The British-German Friendship Garden
By Branch Member Maynard Scott
In October 2006, The Duke of Kent visited the National Memorial Arboretum for the dedication of the British-German Friendship Garden in honour of all those who died in WW2 bombing raids. The garden comprises fourteen stones from the rubble of the Frauenkirch, the large church in the centre of Dresden that was virtually destroyed by British and American bombers on the night of 13-14 February 1945. Each stone is inscribed with the names of British and German cities bombed by either side during the war. A central plaque in the two languages reads…
“Just as the city of Dresden had risen from the ashes of the firestorm that engulfed it, so has the respect that traditionally characterised British-German relations been reborn. Henceforth, may all difficulties between the two countries be resolved with patience and understanding, may their sorrows be shared, and their joys celebrated together. In the beauty of nature, as in the presence of God, we are all one.”
As with many of the Arboretum’s Memorials, it is the story that lies behind the memorial that is most important and this is a typical example.
Ever since the end of WW2, people from both sides have debated whether it was right for the British and Americans to bomb the city of Dresden in the way that they did, just three months before the end of the war. So many bombs were dropped that they created a firestorm resulting in eight square miles of the city being destroyed and 35 to 40 thousand deaths. Naturally, there has been much resentment from Dresden survivors over many years although the British have always argued that there were war industries and military installations in parts of the city. They also quoted the wider picture of horrors created by the Nazi Regime.
Both Britain and Germany suffered incredible losses during Second World War air raids but whoever said that ‘time was a great healer’ could not have been more accurate than when that term is applied to Dresden. Remarkably, over the past sixty years, Dresden has slowly become the focus of reconciliation between the two countries and the Fraukirche in the centre of Dresden has become the visible symbol of that reconciliation. I have written elsewhere that my own years of volunteering at the Arboretum have taught me that Reconciliation is a ‘work’ that develops or evolves over a period of time and that Forgiveness can ‘slot in’ at any time during that period. I have no way of telling how many citizens of Dresden have reached the forgiveness stage but there is no doubt that reconciliation is well and truly underway. People from both countries are working hard at it and establishing the British-German Friendship Garden at the Arboretum is just part of that.
The Duke of Kent has for decades been active in fostering British-German relations and is Patron of the British German Association and the Dresden Trust, which both share this underlying aim.
On 14 February 2015, The Duke was awarded The Dresden International Peace Prize for his contribution to the reconciliation of Great Britain and Germany.
The Frauenkirche, that graced the skyline for two centuries in the middle of Dresden was a baroque and beautiful Protestant church that was completely destroyed in the 1945 bombing raid. In the 1990s the people of Dresden decided it was time to rebuild and what followed was quite remarkable. Starting with a pile of rubble in 1994 they completely rebuilt the church until in 2005 they had a spitting image of the original. Today’s structure may not have the gravitas of age but that only slightly detracts from its beauty, inside and out. The altar, reassembled from nearly 2000 fragments, is especially striking. The beautiful domed Frauenkirche – Dresden’s most beloved symbol – has literally risen from the ashes. The whole story was eventually recorded on video.
When the people of Britain heard about it, they were only too anxious to respond to the appeal for financial help. A man called Alan Russell was particularly sensitive about what happened in Dresden. Although only a boy during WW2 he felt that “Nations must be able to look critically at what has been done in their names in order to have the right to examine what other countries have done.” There is a biblical comparison here about first taking the log out of your own eye so as to see more clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye. (Matt: 7.5 and Lk: 6.42). Whatever his motivation, he set up a Dresden Trust Appeal Fund to raise money in Britain and soon it had raised around £1M. It was later invited by the Dresden people to make a new nine-metre-high baroque orb and cross to be fitted to the very top of the new church dome. Alan Russell accepted the invitation on behalf of the Trust and enlisted a silversmith (who turned out to be the son of one of the aircrews, who had taken part in the original bombing raid). He was said to have considered the project as a deep spiritual fulfilment.
In 2004 the Dresden Trust presented the gold cross steeple which now sits on top of the Frauenkirche, as a gift from the British people to Dresden. The reconstruction of the church, and the installation of the cross and orb steeple, was a significant moment in the 60-year reconciliation process between the two countries, following the war.
