Leseprobe

7  Dresden’s surviving villas form part of the visible traces that Jewish bourgeois life left on the city. Nowadays, these buildings are seldom considered in terms of their connection to the people who originally built and owned them. Their histories before and during the Nazi era were not publicly mentioned or dis- cussed in the GDR. Under the East German regime, Jews were seen as just one group of victims among several. The bourgeoisie, Jewish or not, was viewed as a feudal social class, and an enemy of the workers. In the decades following the Second World War, this meant that an important part of Dresden’s culture was relegated to the dustbin of history for ideological reasons. In the racist delirium of the Nazi era, in less than twelve ‘short’ years, the city of Dresden, as indeed the country as a whole, disposed of a significant portion of its academic, artistic, social, and economic elite. History cannot be rewritten. But it should always encourage us to reflect. Sabine Wenzel Notes 1 Dresdener Architektur-Album, Bauten und Entwürfe . Published by the Dresdener Architekten-Verein, 1875. The three villas by Karl Eberhard included in this publication are: Villa Häbler, Beuststrasse 2, 1866–1867; Wohnhaus Rahe, Goethestrasse 1, 1869–1870; Wohnhaus Goethestrasse 6, 1869–1870.