The collapse of the German Democratic Republic prompted the East Germans to confront their personal, cultural and international past. This study of the 'Wende' - the turn of events in 1989 - is based on ethnographic and anthropological research conducted in the early 1990s. Liz Ten Dyke has developed a finely nuanced portrait of the city and its residents as they were caught up in the economic, political and social turmoil that characterized the immediate post-socialist period. By weaving together scholarly research, oral history, and "ethnographic excursions" or narratives of salient experiences, this book makes an important contribution to the study of social aspects of the past. Moving beyond paradigms presently shaping the study of memory, it details the paradoxes and contradictions inherent in remembering, making manifest the link between such contradictions and larger symbolic and political-economic contexts. In this way, the author situates the study of memory in history and shows that it is the mutability of memory, in conjuction with the uncertainty of history, that render the past a dynamic and powerful force in human society.

A compact guide to help travelers discover an alternative and attractive European city, home of fabulous architecture and wonderful art treasures.

The definitive story of the shocking and controversial Allied bombing of Dresden 'In narrative power and persuasion, he has paralleled in Dresden what Antony Beevor achieved in Stalingrad' Independent on Sunday 'Well-researched and unpretentious ... fascinating ... Taylor skilfully interweaves various personal accounts of the impact of the raids' Guardian At 9.51 p.m. on Tuesday 13 February 1945, Dresden's air-raid sirens sounded as they had done many times during the Second World War. But this time was different. By the next morning, more than 4,500 tons of high explosives and incendiary devices had been dropped on the unprotected city. At least 25,000 inhabitants died in the terrifying firestorm and thirteen square miles of the city's historic centre, including incalculable quantities of treasure and works of art, lay in ruins. In this portrait of the city, its people, and its still-controversial destruction, Frederick Taylor has drawn on archives and sources only accessible since the fall of the East German regime, and talked to Allied aircrew and survivors, from members of the German armed services and refugees fleeing the Russian advance to ordinary citizens of Dresden.

On 13 February 1945 Dresden, one of the most beautiful and historic cities of Europe, was destroyed by British and American air raids. This book is the first comprehensive history in the English language of this important cultural and historical centre. The book traces the city's evolution from 1206 to its great baroque period under Augustus the Strong, and from the bombing to the present day. The story of Dresden supplies the reader with unique insights into the collapse of the old monarchic order, the resistance of citizens to the Nazi regime, as well as the reaction of the Church and the rise and fall of the GDR. It describes the post-war replanning of the city, from its ideological reshaping under Communism to the liberation of ideas and energies after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Experts in their fields tell the story of Dresden's great musical, artistic, architectural, literary and theatrical traditions, which are further illuminated by a series of personal memoirs from eye-witness accounts in 1945 to contemporary reflections by Lord Menuhin and others. Heavily illustrated and complete with a foreword from the Duke of Kent, Dresden: A City Reborn is an important text for all students of German history and art history.

A Times/Sunday Times Book of the Year 'Powerful . . . there is rage in his ink. McKay's book grips by its passion and originality. Some 25,000 people perished in the firestorm that raged through the city. I have never seen it better described' Max Hastings, Sunday Times In February 1945 the Allies obliterated Dresden, the 'Florence of the Elbe'. Explosive bombs weighing over 1,000 lbs fell every seven and a half seconds and an estimated 25,000 people were killed. Was Dresden a legitimate military target or was the bombing a last act of atavistic mass murder in a war already won? From the history of the city to the attack itself, conveyed in a minute-by-minute account from the first of the flares to the flames reaching almost a mile high - the wind so searingly hot that the lungs of those in its path were instantly scorched - through the eerie period of reconstruction, bestselling author Sinclair McKay creates a vast canvas and brings it alive with touching human detail. Along the way we encounter, among many others across the city, a Jewish woman who thought the English bombs had been sent from heaven, novelist Kurt Vonnegut who wrote that the smouldering landscape was like walking on the surface of the moon, and 15-year-old Winfried Bielss, who, having spent the evening ushering refugees, wanted to get home to his stamp collection. He was not to know that there was not enough time. Impeccably researched and deeply moving, McKay uses never-before-seen sources to relate the untold stories of civilians and vividly conveys the texture of contemporary life. Dresden is invoked as a byword for the illimitable cruelties of war, but with the distance of time, it is now possible to approach this subject with a much clearer gaze, and with a keener interest in the sorts of lives that ordinary people lived and lost, or tried to rebuild. Writing with warmth and colour about morality in war, the instinct for survival, the gravity of mass destruction and the manipulation of memory, this is a master historian at work. 'Churchill said that if bombing cities was justified, it was always repugnant. Sinclair McKay has written a shrewd, humane and balanced account of this most controversial target of the Anglo-American strategic bombing campaign, the ferocious consequence of the scourge of Nazism' Allan Mallinson, author of Fight to the Finish 'Beautifully-crafted, elegiac, compelling - Dresden delivers with a dark intensity and incisive compassion rarely equalled. Authentic and authoritative, a masterpiece of its genre' Damien Lewis, author of Zero Six Bravo 'Compelling . . . Sinclair McKay brings a dark subject vividly to life' Keith Lowe, author of Savage Continent 'This is a brilliantly clear, and fair, account of one of the most notorious and destructive raids in the history aerial warfare. From planning to execution, the story is told by crucial participants - and the victims who suffered so cruelly on the ground from the attack itself and its aftermath' Robert Fox, author of We Were There

The firebombing of Dresden marks the terrible apex of the European bombing war. In just over two days in February 1945, over 1,300 heavy bombers from the RAF and the USAAF dropped nearly 4,000 tonnes of explosives on Dresden's civilian centre.Since the end of World War II, both the death toll and the motivation for the attack have become fierce historical battlegrounds, as German feelings of victimhood complete with those of guilt and loss. The Dresden bombing was used by East Germany as a propaganda tool, and has been re-appropriated by the neo-Nazi far right. Meanwhile the rebuilding of the Frauenkirche- the city's sumptuous eighteenth-century church destroyed in the raid-became central to German identity, while in London, a statue of the Commander-in-Chief of RAF Bomber Command, Sir Arthur Harris, has attracted protests. In this book, Tony Joel focuses on the historical battle to re-appropriate Dresden, and on how World War II continues to shape British and German identity today.

Not Your Grandmother's Dresden Plate Quilts! 13 lively new Dresden Plate quilts serve up a visual feast of contemporary colors and clever designs for all skill levels. Change up the look of your quilts with lots of variations on the basic Dresden Plate block and settings. Use breakthrough piecing techniques to put together a whole quilt of perfect blocks in a day. Check out the gallery of quilts to see how much fun Dresden Plates can be. Includes a complete set of templates for successful cutting, pressing, and placement. Forget everything you thought you knew about Dresden Plate quilts. The new Dresdens are colorful, clever, and fun-nothing stodgy or old-fashioned here! They're easy to make, too, with Anelie Belden's new stitch-and-flip technique. Try this fresh take on an old favorite.

Anne Fuchs traces the aftermath of the Dresden bombing in the collective imagination from 1945 to today. As a case study of an event that gained local, national and global iconicity, the book investigates the role of photography, fine art, architecture, literature and film in dialogue with the changing German socio-political landscape.

This is the first cultural history of Baroque Dresden, the capital of Saxony and the most important Protestant territory in the Empire from the mid-sixteenth to the early eighteenth century. Helen Watanabe-O'Kelly shows how the art patronage of the Electors fits into the intellectual climate of the age and investigates its political and religious context. Lutheran church music and architecture, the influence of Italy, the cabinet of curiosities and the culture of collecting, alchemy, mining and early technology, official image-making and court theatre are some of the wealth of colourful subjects dealt with during the period 1553 to 1733.