Dresden's destruction

Several hundred mainly British bombers appeared in the skies over Dresden shortly after 10 p.m. on February 13, 1945, and in a matter of minutes destroyed three-quarters of the eastern German city. A second wave of bombers came hours later and set off a hurricane-like firestorm that killed more than 20,000 people.

While contemporary war historians continue to debate the strategic sense of destroying the city, known because of its Baroque architecture as the Florence of the Elbe River, most agree the attack dealt a serious blow to Nazi morale. Three months later Germany issued its unconditional surrender.

Since 1946, Dresden's churches have rung their bells every February 13 in remembrance of the many who died during the firebombing.

Nazi 'funeral marches'

In 1998, far-right and neo-Nazi groups staged demonstrations on the anniversary of the city's destruction to deny German war guilt and the Holocaust. What started with less than 100 participants grew into mass demonstrations with some 6,500 neo-Nazis taking part in the 2011 protest that was billed as a "funeral march." This year, some 1,600 neo-Nazis showed up, less than the number organizers had expected. Police cordoned off the extremists from a counter-demonstration, whose participants were close enough to be heard and seen chanting "Out with Nazis."

Earlier in the day, though, 13,000 people answered the call of an alliance of politicians, unions and religious groups to join in a human chain to celebrate "courage, respect and tolerance" in the city.

Police forcibly removed the protesters to allow the far-right groups, including skinheads and neo-Nazis, access to the city. From the state's point of view, the sit-ins represented criminal obstruction of an officially authorized demonstration.

'Reversal of justice'

The head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Stephan Kramer, expressed his approval of the sit-ins and called the authorities' actions last year in Dresden a "reversal of justice." The head of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, Aiman Mazyek, also lent support to the "Nazi-free Dresden" movement.

Germany's Christian churches issued a joint statement appealing to people to protest the far-right marches. Church leaders said the discovery of the National Socialist Underground terrorist cell and the murders it was allegedly involved in made it "especially important this year for many people from outside the city to take a clear position against right-wing terrorism and misanthropic attitudes."

Police called on all groups from across the political spectrum to respect the public's right to free assembly. Nearly 6,000 police were on hand to maintain order.

Author: Marcel Fürstenau / sms
Editor: Michael Lawton