included âastonishing numbers of dignitaries from the middle and upper classes of the population, among them several Reichstag and State Parliament (Landtag) deputies and numerous city officials and councilors.â
In the minds of many Dresdeners, their city remained what it had been hundreds of years earlier: a fortress on the Slavic frontier. In a continuing echo of ancient conflicts, successful boycotts of foreignâespecially Czechâproducts were organized. Rules forbidding the city authorities from employing itinerant Polish and Czech workers were introduced, and the Association of German Students in Dresden proudly declared itself âJew freeâ in 1900.
A huge new group of salaried clerks and retail assistants, who felt themselves superior to the proletariat but as wage earners were socially excluded from the old, self-employed and professional middle class, came into being in Dresden, as in other cities of the Reich. This class compensated for its uncertain economic and social status by embracing the new politics of power and national aggrandizement with extra enthusiasm. Between 1898 and 1907 a conspicuously large number of congresses and conferences of far-right organizations took place in Dresden, often subsidized by the city authorities and with High Burgomaster Beutler acting as greeter and keynote speaker.
Before 1914 Dresdenâs superficial social mode was artistic and relaxed, but much of its politics was authoritarian, with ancient intolerances seething hidden beneath the cityâs perfect, well-cared-for skin. All this would become even more apparent when the old rulers went and the hard times came.
Â
BY 1914 the Saxon royal family had been on the throne for 825 years. In 1889, on the Wettinsâ eight hundredth anniversary, there had been grandiose, colorful celebrations in Dresden and all over Saxony. Now they had four years and a few months left. The present king of Saxony would be its last.
In July 1914, Frederick Augustus III and his family were on a climbing vacation in the Austrian Alps when a telegram arrived, warning of a European crisis. By the beginning of August 1914, Germany and its ally Austria were at war with Britain, France, and Russia.
Dresden suffered, like the rest of Germany, from shortages and hunger, caused by the ruthless British naval blockadeâwhich killed, it is said, many more German civilians than the Allied bombing campaign in the Second World War. With its great palaces and lavish public buildings, the capital became a city of hospitals and convalescent homes. And at least 120,000 of Saxonyâs young men, out of a total population of around five million, died in the trenches for kaiser, king, and fatherland. Of Dresdenâs half a million inhabitants, around fourteen thousand were killedâproportionately above the stateâs averageâwith many more permanently disabled or psychologically damaged.
If we are to believe his sonâs account, King Frederick Augustus was among those in Germany who floated the idea of a compromise peace with Britain and France late in the war. Perhaps he realized that this slaughter was destroying not just the German army but also the countryâs entire social and political system, with monarchs such as himself at its apex. Unfortunately, by 1917 Germany was little more than a military dictatorship. Generals Ludendorff and Hindenburgâboth figures who were to play key roles in the rise of the ex-corporal Adolf Hitlerâexercised decisive power. Except for Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germanyâs individual monarchs counted for almost as little as the politicians in the Reichstag, with their concerned speeches and peace resolutions.
Toward the end of 1918, with the German army in inexorable retreat and food shortages reaching crisis level, there were leftist-led protests and mutinies in Leipzig and Dresden, in common with other large German cities. The diehard right, also radicalized by the
In the minds of many Dresdeners, their city remained what it had been hundreds of years earlier: a fortress on the Slavic frontier. In a continuing echo of ancient conflicts, successful boycotts of foreignâespecially Czechâproducts were organized. Rules forbidding the city authorities from employing itinerant Polish and Czech workers were introduced, and the Association of German Students in Dresden proudly declared itself âJew freeâ in 1900.
A huge new group of salaried clerks and retail assistants, who felt themselves superior to the proletariat but as wage earners were socially excluded from the old, self-employed and professional middle class, came into being in Dresden, as in other cities of the Reich. This class compensated for its uncertain economic and social status by embracing the new politics of power and national aggrandizement with extra enthusiasm. Between 1898 and 1907 a conspicuously large number of congresses and conferences of far-right organizations took place in Dresden, often subsidized by the city authorities and with High Burgomaster Beutler acting as greeter and keynote speaker.
Before 1914 Dresdenâs superficial social mode was artistic and relaxed, but much of its politics was authoritarian, with ancient intolerances seething hidden beneath the cityâs perfect, well-cared-for skin. All this would become even more apparent when the old rulers went and the hard times came.
Â
BY 1914 the Saxon royal family had been on the throne for 825 years. In 1889, on the Wettinsâ eight hundredth anniversary, there had been grandiose, colorful celebrations in Dresden and all over Saxony. Now they had four years and a few months left. The present king of Saxony would be its last.
In July 1914, Frederick Augustus III and his family were on a climbing vacation in the Austrian Alps when a telegram arrived, warning of a European crisis. By the beginning of August 1914, Germany and its ally Austria were at war with Britain, France, and Russia.
Dresden suffered, like the rest of Germany, from shortages and hunger, caused by the ruthless British naval blockadeâwhich killed, it is said, many more German civilians than the Allied bombing campaign in the Second World War. With its great palaces and lavish public buildings, the capital became a city of hospitals and convalescent homes. And at least 120,000 of Saxonyâs young men, out of a total population of around five million, died in the trenches for kaiser, king, and fatherland. Of Dresdenâs half a million inhabitants, around fourteen thousand were killedâproportionately above the stateâs averageâwith many more permanently disabled or psychologically damaged.
If we are to believe his sonâs account, King Frederick Augustus was among those in Germany who floated the idea of a compromise peace with Britain and France late in the war. Perhaps he realized that this slaughter was destroying not just the German army but also the countryâs entire social and political system, with monarchs such as himself at its apex. Unfortunately, by 1917 Germany was little more than a military dictatorship. Generals Ludendorff and Hindenburgâboth figures who were to play key roles in the rise of the ex-corporal Adolf Hitlerâexercised decisive power. Except for Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germanyâs individual monarchs counted for almost as little as the politicians in the Reichstag, with their concerned speeches and peace resolutions.
Toward the end of 1918, with the German army in inexorable retreat and food shortages reaching crisis level, there were leftist-led protests and mutinies in Leipzig and Dresden, in common with other large German cities. The diehard right, also radicalized by the
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