Traveling around Germany, I focused on the differences in the rebuilding after World War II of the cities of the former East and West. I found it very interesting to see the vast differences that exist even today between the quantity and the quality of what was rebuilt after the war in each part of the country. Living in a the United States, a country that has never fully seen the effects of modern warfare, I was blind to the horrors of having not only your home destroyed, but your entire city and surrounding area. I know that I still do not fully understand this reality, but my project has raised my awareness of the complicated process of rebuilding a country from ruins. Arriving in Frankfurt, I could have easily forgotten that Germany was a country virtually destroyed by bombs not so long ago.
Sleek skyscrapers abound.
The city has plans to build around a dozen more in the near future. Its cityscape shows off the prominent role that Frankfurt plays in the European community. It was hard to remember that most of the medieval or baroque architecture that I saw was only a replica of what had existed before the war. The first city that I visited in the former East was Dresden. Before the war it was a showpiece city upon the Elbe River that served as a cultural center for Germany and Europe.