THAT THE CITY OF Dresden has remained a leading cultural capital since the time of Augustus the Strong is in part due to the survival, sometimes against all odds, of its rich and abundant art collections. During the 1930s collections of modern art, both public and private, suffered, as elsewhere in Germany, the Nazi campaign of confiscation and destruction. During the commemorations two years ago of the sixtieth anniversary of the Allied bombardment of Dresden in February 1945, commentators were quick to point out that, considering the apocalypse that consumed the city, it was remarkable how few works of art had been destroyed. The Saxon State collection was saved but transported directly to the Soviet Union; its return between 1956 and 1958 was an early but unexpected moment in the long process of cultural reconstruction. In August 2002 the flash floods that emanated from the Erzgebirge, and the subsequent flooding of the Elbe, caused significant damage to museums in Dresden and surrounding towns such as Meissen, Pirna and Bad Schandau: but most works of art, by dint of heroic effort, were once again rescued. Today in the Dresden Gemäldegalerie, or in the recently reopened Historisches Grünes Gewölbe, one can contemplate works of art that, through the very fact of their continued existence, are witness to the reassertion of a humane, cosmopolitan ideal over the terrible destruction attendant on war and natural disaster.

Recovery of this ideal in Dresden has nevertheless been a slow and sometimes painful procedure. Visitors to the city now encounter a poignant mix of sandstone Baroque architecture, and so-called ‘Stalinist’ Baroque, as well as the monumental Socialist architecture of Prager Strasse, and more recent steel-and-glass commercial buildings, interspersed with large open areas of old bomb sites either yet to be built upon or simply left vacant. The question of historic reconstruction has long been debated, particularly with reference to the Neumarkt, the cobbled square around the recently rebuilt Frauenkirche, famously depicted by Bellotto. Whatever one thinks of the theatrical interior of the church, the merits of rebuilding adjoining blocks such as the Quartier an der Frauenkirche in what may be termed the ‘New Traditional’ style are undeniable, and now little-questioned.

The recent exhibition Von Monet bis Mondrian at the Brühlsche Terrasse Exhibition Building was an equally significant statement of civic restoration, held as part of the marking of the 800th anniversary of the founding of Dresden. Reuniting modern masterpieces from the city’s private collections assembled in the first half of the twentieth century, the exhibition documented, through international loans, the leading role of private collectors in fostering an enthusiasm for avant-garde art during the 1920s and 1930s in Germany. Certain figures stand out: Adolf Rothermundt and Oscar Schmitz, who collected French and then German Impressionists, and Ida Bienert, a pioneer collector and patron who began her collection in 1911 with a landscape by Cézanne and went on to purchase works by Picasso, Klee and Kandinsky before 1919. In the 1920s, with a growing interest in Constructivism, she commissioned Mondrian to design a salon for her villa in the Dresden Südvorstadt, a project that, unfortunately, was never realised. Her collection is particularly well documented, and was published in 1933 by the art critic Will Grohmann as the first of a projected series of books about private collections of modern art in Germany. The year was hardly propitious and no more in the series appeared. Instead, Dresden became the location in that same year for the first of the ‘Entartete Kunst’ exhibitions, which culminated in the notorious showing in Munich four years later. Von Monet bis Mondrian recovered an important part of Dresden’s past and, indeed, an important chapter in the collecting of modern art.

The Albertinum, next door to the Brühlsche Terrasse, has housed the Galerie Neue Meister, the Saxon State collection of modern art, since its creation in 1959. It is currently closed to visitors while it undergoes renovations made necessary by the flooding of 2002. As with many other Saxon museums severely damaged by the high water, the problem is to create new storage space, basement rooms having been rendered unusable. Focused displays from the collection will continue in other venues in the city until the reopening of the Albertinum planned for 2009. And as part of a recent rapprochement between the Galerie Neue Meister and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, selected works from the former are on view at the latter in From Caspar David Friedrich to Gerhard Richter (to 29th April). Richter’s participation in this exhibition reflects his renewed connections with Dresden, where he trained at the Art Academy and spent the early part of his career. In 2002 he made a significant donation of his own works to the State Art Collections, which now form the Gerhard Richter Archive.

Another feather in Dresden’s cap was the opening last autumn of the Oriental Gallery, which houses the city’s celebrated collection of Chinese and Japanese ceramics, begun by the Elector Augustus; it is now sumptuously installed in the former Orangery of the Zwinger.

Dresden is regaining its past and re-establishing international connections hitherto severely curtailed. Foreign museums wishing to borrow works from the State Collections have greatly benefited from this new openness. Connections with Britain will certainly increase when British Airways inaugurate the first direct flights between London and Dresden in May this year. British visitors arriving by train may be surprised to find the newly renovated Hauptbahnhof was in fact completed by Norman Foster, who has combined historic recreation with high technology to create one of the most ethereal railway stations in Europe. And visitors from anywhere may begin to wonder if perhaps Berlin has attracted an unfair share of attention when confronted by the genuine excitement of the new Dresden.