DRESDEN

city and capital of Saxony Land (state), eastern Germany. Dresden is the traditional capital of Saxony and the third largest city in eastern Germany after Berlin and Leipzig. It lies in the broad basin of the Elbe River between Meissen and Pirna, 19 miles (30 km) north of the Czech border and 100 miles (160 km) south of Berlin. Sheltering hills north and south of the Elbe valley contribute to the mild climate enjoyed by Dresden. It originated as the Slav village of Drezdzany, meaning Forest Dwellers on the Plain, on the Elbe's north bank. The town on the south bank was founded at a ford by Margrave Dietrich of Meissen as a German colony, first recorded in 1216. The Slav settlement on the north bank, although older, was known as Neustadt (New Town) and the later German town on the south bank as Altstadt (Old Town). In 1270 Dresden became the capital of Margrave Henry the Illustrious, and after his death it belonged to the king of Bohemia and the Margrave of Brandenburg until it was restored about 1319 to the margraves of Meissen, who chartered it in 1403. On the division of Saxony in 1485 it became the residence and capital of the Albertine line of Wettin rulers, later electors and kings of Saxony. Dresden accepted the Protestant Reformation in 1539. After a disastrous fire in 1491, the city was rebuilt and fortified. The electors Augustus I and Augustus II modernized the city in the Baroque and Rococo styles in the late 17th and 18th centuries, rebuilding Neustadt (burned in 1685) and founding Friedrichstadt, northwest of Altstadt. The Treaty of Dresden (1745), among Prussia, Saxony, and Austria, ended the second Silesian War and confirmed Silesia as Prussian. Two-thirds destroyed in the Seven Years' War (175663), Dresden's fortifications were later dismantled. In 1813 Napoleon I made the town a centre of military operations and there won his last great battle on August 26 and 27. Dresden's prosperity grew rapidly during the 19th century, accelerated by the completion of railways connecting the city to Berlin and Leipzig. Industrial suburbs began to grow up, mostly on the south bank. Before World War II, Dresden was called the Florence on the Elbe and was numbered among the world's most beautiful cities owing to its architecture and art treasures. During the war, however, it was almost completely destroyed by massive bombing raids that took place on the night of Feb. 1314, 1945, by 800 aircraft of an Anglo-American force. The city continued to be bombarded in raids lasting until April 17. The raids succeeded in obliterating the greater part of one of Europe's most beautiful cities, killing between 35,000 and 135,000 people, but achieved little militarily. Dresden was so badly damaged that it was suggested that the best approach might be to level the site. After the war a compromise was reached by rebuilding the Zwinger and the Baroque buildings around the castle and creating a new city in the area outside. Much of the city was subsequently reconstructed with modern (though rather plain) buildings, broad streets and squares, and green open spaces, with the aim of preserving as far as possible the character of the Altstadt. The heart of Dresden is still a cluster of Baroque churches and the Rococo-style Zwinger on the south bank of the Elbe, in the Altstadt. These churches suffered severely during World War II: the Frauenkirche (172643; Church of Our Lady) was destroyed, but its ruins have been kept as a memorial; while the Hofkirche (173855; Court Church) and the Kreuzkirche (restored 1491, 176492, and 1900; Church of the Holy Cross) have been restored. The Georgenschloss, the former royal palace (153035, restored 18891901) in the Altstadt, was also heavily damaged by bombing. Dresden has several major museums and art galleries. The famous Zwinger (171132), which was originally planned as the forecourt for a castle, has been restored and its numerous collections (including pewter and porcelain) and museums (zoology, mineralogy, mathematical and scientific instruments) reopened. In the open space north of the Zwinger, the Semper Gallery (1846) was destroyed in 1945 but was reopened in 1960. This gallery has important Renaissance and Baroque paintings by Italian, Dutch, and Flemish masters, including Raphael's Sistine Madonna. The Japanese Palace, formerly housing a manuscript and map library, has been rebuilt and is now a museum of anthropology and ethnography. Dresden is also a city of music with a great operatic tradition, where Carl Maria von Weber and Richard Wagner conducted and where operas by Richard Strauss and others had their first performances. The Opera House (1878), destroyed in the war, was reconstructed. The city is the home of the Dresden State Theatre and the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra (founded 1870). There is a music college and colleges of medicine, plastic arts, transport, and teachers' training, as well as a celebrated Academy of Art. Dresden is also a major centre for scientific education and research, particularly in the atomic field. The city is the site of a Technical University (1828), with a library containing more than one million volumes, the Central Institute for Nuclear Physics, and the German Museum of Hygiene, internationally known for its manufacture of transparent plastic anatomical models. There are several historic parks, notably the Grosse Garten (1676), which lies southeast of the Altstadt and has botanical and zoological gardens. Manufacturing in Dresden expanded greatly after World War II. Owing to the paucity of raw materials in the vicinity, the city traditionally eschewed heavy industry in favour of high value-added manufacturing. Its industries currently produce precision and optical instruments, radio and electrical equipment, electrical transformers and hydroelectric generators, X-ray and photographic apparatus, and machinery. Market gardening is also extensive, and flowers and shrubs are grown for export. The Dresden china industry originated in Dresden but was moved to Meissen, 15 miles (24 km) northwest, in 1710. Dresden lies at the centre of an extensive railway system, has an airport, and is connected by the Elbe River with the inland waterway system as far as Hamburg and into the Czech Republic. Pop. (1991 est.) 490,571.