EN Florence on the Elbe Story and Photos by Steve Klein
February 16th,1945 was a cloud covered day in eastern Germany, but in Dresden, no one could tell. A thick pall of smoke had settled over the ruined city. The raging firestorms of the past 2 days had died down as they ran out of fuel. Aside from a couple of small bombing raids centered on the rail yards in the fall, Dresden had been largely untouched by the war. Despite being a transportation crossroad, most considered it of limited military value. It was a city of art, music and culture. 13
Over the past 2 days 4 bombing raids had targeted the city. Including the previous October raids, and several additional small raids to come in March and April, close to 2500 aircraft dropped a total of more than 14 million pounds of high explosive and incendiary bombs, leveling 6.5 square kilometers in the center of the city. Anything combustible was soon turned to ash. After the war Dresden was part of the Russian controlled German Democratic Republic (DDR). While
efforts were made to rebuild, progress was slow. Materials were in short supply and there was no money to buy materials from the West. Even so, 2 of the major Landmark buildings, the Zwinger Palace and the Semperoper (state opera house) were completed during DDR times. On October 3rd, 1990, the reunification of Germany began a new, unprecedented era of reconstruction in Dresden. While the rebuilding is still underway, much of the Altstadt (Old Town) has