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4M views 8K replies 647 participants last post by  TM_Germany 
#1 ·
This is probably the biggest reconstruction project in Germany right now. The area around the Frauenkirche will be rebuilt in a classic and modern way which means that most buildings will be reconstructed along with some modern additions.

























 
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#2,261 ·
I can understand why the Neumarkt leaves an artificial impression for some visitors and locals. It's still not the thriving urban city center which it is supposed to become. But at least the current architecture provides a very good groundwork upon which a new and thriving city center might be created in the years to come. New shops and pubs could open and some of them might become also very attractive for locals. More accommodations, museums, libraries cinemas might be built and are needed. And the city should accommodate more of it's administration in the city center so that the center becomes important for a Dresdner's daily life.

I just think you have to give Dresden's new center some time and it will start to flourish.

The city is full aware that the city center doesn't attract to many locals and just recently cunducted a survey about how to make the Neumarkt more lively and attractive for inhabitants. The main answer given was to built more apartments.
 
#2,263 ·
I can understand why the Neumarkt leaves an artificial impression for some visitors and locals. It's still not the thriving urban city center which it is supposed to become. But at least the current architecture provides a very good groundwork upon which a new and thriving city center might be created in the years to come. New shops and pubs could open and some of them might become also very attractive for locals. More accommodations, museums, libraries cinemas might be built and are needed. And the city should accommodate more of it's administration in the city center so that the center becomes important for a Dresdner's daily life.

I just think you have to give Dresden's new center some time and it will start to flourish.

The city is full aware that the city center doesn't attract to many locals and just recently cunducted a survey about how to make the Neumarkt more lively and attractive for inhabitants. The main answer given was to built more apartments.

I personnally believe the survey results are valid. The original neumarkt area of conconcentrated 3-5 story houses were mostly apartments on the upper 2-3 floors. It would be great if the Parnaischer platz area would be rebuilt with baroque style apartment row houses with a longer range plan to convert the buildings along wilsdruffer str to the same.
 
#2,264 ·
I personnally believe the survey results are valid. The original neumarkt area of conconcentrated 3-5 story houses were mostly apartments on the upper 2-3 floors. It would be great if the Parnaischer platz area would be rebuilt with baroque style apartment row houses with a longer range plan to convert the buildings along wilsdruffer str to the same.

Do some the reconstructed houses around the Neumarkt have apartment?
If so, what is the occupancy problem?
 
#2,267 · (Edited)
I think this problem is not only in Dresden...in every european city mostly of the historic centres has been ocupated by offices, hotels, and shops, and the habitants are much less then in the past, because the price of the apartments is too high for normal people.

Munich's city center for example is being transformed into a big mall at the moment. As soon as a lease agreement is ending for a pub or a bar the building is being sold to some investor who either builds luxury apartments or opens a H&M or other fashion branch. It is acknowledged by the city that this is a big problem. But there aren't a lot of possibilities how the city could intervene to keep some more bars in the old town and to stop this trend. Slow but steady Munich's pedestrian area is being turned into a museum after the shops close at 8 o'clock. You won't find the cool bars and parties in the center. Some tourists who vistit Munich are wondering why Munich seems like a dead place on Sundays or in the evening. They assume that they will find bars in the pedestrian city center, but there are just a few. Unlike in Dresden or Warsaw there aren't many big malls in Munich. Actually only about 3 which are all mostly in the outskirts. That's why all the shooping takes place in the center. On the upside this makes the center much more dynamic, cause old bulidungs are being torn down and new are being build and the streets are packed until 8 o'clock with people. But on the downside the pedestrian zone turns quickly into a graveyard after 8 o'clock cause the cool and hip places have been replaced by Gucci stores. This feeling is strengthened cause there are only few and expensive apartments in the center and the habitans of these apartments use them as a secondary residence. Every year for New Year's Eve masses of mainly Italian tourists occupy the center while all locals are avoiding the center. Not due the influx of tourists but due to the lack of party possibilities.

So even if you have such a thriving city center and packed pedastrian zone during daylight like the one in Munich there are a lot of problems and reasons why the locals prefer to hang out in other parts of the city in the evening.
 
#2,270 ·
Mine post is an answer to the other members saying that even rebuilding the neumarkt as it was before IIWW, it's not possible rebuilt the same atmosphere and the same social dynamics of the old Dresden. I think is not this a reason to not rebuilt it, because it would be changed anyway: the new Neumarkt is full of hotels, shops, and offices like any other centre of any other city of Europe that survived at the war
 
#2,271 ·
The only possibility to avoid a city center full of only shopping malls and offices is rent regulated housing. But that sounds communistic to Germans... ahhm West Germans I mean. :D
AFAIK Vienna has such rent regulations in the old town. I know that many locals, who don't have the luck to live in the center, complain about it, but I think these regulations are one reason why Viennas old town doesn't feel like Eurodisney. Just compare Vienna and Prague and you know what I mean.
 
#2,273 ·
Mine post is an answer to the other members saying that even rebuilding the neumarkt as it was before IIWW, it's not possible rebuilt the same atmosphere and the same social dynamics of the old Dresden. I think is not this a reason to not rebuilt it, because it would be changed anyway: the new Neumarkt is full of hotels, shops, and offices like any other centre of any other city of Europe that survived at the war
Excellent points. Progress will take place or a nation/urban area will be left to the whims of tourists who may want to experience the past for a few moments. very risky for the vitality of a city. what dresden is doing and what it sounds like Munich is as well is a 21st century solution for staying alive and dynamic. The hot and hip night spots will return if there is demand, for sure, just like demand is driving the daytime crowds.
 
#2,278 ·
Rather the blame lies at Churchill's feet for having destroyed the cities unnecessarily in the first place.

The same could be said of the millions of homes and hundreds of cities in Britain that were destroyed unnecessarily, like Coventry.... unfortunately war has no conscience.

As a famous English writer once said... "all is fair, in love and war".
 
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