Virtual City Tour
Introduction
Dresden originated as a Slav village named Drezdany and was founded as a town in 1206 by German settlers. Soon it became the capital of Margrave Henry the Illustrious of Meissen, but was lost for a few decades to the ruler of Bohemia and the Margrave of Brandenburg. A very decisive factor for the development of Dresden was the so-called division of Saxony in 1485, after which Dresden finally became the capital of the Albertine line of the Wettin rulers. It was this line, which was to win over the electorate from its sister line, the Ernestines in 1547, whereby Dresden rose in status to a princely residence.
The prince-electors of the sixteenth and the seventeenth century — nearly all called either Christian or John George - transformed Dresden into one of the major cities of Germany. August the Strong became the king of Poland in 1697. As his son was successful in keeping the Polish crown, Dresden was modernized in the Baroque and Rococo styles during this so-called Augustan Age. The city could not enjoy its splendor for a long time as Frederick the Great of Prussia destroyed large parts of the town in the Seven Years War (1756-63).
After the unfavorable alliance of the Saxon King with Napoleon and his defeat at Leipzig, Saxony lost more than half of its land to Brandenburg-Prussia. Luckily, the richer part remained with Saxony so that in the 19th century prosperity grew rapidly in heavily industrialized Saxony. Before WW II Dresden was numbered among the world's most beautiful cities. In the one night of February 13th to 14th 1945 the city center and its neighboring districts were totally obliterated. In the socialist era the bombed out living quarters in the city center were flattened. The newly built houses in these areas reflect the rather plain way of constructing apartment houses in socialist eastern Germany. It is remarkable on the other hand that many of the buildings of the royal residence were reconstructed or preserved as ruins. Since 1990 the face of the city center has changed much. For years to come the city center will be under a continual transformation process.