Architectural Interventions II: Dresden’s Altmarkt and the Topology of Power

Abstract

Dresden in 1945 was a desolate place. While in 1939 the city had roughly 630,000 inhabitants, by the end of February 1945 the figure had dropped to around 370,000, as many citizens had left the city temporarily or permanently. During the three months from mid-February to the end of the war on 8 May 1945 there were further attacks that have not entered collective memory: on 2 March 406 American Fortresses targeted the city once more, dropping 6000 explosive bombs with the aim of destroying vital infrastructure, such as the bridges across the Elbe and Bahnhof Friedrichstadt, a switch-yard that regulated transportation to the eastern front.¹ In March 1945 the Russians reached the river Oder, and the Dresdeners now expected that the Red Army would take their city within weeks. However, on 12 April, the Nazi leadership announced that the German cities had to be defended at all cost. Accordingly, Gauleiter Martin Mutschmann declared the 12 square kilometres large rubble field in Dresden’s city centre a ‘fortress’, ordering the digging of anti-tank ditches and other defensive measures. Anyone defying this order by, for example, hanging white flags from their windows, was threatened with execution. Although the final battle for the German cities was now carried out on the ground, the US Air Force attacked Dresden once more with 580 Flying Fortresses on 17 April with the aim of destroying the remaining railway connection between Berlin and Prague.