How Germany’s Most Beautiful City Was Destroyed… and Rebuilt

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Күн бұрын

The Story of Dresden: BOMBED - And REBUILT
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👉 In this video, we will be looking at the inspiring story of Dresden. This capital city of Saxony with its rich history and beautiful architecture was bombed late in the war. The controversial bombing of Dresden resulted in the loss of most of its heritage and heavy damage to whatever remained intact. But over the last thirty years, Dresden has seen a true renaissance, and most of its former glory has been restored. Even more reconstruction efforts are underway, but not without its challenges!
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🙏 Special thanks to the following persons:
- Torsten Kulke, GHND
- Berndt Dietze, Baywobau GmbH.
- Frank Wiesner
- Bart Urban
- Marleen Schutjens
- Paul Hanssen
- all our patrons!
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Website: www.neumarkt-dresden.de
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©️ Images copyright info:
Artist impressions Neustädtermarkt, Narrenhäusel:
Courtesy of Gesellschaft Historischer Neumarkt Dresden (artist impressions)
Neues Gewandhaus:
Gesellschaft Historischer Neumarkt Dresden
On Wikimedia Commons:
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Gabriele Delhey
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APD
Bybbisch94 Christian Gebhardt
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Druck & Verlag d Kunstanst f Lithogr & Steindruck Moritz Zobel Dresden
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Cor2701
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Tags:
The_Aesthetic_City, Dresden,Dresden_architecture , Dresden renaissance,Saxony capital city,Dresden cityscape,dresden,Dresden landmarks,dresden germany,dresden bombing anniversary,Drasden cityscape,dresden renaissance,saxony capital city,dresden landmarks,dresden historical sites

Пікірлер: 1 200

@the_aesthetic_city 5 ай бұрын

The first 100 people to use code AESTHETIC at the link below will get 60% off of Incogni: incogni.com/aesthetic

@augustconnors260 5 ай бұрын

Steel internal structures were installed in the White House in Washington DC in the USA under refurbishment in around the 1960's as the structure had rotten wood structure. So Yes sometimes it can not always be original. However it still has repicated interior.

@evgeniam685 5 ай бұрын

Why don't you say how such architecture was built at that time? That would be the most interesting answer that would destroy whole official history. :)))) With horse, buggies and axe?

@Sohave 5 ай бұрын

These classical reconstructions, I wonder where they get the details produced at such a price that it only becomes few percentages more expensive. Perhaps the architectural rebellion groups around the world should band together and create a resource library for suppliers, contractors and architects, so people from around the world will know where to source the right people with the right skills when they want a classical building. Also I could not find a school for classical architecture in my country, they all seem to be modernist.

@sebastienmorisset2803 5 ай бұрын

Bonjour. Il y a aussi un autre exemple de reconstruction, là aussi dans un style « historisant », la ville de Saint-Malo qui fut détruite à 80% par les Alliés. Il y a à l'inverse les villes de Royan & du Havre, qui furent reconstruite dans un style plus « moderniste ». Et ce n'est que mon avis personnel, mais il n'y a que Saint-Malo qui est visité pour ses maisons. Il pourrait être intéressant de faire une vidéo comparative sur ces cas-là ? Good morning. There is also another example of reconstruction, again in a “historicizing” style, the city of Saint-Malo which was 80% destroyed by the Allies. Conversely, there are the towns of Royan & Le Havre, which were rebuilt in a more “modernist” style. And this is just my personal opinion, but only Saint-Malo is visited for its houses. It might be interesting to make a comparative video on these cases?

@jzk2020 5 ай бұрын

Can you make a video going into details about the investors role? How is the deal structured? How could we use this model to finance nice cities in emerging nations?

@dirtywaterpj_dj 5 ай бұрын

I was in Frankfurt recently, where some buildings have also been reconstructed in the style of what was there pre-WWII. A local said that some people referred to it as “Disneyfication”, making it nice for tourists. But nice is nice. Who doesn’t like a pleasant, attractive environment?

@the_aesthetic_city 5 ай бұрын

Exactly! The Disney argument is worth another video

@dirtywaterpj_dj 5 ай бұрын

That said, I won’t complain about the DDR buildings. The intention was to provide homes and to do so quickly, which was the right thing to do at the time.

@Stockbrot_ 5 ай бұрын

Yea I don't get how anybody is against this. Why wouldn't you want to live in a beautiful city

@christiankruse1970 5 ай бұрын

The Disney argument is only valid if it is done cheaply and without respect to how the building will be seen in 50-100 years.

@andreasmetzger7619 5 ай бұрын

I live there and the “problem” - if you will- is that the building’s weren’t entirely restored. The Haus zum Römer (or just Römer), the city hall, was pretty well restored but because of many debates between advocates of an entire historical reconstruction and those who where in favor of a modern inner city, they built many houses as a compromise between old and new

@mariannenygaard1861 4 ай бұрын

I am Danish and have worked as a tour guide in Dresden for 12 years. My first encounter with the city was "love at first sight”. Although at that time, a large part of the area around the Frauenkirche was still more or less undeveloped. When I come to Dredsen today, I see the incredibly beautiful buildings around the church. It couldn't have been done better, thanks to the architects who made Dresden one of the most beautiful cities in Europe again.

@zet1176 2 ай бұрын

Надо учиться на ошибках и не повторять их, что бы опять не пришлось ничего восстанавливать.

@Scaleyback317 Ай бұрын

I understand your sentiments exactly. I went to Dresden on the advice of a British friend who had bought an old German pub in a village some way out of Dresden and was planning to refurbish the gasthaus and reopen it. Bad health cut his plans short but I followed his advice. I stayed initially in a hotel in Meissen and just fell in love with the town. The following day I visited Dresden and was smitten. My wife and I have returned many times since.

@markuserikssen 5 ай бұрын

Happy to see that Dresden is slowly getting a beautiful city core again. It's hard to believe that there are people who are against this.

@diedampfbrasse98 5 ай бұрын

"hard to believe" .. not at all, once you hear the real arguments against such developments. The populistic nonsense the video refers to are just what the wealthy developers of those projects mention, its not what they are actually up against. We normal citizens of Dresden learned from the finished "rebuilding" of historical quarters (basicly just fake facades for luxury housing, tourist traps and expensive shops) that the benefits only get to a tiny upper class and tourists. What those projects really do to the city is raising the rent and price average far beyond the project area. Getting rid of those GDR projects literally pushed the middle/lower class out of the city center and raised cost of living citywide. The little tax income for the city and the very few jobs those pretty projects created never managed to compensate for the losses of the average citizen. Cry about those ugly innercity GDR-projects all you want, we Dresdner aint nostalgic about them either, but if renovated (and thats what people want to happen) they are more then decent housing and they keep the normal citizen in the city and keep the rents/ cost of living low for the entire city.

@chriswondyrland73 5 ай бұрын

As a German I have to admit: you don't know the german ideologic stupidity. There we reached excellence!

@RevStickleback 5 ай бұрын

It's kind of the problem you get when any area is gentrified - namely that the people who once lived in an around there find their rents increasing and have to move away. The city has been made beautiful, but many of the locals can't afford to live there any more.

@diedampfbrasse98 5 ай бұрын

@@RevStickleback yes, but its not only that the new housing is more expensive and raises the rent of its area. On top of that these developments physicly reduce the number of available housing overall ... on average 2 (sometimes even 3) affordable flats are replaced by 1 expensive flat with such redevelopments, so even if the raise in rent could be shouldered we simply end up with less housing in the city as affordable housing projects dont find such eager developers. And as a result there is a low return value for the city, the tax income and benefits for business from such beautiful projects are usually eaten up by the social security / housing support expenses and necessary construction subsidies growing.

@reconquista4011 5 ай бұрын

@@RevStickleback I wouldn't say this is true at all. What has been built and what is being built is being built only on empty land. It IS true that the surrounding area would likely see an increase in rent, but that is generally true only for the immediately surrounding area and the price increase likely wouldn't be significant. Neustadt is still relatively cheap to live in, and the other parts of the city even cheaper. As long as new housing construction remains consistent with population growth, there is no indication that there would be a sharp increase in prices. It is very cheap to live here, especially in comparison to other German cities and a renovation of the tiniest square in the center wouldn't change that, just as the reconstruction of the Altstadt didn't change that either.

@LW1Tok 5 ай бұрын

As a Non-European, there's something about Western (more specifically classical/traditional European Architecture) that just oozes grandiosity and beauty that leaves me in utter awe and appreciation.

@WindowsDrawer 5 ай бұрын

You think only Western europe has beautiful city centers? Look at Warsaw, Poznań, Kraków, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vilnius, Lwów (Lviv), Kyiv, etc etc.

@u.p.1038 5 ай бұрын

@@WindowsDrawer "Western" is obviously meant as a cultural term here. Poland, Lithuania, Ukaine and (Western) Russia are all culturally Western. As are countries like Australia or Argentina which are geographically on the other side of the world but share the same cultural and architecural heritage.

@unclestuka8543 5 ай бұрын

What a beautiful City, when I see old photos or newsreels of Dresden I feel so sad, why is that ?

@solinvictus39 4 ай бұрын

The pre-WWII European mindset was focused on creating buildings that were beautiful, functional, and inspirational. Post WWII was all about rootlessness, oppression, and ugliness in architecture, and in many ways culture as well. Remember that it was very important to Marxists and their fellow travelers to "deconstruct" western civilization, and part of that plan was to destroy beautiful western architecture. To this day these people continue to push their modernist/brutalist vision on the rest of us in service of their globalist/"global man" ideology.

@LUIS-ox1bv 3 ай бұрын

Anyone who has visited Salzburg, Austria. With its Baroque structures, can literally hear music in the air.

@adesauvanie 5 ай бұрын

The ultimate example for me is always Rotterdam versus Middelburg in the Netherlands. Both were destroyed in the Second World War. Rotterdam was rebuilt as a modernist city, but Middelburg was rebuilt mostly as it was before. And tourists today flock in droves to Middelburg because of its beauty, whereas the same cannot be said for Rotterdam. The modernists can claim whatever they like, but the human is naturally drawn to traditional beauty, and not to the soulless boxes that are the modernist utopic vision.

@vonrichthofen5734 5 ай бұрын

at least in Rotterdam the modern architecture is on a high level, i know people who travel there exactly for that architecture

@MW_Asura 5 ай бұрын

@@10akaufmann Modernists forget that you can have both beauty and functionality

@adesauvanie 5 ай бұрын

@@vonrichthofen5734 I have lived near both cities, and whilst I have often seen groups of tourists photographing in Middelburg, I never saw this in Rotterdam. Also, I think building enormous modernist grey boxes in a land in which grey skies are prominent, is most definitely the farthest thing from architecture on a high level.

@yuzan3607 5 ай бұрын

It interests me that a big group of us see through the ugliness of modern architecture. What puzzles me is how on earth can anyone argue FOR ugliness!!!! When you can't even tell whether an ugly building is in Frankfurt, Riyadh or Tokyo, that's not a good thing.

@JohnFromAccounting 5 ай бұрын

Rotterdam is extremely ugly.

@karolw.5208 5 ай бұрын

I come from Poland, another country where 75 years ago cities looked similar to Dresden. Warsaw was largely rebuilt following historical standards, why not Dresden or Leipzig? Today visiting Neumarkt or Stare Miasto is simply a pleasure.

@stephan7h 5 ай бұрын

As a German I am happy that both Dresden's and Warsaw's center have been rebuilt because ultimately both cities and countries must have suffered a lot during war times and seeing both of them rise from the ashes again for me is a sign of peace and reconciliation and I really don’t understand those people who say it is being a fascist or something like that because ultimately it’s about rebuilding what belongs there long before the horrible fascists who brought devastation and destruction came. 🇩🇪🕊️🇵🇱

@HighFlyingOwlOfMinerva 5 ай бұрын

Gdansk (Danzig) also springs to mind. That city was mainly rebuilt in the pre-German time, but rebuilt beautifully nonetheless. Can't say the same for Cologne, sadly...

@suchendnachwahrheit9143 5 ай бұрын

@@HighFlyingOwlOfMinervaThat is Not quite true. It is also pretty irrelevant, but the Poles tried to only rebuild Polish buildings in Gdansk but them realized, that it would not work. Danzig had a big German population for eight centuries, it makes only sense, that that would leave marks in the city

@ErZu_ 5 ай бұрын

@@suchendnachwahrheit9143u re wrong. Yes Gdańsk had many germans but it was mostly after 1700s, before that it was mostly local ppl. Many cities in west Poland have many germanic heritage but ppl mostly take care of it.

@suchendnachwahrheit9143 5 ай бұрын

@@ErZu_ Not quite. What you mean to have begun in the 1700s is the belonging to a German nation state, which only began in 1793. The population was German speaking for many centuries before. It does not matter now, especially since the architecture is more Scandinavian oriented than either Polish or German, though the architects were mostly German and Polish, and Gdansk was rebuilt beautifully and dutifully, so nowadays Gdanks is a massive Polish feat regardless of its earlier past. The Germans in Gdansk back then were, as far as I know invited, but I am not sure. In breslau(wroclaw) the Germans became the majority because of the cities destruction by the mongols and the consequential invitation to German settlers. I don't know whether it was the same with Gdansk, but I could imagine it to have been similar.

@spiralpython1989 5 ай бұрын

I visited Dresden last year. I was stunned by the beauty and the feeling that it was not a pastiche… the city felt authentic, and even though it was rebuilt, it was rebuilt properly. I was blown away by the delicate beauty of the Frauenkirche. Dresden is one of my favourite European cities. And a very different city to those comparatively modern cities in my country, Australia.

@user-yz8pw9dv2n 3 ай бұрын

Dresden had several very beautiful synagogues that got desecrated then destroyed by the nazi scum .Have they been rebuilt as beautiful as they were before the horrors of The Holocaust.

@thehaussmann 5 ай бұрын

Great video! The segment about Neustädter Markt is so important, as it is easy to think that Dresden is now "complete" after it renovated Neumarkt. There are still many visible scars in the city, and I hope more will be healed in the coming years.

@the_aesthetic_city 5 ай бұрын

Thank you!! And yes, it is a beautiful example of how a square that is just way too big can be used to build more housing, and can be generally improved

@Sacto1654 5 ай бұрын

Dresden is a urbanist's dream: rebuild the city to have the "feel" of the old city but have just wide enough streets to accommodate a surface tram system and bicycle/e-bike lanes. The old narrow streets are definitely out of the question.

@kelvinsurname7051 5 ай бұрын

@@Sacto1654in the past trams could easily past through these streets.

@Plisnensis 5 ай бұрын

Der Neumarkt ist nicht vollständig. Es fehlt noch das "Hotel Stadt Rom" und der Durchbruch der Moritzstraße.

@GrandTheftChris 5 ай бұрын

Unfortunately in 2022/23 the GHND's citizens' initiative for a (partly) historical reconstruction of the Neustädter Markt surrounding the golden rider statue failed. Of the needed 22k signatures only 12k were collected. That means only the south side (Königsufer) will be reconstructed but the north side with the prefab buildings from GDR times will most likely not be changed. Moreover the "Initative Neustädter Freiheit" wants to achieve a monument protection for these buildings which would make a replanning in the future impossible. The problem here is not that there are not enough Dresdeners to sign a petition but that most of the citizens are unaware of a signature collection going on. Many would help but just don't know how and when. I'm born and raised in Dresden and almost everyone I talk to about this topic would prefer historical buildings on that square. But if you ask them if they sign the initiative petition they have no clue what is going on. So we should spread more awareness of the initatives of GHND and all households should get a flyer to be informed.

@peteferguson518 5 ай бұрын

I am a socialist and I find it crazy that some people think appreciation for traditional architecture is reactionary. What I find authoritarian and reactionary is letting small elitist cliques make decisions on such an important aspect of quality of life as urban environment against the majority of the public. There is a reason why people all over the world have pictures of Paris, Venice or Prague in their living rooms instead of brutalist or modernist buildings that only architects like. I mean, modern architecture can look good, the Louvre pyramids in Paris or the Sydney Opera house are stunning but modern architecture works better if used parsimoniously as a highlight in an overwhelmingly traditional cityscape.

@ianhomerpura8937 5 ай бұрын

Interesting, because Haussmann built the buildings that made Paris the iconic city it is, by demolishing 600 year old buildings in the middle of Paris to build new boulevards and civic buildings like the Opera.

@JohnFromAccounting 5 ай бұрын

The Sydney Opera House feels more like organic architecture than it does the Utopian modernist style. It's interesting to look at the other proposals for the site and how dreadful most of them were.

@rexx9496 5 ай бұрын

I like some modern architecture. I think Zaha Hadid's work was really interesting. But I prefer that stuff to be used for airports or modern art museums.

@peteferguson518 5 ай бұрын

@@ianhomerpura8937 True but Haussmann meant to reproduce and standardize the neoclassical style that had been popular among the French upper class for about 200 year at that time, he didn't mean to do something new that went against the taste of the time. You have a point, though, in the fact that in the first years, Parisians weren't that thrilled by these buildings.

@lynxcato3327 5 ай бұрын

I have a hard time understanding why architects have this preference for bland modernist buildings that are unpopular with the public. But it is true that some modern architecture is really good like the work of Zaha Hadid.

@HistoryHustle 5 ай бұрын

Great video. Maybe it was a blessing that Dresden was in East Germany. Because there was no money to rebuilt the city centre remained empty. In many west German cities they inmediatly started to replace the bombed city centre buildings with ugly modern architecture.

@ianhomerpura8937 5 ай бұрын

Just like in Frankfurt. But recently they have been demolishing those modernist structures to rebuild them to prewar standards.

@ruhri0411 5 ай бұрын

But this is only possible in well-known and rich cities. Even the Ruhr area was full of very beautiful Wilhelminian-style buildings that were destroyed in the war. Since it was all about industry and rapid reconstruction, we now have the ugliest cities in Germany with tonnes of 50s and 60s buildings. And in the 1970s, what was left was demolished in favour of a modernism that we now find horrible.

@johncharles304 3 ай бұрын

West Germany has as it were ceased to be since 1945.

@reconquista4011 5 ай бұрын

I am an American who moved to Dresden 3 years ago. One of the major reasons why I'm proud to live here is because the baroque image of Dresden pops into my head every time I think of the city, with or without me realizing it. I have also been following the efforts of the GHND these past few years, because I've also been captivated by the fact that they have made it possible to rebuild culturally vital parts of Dresden. And just like many residents, I also feel a kind of pain when I see old images of what Dresden compared to its current state. It's even more depressing when I think that a few loud minorities and the city council seem to be taking every effort (and somewhat successfully) to disrupt and prevent the further beautification of the Königsufer, although the citizens have already voted on it and the plans were drawn. I don't think the city council understands what makes this city beautiful for visitors and foreign residents; It certainly isn't old concrete Plattenbau buildings that one can find in hundreds to thousands of post-Soviet cities and towns (or many other parts of the city for that matter). They also seem to take the spike in tourists in recent years for granted. People want to be surrounded by a beautiful environment. Build and they shall come! Also, if any members of the Gesellschaft Historicher Neumarkt are reading this, thank you so much for your effort.

@tk80mufa5 5 ай бұрын

Thank your for your kind words !!! Sadly Germany still has a somewhat top-down political tradition that reeks of authoritarianism. Unlike the US for example we don't have primary elections for the Chancellor candidates. Unlike Switzerland our politicians don't like referendums and direct democracy. It is still very much a backroom crook culture here. They try to hide it and point at Italy, Russia or Latin America, but a lot of the times the country sadly feels like a Banana Republic.

@GrandTheftChris 5 ай бұрын

@simonestreeter1518 4 ай бұрын

Perhaps it is, a little bit, being run by NATO, i.e. the United States. @@tk80mufa5

@bjornwenzel2683 4 ай бұрын

Thank you for your well written support of the historical rebuilding of Dresden. My father was born 1938 in Dresden and remembered the night of the bombing. Him and his grandparents only survived because they ran to the Elbe after the first attack. When the second round of bombers came their house was totally destroyed. I remember how depressing Dresden looked in the 70’s and early 80’s. Looking at Dresden now is like the phoenix raised out of its ashes. I hope the GHN will be successful with their efforts rebuilding the Neumarkt.

@thomasblanchard6778 4 ай бұрын

The American saying on historic preservation vs new development (sadly) boils down to "Follow the Money". New development means more money to new-construction developers, who are financially and politically well connected.

@BenWinney 5 ай бұрын

I was there recently. There is such a contrast between the way the architecture makes you feel in the beautiful old city vs the soulless modern areas nearer the train station.

@ericcallway721 5 ай бұрын

Thanks for this excellent video. I took my wife to Dresden earlier this year. It was my second visit: my first was over 40 years ago when I was as a diplomat accredited to the former GDR. I was deeply moved by the beauty of the transformation achieved since my last visit, particularly of the Frauenkirche which was a pile of rubble during my earlier visit. It had then been deliberately left in that terrible state as a memorial to the allied bombing raid of 13 February 1945. The reconstruction since reunification is nothing short of a miracle. I was particularly proud that Britain had contributed to the cross on the dome as a symbol of reconciliation. I was delighted to learn from the video that there are further plans for the Neustadt. Sadly I doubt if I’ll still be around to see their fulfilment but I wish those concerned every success.

@tk80mufa5 5 ай бұрын

Thank you for your kind words!!! ☺ UK & DE 🕊✌🕊

@shiraseskai3021 5 ай бұрын

I was visiting Dresden in 1994 and witnessed the preservation of what was left of the Frauenkirche as well as the rescue of what was left in the rubble. Most stones had to be replaced but you can see every single old stone that could be restored went back to its original place. Thank you to everyone involved to make this possible. The church burnt for two days before one of the pillars carrying the dome gave in and caused a chain reaction. The restauration has a very strong symbolic value for the city itself after so much destruction.

@d4rktranquility 4 ай бұрын

The bombing of Dresden was done by the british airforce. A very important fact about the rebuilding is the huge financial effort and help of specifically british people to rebuild the church. So the church should be and is a huge memorial for peace and anti war on many levels.

@michaelbinney9913 4 ай бұрын

I learnt alot about Dresden from a very young age because i used to love listening to my mom talking about the war to me. Most people from the UK are ashamed of what happened to that beautiful historical city i included. Its lovely to see some of these old beautiful buildings being rebuilt.

@timcolivet7343 3 ай бұрын

I too have always felt bad about the unnecessary razing of German cities.

@micheleedwin4004 3 ай бұрын

I feel as bad about Dresden as I hope the Germans feel about Coventry, Bristol, Liverpool London and others. They blitzed our cities long before we retaliated. If you sow the seed, you reap the whirlwind. War is dreadful for both sides. Let us hope it never comes again.

@timcolivet7343 3 ай бұрын

@@micheleedwin4004 That's actually not true. We Brits bombed Berlin after the Germans (both sides now accept) accidentally bombed London. The British were the first to intentionally target the civilian population. Air Marshal Harris (bomber Harris) made it a policy to destroy whole German cities (so as to stop the Germans from ever starting a war again). You could argue that the Germans started it by continuing to bomb Warsaw even after Poland had surrendered. However, the allies wreaked (in my view) unnecessary wanton destruction by turning cities such as Hamburg and Dresden into fire balls. I live in Bristol and it makes me sad to see old pictures of Castle street but it pales in comparison when you see what was left of cities such as Dresden etc..

@Krypto-Schwabe 3 ай бұрын

@@micheleedwin4004yes we feel bad about that…but you cannot compare the dimension of total destruction and total amount of killed civilians in german and english cities…Coventry was a city with major industrial production, Dresden had almost no industry, just historical and cultural heritage…that‘s the difference…

@_jpg 2 ай бұрын

@@Krypto-SchwabeI am afraid you fell to deliberate misinformation, just like many unfortunates in this comment section. Dresden was actually the third biggest transportation hub in Germany and the major one in the east, since many others already got destroyed. Additionally, the industrial sites of Saxony (Freital, Erzgebirge, Heidenau, Pirna, Radebeul, Coswig, Bautzen, Görlitz) were supplied by the railways going through Dresden, which also aided in the movement of troops and material, as well as the transport of prisoners into extermination camps. According to informations of the Dresdner industry and trade association of 1941, the city was one of the first industrial sites in Germany, and by 1944, nearly all factories were forced to produce military equipment. A report of the US Air force states, that at least 110 companies and factories located in Dresden in February 1945 were considered as legitimate targets, with around 50.000 workers directly linked to military production: Chemical industry in Niedersedlitz, Zeiss Ikon, which was partially located in the city center, steel products Kelle & Hildebrandt in Großluga, electrotechnical products Koch & Sterzel in Mickten, radio technology Radio-Mende, Sachsenwerk, Avus and MIAG for machine parts, MIAG-Mühlenbau even built tanks, others produced hand grenades, and many abused prisoners of war for forced labour. The myth of the innocent, pure city of culture, which didn't have any industrial meaning, was invented by the Nazis, just like the high number of victims (100.000 - 250.000, while modern investigations only estimate 22.700 - 25.000).

@citroniron8861 3 ай бұрын

I was born in Dresden and moved away 20 years ago. I visit 4 times a year and it's always beautiful when you come from the west on the Autobahn. You see the skyline of the city and it just radiates beauty and history. I love my Dresden.

@callsigndd9ls897 Ай бұрын

Exactly, when I visited Dresden for the first time and drove down into the Dresden valley from the west and the silhouette of Dresden suddenly appeared in front of me, I could only say one word: Whao!

@bart_u 5 ай бұрын

Such an incredibly important video! We need to stand up for our cities. ❤ The first money I ever donated was for the rebuilding of Dresden's Frauenkirche. Ever since then, I was involved to make this city beautiful again. It was an honor and pleasure to interview the local heroes for this video. Greetings from the Berlin studio of The Aesthetic City, Bart Urban

@tanjavanderknoop8497 5 ай бұрын

There is one thing I still miss though. Whereas the buildings have been 'rebuild', it stilll needs the kiss of life that plants bring. So manu smaller German towns have beautiful climbing plants, plant borders, little mini parks. I think it would only be really be stunning when that final element would also be in place. @the_aesthetic_city

@bart_u 5 ай бұрын

@@tanjavanderknoop8497Hi Tanja, yeah that's definitely a welcome addition here and there. :) Though I have to admit, the actual historical centre of Dresden is TINY, compared to the vast wastelands of commie buildings surrounding it. These drab areas need proper greenery the most, as usually they just have this depressing "distancing green" with strips of unkept lawn separating the buildings. Immediate old town centres work well with little islands of greenery, as the architecture wants to be fully experienced and appreciated. For example in the middle of Rome, Venice, Prague or said Dresden. They usually have green courtyards where such solutions are a beautiful addition. ❤

@tanjavanderknoop8497 5 ай бұрын

@@bart_u Whereas I agree with you that other areas might need plants as well I do think that with carefull planting the old city will be even more beautiful. most people involved with buildings (architects but also investors etc.) tend to miss those possibilities.

@GrandTheftChris 5 ай бұрын

@@bart_u So I guess you are from Berlin? However, a big thank you for donating back then! From a Dresdener.

@GrandTheftChris 5 ай бұрын

@@tanjavanderknoop8497 At least the controversial reconstruction of the Gewandhaus in modern fashion at the Neumarkt square was prevented and instead 28 trees were planted at the same location, the so called "Green Gewandhaus". It's not a park but at least some green that gave the square a more pleasant scenery and more quality of stay.

@kamilar1359 5 ай бұрын

The most shocking part is that it is not even that much more expensive (3%-5%), which is a very small price to pay, compared to how much more money the city/investors will get only because of the more tourism and the higher prices of the more "liked" urban spaces.

@bahshas 3 ай бұрын

the germans literally bankrupt themselves these past years over covid, global warming and the war in ukraine. at least if youre going to spend all your money, have something you can show off.

@joshualegaspi8268 5 ай бұрын

I'm so glad this beautiful city was restored. Though it makes me feel sad about Manila, all of the beautiful architectures just gone after WWII and were replaced by blocky buildings that give no sense of culture. Didn't even know this was possible, Manila could've retained its beauty.

@the_aesthetic_city 5 ай бұрын

Oh yes Manila and the Philippines in general have lost so much... would be great for a video actually

@joshualegaspi8268 5 ай бұрын

@@the_aesthetic_city Please, do! We'd love that! 😊

@TheBezaleel 3 ай бұрын

Thanks for an excellent video. As a 63 year old Brit, I have travelled a great deal. One town that made a deep lasting impression is Dresden, which I visited in 2018. Knowing it's history and devastation, the question you keep asking yourself, whilst walking through the beautiful buildings and sampling it's wonderful atmosphere is 'how is this possible ?'. Your video answered this and shows what really can be achieved.

@augustconnors260 5 ай бұрын

An Attractive City is a liveable city. People like a liveable city. (Walk to work, parks, garden, fountains, caffe, malls, meeting plazas/places.)

@leobethge6002 3 ай бұрын

This is a good lesson for New York, to rebuild Penn Station, as good architecture represents the people and pride of a community.

@amirroslan2545 3 ай бұрын

been living near dresden for 6 years and now in dresden for a year and damn i will never be tired of this city. i love the fact that the altstadt is very pedestrians friendly and accessible with the trams. LG

@christinem-h6144 5 ай бұрын

I'm really glad to have discovered this channel. The topic of urbanism is so interesting! I was always wondering why modern cities can't be as beautiful as old ones. That's a reason why I often travel to eastern Germany: there is so much beauty left. As I once went to Frankfurt/Main and walked through the newly restaured place around the cathedral, I understood a fundamental problem of modern urbanism: the streets built in the 1960s are too broad. You can't feel comfortable in them. Thanks to the big effort of restauration, the smaller streets offer a secure and protected feeling. It's astonishing!

@huha47 3 ай бұрын

My daughter and I spent a week in Dresden some 10 years ago. While she attended a course for acrylic painting, I was able to explore and experience the city. There was still construction going on in the center. Having spent some time in the museum, learning about the destruction of the city at the end of the war for no reason at all. Hard to imagine that was allowed as well as how the city was reborn. I walked everywhere, enjoying the beauty and the city's charm. Having taken a lot of fotos, it would be interesting to see the changes today. I hope to return one day. I am very happy that the citizens fought to revive the city. Worth visiting as well as its historic value. LG aus Villach-Warmbad.

@LivingCrusader 5 ай бұрын

I went to Dresden on a study abroad. And it is indeed a beautiful city.

@hailgiratinathetruegod7564 5 ай бұрын

I can't even understamd how "The buildings are only like the orginal historical buildings on the fassades, their interiors are modern, making them cheaper, and more effecient in space and energy" is a argument agaisnt building in historical styles

@collan580 3 ай бұрын

Its basically the best of both worlds. I lived in an old baroque building, and the issue with them that they can be pretty dark and its really hard to use the high ceiling heights. Not to mention the terrible flat layouts . While with a modern interior, you will have efficient spaces paired with a beautiful facade

@rexmyers991 4 ай бұрын

I am an older American (I was born Jan. 1943) I grew up knowing what Allied bombing did to Dresden. I am SO GLAD to see the people have chosen to rebuild in the ‘original’ style. It is so beautiful and you get buildings with more modern plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and structural improvements. A win for all.Modern architecture is sterile, boring, trendy (think flash in a pan).

@charlotteralff769 2 ай бұрын

The old city in Warsaw Poland was also reconstructed after the war exactly as it had been before the war. Fantastic!

@caaussie1605 5 ай бұрын

Rebuilding Dresden to its former glory should be seeing as a monumental effort by the people for the people. They got the locals support and the world appreciates that bravery. Meanwhile, soulless modern cities around the world are constantly exalted using shopping and marketing campaigns as there is not much else to attract people to the shiny boxes.

@holger_p 4 ай бұрын

It's not so much by the people, it's simply done by investors. The city council just had to agree the designs.

@krycekuva 5 ай бұрын

Frankfurt has the "new" "old town" contrasting the modern parts of the city, and while the contrast is great, and I do love skyscrapers, the new old town is really nice. Another city to check out is Potsdam, right outside Berlin. they have been reconstructing several areas and/or specific buildings. It's very well worth a visit and a video. Crossing fingers for Berlin to follow in those footsteps and rebuild the historical core of the city. Apparently the area called "Molkenmarkt" is about to be re-developped in a historical way. It would reconnect to another "historic" part of the city center and to the rebuilt city palace, the museum island and other historical areas of berlin.

@Bosolevu 5 ай бұрын

Believe me or not,but the only picture I took of myself in Frankfurt was the new old town...

@krycekuva 5 ай бұрын

@@Bosolevu hard to believe someone wouldn't.

@lambda6564 5 ай бұрын

If the public unites these constructions can happen anywhere. Truly great to see!

@juniormichael354 5 ай бұрын

That's why as an African I'm here

@MrScholar 5 ай бұрын

Same thing for lot of cities in Belgium. In Brussels, one of the most visited places is Grand Place and it's been rebuilt many times due to being bombed during different wars. People come, see it and be amazed, not even realizing some of the buildings are relatively "new" according to old standards.

@jamestrotman1593 4 ай бұрын

Dresden is now beautiful. I have had three holidays there and enjoyed it all - it is well worth a visit. I hope the Neustadt is rebuilt too.

@Geschaeftsleben 5 ай бұрын

Thank you for your great Video, as inhabitant of Dresden it is an honor to be recognized in the way you did. I just can add that for Dresden the rebuild especially of the Frauenkirche was also a big political and and human move of reconciliation. Amazing to see how people from all over the world were interested in rebuilding the church and set a sign of hope and peace. The cross on top of Frauenkirche was place by someone from Coventry who’s father was part of dresden bombing.

@Pintkonan 3 ай бұрын

yesterday i saw a video on youtube about dresden before it was bombed. it were AI-coloured videos of several places of the city. the title of the video was sth like "watch and weep: dresden in colour before the bombings". when i saw the video ( i am from dresden) i asked myself: "why would i weep? this is what the city actually looks like!" what i want to say is: the people responsible for the rebuilt of the historical dresden did an absolutely amazing job. dont get fooled, come here and look - its a jewel of a city if you like ( historical) architecture.

@ttopero 5 ай бұрын

This is quite different than when I visited the ruins in 2000 as an architecture student. Only passing through, it was difficult for me to get a sense of the vision that the locals had, and have become, which is impressive!

@twisted_void 5 ай бұрын

This is so fascinating. I visited few big cities around Germany over last few years which did not bother to rebuild like Dresden. It makes me so happy to see what they are doing in Dresden. What a contrast. I sincerely wish this group of people who keep pushing a historical rebuild all the success in completing it.

@paulfrisstdich 3 ай бұрын

I live in Dresden for already 7 years. For me it's the most beautiful city in Germany and it makes me happy how beautiful and clean it is here :) you also seem to feel that people are way more happy here Come visit friends from all over the world❤

@Mark-xd5up 5 ай бұрын

An example for many other damaged European cities. And also for new ones, we can still build beautiful.

@the_aesthetic_city 5 ай бұрын

Exactly!

@kubarybczynski661 5 ай бұрын

Warsaw, Gdańsk and Wrocław are better examples...

@adrianseanheidmann4559 3 ай бұрын

@@kubarybczynski661 why?

@kubarybczynski661 2 ай бұрын

@@adrianseanheidmann4559 Because the reconstructions of these cities are more faithful and of better quality than in Dresden, where the tenement houses only have variations of facades, and in Warsaw, for example, interiors were reconstructed and ornaments were faithfully recreated based on photographs or paintings.

@lexburen5932 2 ай бұрын

@@kubarybczynski661 sure. But thats a 100 % copy of the old, what dresden wanted to avoid. I also dont think you should not restore old buildings 100 %. Rather traditional style with a modern take on it, wich is what dresden is, or plessire robinson in france, wich has won a price for best rehabilitation in europe. Warsaw isnt. Its just a mere copy of the old. But everyone has their own opinion. Atleast dresden got nice and beautiful again.

@MalaPalabra-zr6wg 5 ай бұрын

I'm from Uruguay. Many german businessmen who were supported for the Nazi Party flew to Uruguay, they became in powerful people and nowadays their sons and grandsons are powerful people in Uruguay.

@soundofsilence4 3 ай бұрын

See ......they were war criminals and they didn't spend the rest of their lives in prisons as they should .Instead they enjoyed privileged life thanks to stolen money in Poland from Poles, so sad.

@johnsmith-mq4eq Ай бұрын

Are you blaming the grandchildren for being in Uruguay?

@feyenoordsongs3882 5 ай бұрын

Make the world beautiful again!

@tomjackson7022 5 ай бұрын

As an American who lived in Berlin before the wall came down (1983 to 86), I can't wait to see all the good work that has been done in Dresden. I went back to Berlin in 2018 and the modernist buildings in that city's core left me cold and unimpressed. Keep up the good work and I will come to Dresden soon.

@MrMakabar 5 ай бұрын

Berlin is doing reconstructions and actually a lot of new traditional architecture, but it is kind of hard to tell as it is not focused on a single areas, but spread out. As for the absolute core of the city Molkenmarkt is being reconstructed and there is a strong push to have a large scale reconstruction on the Marx-Engels Forum across the palace as well, which is obviously also a reconstruction. Also a lot from Unter den Linden are actually GDR era reconstructions and the Nikolaiviertel is a really bad one as well.

@suchendnachwahrheit9143 5 ай бұрын

@@MrMakabarAber der Alexanderplatz wird zur Betonwüste. Absolut grausam

@Scaleyback317 Ай бұрын

I agree. I was part of the British garrison 78-80. Berlin was a wonderful posting. I have returned 3 times in the period between 2005 -2010. The city has lost its soul. It was no longer the Berlin I was so smitten by. Way too large, way too busy and not in the slightest bit welcoming. The last visit we even moved out hotel out to Potsdam and made that the base from which we toured. I have done the old east Germany many times. Treat yourself to a few days in Dresden I doubt you'll regret it. Meissen is an easy day trip from Dresden and worth the effort. Bautzen is beautiful and the hidden and somewhat unknown Goerlitz was the surprise package of the tour. More listed building there than anywhere else in Germany (or so I was told). Easy to believe when you embark on a walk through the old town and then on to the small bridge adjoining it to the Polish half of the town. The fortress at Konigstein is just breathtaking.

@richat30 5 ай бұрын

Re 8:45 „looking at other, less successful modernist rebuilding efforts“ - showing an aerial view of Cologne. How true!

@stortebeker6464 3 ай бұрын

The new tower cross of the Frauenkirche is eight meters high and was created by the British artist Alan Smith. Son of a British pilot who dropped bombs on the city of Dresden in 1945. The new tower cross was financed with donations from Great Britain. It is therefore also considered a “cross of reconciliation”. The old cross is now inside the church.

@callsigndd9ls897 Ай бұрын

Yes, I touched and gently stroked the old cross in the church. I don't know why, but I just had to do it after everything I read about Dresden's history, the war and the Frauenkirche. As a sign of reconciliation There is also a cross of nails from Coventry in the church.

@user-lz8nu1yh8y 5 ай бұрын

Thank you for coming to Germany! Thank you for supporting the historical reconstruction of our cities! Thank you for fighting the ignorant modernist architects of our times. There is not a single case of failure, where a historical german urban area was reconstructed. Potsdam is great, the Berlin city-castle is great, the reconstruction of Frankfurts Altstadt is well-accepted by the public. We need more. Please continue your excellent work and support the historical reconstruction of parts of Mülheim an der Ruhr.

@HolgerJakobs 5 ай бұрын

Berlin City Castle (Stadtschloss) is a bad example and its reconstruction has been very much debated. It's historism, nothing else.

@tk80mufa5 5 ай бұрын

@@HolgerJakobs why? Because of that one modern facade? or the stupid exhibitions that it houses?

@SlavicCoffee 5 ай бұрын

I for one also does support the rebuilding of Dresden of how it once looked like architecturally and historically, so that future generations can enjoy and see of how the city once looked like before.

@FVI297 5 ай бұрын

They did a great job! It's nice to know that this city has been able to get back its historic centre!

@olehleb 5 ай бұрын

As a Ukrainian - for me it’s so weird to see so many of this kinda architecture in German cities, not only in the east, but also in in the west for instance Ruhr Gebiet (Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg etc). They look just sooo ugly and you always wanna spend time somewhere, where it’s beautiful and at least somehow historic. I understand why soviets did that, cause they were freaking poor and were thinking about red revolution more, than about it’s citizens. But Germany is quite a wealthy country, so weird to see so many modern ugly architecture here 🤌🏽

@MrMakabar 5 ай бұрын

All of the cities you mentioned were relativly small towns 150 years ago and then grew rapidly with the indutrial revolution. There used to be huge coal deposites in the region, which brought heavy industry and a lot of jobs, which made that happen. So for most of the buidlings destroyed rebuilding for their historic purpose, would have been like Ukraine reconstructing commie blocks after the current war. You can tell the actually old German cities fairly well. Of the large ones all of them have done at least some reconstruction apart from Hamburg.

@suchendnachwahrheit9143 5 ай бұрын

@@MrMakabarStädte wie Essen, oder Dortmund waren aber mal durchaus schön. Und völlig ohne Geschichte waren diese Orte nicht

@MrMakabar 5 ай бұрын

@@suchendnachwahrheit9143 Beide hatten 4500 Einwohner um 1800. Das waren nette Kleinstädte. Dortmund hatte ein echt tolles Rathaus, was man wirklich rekonstruieren könnte. Essen war ein Stift mit ner Mauer in der eine kleine Stadt entstand. Dannach kam viel Historismus hinzu was auch nicht schlecht ist, aber diese Gebäude waren schön, aber meist nicht besonders historisch relevant für die Stadt. Man kann es Wiederaufbauen, aber es wäre schlauer sich ein paar gute Architekten zu holen und da auf altem Grundriss neu zu Bauen oder einfach neue Fassaden ranzupacken.

@simonestreeter1518 4 ай бұрын

I think the video hints that the decision was made to break the German hearts and spirit. And the same idea is to keep them a bit broken.

@holger_p 4 ай бұрын

There is no relation from wealth to beauty. Rich people often dress ugly. And the other part of the story is freedom. Each landlord is allowed as much freedom as possible, the city has very limited possibilities to influence the design. This is not a dictatorship with a central planning office and commands what to do. It's democracy. All they can do is actually deny permission to do something, not giving commands what to do.

@andreacannizzo9641 5 ай бұрын

Watching a great reconstruction example as Dresden in this day and age is so refreshing and inspiring! Great video!

@ZombieBobSponge 5 ай бұрын

thanks for highlighting whenever you used AI image creation! Seriously more people need to do this! As an artist, I also liked how you used human art in the video also. This is the kind of complimentary use of AI that we should strive for. Great video!

@franko7033 5 ай бұрын

Very informative video. I was in Dresden last year and agree the Neumarkt and continuing efforts to rebuild lost architecture of historical character is a huge success. Seen it In Potsdam too, as you mentioned. Somebody else referred to Poland...old town areas of Gdansk, Warsaw, Wroclaw etc, obliterated in WW2, are astonishing to visit and enjoy. They can never entirely recreate what was lost, but that is not the point. As you describe, it breathes life into the city centre and gives back something of it's soul. Anyone taking a coffee, with a view of the rebuilt Frauenkirche, needs no other persuasion.

@chimefloon-w-4146 5 ай бұрын

Oh how I wish Cologne would follow this example...

@user-lz8nu1yh8y 5 ай бұрын

I wouldn't even know where to begin. Cologne is ugly as hell.

@adrianseanheidmann4559 3 ай бұрын

Probably one of the cities that makes me the saddes to look at nowadays after my hometown Bremen, at least Bremen still has a fairly significant historical center and nice marketplace.

@kaloarepo288 5 ай бұрын

Same thing was done to Warsaw in Poland but I've heard some people say that the rebuilt traditional buildings look unauthentic because they look too new! I suppose time will solve that problem.

@olgaiushkova2454 5 ай бұрын

Warsaw seems like a most cleverly restored inner city, striking you with all the history passed by, when you're standing between the barbakan and the "old city"

@sanniepstein4835 5 ай бұрын

When they cleaned up Prague's old buildings all at once I had the same slightly shocked reaction. But as you say, time takes care of that.

@fhdd.builder_ 5 ай бұрын

The video really touched me, as a young Dresden resident, I'm deeply moved. I hope things change. Thanks for the video!

@MrPicky 5 ай бұрын

I haven't been to Dresden since 2006 and visited the newly rebuilt Frauenkirche which is stunning. I definitely need to go back now. Thanks for this video :)

@dr.wilfriedhitzler1885 4 ай бұрын

Thank you for your video. You tell people the right story in a short time and you honour us Germans and put us in the right light.

@CrankyHermit 5 ай бұрын

Thank you for an informative, well-balanced and inspiring presentation. I think architecture 'of its place' is more relevant than 'of its time.' Clearly, even in our modern time, attractive buildings with classical forms and proportions are better able to serve their public urban functions. Important among these is their contribution to a sense of place with which people identify and where they wish to spend time. It's nothing to do with sentimentality, only with being human. Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.

@the_aesthetic_city 5 ай бұрын

Thank you, and I couldn't agree more! Very good point you make there. Place over time!

@JohnFromAccounting 5 ай бұрын

Great comment. Leaning into regional styles is more important for cultural cohesion than chasing architectural trends.

@olgaiushkova2454 5 ай бұрын

I was sure, that Dresden had been reconstructed right after the war. You blew my mind. Low bow for people, restoring their heritage decades after.

@the_aesthetic_city 5 ай бұрын

It has been a long and arduous process, but so worth it!

@callsigndd9ls897 Ай бұрын

On the one hand, it was not particularly pleasant for the people of Dresden to live in a city that had been partially in ruins for over 40 years. On the other hand, it was also fortunate that not all of the damaged buildings in the old town were demolished and replaced with modern concrete boxes, as has often happened in western German cities. At least this made it possible to reconstruct the old Dresden city center or to rebuild it in the old style.

@jakobstahl2557 5 ай бұрын

We need this in Stuttgart so bad !!

@OctaviusAu 5 ай бұрын

Your videos and your effort to spread the importance, and I dare to say the necessity, of rebuilding the cities through the principles of beauty and the True Art are amazing and truly motivational! Thank you sincerely The Aesthetic City!

@billmiller4972 5 ай бұрын

One point that helped a lot, was that the GDR was too poor to implement their typical style as much as the BRD was able to.

@cainkiddell1533 4 ай бұрын

We are here right now. What a wonderfully gorgeous place, with vibrancy and life. Much love to those who championed for the restoration.

@rumble1925 5 ай бұрын

Wow, the connotations I have for Dresden is that it's a grey depressing city. I have never been there, it's just what my mind goes to when you say the name. Glad to see it is really beautiful in reality

@the_aesthetic_city 5 ай бұрын

It depends what part you visit!

@holger_p 4 ай бұрын

So obviously city marketing has a job left to do. Entire east can be considered grey, before 1990, but's it's really only lack of paint, of course there were green trees, flowers etc. But entire east has changed since 1990.

@callsigndd9ls897 Ай бұрын

Shortly after the reunification of Germany we visited new friends in the East. They lived in a single-family home that was plastered gray but not painted. I asked why all the houses looked so dreary and they could have been painted. The answer was that there was no color that lasted more than a year or two. If you had used this paint you would have ruined the entire exterior of the house. That's why most people preferred to leave it raw. The same was true for most cities. However, this changed very quickly after reunification when citizens had access to western building materials. Cities in the east are now usually more beautiful than comparable cities in the west. Because there were fewer new buildings or renovations (modernizations) in the inner cities in the east. In the West, even after the war, many old buildings were simply torn down and replaced with new buildings. People didn't want the old anymore, but when they realized in the 1990s that the old had a soul and the new didn't, it was too late. Now there are so-called buildings of the new era all over our cities that no one really loves.

@holger_p Ай бұрын

@@callsigndd9ls897 Right, I would have simply said, there was no paint. Additionally, this was the traditional style since 200 years. People didn't know any different. You put flowers in the garden, if you want color. Demolishing in the west was a period in the 70ies, when enough apparments were built after the war, but sense of history was not really developed. Time of beginning oil and gas heating, instead of coal. Directly after war, any intact building was used as much as it could.

@Fourth_Monk 5 ай бұрын

Make a video about Saint Petersburg. Love ur channel ❤

@mriz7258 5 ай бұрын

Recently I just came back from Munich. The tour they kept talking about how in WW2 East Munich was saved from the bombings and the old buildings are still standing as they dropped the bombs on the West side of the city. The iconic Church spires of of Frauenkirche was literally X marks the spot on where they gonna drop the bombs.

@the_aesthetic_city 5 ай бұрын

Yep - without modern maps & radar, they needed identifiable landmarks. A sad but logical thing...

@JohnFromAccounting 5 ай бұрын

@@the_aesthetic_city Similar story to Nagasaki. The cathedral was used as a guidance point to drop a bomb that killed a hundred thousand people. An abuse of beautiful architecture, to say the least.

@jeanvaljean7266 5 ай бұрын

the historic city centre was heavily destroyed, too But Munich did a decent job - perhaps the best of all of the big cities in Germany - in rebuilding the city

@mriz7258 5 ай бұрын

@@jeanvaljean7266 Yeap they did the city centre was destroyed thats cause they target mostly the West because BMW factory was there

@adrianseanheidmann4559 3 ай бұрын

same in Bremen, the Nort-WEst part of the oldtown is almost completely newly build after WW2(and ugly as hell as a result), they used the Dom for localizing and dropping the bombs.

@dragosopris2906 5 ай бұрын

They trully did a good job ive been there 3 time over the years and its nice to see the reconstruction done in a accurate historical way.

@mtgreengarden 3 ай бұрын

When I visited the (restored) Frauenkirche, I was spiritually deeply moved. It brought tears to my eyes. As an American, I am ashamed that we bombed such a beautiful place with such beautiful people.

@MassiveChetBakerFan 5 ай бұрын

A very uplifting video. I hope this will be done everywhere and we'll correct the terrible mistakes of the post-war period.

@winnickimagdalena9240 5 ай бұрын

Wielki respekt i pozdrowienia z Polski. Wielki szacunek dla wszystkich odbudowujacych Drezno. Stare Miasto wygląda przepięknie. Do tego bardzo eleganckie kawiarnie i restauracje. Tu można naprawdę bardzo dobrze zjeść w eleganckim otoczeniu. Serdeczne pozdrowienia dla naszych Saksonskich przyjaciół.

@gunterangel 5 ай бұрын

Warm greetings from Germany back to Poland ! ❤ For the city of Dresden has certainly to be very grateful to the many magnificent stonemasons from Poland, who kept this great craft alive post WW2, during a time, when concrete architecture would prevail and the old craft of stonemasonry was in great danger of dying out throughout Europe. Hadn't it been for these prolific Polish craftsmen, who had perfected their craft during the beautiful reconstructions of Gdansk and Warsaw and brought all their expertise to Dresden, the equally as beautiful ( and astonishingly quick ! ) reconstruction of the Dresdner Frauenkirche probably wouldn't have been possible.

@kfh123 5 ай бұрын

Such a great piece. Thank you. So much more effort is needed to make our cities beautiful again.

@certinho76 5 ай бұрын

This is amazing and so inspiring. I wish here in the U.S. there were more urban projects like this here.

@daveweiss5647 5 ай бұрын

Also, you should do a video on Budapest! They are doing great things in restoring old buildings!

@Casper-we3dq 5 ай бұрын

I'm from the UK, and I'm ashamed of what we did to Dresden. The bombing there was unnecessary and achieved nothing apart from destroying a beautiful city. I am so glad the Germans had the foresight to rebuild the city as it was rather than rebuilding it with ugly, soulless buildings.

@MLC... 5 ай бұрын

Thank you for saying that. WW2 was a tragedy that should never have happened.

@parahelionqigong 5 ай бұрын

There are even leftist Germans who celebrate it nowadays

@JohnFromAccounting 5 ай бұрын

Same with Montecasino. It's tragic that so many beautiful parts of our heritage can be ruined by war, and it still happens today in Syria and Iraq.

@RandomStuff-he7lu 5 ай бұрын

Dresden was the main transportation hub in Eastern Germany. It contained hundreds of factories, a train marshalling yard and so on. If it was going to the front in the east it was going through Dresden. Bombing Dresden made it much more difficult for the Germans to transport troops and equipment. It also crippled the ability of the city to produce war goods as the raids destroyed about 1/4 of the cities factories.

@tk80mufa5 5 ай бұрын

@@RandomStuff-he7lu nope the city was full of refugees from the territories from the East fleeing the Rape...I mean Red Army Factories were mostly in the Ruhrgebeit (Essen - Krupp & Thyssen !!!) and Berlin (Oranienburg). Also the central station in Dresden is quite a distance from the Old historic centre. It was deliberately done to bomb civilians into uprising against their own government, which is an outdated war theory/strategy that has never worked to this day. And also to deliberately destroy the enemy's culture and history. Understandable in light of many tens millions of German caused deaths & war crimes, but please, stop with the factory propaganda, Dresden was never an industrial behemoth like the other aforementioned regions.

@Tafkanik 3 ай бұрын

I think other great examples of cities being rebuilt from the ashes in aesthetic terms would be Warsaw and Gdansk old towns. Those are extremely impressive! And with the plans to rebuild the Saxon palace complex the rebuilding process Warsaw will be even more impressive. Maybe an idea for a future video :)

@greentableofarchitecture 5 ай бұрын

It is great to see people taking care of our built environment and our cities as real pieces of art.

@t__v_____290 5 ай бұрын

Great video as always. The start of a great team! go Ruben and Bart! ❤

@the_aesthetic_city 5 ай бұрын

Thank you!

@Fanaro 5 ай бұрын

The damage architects and economists did in the 20th and 21st centuries knows no bounds.

@einfachnurpassi 5 ай бұрын

Really good video! Thanks for the effort! :) It would be nice if you could make a video about the city of Magdeburg. Unfortunately, the city doesn't get the attention it deserves. The beauty of the city is lost and is hard to recognize today, but before WW2 it was a beautiful urban city with quite a few baroque buildings.

@mimamo 5 ай бұрын

Thank you so much for this video and bringing attention to this. Many people, young and old, have given up on beautiful, human-scale architecture, because they've been told over and over again that it is today not possible or somehow wrong, everything has to be modernist and cold and ugly. No, it does not have to be like this! Cities like Dresden prove that if the citizens come together and fight for a good cause, they can win and architects and politicians have to listen and turn things around. Dresden's reconstructed city center has become a huge success, not just for its beauty but also financially. The citizens as well as tourists love this place. It's crazy that the citizens have to come together and fight again for that other square in the city, which is right now still dominated by rundown, ugly, communist blocks and overly broad streets. Shouldn't architects and politicians have learned their lesson by now? No, they apparently have not. So, please, Dresdeners, come together and achieve the same miracle again! And everyone else in Germany, in Europe and in the world, you can achieve this too. Come together in societies, start petitions and annoy architects and politicians until they listen. It is so worth the effort. :)

@IceGuadian 5 ай бұрын

what i notice consistently is that contemporary architects are truly an evil force

@HigherQualityUploads 5 ай бұрын

Usually they are ✡️ They don't want Whites to have an identity, either through architecture, religion, customs/holidays, or collective interests.

@tk80mufa5 5 ай бұрын

oh yes they are , like vile misanthropic cult members , of course all of them are communists

@stadtbilddeutschlande.v.3190 5 ай бұрын

The results are astonishing they have to keep going!

@phillipchapman169 4 ай бұрын

Many thanks for taking the time to write with this helpful information. I will certainly do my best to see as much as possible. Happy New Year to you.

@murilostrapasson7016 5 ай бұрын

Great to see it happening, good luck looking forward.

@Aiolosz 5 ай бұрын

been there this autumn and it was beautiful and the city is very clean and orderly

@Cicero_de_fato 5 ай бұрын

The same arguments came up when the Hungarian government started the reconstruction of the Buda castle. You should really look into it, the “Hauszmann Program” is a shining example of historical reconstructions. I bet they would be happy to have you for an interview as well.

@adrianseanheidmann4559 3 ай бұрын

" “Hauszmann Program” named after Haussmann? The French city-planner and architect?

@Cicero_de_fato 3 ай бұрын

@@adrianseanheidmann4559 no, it was a Hungarian city planner, who rebuilt the Buda castle at the beginning of the 20th century. Anyway, their name is both German.

@SisterSunny 5 ай бұрын

absolutely wonderful video as usual! I love the depth you went into, even with interviews, wow!

@knitz 3 ай бұрын

A beautiful cityscape invites you to live, stroll and linger. Dresden is a great example of this

@TheLordZoka 5 ай бұрын

I wonder what others think, but I don’t think you can say these buildings are replicas or rebuilt originals. They’re just new designs *inspired* by older buildings, designed for cost measures and newer construction methods. They’re very attractive buildings, but not close enough to the appearance of Dresden’s pre-war baroque buildings. It’s sad that we will never have the patience to construct buildings in methods used before modern machinery was invented.

@i-dinen-lug 5 ай бұрын

As a young landscape architect living in Dresden (who didn't do architecture of buildings because it just seemed too difficult to argue for more "beauty" in architecture) I am very much enjoying your videos and I agree with almost everything you say on that topic! in university there are a few courses that architects and landscape architects have together - those are always conducted by people and profs from the architecture side, and you just realise how much students are forced and pushed into "don't plan beautiful but efficient and modernist" ways of designs, still today! It's making me sad everytime I think about it...

@tk80mufa5 5 ай бұрын

it's communist misanthropic brainwashing, nothing else - it shouldn't be like this - old men poisoning the minds of the young

@karupe9982 5 ай бұрын

Yessss, this is why i subscribed. Great great works i'm SO thankful i'm learning a lot

@jalalabad308 4 ай бұрын

Excellent. I have used the very persuasive example of Dresden when I advocate for rebuilding Penn Station in NYC which is met with identical opposition. This video is wonderful and is an inspiration.

@robertoRanni 5 ай бұрын

Let’s hope this movement will succeed and bring architecture beautiful and human again 😢🙏🏻

@Nicoriss 5 ай бұрын

Thank you for the video. Always very interesting and optimistic. What do you think of Le Havre, France? Not rebuilt as it was but not too modernist either.

@jimpie231 2 ай бұрын

I was born in Hohenfels, after the war, my parents were Poles. We immigrated to the USA in the early 50’s. Our first family trip to Poland was in 1983. We did this driving transit through DDR, from Hof to Gorlitz. The 2 lane autobahn road at best was meager. It was 216 miles and took 5-6 hours. We had to follow the yellow/white border transit signs. Once we got to Dresden, the road disappeared and we were driving through the villages. I was in Poland in 1998 and needed a rental car, I made a reservation (in the USA) to pickup a car at the Dresden Airport to use for 2 weeks. The trip was about 100 miles and my brother-in-law drove me there. The road that took us there and back was such a pleasure to drive that I couldn’t believe the change. Partially when passing some of the villages, it was in a tunnel, and it was fast. What a beautiful road and a beautiful airport. What the west had down in such a short time was remarkable. I’m sure after seeing this story, I realized that many people together got it done. I salute you all! God bless you…..

@rigapolitan 5 ай бұрын

this is an amazing story. These things happen too, the message is that there is hope and not everything is lost. Amazing video, love a lot

@the_aesthetic_city 5 ай бұрын

Thank you!

@markseehawer3762 4 ай бұрын

My Dad was a 14 year old boy on a train heading for west Germany. He was about 15 kms outside the city. He wittnessed Dresden burning. He said they could feel the heat from there 15 km distance and that it was as bright as day light. My dad moved to Canada in 1952 Marrird my mom in 1958, i was born in 1960 and can only imagine what he wittnessed. D a passed away in 2022 at 90 years.

@unclestuka8543 3 ай бұрын

Dresden is once more the Florence of the East. Sorry about your Father, He was lucky to make it out of the cauldron.

@markseehawer3762 3 ай бұрын

@@unclestuka8543 Thanks for your simpathies. You should know that he had a good life in Canada.