Germans urged to ‘defend democracy’ 75 years after Dresden’s WWII bombing

FRANKFURT AM MAIN: President Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged Germans to “defend democracy” on the 75th anniversary of the destruction of Dresden in World War II on Thursday, as the emboldened far right rattles the political establishment.

The anniversary has a complex legacy in Germany, where right-wing extremists have long inflated the number of people killed in the Allied air raids in a bid to play down the Nazis´ crimes. In a speech at Dresden´s Palace of Culture, Steinmeier sought to strike a balance between remembering the 25,000 victims, while stressing Germany´s responsibility for the war. Steinmeier warned against the “political forces” that sought to “manipulate history and abuse it like a weapon”.

“Let´s work together for a commemoration that focuses on the suffering of the victims and the bereaved, but also asks about the reasons for this suffering,” he told an audience that included Britain´s Prince Edward. Steinmeier later joined thousands of residents in forming a human chain of “peace and tolerance”. As in past years, neo-Nazis were gathering in Dresden to hold “funeral marches” for the dead. The far-right AfD party meanwhile set up an information booth to tell the supposed “truth” about the bombings and demand a grander memorial for the victims.

Hundreds of British and American planes pounded Dresden with conventional and incendiary explosives from February 13-15 in 1945. Historians have calculated that the ensuing firestorm killed some 25,000 people, leaving the baroque city known as “Florence on the Elbe” in ruins, and wiping out its historic centre.

The devastation came to symbolise the horrors of war, much like the heavily bombed city of Coventry in England. But in Germany, Dresden also became a focal point for neo-Nazis who gave the city a martyrdom status that experts say is belied by historical facts.

“The myth of the ´city of innocence´ lives on,” the regional Saechsische Zeitung daily wrote. This year´s anniversary is especially charged as Germany reels from a political scandal that erupted in neighbouring Thuringia state last week, where an AfD-backed candidate was elected state premier for the first time.