Last day in Dresden

Today was our last full day in Dresden.  We did a lot, and were satisfied.  Before we caught the tram into town, we found Knoopstrasse, named after Wilhelm Knoop.  Wilhelm Knoop was a partner in the bank, Robert Thode & Co, owned by our relative, Robert Thode.  My great-grandfather, Felix Thode, whom I mention in other blog posts, knew Wilhelm Knoop.  We have correspondence from Knoop to Felix who criticised Felix when he was staying in Namslau (Hotel Schwarzer Adler) as a young man.  Wilhelm Knoop said 'You shouldn't be staying in expensive hotels', and 'Why are you travelling in carriages - a young man like you should walk!'  Wilhelm Knoop later became the Chairman of the Dresdner Bank.  He'd also been honorary consul for the US and Mexico and was somewhat philanthropic in Loschwitz.

We also found the house of Wilhelm Knoop's daughter, Magda Knoop, which is below.

Our first tram stop was at the Pfunzmölkerei, a famous cafe, operating for about 100 years, whose interior walls are pricelessly decorated with tiles showing classical images, angels and other scenes that appear rather Roman.

At the Altmarkt, there was a gay pride celebration held, or 'Christopher Street Day'.  A couple of floats drove by, and its occupants threw sweets to the onlookers.  I picked one up.  More were thrown, and I grabbed another.  Instead of it being a sweet, I realised I'd picked up a condom!

We popped into the Altmarkt Gallerie, a massive shopping centre running the length of the Wilsdruffer Strasse.  Jean bought me a new German football shirt, 'Deutscher Fussball Bund'.  We browsed in a bookshop, and I found several German language books for refugees and asylum seekers, a sure indication of the recent Syria crisis, and Germany's absorption of nearly a million refugees.

Renate and I climbed to the top of the Frauenkirche.  In this photo, we are inside the dome, looking down on people sitting in the pews way below.

Sixty-seven metres above the ground.  The two spires are those of the Rathaus at left and the Kreuzkirche at right, where several members of my family in the 19th century were baptised.

This bare patch below shows the construction site where works are being carried out that may feature a combination of housing and a shopping mall, we were told.

Looking north along the Elbe.  In the middleground, the spire at left is Dresden's castle, built by August der Starke (August the Strong).

Looking upstream

You can see the long hill in the background slope down to 'ground' level from the left.  Loschwitz sits on that hill, left of the picture.  I was amazed to realise, to the right of the descending hill, in the far background, you can detect the distinct shapes of the Sächsische Schweiz.  

We followed the Brühlsche Terrasse round to its end near the Albertinum, where we listened to musicians for a while.

Here, we listened to musicians play classical music.

Helene Bruun's diary 1874

Christine's, Renate's and my great-great-grandfather, Eduard Justus Thode, had a niece called Helene Bruun.  Helene's German mother had married a merchant from Finland, and Helene grew up there.  In the summer of 1874, she visited Germany with her sisters and mother.  While here, she wrote a diary.  The diary is full of things she did in Dresden.  She mentions, for instance, going to the deaconry, which I wrote about in a recent blog post.  She also mentions listening to a service by a Lutheran priest called Mayer in the Frauenkirche.

In the diary, Helene, aged just 13 in 1874, talks of a walk she did one day with her cousin, my great-grandfather, Felix Thode, as well as his brothers, Justus and Alfed.  They started walking from the boys' home in the suburb of Strehlen at half past 9.  They went first to Schmetterlingsjagd, and a short time later, they crossed the vastness of the Grosser Garten, Dresden's answer to London's Hyde Park or New York's Central Park.  From there, the four cousins went via Gruna, and headed on to Blasewitz where, according to the diary, they had 'Kuchen und Eis' (cake and ice cream) in a Conditorei.  They then went strolling along the banks of the Elbe and headed home.  They made it back to Strehlen by a quarter to four.  Depending on the exact route taken, theirs was a walk of at least a half dozen kilometres.

An intersection in the Dresden suburb of Strehlen, where my great-grandfather, Felix Thode, lived with his parents and siblings as a child.  When he was 10 years old in 1874, his cousin Helene came to Dresden, and together with his brothers, they went for a walk through Dresden, starting from his home.

In 'Altstrehlen', or an older part of the suburb.

This is the Carolasee (Carola Lake) in the south-eastern corner of the Grosser Garten, or Great Garden, near the Carolaschloesschen.

in the middle of the Grosser Garten is this castle built by one of Dresden's most famous characters, August the Strong.

The castle built by August the Strong (August der Starker).  Helene (13), Felix (10) Justus (15) and Alfred (13) may have passed this castle during their walk that summer day in August 1874.

The four cousins may have walked along a path such as this one in the Grosser Garten.

Many kilometres later, the four walkers reached Blasewitz, by the banks of the Elbe, just across the river from Loschwitz, where other Thode relatives lived.  At Blasewitz, cakes and ice cream were ordered in a Conditorei.

After the Blasewitz refreshments, the cousins proceeded along the Elbe for a while, and headed back to Strehlen.  Along the way, according to Helene Bruun's diary, the youngsters spent a lot of time trying to catch butterflies.  They had been away for a little over six hours.

The Christuskirche in Strehlen.  The suburb was flattened during the bombing of Dresden on the night of 13-14 February 1945.  The house my ancestors lived in no longer exists, and the street name has also changed.

In an old part of Strehlen

A day at the Sächsiche Schweiz

In the 1874 diary of Helene Bruun, a distant relative of ours, Helene wrote of taking a trip out from Dresden to what she described as 'the most beautiful thing that I had seen until now' - the Sächsiche Schweiz.  She wrote of the beautiful rock faces she saw there and of going to Schandau.  It was a trip she enjoyed with her sisters as well as other close relatives.  Today, we did the same.

Massive rock faces stand tall above the river Elbe, like giant retaining walls.  We arrived at a place called Rathen, and caught the ferry to the other side of the river.  No engine for the ferry - it is engineered to the other side by both an anchor and the downstream current.

We entered a track leading to the Bastei, forever climbing to a spot high in the hills above the Elbe, where tourists have been coming, according to information etched into a large rock face, since 1797.  In English, Sächsiche Schweiz means Saxon Switzerland.  The name is meant to suggest that here in Saxony, there is a little piece of the beauty of Switzerland.

Helene Bruun's diary does not give the impression she visited the Sächsiche Schweiz with her cousin, my great-grandfather, Felix Thode, but he may have visited this place in the nineteen years in which he grew up in Germany before sailing to Australia in 1884.  If Felix had later visited the Blue Mountains and the Three Sisters west of Sydney, he would have been reminded of the Sächsiche Schweiz.

The Elbe

When we first arrived at Bastei, there didn't seem to be many people.  But later, when we descended, crowds had arrived in large numbers - Germans, Spanish, Italians, and many Eastern Europeans.  Here, they compete for a spot at the edge to gaze upon the flow of the Elbe, which begins in the Giant Mountains (or Riesengebirge) on the Polish-Czech border, passes through Poland, the Czech Republic, past Dresden and Hamburg, and empties into the North Sea near Cuxhaven, not far from where we were less than a week ago.

We had a cherry cake and a coffee in one of the restaurants at the Bastei

Since time immemorial, large rock faces have guarded the forests below, while the Elbe passes by.

In the middle of this look-out bridge is Christine, taking a photo.

We admired the engineering and construction of this stone bridge in precarious surroundings.

After returning to the ferry and our car below, we went upstream to Schandau, as did Helene 142 years ago, and had lunch.  Christine and I didn't think much of the town - its saving graces were it was located on the Elbe with surrounding hills and forests.

Schandau is only about 20 km from Decin, which is inside the Czech Republic, or 'Bohemia' in Helene's time.  Christine wanted to visit Decin, as some of her ancestors (not mine) originate from here.  The above is a church in Decin.

We had not expected to visit the Czech Republic during our holiday, but here we are.

This is the steep road leading up to the old castle in Decin.  Renate saw a cyclist ride his bike all the way from the bottom to the top.  She also saw a woman run all the way down, wearing high-heeled shoes!

The old castle in Decin.  After an hour or so in the city, we drove back to Germany in rain, which had only just begun.  So now, Jean and I have visited the Czech Republic twice - but never been to Prague..

Some images of Dresden

The famous Frauenkirche, destroyed in the bombing of Dresden in February 1945.  It was rebuilt and opened in 2005.

Frauenkirche 

The darker building blocks are part of the original building, and stood as part of the ruin after 1945.  An IBM computer programme was used to locate the exact place the old pieces should go during re-construction.  The new sandstone blocks will eventually go dark too, being exposed to the air.

Inside the Frauenkirche 

The Frauenkirche's dome

The Brühlsche Terrasse, which is by the banks of the river Elbe

Looking up Münzgasse rom the Brühlsche Terrasse towards the Frauenkirche 

Looking along the Brühlsche Terrasse

A Dampfschiff sails along the Elbe - Robert Thode, the brother of my great-great-grandfather, Eduard Justus Thode, had shares in the company Sächsischerdampfschifffahrt.

The trees on the Brühlsche Terrasse

On the Brühlsche Terrasse

Family trees

This morning, we visited the Diakonnisenkrankenhaus in Dresden.  It's a hospital for a deaconry.  In Lutheranism, it's akin to an order of nuns.  It was founded in about 1842, and one of the original founders was a lady called Ida Thode, who was the sister of our great-great-great-grandmother, Luise Friedericke Duncker. Ida's maiden name was Rautenberg; she married Eduard Thode.

Currently, in the Diakonnisenkrankenhaus, there is an exhibition.  Ida Thode is mentioned.

After our visit to the Diakonnisenkrankenhaus, we stopped by the banks of the river Elbe at Villa Rosa, which was the former address of our great-great-great-grandfather, Gerhard Friedrich Thode, husband of abovementioned Luise Friedericke Duncker.  The house he lived in back then no longer exists.  The villa was designed by Semper, who also designed Dresden's famous opera house.

Gerhard and Luise's youngest son, Eduard Justus Thode, also our ancestor, died in November 1875.  We came to the Trinitatisfriedhof, where he was buried.  We knew we'd probably not find his grave, but we gave it our best shot.

The Trinitatisfriedhof is a few streets long, and we spent at least 45 minutes searching among the graves for our ancestor.  Christine was previously told the book containing information about people buried around that time was destroyed in a fire.  We asked again at the office after our search and we were told the same thing - but it didn't hurt to try.

This is the grave of Serre, who was the owner of the castle at Maxen (Schloss Maxen) where Eduard Justus' wife worked for a time as a servant.

The Trinitatisfriedhof is a very leafy and beautiful cemetery.  We walked among the spruce trees, oaks and other trees and bushes and were reminded it was late spring here in Germany.  

We were told it was also possible that Eduard Justus Thode's grave may have been buried over by a new grave or even his grave removed, as has happened in some cases.  I certainly didn't expect EJT's grave to be elaborate, as he died with debts, and he was the black sheep of his family.

F. B. Schreiber was the founder of the English bakery - died in 1866

Christine inspecting a gravestone, partially hidden by rhododendrons.