About

The making of – why I made this website

That idea came to me when watching the movie “Never look away (Werk ohne Autor)”, which starts in Nazi time Dresden (Trailer). When seeing the Art Academy and the buses with their destination signs, when the child’s aunt Elisabeth is sent to the psychiatric clinic in Arnsdorf, and never came back – it occurred to me that most of those places still exist. The Art Academy is still there, and Arnsdorf Psychiatric Clinic is still there. I have walked many of these streets, have been to many of these places.

Looking at Klemperer’s books sitting on my shelf I started wondering: What if I could connect his diary entries to the actual places?

I created this website as a personal research project, and as a technical challenge to self, as I have no background in web development. Driven just by curiosity whether bring my idea to life

If you are reading this on mobile, a full list of locations is available at the end of every page.

Discovering personal connections to the place

Building this website was a fascinating journey of learning and discoveries. Most shocking for me – how close some of his places have been to my daily life in Dresden. 

It soon became obvious that if we had lived at the same time, I could have bumped into him or his friends. That leads me straight back to the present:

  • As we go about our lives, how do we treat each other?
  • What do we do when certain groups get marginalized for their looks or beliefs, when individuals get mistreated in public?
  • What would you, dear reader, do if you witnessed abuse or harassement?

I hope this website makes other people ask similar questions; and makes people think about how we want to live in our communities with so many different people.

Unexpected learnings about local history

Ruins of the Church of our Lady after the Dresden bombing in February 1945
Church of our Lady, Dresden
Credit: Image: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-60015-0002 / Giso Löwe / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en, via Wikimedia Commons

The loss of local enterprise and its thriving middle class during communism

Researching on AltesDresden.de, looking at the pre-war photographs I noticed how Dresden was full of privately owned small shops, cafes at street level and backyard factories. What was left after the war, was collectivised into “people’s property”, no private property allowed and even today, this culture of small enterprise still has not fully recovered.

Only the historic city centre has been rebuild, most residential areas are post war architecture

Living in Dresden for more than a decade, I was aware about the Dresden bombing, which still is an important date in the local calendar. However, I never thought much about what or how Dresden was before 1945. I remember back in the 1980ies and 90es there were still some ruins, most famously the Church of our Lady, but not much else.

Contrasting the historic photos on AltesDresden.de with Google Street View of modern Dresden, seeing all those new builds from the 60ies and 70ies – only then did I realise how much was lost, how little was left of the Dresden Victor Klemperer describes.

Further reading:

Source: 

  • ** I Will Bear Witness, Volume 2: A Diary of the Nazi Years: 1942-1945, Victor Klemperer, Publisher ‏: ‎ Modern Library; Illustrated edition

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Get in touch:
I appreciate comments and feedback and try to respond to all emails.
contact@victor-klemperers-dresden.net

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