Mary’s reflection on the Dresden visit

Below we are pleased to publish Mary Courtney’s recollection of her first visit to Dresden.

Similarities and differences

As a first timer in Germany, I couldn’t help but be struck by differences and similarities with Coventry. Accustomed to seeing just one naked woman on a horse in Coventry city centre, our iconic Godiva, I was struck by how many statues there were in Dresden of men on horseback. They were clothed, one was flamboyantly gold. There were even more, in a procession of princes on horseback, replete with a plumage of hats, on a long tiled wall. On the roof of the opera house, The Semperoper, there was even a chariot with bare-breasted figures, one a woman, one a man, led not by horses, but panthers!  I have no recollection of ever seeing a chariot on a roof, let alone one led by panthers. 

Dresden old town is a feast for the eyes. Almost overwhelming in the quantity and grandeur of the baroque buildings and the wide spaces around them. My eyes are attuned to spotting dragons and green men in Coventry (see Instagram “Coventry Grotesque”) and I was delighted to zoom into details of the architecture and find some in Dresden. On the Cholerabrunnen (the Cholera fountain) a dark neo-gothic spire type structure that reminded me of the Coventry Cross, there were some wonderfully gruesome looking reptilians, set against text straight out of Dracula. On one of the entrances to the Zwinger (what an incredible building) there were examples of dragons and serpents in battle with humans. One, a fanged, many-headed serpent, reminded me of “Man’s Struggle”, the stone relief by Walter Ritchie on the outside of the Herbert.

Inside the stylish Cultural Palace (loved the orange carpet), I couldn’t help but feel at home seeing the socialist-realist mural in the café, which is stylistically similar to the one in Coventry Market made by art students from Dresden in the 1950s. The colours in the Coventry mural veer towards brown hues, whereas this one had more a spirit raising colours and ended with a floating flying astronaut.

Having walked around Dresden in my Deichmann boots bought in Coventry, I was pleased to see the Deichmann shoe shop in the Dresden Mall. I don’t know why! Also noticed the familiar signage for Aldi, where I nipped in to buy milk and teabags. Not being a coffee drinker and finding it difficult to adjust to water served in a cup separate from the teabag, I was very glad to be able to brew my own in the way I’m used to. Can’t beat a good cuppa!

Only one piece of litter seen on the Dresden streets in four days of ten miles a day walking. No flytipping observed, but, across the river from the old town, a toleration for tagging on buildings that people live in. I live in a street where flytipping and littering is rife, and spend too much of my time reporting it to the council/picking it up. How much more relaxing to live somewhere where that isn’t necessary. I wondered if the lack of littering in Dresden was related to citizens waiting for the traffic lights to turn green before crossing the road, even when there were no cars in sight. I wonder how we could have clean streets in all parts of Coventry, what would we need to do to not have to think about litter every single day!

The Human Chain 

The highlight of the trip and the most emotional day, was the anniversary of the bombing of Dresden, where the bells rang out at night and we held hands in a human chain around the Frauenkirche, in a powerful sign of solidarity and protection. To one side of me was a woman from Dresden, to the other Mick from Coventry. It is such a simple act, holding hands, but it felt so profound. The Dalmatian spotted black bricks among the light stones of the church were a reminder of the old being part of the new, and a reminder too of what was lost. The larger than life-size photographic portraits, faces of holocaust survivors, with their eyes caught in the crosshairs and the candles in the snow, added to the solemnity. Later I heard stories of people’s experience of the war as told by the previous generation (a young German conscripted a few weeks after his eighteenth birthday) and different stories of what life was like before and after the wall came down. These are things I will never forget.

Art stuff

It was a great pleasure to see the documentary style photographs of Gunta Starke and hear how he managed to capture these. Also to see Lucas Oertel in the territory of his own studio. Although his Firewall was the work most talked about, I was more interested in his lighthearted and characterful wooden sculptures, and paintings of mischievous cats. I think humour and lightness is underappreciated in art.

During my short stay, and despite the temperature being a finger freezing 1 degree, I did a few drawings of buildings. Black pen straight to paper. A style that could give an architect a heart attack. The entrance to the Zwinger, Georges Gate (The Georgentor), The Catholic Cathedral, an ornate door facing the river Elbe and of course the Frauenkirche. The ornateness of the buildings has made it seem fairly easy to draw buildings such as Coventry Council House on my return home!

 A final comment related to the Frauenkirche building, which seemed to me to be most emblematic of the determined spirit of Dresden. It felt to me to be like the spirit of the Phoenix, our own Coventry emblem, brought to life here in stone.

Mary Courtney, March 2025