The Slow Death of Royal Dresden

Abstract

Dresden never really recovered from the effects of the Seven Years and Napoleonic Wars, although in the nineteenth century it managed to recapture some of its eminence as a Residenz or royal court. This was to some degree the result of architects understanding the very special qualities of the city’s location on a bend in the River Elbe, but even more it was caused by two men: Gottfried Semper and Richard Wagner. Semper added to the profile of the city, chiefly by his designs for the court theatre and the picture gallery, while Wagner, as court conductor, revived the glorious days af Hasse and Weber, and it was in Dresden that he created some of his best known operas. Both Semper and Wagner were caught up in the revolutions of 1848 and 1849 and forced to flee once the Kings of Saxony were re-established in the city. Politically, Dresden went even deeper into decline after siding with Austria in the Austrian-Prussian War of 1866. It was lifted out of mediocrity by the success of the opera house under Ernst von Schuch and by a flowering of the arts on the eve of the First World War — most notably by the Expressionist group called ‘Die Brücke.