Dresden
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Dresden is the capital city of the German Federal State of Saxony.
Dresden has a long history as the capital and royal residence who for centuries furnished the city with cultural and artistic splendor. The city was known as the Jewel Box, because of its baroque and rococo city center. The controversial British and American bombing of Dresden in World War II towards the end of the war killed at least 25,000 civilians and destroyed the entire city center. The impact of the bombing ruined the face of the city, as did for other major German cities.
Center of art
Dresden is seeking to regain the kind of cultural importance it held from the 19th century until the 1920s, when it was a centre of art, architecture and music. During that period, famous artists such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Otto Dix, Oskar Kokoschka, Richard Strauss, Gottfried Semper and Gret Palucca were active in the city. Dresden is also home to several important art collections, world-famous musical ensembles, and significant buildings from various architectural periods, many of which were rebuilt after the destruction of the Second World War.
Museums, presentations and collections
Dresden hosts the Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections) which are, according to the institution's own statements place it among the most important museums presently in existence. The art collections consist of eleven museums, of which the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister and the Grünes Gewölbe are the best known.