Dresden after the First World War

The November Revolution in 1918 also forced King Friedrich August III to abdicate. The Free State of Saxony was formed. The relative political stability in the second half of the 1920s once more brought forth notable architectural and cultural achievements.

Otto Dix and Oskar Kokoschka were important teachers at the Dresden Art Academy, and Mary Wigman and Gret Palucca established their European style of free dance in Dresden. The German Hygiene Museum was opened in 1930.

The assumption of power by the National Socialists in 1933, however, put an end to the progressive cultural traditions in the city. The brutal suppression of all political opposition culminated in the mishandling and finally the deportation of the Jewish citizens of Dresden.

Writer Victor Klemperer recorded their fate in his famous diaries.