04 May 2014

1 May 2014

Getting lost and finding everything.



First we have an errand to perform, so we walk over to the Hauptbahnhof (this is some distance) in order to buy tickets so that we can train to Leipzig on the morrow.  It’s easily enough done and its only 28 for the both of us – round trip!  So we are all set.  The goal is to go to the Hygiene Museum, and it looks doable on the map, but we soon get lost, winding up in the Blüherpark – and what a pleasant surprise that was with a delightful memorial to Mozart (above) and other sculptures and fountains.



Thanks to Arthur’s telephone, we figure out where we are and make our way past a huge stadion easily to the German Hygiene Museum.  The building was built in the 30s, and is a moderne wonder.  Huge masses of linear white masses are set off by curving interior walls, and monumental stained glass windows praising the benefits of good health.







The museum, however is aller Kinder, alle Zeit, and the Café seems unmoved by human need, so we walk back to the Zentrum, wondering what we are going to do.  We pass by the City Museum, and go in.  It is really quite interesting, with displays on the development of Dresden as a commercial center, and later as a capital, and finally as “the Florence of the North.”  There is a complete and helpful rehearsal of events leading from the revolutions in the mid-Nineteenth century up through the First World War, the Weimar Republic, the Nazi horrors, the 1945 bombing, the DDR, and the quiet revolution at the end of the 80s. 



Throughout all of this the material culture of the city is carefully explained, and one can see how various political reactions were nurtured by situations in the workplace and industry.  On the bombing: a very humbling film showing the bombing of Dresden, along with London, Guernica, and other cities is shown.  There is, however, little said about Dresden’s Jews and their fate.




On another level there is a wonderful gallery showing the work of Dresdner artists, from the past century and current efforts.  Some names I remembered, but others were entirely new to me.  That’s what’s so wonderful about travel.  We remember that there is always something more to learn.  Sometimes we get lost in our own culture, or in the pocket of our particular culture.  It’s always good to get lost somewhere else.



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