From 1697-1706 and 1709-1733, Frederick August I, Saxon elector of Dresden, was elected as the Polish King of August II Fryderyk Moncny. Although the capital of Poland is still in Warsaw, Dresden has a Polish name since then. As he planned to make Dresden the most important royal residence, he began to discover the secret of making porcelain ("platinum") in China. Under his rule, European porcelain was invented in Dresden and Maison. He also recruited many of the best architects and painters from all over Europe to Dresden. During this period, under the direct guidance of J.A. Hassey, the music life of the city began to become active, and Dresden, the symbol of his rule, began to show its leading position in technology and art in European cities. Friedrich August II, the son of Saxony, once ruled Poland in Dresden as King August III of Poland 1734-1763. During his reign, the Treaty of Dresden was signed in Dresden, ending the Second Silesia War, and then in the Seven Years War (1756-1763), Dresden suffered serious damage.
Dresden was the capital of Saxony from 1806 to 19 18 (187 1 year). During the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon used it as a military base. On August 27th this year, he won the famous battle of Dresden.
/kloc-In the 20th century, the city became an important industrial center, including automobile manufacturing, food and medicine industries. The city has also developed into an important international art and antique sales center. Due to industrialization, the urban population increased from 95,000 in 1849 to 396,000 in 1900.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Dresden was famous for its camera factories, such as Ihagee (making Axaltai -EXAKTA cameras) and Pentacon (making Kappa -Praktica cameras). In addition, there is a cigarette factory, one of which is Yenize, an impressive building with a colorful glass roof, which still exists today like a mosque. From 19 18 to 1934, Dresden was the capital of Weimar and Saxony, the first free state.
In history, the city suffered many damages: 149 1 year fire, 1760 Prussian army shelling, 1849 destruction of the city during the suppression of the constitutional uprising in May,1February 945 heavy bombing by allied forces. Dresden was not the only German city destroyed by the bombing of World War II, but the bombing of Dresden at 1945 became one of the most controversial events in the war. In February 1945, 13- 14, carpet bombing began in the morning of Valentine's Day. The old city along the Elbe River, which is full of historical and cultural wealth, suffered the most serious damage. Due to the river barrier, the less damaged new city has become the old city of Dresden today.
At this time, the war is coming to an end. But at that time, the allies had just rallied from the German counterattack. The city's defense is not particularly strong, because the city is mainly the cultural center of Europe, and heavy industry is not important, so it is strategically ignored. At the beginning of the war, because it was far away from the allied bombing range, it was once safer, and most of the air defense forces had been transferred elsewhere. The public evidence after the war shows that the German air defense force is only a "youth anti-aircraft gun militia".
Under the policy of total war, the highly developed optical industry in Dresden (carl zeiss, Boca) began to produce precision aiming equipment during the war. Even cigarette factories in peacetime have been transformed into arsenals. These factories mainly use local workers, but also use Jewish slave workers. 300 Jews were forced to work in a concentration camp in Dresden, and most of them, together with all 6,000 Jews who lived in Dresden before the war (famous survivors such as Victor Krumpor, a local writer in Dresden), were killed before the war ended. However, the above target is not the main reason for bombing the city. The Soviet Red Army has approached Dresden from the east, which is a freight marshalling station on a key railway line. Although the key factory production equipment has been destroyed by bombing (most of them will be recovered soon), inspired by the precedent of German air strikes in Coventry, Bath and London, the British Air Force plans to carry out "regional bombing"-launching a fire storm.
The bombing in Dresden caused the entire inner city of Dresden (15 square kilometers) to be completely destroyed (including14,000 houses, 72 schools, 22 hospitals, 19 churches, 5 theaters, 50 banks and insurance companies, 3 1 department stores and 3. Of the 222,000 apartments in the city, 75,000 were completely destroyed, 1 1000 were seriously damaged, 7,000 were damaged, and 8 1000 were slightly damaged, with 3 million casualties.
One view is that the Dresden bombing was a tragic consequence of Nazi Germany itself, another view is that it was a war crime, and another view is that it was a necessary military action to support the Red Army. Fortunately, most of the beautiful scenery of the city has been restored, and the citizens enthusiastically restored the buildings of "Old Dresden". Today, Dresden has a good partnership with Coventry, a British city severely damaged by German air strikes. After the Second World War, Dresden belonged to socialist East Germany and remained an important industrial center with a large number of scientific research facilities. However, Dresden Bank and many famous enterprises chose to leave Dresden to avoid being nationalized. Some important historical buildings have been rebuilt, but there are still many wounds in the city that have not healed. Due to economic and ideological reasons, the leaders of the * * * production party in this city chose a relatively moderate socialist modern style when they rebuilt the city in a large area, trying to get rid of the past history of this city as the royal capital of Saxony and the fortress of German bourgeoisie. Many churches that escaped the bombing were not repaired in the1960s, but were razed to the ground. In East Germany, Dresden also has a nickname called "incompetent valley", because the city is located in a valley, which can prevent people from watching West German TV, which was once illegal but very popular among East Germans. 19891010.3, a train carrying East German refugees from Prague to West Germany passed through Dresden, and local activists and residents joined the developing uncooperative movement (moderate resistance movement) all over East Germany at that time, demanding the recall of the undemocratic elected * * *.
From 1985 to 1990, Vladimir Putin (now president of Russia) served as a KGB official in Dresden. 1990 After the reunification of Germany, Dresden turned into a market economy. Due to the loss of the traditional export markets of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, as well as the competition from West German enterprises, the local traditional industries almost completely collapsed. However, due to the introduction of the new legal system and the funds from West Germany, Dresden has rebuilt its infrastructure on a large scale, attracting companies such as AMD, Motorola, Infineon, Volkswagen, Airbus and Japanese letterpress to invest here, and the economy has gradually recovered.
The city image of Dresden has changed greatly again. The most important urban renewal project is to rebuild the cathedral of Notre Dame in Dresden and the nearby new market area. This church was once the symbol of this city and the best Protestant church in the world. After reunification, it accepted donations from private individuals and associations and began to rebuild on the ruins of the original church. In 2005 (the year before the 800th anniversary of Dresden's birth), the church reconstruction project was completed. The new Notre Dame Church was rebuilt based on historical pictures and photographs, and the Reformation was opened to the public in 2005. Many areas in the city center have regained their former glory for the first time since they were destroyed in World War II. The urban renewal project in Dresden will last for decades. There are both historical building reconstruction and modern planning, which will continue the recent architectural revival of the city.
However, the Dresden bombing remains in the memory of the citizens. Every February 13, the anniversary of the bombing, tens of thousands of demonstrators gather to commemorate this event. Ceremonies are often held during the period of the * * * production party, especially for western allies, first and foremost the United States. After reunification, the ceremony began to become more neutral and peaceful, but the radical right-wing German National Democratic Party (NPD) quoted the Dresden bombing and portrayed the Germans as the real victims of World War II. In 2005, the largest post-war neo-Nazi demonstration in Germany was held in Dresden, with 50,000-80,000 neo-Nazi supporters participating in it, denouncing the "Allied Bomb Massacre" (German: Alliierter Bombenholocaust).
In 2002 and 2006, the Elbe River flooded in Dresden twice, but the impact was not great. In 2004, UNESCO declared the surrounding area of the Elbe River Basin in Dresden as "World Cultural Heritage".