Dresden is a cultural centre in Germany which has influenced the development of European culture. "It is [...] outstanding as a cultural landscape, an ensemble that integrates the celebrated Baroque setting and suburban garden city into an artistic whole within the river valley, and as an example of land use, representing an exceptional development of a major Central-European city."UNESCO: Dresden Elbe Valley
Dresden is today reestablishing the cultural importance it held from the 19th century up until the 1920s when it was a centre of both fine and visual arts, architecture and music. During that period, famous artists such as Richard Wagner, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Otto Dix, Oskar Kokoschka, Richard Strauss, Gottfried Semper and Gret Palucca were active in the city. Dresden also is home to several important art collections, world-famous musical ensembles and significant buildings from various architectural periods, many of which were rebuilt after the destruction of the Second World War.
Nowadays Dresden once more attracts international artists such as Fabio Luisi, Daniel Libeskind and Norman Foster to work in and for the cultural life of the city.
Musical ensembles The Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden is the orchestra of the Saxon State Opera and was founded in 1548. It is one of the oldest orchestras and is known as Strauss-Orchestra. Nevertheless the musical ensemble was also moulded by Carl Maria von Weber and Richard Wagner as its conductors.
The Dresdner Kreuzchor (Choir of The Cross) is a boy's choir. It consists of pupils of the Kreuzschule, which is a Gymnasium today; the Kreuzchor is the choir of the Kreuzkirche. Choir, church and school were first mentioned in the 13th century and are as old as the city of Dresden. The "Dresdner Kapellknaben" (which are not related to the Staatskapelle) are the choir of the Catholic cathedral.
The Dresden Philharmonic is the orchestra of the city of Dresden. It was founded in 1870, originally called the Gewerbehausorchestra, and renamed in 1915.
The is a symphony orchestra and a newcomer to the international musical ensembles in Dresden. The orchestra was founded in 1996 and became notable for its crossover of classic and modern music and for its cooperation with the Pet Shop Boys creating a soundtrack for the 1925 silent film Battleship Potemkin and releasing the album of that name.
La Folia Barockorchester is a chamber orchestra focused on compositions played at the Dresden court.
Museums, presentations and collections
Dresden hosts the renowned Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections). The art collections consist of twelve museums, of which the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister and the Grünes Gewölbe are the best known. This cultural institution is owned by the Free State of Saxony. Many of its museums are located in Dresden Castle and the Zwinger Palace. Some of the museums, such as the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon (Royal Cabinet of Mathematical and Physical Instruments), exhibit art within the context of technology, such as globes, measuring equipment and chronographs. Also known are Galerie Neue Meister (New Masters Gallery), Rüstkammer (Armoury) with the Turkish Chamber, and the Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden (Museum of Ethnology).
Other museums and collections owned by the Free State of Saxony in Dresden are: The Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte (State Museum of Prehistory) The Staatliche Naturhistorische Sammlungen Dresden (State Collection of Natural History) The "Universitätssammlung Kunst + Technik" (Collection of Art and Technology of the Dresden University of Technology) Verkehrsmuseum Dresden (Transport Museum)
Dresden hosts the Bundeswehr Military History Museum in the former garrison in the Albertstadt. The book museum of the Saxon State Library presents the famous Dresden Codex.
The former convention house of the Farmer's Estate (called the Landhaus) is now the home of the Dresden City Museum, which exhibits a collection of historical objects and has a smaller collection of paintings. The city has some museums specialising in artists who lived in the city (for example the and the . Another museum, the Technische Sammlungen (Technical Collection) was established in the Pentacon building, the old factory where Praktika cameras were once built. The collection includes historic cameras, computing technology and entertainment technology.
The Deutsches Hygiene-Museum was founded for mass education in hygiene, health, human biology and medicine. It stood in context of the Dresden industry of medicine and hygiene products and was founded by the industrialist , who produced hygiene products. The museum's Gläserne Frau, showing the organs of human beings as a see-through sculpture, became world famous. During Nazism, the museum diffused racist theories. A 1934 poster of the museum showed a man with distinctly African features and reads, "If this man had been sterilized there would not have been born ... 12 hereditarily diseased." (sic)"Nazi racial purity exhibit opens in Germany", NBC News/AP, 9 October 2006
According to the current director Klaus Vogel, "The Hygiene Museum was not a criminal institute in the sense that people were killed here," but "it helped to shape the idea of which lives were worthy and which were worthless."
Architecture
Although Dresden is often said to be a Baroque city, its architecture is influenced by more than one style. Other eras of importance are the Renaissance and Historism as well as the contemporary styles of Modernism and Postmodernism.
Royal household
The royal buildings are among the most impressive buildings in Dresden. Dresden Castle was once the home of the royal household. The wings of the building have been renewed, built upon and restored many times. Due to this segued integration of styles, the castle includes elements of the Renaissance, Baroque and Classicist styles.
The Zwinger Palace is just across the road from the castle. It was built on the old stronghold of the city and was converted to a centre for the royal art collections and a place to hold festivals. Its gate (surmounted by a golden crown) by the moat is a notable part of the building.
Another notable site is also on the former city wall: Brühl's Terrace was a gift to Heinrich von Brühl and became an ensemble of buildings. It was opened to the public in the 19th century; previously the whole area had been reserved for the nobility. The ensemble includes the Albertinum, the Sächsisches Ständehaus and the Secundogenitur (home of the second son of the electors and kings).
August the Strong was very impressed by Venice with its Canal Grande and decided to model the Dresden Elbe Valley on this example using the Elbe's ample bends. Nevertheless he initiated the creation of a cultural landscape which became a World Heritage Site since 2004 and which differs from the Canal Grande with its meadows and forested yards. This landscape hosts vineyards not far away from the inner city. The World Heritage Site passes through almost the whole city. Due to conflicts involving a modern bridge to be built across the river at a sensitive spot, the site has been added to the list of endangered World Heritage sites.
Pillnitz Castle was built as a summer residence in the style of Chinoiserie alongside the Elbe on the southern side and the slopes and vineyards on the other.
Religious buildings
The Hofkirche was the church of the royal household. August the Strong, who wanted to become King of Poland, was forced to convert to the Catholic religion, as the Polish king had to be Catholic. At that time Dresden was strictly Protestant. August the Strong ordered the building of the Hofkirche (1739 to 1755) to establish a sign of religious importance in Dresden. The church is the cathedral "Sanctissimae Trinitatis" since 1980. The staggered facade is completed by two balustrades that are decorated width 74 statues of saints. The church hosts the crypt of the Wettin Dynasty.
The Frauenkirche was built by the citizens of Dresden between 1726 and 1743. It is said to be the greatest cupola building in central and northern Europe. Furthermore, the Frauenkirche is the largest church in Dresden, leading Dresden to be one of the few places where a cathedral is not the largest Christian sacral building. The basilica of Santa Maria della Salute in Venice is said to be a model for the Frauenkirche whose cupola was originally planned as a timber construction. During this period, architectural style in Dresden was significantly inspired by Venice, Florence and other landmarks in northern Italy.
The Kreuzkirche is another main church of the Protestants and is the oldest established church building of Dresden . The community of the Frauenkirche, which is in fact a few years older, was formerly located in the outskirts of the city. The Kreuzkirche has often been destroyed by conflagration and wars. The preserved style of architecture is that of the baroque edition supplemented by the elements of the Art Nouveau.
Contemporary architecture
Dresden has been an important site for the development of contemporary architecture for centuries, and this trend has extended into the 20th and 21st centuries.
Historicist buildings made their presence felt on the cityscape until the 1920s. One of the most recent buildings of that era is the Hygiene-Museum, which is designed in an impressively monumental style but employs plain facades and simple structures. It is often but wrongly attributed to the Bauhaus school.
The architectural plans of the National Socialist regime for the city were not realised. As in Berlin, where Nazi architects planned the monumental restructuring of the city as "Germania, Capital of the World", large-scale buildings next to the Großer Garten park were meant to establish Dresden as a subsidiary, regional capital. Some of the contemporary buildings were found to be "un-German". Among them was the Kugelhaus (Globe House) which was torn down. Along with older constructions, many modern buildings were destroyed in the Second World War.
Most of the present cityscape of Dresden was built up after 1945, a mix of reconstructed or repaired old buildings and new buildings of the modern and postmodern styles of the second half of the 20th century.
Under the German Democratic Republic, Dresden was planned and reconstituted as a model socialist city. Streets were arranged to keep chimneys of industry in sight. Wide streets and squares were cut into the landscape. Central public spaces, such as the Altmarkt, were surrounded by neoclassical Socialist Realist structures of relatively high quality. Other structures were built with less sensitivity toward their historic or geographic context, for example the housing block at Prager Straße. Other buildings, including the Kulturpalast or the Centrum-Warenhaus (a large department store), represent the international style. Much of the new public architecture was influenced by public outcry and protest; the Kulturpalast, for example, was first planned as monumental tower like the Warsaw Palace of Culture and Science but arranged in a flatter form in context of the historic buildings.
After 1990 and German reunification, new styles emerged. The Saxon State Parliament was under construction until 1993 and uses the old part of the former financial ministry in combination with a new wing of glass and steel in classic modern style. It represents the beginning of the so-called New Terrace (extending Brühl's Terrace). The youngest building of that ensemble alongside the river Elbe is the International Congress Center Dresden which is a postmodern building mirroring motifs of the historic terrace and of the Elbe landscape.
The New Synagogue, at the other end of the old city, is another award-winning contemporary structure. Built almost completely of stone, its vertical edges are sloped, to reflect Jewish religious rites.