"Dresden - Up from the Ashes" a Dresden Travel Page by nicolaitan

Compact Dresden is a city seemingly planned for the modern visitor. In 2 semicircles measuring no more than 3/8 miles on each side of the central Augustus Bridge, essentially all the important venues are concentrated and easily accessed. The Old City features small but power-packed museums, great architecture, important churches, an imposing opera house, and a street devoted to feeding all the tourists.
The New City semicircle is much quieter and less visited. With a wide tree-lined pedestrianized main shopping street, several smaller streets with upscale (albeit a bit dated) shopping, and attractive restaurants not swarming with tourists, it is also a worthy destination. And of course the New City side of the Elbe offers great views of the old city as well as riverside cafes.
Dresden has several top class hotels, all conveniently located, and the main train station abuts the old city perimeter. Touritic Dresden is a city best and most efficiently seen on foot.
Perhaps nowhere in Germany more than Dresden was the absence of English speaking and other non-German tourists more evident. Dresden deserves to be more widely visited.

The earliest records suggest human life in the Elbe valley as early as 9000BC. Beginning in about 600 AD and for the next several hundred years Germanic peoples gained control of the region eventually ruled by the margraves of Meissen. But Dresden remained a minor city until the late 15th Century. In 1485, one branch of the Wettin dynasty made Dresden their capitol and the city flourished under Duke Georg the Bearded. He maintained Catholic dominance but after his death in 1539, Dresden embraced the Reformation. Economic and cultural development, with resultant population growth, followed throughout the 16th Century, as the ruling Wettins became electors of the HRE in 1547. It was during this period that Dresden first became a center of culture and architecture. During the 30 Years War, Dresden managed to fight for both sides at various times and while never attacked still suffered the wartime maladies of disease, hunger, and economic disruption. Dresden recovered over time, with its armies instrumental in defeating the Turkish forces at Vienna and endiing the Muslim threat to Europe.

Dresden's greatest era began with the reign of Friedrich August I (1670-1733), known as August the Strong, and not without reason. A legendary figure famous for his bacchanalian life style and sexual prowess, he made Dresden a major European power location by marrying into the Polish royal line and becoming King of Poland after converting to Catholicism. He favored the artistic as well as the economic and cultural growth of the city. Many of the famous buildings we visit today were constructed during his reign. His admitted fascination with porcelain led to the founding of Meissen, Europe's first porcelain factory. The population tripled to over 60000 during his reign.

Shortly after his death, Prussian troops occupied and destroyed much of the city, and Dresden's prosperity and power waned. Conquered by Napoleon, it became a part of Saxony as opposed to an independent cityand lost much of its political clout. Later it would be ruled by the Prussians after the fall of Napoleon. Nonetheless, intellectual and industrial achievement continued and the city grew to over 500000 population by the beginning of the 20th Century. Modern inventions included the first German locomotive.
WWI saw no direct damage to Dresden, but the last Wettin was forced to abdicate in 1918. Dresden prospered between the wars as a major industrial center and, until the rise of Hitler, an intellectual bastion as well. Between 13-15 February 1945, air raids killed 35000 or more people and levelled 90% of the city, which then passed to Communist rule. Under their control, Dresden became a major East German industrial center. Some architectural monuments were restored, particularly in the center of the old town, but many were bulldozed away as well. Dresden was a center of the peaceful dissolution of the Democratic Republic in 1989 and has since aspired to restore its economic and social importance as well as to reconstruct its heritage as one of Europe's prettiest major cities, the Florence of the North.