Dresden Local Customs

There are some outdoor places that will play music for the crowds, and it is fun to drop by and listen. Many people get into the routine and sing along, or clap hands. Dancing is done by some in the right setting

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WE got to one of these located at Grossner Garden area, and it was very large. Typical fare for all the entrepreneur tents is cheese, sausages and meats of all kinds; fresh and skinned where needed, vegetables and fruits, clothing of all types for all ages, and a number of eating places with good Deutsch food. It is always a treat to visit these events, and this one is every Friday at the park entrance on Lennerstrasse.
WE always end up buying some goods, and usually too much to carry back to the apartment, but manage. It gives us some home meals.

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"Ostmobil" is an excellent collection of old Trabbis and a lot more of the typical cars and motor-scooters used and built in the former DDR.
This collection is shown in the 1st floor (USA:2nd floor) of a shoppinghall, called Neustädter Markthalle, that looks nice already by itself with a great architecture.
BUT my best memory was the great collection of Trabbants / Tarbbis - see my last picture, where I made my own picture-combination :
Lets start on top : "Villa Sachsenruh" on the left is a Trabbi with a tent on the top and it shows the Trabbant from the movie "Go Trabbi go!" - a movie , made shortly after Germany was re-united and it shows such a Trabbi going to Rome.
On the right : Trabbi and Camper LC9, beeing just 220 kg in order to be able to be torn by a Trabby.
On the righ below : The tarbbi of NVA, the army of the DDR
And finally on the left :
Trabbi P60 Pick Up. It was planned that way in 1960 by Dr.W.Lang, the constructor of all Trabbis, but was never built.
In 1999 W.Liebig heared about these plans and built this car according to the original construction-plans.
In the museum you may also see Trabbis used by the post-office of DDR, racing-cars, hundreds of motorscooters, a Duo 4 etc. etc. etc...

Thanks a lot Ingo , for this excellent museum, I would never have been able to find myself !
Ingo is german-eagle on VT and certainly the best expert about Dresden and Saxony on VT !!

The German Democratic Republic or GDR (a.k.a. East Germany) existed for nearly forty-one years, from October 7, 1949 to October 3, 1990.

During this time, Dresden and vicinity had the dubious honor of being known in the rest of the GDR as the Tal der Ahnungslosen or "Valley of the Clueless." This was because they were so far away from West Germany and from West Berlin that they could not receive western television stations.

People from other parts of the GDR claimed that for this reason the people of Dresden had an uncritical attitude towards the actions of the East German regime.

I don't know it this is really true (the ones I knew seemed perfectly normal). Have there been studies done on this point? Perhaps some German VT-members might have information about this.

Update: Many thanks to VT-member german_eagle (Ingo), who lives in Dresden, for a very thoughtful and informative e-mail on this topic. He says it was true that West German television could not be seen in the Dresden area except under unusual weather conditions. But it was not true that the people in Dresden were uncritical of the GDR-regime. On the contrary, peaceful protests began there as early as February 1982.

He points out that there has long been a rivalry between Berlin (Prussia) and Dresden (Sachsen) going back as far as the 18th century, so people in Dresden have always been suspicious of anything coming from Berlin. Also Dresden has a strong and self-confident educated bourgeoisie which was always critical of the GDR government and never forgave them for building a "new" socialist city instead of rebuilding the beautiful old city of Dresden which was destroyed during the war.

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A small but fine Christmas market off the beaten path takes place in the suburb of Loschwitz next to the Blue Wonder bridge. The stalls are mosty run by artisans who have their workshops in the little houses of old Loschwitz. Hence the products on offer are unique and of good quality. Here you won't find mass production 'made in China'. The market is most atmospheric at dusk.

The market is open from the second to the fourth Advent weekend.

How to get there: Take a tram to "Schillerplatz" and then cross the Blue Wonder bridge either on foot or by bus (1 stop to "Körnerplatz").

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The so-called Pyramiden are a tradition form the Erzgebirge / Ore Mountains, where farmers and miners made woodcarvings to earn a little extra money. The pyramid consists of a triangular frame and a mobile interior part that turns round the central axis. The propeller on top moves it because of the hot air that rises from the candles. By turning the wings of the propeller steeper or lower, you can influence the speed.

My pyramid, which I got at the Striezelmarkt in Dresden in 2004, is a smaller model. It needs special pyramid candles of about 6 cm length. Larger pyramids have 2 or even 3 storeys.
Mine shows Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus in the crib and a shepherd accompanied by two sheep. The central axis is a carved fir tree. Other traditional themes involve miners' scenes or carol singers round a church, usually the characteristic octogonal church of Seiffen.

The trick to keep the pyramid moving smoothly is cleaning the glass bearing underneath the metal tip of the axis and inserting a drop of olive oil every year before putting up the pyramid.

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The Herrnhut stars were invented in Herrnhut, the central settlement of the Moravian church which was founded by Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf in the 18th century. The original stars are still hand-made in the village of Herrnhut. In Dresden on the Striezelmarkt the Herrnhuter have a stall that sells nothing but these stars.

A real Herrnhut star consists of 17 square and 8 triangular peaks. Stars in any other shapes are not authentic. The peaks are mounted with little metal fasteners. Assembling the star takes a while and is part of traditional Advent preparations. No worries, it's easy and they come with an explanation in both German and English.

The traditional colours are red, white, or yellow, and bicolor with either a red interior and white or yellow peaks, or alternating in white and red or yellow and red. They come in paper for indoors or plastic for outdoors. A little electric lightbulb hangs inside to light them, available in cheaper indoor or safe and waterproof outdoor version.

Beginning as a local tradition, these stars are now sold and mailed all over the world.
Herrnhut is situated in the Lausitz in Saxony, so in that region the stars are most popular. In Dresden, for example, they are everywhere. Imagine an uglier than ugly 14-storey concrete apartment house when at night such a star is glowing on every second balcony. Wow!

In the 'West', churches were the first to have them. There is hardly a church in Germany that does not put up a big Herrnhut star above the altar during Advent and Christmas season. After the opening of the wall when people started travelling and visiting the Christmas markets in the East, they appeared in windows all over the country. In my living room window, for example...

Mine is the smallest version, about 40 cm in diameter. The larger ones have longer and slimmer peaks. I bought it in Dresden on the Striezelmarkt in 2004. Being assembled for the fifth time now in 2008, the paper peaks are still in good shape.

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The Ampelmann, the little man in traffic lights for pedestrians, has more or less become a symbol of the former East's cultural identity after the German reunification. Traffic lights in the East looked different from those in the West. After the reunification, when new traffic lights were installed, authorities used the Western type. People in the former GDR area were offended. The fight for the Eastern Ampelmann was successful.
To be honest, the Eastern Ampelmann with his little hat is indeed much cuter than the simple silhouette on West German traffic lights.

Since we live in times of gender equality, there is not only an Ampelmann but also an Ampelmädchen, a traffic light girl (see photo 4). In Dresden, for example, the girl can be found on the traffic lights at Prager Straße tram stop.

A clever company invented Ampelmann souvenirs which have become quite popular. There are t-shirts, umbrellas, bags, towels with both the man and the girl in red and green. A nice idea for a gift, maybe?