A day to keep in mind ! Coming from the fine baroque city of Fulda I arrived in Dresden on August 20, 2002 right at the time, the big flood - "flood of the century" - had left large areas of Dresden in a state of heavy destruction. For the first time in my life I saw The Church of our Lady ( = Frauenkirche ) - a big construction site with a building made of the finest sandstone growing up into the sky. On top the big main scaffold where behind its tarps the famous Stone Bell ( = Steinerne Glocke ) took its definite shape. The sight of the ensemble of natural stone and modern technology was so impressive and changed my life instantly. From that very moment on I decided to stay in this city - close to the Frauenkirche - and to accompany and to record the progress in construction with my camera night and day. My name: Klaus Willem Sitzmann, photographer. I always try hard to let my pictures tell exciting stories, stories which happened in this amazing city during the past years, stories about people who dared and worked a lot to complete their historical task successfully. And this before the keen eyes of the whole world - and before mine, too. At this point I`d like to say thank you - particularly to chief manager Eberhard Burger and to graduate engineers Thomas Uhlmann ( site manager ) and Karl-Heinz Dietrich who, little by little, put their trust in me and gave me a couple of tips. For this reason only I was able to take these unusual and irretrievable pictures of the outstanding reconstruction of this church. My books "Die Dresdner Frauenkirche - Dem Himmel näher" The Church of our Lady - Closer to heaven" and "Dresdens Herz - Glanzvolle Wiederkehr eines städtischen Zentrums" "The Heart of Dresden - Brilliant return of an urban center" show quite a lot of these photographs. These days a photo-downloadshop - containing the most beautiful and impressive pictures of the Church and other well-known spots in Dresden I shot there in all those years - will be set up. You are kindly invited to take a closer look into this shop and - if you like - to purchase a couple of these pictures or you can even pick out the finest photos and compile your own personal photo book. The "Miracle of Dresden" keeps on living in photographs and the stories related with them. Sincerely yours, Klaus Willem Sitzmann |
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