Thousands died in this city 80 years ago – now the far right wants to own the story

Dresden: Images of Dresden’s skeletal, burnt-out buildings have long been synonymous with the ravages of the Second World War.

In Germany, the Allied bombing raids over three nights in February 1945 – killing tens of thousands of people – sowed the seeds of debate over victims and responsibility, one that has taken on new meaning as a resurgent far right in the country’s east promotes a revisionist history.

As it prepares for its most significant election since reunification on Sunday, coming amid the country’s longest peacetime recession, the nation is once again grappling with its past.

A speaker addresses the crowd at the start of the Dresden bombing anniversary “mourning march” held by the far right.Credit: Getty Images

In the rebuilt east German city, once known as “Florence on the Elbe”, neo-Nazis at the weekend staged a “mourning march” to mark the 80th anniversary of the wartime firebombing amid attempts by the far right to use the issue to win political support.

The group, some who had travelled from Hungary and the Czech Republic and from all over Germany, joined right-wing extremist parties such as Die Heimat (formerly the National Democratic Party of Germany) and the Free Saxons in protest against the “Anglo-American air gangsters” who punished the “innocent” German population with fire.

Police say about 2300 people took part in the annual event – more than at previous gatherings of this kind. For this year’s anniversary, police had prepared for a high mobilisation of right-wing demonstrators and banned bomber jackets, combat boots and other right-wing extremist insignia.

The most agitated protesters seemed to be young men in their late teens and 20s, but middle-aged men and women also marched. Far larger numbers of demonstrators from trade unions and various left-wing groups calling for a “Nazi-free Dresden” staged sit-down protests to try to block their progress.

As the snow fell and the rainbow coalition heckled, speakers questioned Germany’s guilt for the war and claimed the death toll from the British and American bombing on February 13-15, 1945, was much higher than historians and researchers have determined.

In 2010, after six years of research, a commission of German historians finally concluded that 25,000 people perished under the 650,000 incendiary bombs dropped by Britain and the United States. Mourning all the war’s victims has been central to Germany’s remembrance efforts since reunification in 1990.

The populist Alternative for Germany party (AfD) – supported by 37.9 per cent of the vote in Saxony at the European elections here last year – has also challenged the traditional German narrative that has accepted the bombing as a consequence of Hitler’s aggression.

Dresden in the aftermath of the Allied bombing campaign.

For the first time since 1945, the far-right party is now both large enough and extreme enough to pose a real threat to the post-war Western order. Its support is strongest in this region.

AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla, who says his grandfather and father survived the Dresden inferno by sheltering under a bridge, has claimed in the past the true death toll was more like 100,000. The ancestry of this theory can be traced back to Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s chief spin doctor.

Organisers of the counter-protests say blocking the neo-Nazis’ route along the edge of the city centre was a success.

“With the help of several thousand people from civil society, we kept the Nazis out of the city centre, that was one of our goals,” Rita Kunert, from the anti-fascist WiEdersetzen alliance, said.

Police officers carrying a participant in the road blockade off the road, as left-wing activists protested against the right-wing march.Credit: AP

The city has long tried to defend itself against attempts to exploit the commemoration and to downplay Germany’s guilt for the outbreak of the war. One speaker at the rally described Dresden as having been “the epicentre” of tragic events 80 years ago, claiming the attack did not give the Allies a military advantage but “only served to quench their thirst for revenge”.

The Royal Air Force first bombed the city with 800 planes, dropping a mixture of explosive and incendiary devices. The aim was to cause as much damage as possible over a wide area. Stoked over three nights by wave after wave of bombers, first British, then American, the glare from the burning city became visible from the air at a distance of 800 kilometres.

While the Allied attack has long been controversial, with some historians labelling it disproportionate to any military objective and an act of unnecessary brutality rather than strategic necessity, Dresden Mayor Dirk Hilbert, a member of the neoliberal Free Democratic Party, warned against myth-making and historical falsification.

In recent years, the city has fought back against those who it says seek to “manipulate history and abuse it like a weapon”, holding lectures, church services and panel discussions to correct the historical record.

“Dresden’s destruction in World War II was not an isolated incident; the city was neither ‘innocent’ nor a ‘victim’,” Hilbert said.

“We stand firmly against all those who divide our society and work against our basic democratic values.”

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