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I always wanted to take hitchhikers along.
I could't find any for a long time.
When I was young I hitchhiked alot myself through Europe.
I grew up in West Germany and my mother allowed me to hitchhike
during vacations when I was 15 years old.
So I hitchhiked cross Europe. That was in the 80's.
My name is Matthias Koenitz.
I've come to Dresden twenty years ago.
After having completed my studies in architecture,
I started to work as an architect here.
Several times I hitchhiked to France.
In my experience it got more difficult to go on hitchhiking,
the more southern you got. Especially in summer time
there were a lot of hitch-hikers.
I remember one situation when we were about 15-20 people waiting at a roundabout to get a lift.
We weren't the first ones who got there and we waited there for a whole day without any luck.
Often it was especially women who hitched a ride. I was with a male friend and we stood there
the whole day and had to camp for another night there.
It was a great feeling to be free on the road, to be dependent on someone's good will.
I always thought it was rather exciting and it gave me possibilities to experience things
I wouldn't have by following the conventional tracks.
It's a game of fortune. It's very exciting.
The first thing that comes to my mind concerning architecture in Dresden is the demolition of World War 2.
The residents of Dresden still have a very vivid memory of it.
When you stand in the center, you can still imagine which way the bombers flew.
There are still areas of destruction where there are no old buildings left.
Mainly the city center and parts of the Johannstadt were affected by that demolition.
In contrast there are beautiful areas outside the city center
where the flair of the former Dresden remained and there are many precious historical structures.
In comparism to Leipzig, Dresdens surrounded areas are less compacted
there are a lot of detached buildings which are good preserved.
However the fall of the Berlin Wall was just in time, as the former GDR had planned to demolish all the buildings in the Neustadt
how it was also partly done in Berlin-Kreuzberg, in order to build new housing there.
When I came there in 1990 it was a horrible view of run-down buildings.
Everything was grey, the windows were old and broken, the downpipes ended up high above the streets.
I remember that we took showers under the downpides when it rained in summer.
Maybe it was also a grey day. But everything was grey and plain - the old pavement stones.
That was when my girl friend moved a few blocks away putting all her stuff on a cart.
We had an attic flat. She was living here and I came there.
It was a court yard. Here are the dustbins. The trees weren't green yet.
In this house we lived in an attic flat. My daughter was one of the first home births. She was born in the room up here.
We were four people renovating the flat. We made papier mâché out of old newspapers,
put it on the walls and thought it would make the rooms warmer. The roof wasn't insolated and we made insulation out of papier mâché.
We had to help ourselves. The rent was very cheap. I offered the owner a monthly rent of 400 DM for ten years.
First he was very happy to get so much money for just one flat. But after 2-3 years he got angry,
because all surrounding flats were more expensive than ours.
Here you see the Luisenstrasse corner Martin-Luther-Strasse and the run-down facades.
Broken gutters, broken roofs, crumbled facades.
Here you see the block Luisenstrasse / Martin-Luther-Platz from Martin Luther Church. Our flat was up here.
It was a huge grey, colourless city.
The Neustadt is a "Gründerzeit" quarter which is well preserved in comparism to all the other destricts in the center.
There are many buildings of the period of promoterism.
I heard that it is supposed to be the biggest "Gründerzeitstadt" in Europe, with a diameter of about 2 km
and there are mostly streets with gapless and well preserved historical structues.
The whole part of the city is protected as an area of historical buildings.
With the renovation of the buildings in the past 20 years came many requirements.
In the 80`s the builders in Berlin-Kreuzberg, were facing problems as they couldn't restore the old windows
in the same manner as they have been.
But in the 90's the machines had become more flexible that they were able to restore the filigree and historical windows with machines.
Therefore it was possible to rebuild the windows for affordable prices. That was well done
and one can experience many of those beautiful details in the Neustadt.
A big developer, who bought a couple of houses in the center of the Neustadt had the idea of constructing a "Kunsthof".
Out of this developed a very nice situations, where several architects and artists came together in order to design the place.
I really like it if urban planning is realised without cars. As a pedestrian it gives you the opportunity to walk through court yards,
lanes and cross little squares without interference of cars.
The whole "Kunsthof" is surrounded by cafes, boutiques, galeries, restaurants. A welcoming atmosphere has developed.
A public dispute in Dresden is the "Waldschlösschenbrücke". I myself was never part of the argument. I can understand both parties.
If you look at the city plan one can see that a bridge at this point really makes sense.
There are already streets leading to this point on both sides, just waiting to be connected.
And everywhere where there is population it needs a compaction of roads.
I myself am affected as I own buildings on the other side of the river "Elbe", where I need to go more often.
It's a distance of 500 m, however I need 5 km to get there from here.
That is rather complicated in a city and therefore I can understand the appreciation for this bridge.
There was a competition for architects to design this bridge.
The special requirement for the design, was to lower the bridge.
From this side you have the "Canaletto" view towards the city center.
Canaletto was a famous painter who shaped the view of the former Dresden.
This "Canaletto" view remains even with the bridge. One can stand on this little rotary and has the famous view of the city,
but the bridge is much lower.
I always find it important that one can discover the city as a pedestrian.
I have lived here before the bridge was planned or built and I can see how the streets have changed.
The streets have become bigger as tunnel exits are needed to reach the bridge.
The bridge is very low and you have to go from a mountain downhill, through a tunnel to reach the bridge.
That's very complicated and the streets must be very wide and unreal.
As a pedestrian it's just not as good as it has been, the roads were more narrow, clearer and easier to cross.
That is the negativ part of the development of the bridge.
But I don't believe that it really threatens the UNESCO World Heritage.
It was my pleasure to meet you and to hear about your adventure, hitchhiking from Berlin to Istanbul.
I hope you get on well and have many pleasant experiences.
Everbody who is interested to know more about the trip, visit ...