...
 Lot's of arkitextural details in place like this dat you don't get in newer cities that we have in Oz.

Jodie, Lynette, Sam staying coolBro Tom, after another hard day baptising
Jodie, Lynette and Sam enjoy the cooling waters on a Dresden summer's day, and there is Brother Tom after another hard day's baptising... or was he too just enjoying a paddle in the pond?


Every city needs a decent river, this is the Elbe, and it's got boats!

Leah? statue???Me overlooking Ayers Rock.. its a restuaranty place in Dresden..
There are staues everywhere too. This one is a very beautiful example of... oh. no, dat's Leah! I think they SHOULD put up a statue of Leah, she's really cool, an' she ROCKS! There's me looking at an alley that has a place called 'Ayres Rock' Johnno has been to Ayres Rock, and he says it was nothing like this! The scaffolding at the end of this street is around the Frauenkirche. The Communists wanted to leave the church in ruins as a reminder, but now it is one of the largest restorations anywhere in the whole world!.

Frauenkirche circa 1930 Frauenkirche, post 1945 "The rebuilding of Dresden's Frauenkirche demonstrates an international commitment to overcome the cruelties of war and to build bridges among nations." 

Henry Kissinger
Frauenkirche, before and after 1945

Dresden Korps Officer with his van (spot the trabbie!)
Schaufußstraße 22, gleich neben der “Linie 6”
Also in the Restoration bizness is die Heilsarmee. But they are more interested in restoring peoples lives and their relationship with God. This in the picture is Jens Kind, the Leutnant in charge in his cool summer uniform! If you want to know more, visit the nice people at die Heilsarmee in Dresden at Schaufußstraße 22.. and pass on greetings from me an' Johnno. Or check out your local Salvation Army in your own local area, you'll be welcome!


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