DRESDEN 



1858 



DRESDEN CHINA 



the important factors that led to the War of 

 Secession. See UNITED STATES, subtitle His- 

 tory; War of SECESSION. 



DRESDEN, drez'dcn, the city of zest in 

 nature and art, of hearty river life and pleasure, 

 is the capital of Saxony, in what was the 

 German Empire. It is situated in a richly- 

 cultivated valley on both sides of the Elbe 

 River, about 111 miles southeast of Berlin. 

 Because of its delightful situation and its many 

 objects of interest it often is called "the Ger- 

 man Florence." Numerous squares and parks 

 dot the city, both in the old and new sections, 

 the largest being the Grosse Garten, in the old 

 quarter, containing a museum of antiquities 

 and a zoological and botanical garden. Among 

 its fine promenades is the Briihl Terrace, com- 

 manding a charming view of the Elbe and sur- 

 rounding country, once a part of the city's 

 fortifications before Count Briihl, the all-power- 

 ful minister of Augustus II, made them over 

 into his private gardens. 



In addition to its imposing churches, Dres- 

 den takes pride in its many beautiful public 

 buildings. Among these are the Zwinger, orig- 

 inally intended to be the vestibule of a mag- 

 nificent palace, but now housing collections of 

 great value, whose northeast wing forms the 

 Museum, containing one of the finest picture 

 galleries in the world; the Augusteum, or 

 Japanese Palace (so named from Oriental fig- 

 ures with which it is decorated), containing the 

 royal library of about 400,000 volumes and a 

 valuable collection of manuscripts and port- 

 folios; and the Johanneum, which in addition 

 to its 15,000 pieces of rare porcelain contains 

 an historical museum with a fine array of arms, 

 armor and domestic utensils belonging to the 

 Middle Ages. The splendid interior decoration 

 of the royal palace and its collections of curi- 

 osities, jewels, trinkets and works of art more 

 than compensate for its unattractive exterior; 

 while the prince's palace has a fine chapel and 

 a library of 20,000 volumes. The royal theater 

 is one of the finest of its kind in the world. 

 Dresden is also noted for its excellent educa- 

 tional, literary and artistic institutions, chief 

 among which are the Royal Technical High 

 School, the Royal Music School and the Acad- 

 emy of Medicine and Surgery. 



The city is classed among the neatest of the 

 cities of Germany. The municipality owns and 

 manages its water works and its gas and electric 

 plants. In manufactures, which are varied in 

 character, it ranks high, although the china for 

 which the city is famed is chiefly made at the 



royal factories at Meissen, fourteen miles dis- 

 tant (see DRESDEN CHINA). Dresden suffered 

 severely in the Thirty Years' War, and also in 

 1813, when Napoleon made it his headquarters. 

 The Prussians occupied it in 1866, but evacu- 

 ated it in 1867. Population in 1910, 546,882. 



Arts and Crafts in Dresden. A large part 

 of Dresden's claim to fame lies in its extensive 

 art, literary and scientific collections. Of these 

 the most valuable is its picture gallery, housed 

 in the Museum of the Zwinger, containing over 

 2,500 canvases, representative of the Dutch, 

 Italian, Spanish and Flemish masters. Among 

 its prize pictures are Raphael's Sistine Ma- 

 donna; Correggio's Holy Night; Titian's The 

 Tribute Money, and Rubens' Boar Hunt. The 

 museum owes its most valued treasures to Au- 

 gustus III, who purchased the greater portion 

 of the gallery of the Duke of Modena for 

 900,000. This treasure storehouse contains also 

 over 300,000 wood cuts and copper engravings; 

 and while its modern gallery is small in con- 

 tents it is representative of the best of the 

 modern schools. The collection of jewels and 

 royal playthings in the famous Green Vault of 

 the royal palace likewise is famed, as is also 

 the array of ancient and modern arms, imple- 

 ments and costumes in the Museum Johan- 

 neum. R.D.M. 



DRESDEN CHINA, a delicate, highly-fin- 

 ished porcelain, named from the German city 

 where it is supposed to be manufactured. How- 

 ever, the credit for producing it belongs not to 

 Dresden but to the capable men and women 

 employed at the royal factory at Meissen, four- 

 teen miles from that city. Porcelain china has 

 continued in popular favor ever since it was 

 first made in 1709, when Johann Friedrich Bott- 

 ger, chemist to the elector of Saxony, discov- 

 ered the yellowish-white material, called kaolin, 

 of which it is made, in the mines near Meissen. 



The delicate lines and gossamer tracery of 

 Dresden china lend themselves effectively to 

 pieces for decoration and many varied uses; 

 its designs are of great variety, and are in 

 relief, in color and in gold. Great steadiness of 

 nerve and accuracy of sight are required of 

 the workmen, each of whom is first thoroughly 

 drilled in exercises of drawing, molding and 

 a general study of forms and colors; and then 

 he passes by gradual promotion from the low- 

 est to the highest position in the department 

 wherein he has specialized. At the Meissen 

 factory are to be found painters whose talent 

 is of a high order. The output includes vases, 

 statuettes, groups in figures and candelabra. 





