Dresden/Greifswald – Men in tailcoats and top hats, women in long robes with bonnets: More than 2,000 people in Dresden and Greifswald celebrated the 250th birthday of the painter Caspar David Friedrich by dressing in the Romantic style. There was a bet between the two places where the master of German Romanticism lived at the time: where would more people in costumes come together?
Shortly after 7 p.m. it was clear: 2,241 in Greifswald, the birthplace of Frederick, and 2,033 in Dresden. After the defeat of the Saxon state capital, three couples from Greifswald can look forward to an invitation to the Opera Ball in Dresden next year. The two town hall chiefs, however, agree: the spectacle and the atmosphere in the market squares alone are a “huge win.”
Greifswald’s mayor Stefan Fassbinder (Greens) also wants to keep his bet: The trained historian promised to give a city tour to all Dresden residents who are in Greifswald on October 19th.
“It looks fantastic,” rejoiced Dresden’s mayor Dirk Hilbert at the opening on the stage in front of the Frauenkirche. “The bet is so charming, you just had to accept it.” The draftsman and painter Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) lived in the city on the Elbe for over four decades.
Both mayors in tailcoats and top hats
Greifswald had challenged Friedrich’s adopted home in the year 2024. “We have been looking forward to this day for weeks,” admitted Hilbert, who was also dressed in 19th century style: in white trousers, gold waistcoat, tailcoat and top hat, with walking stick and black silk scarf. The first connection to the competition put him in a positive mood. “It looks great here.” The mayor of Greifswald also wore tailcoat and top hat. Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig celebrated with them in a red dress and with a lace parasol.
Long queues formed at the counting stations in Dresden in the afternoon heat: women in long skirts with blouses and colorful shawls over their shoulders or ankle-length dresses, in bonnets or capes, men in classic waistcoats, wide trousers, also in frock coats and with sideburns like Frederick wore, and also girls in pleated skirts and blouses with pretty bows in their hair.
Birthday cake and live jazz
Dresden bakers cut a birthday cake made with sea buckthorn from Friedrich’s homeland and distributed it piece by piece, a live band played jazz. And a Caspar David Friedrich rose was also christened. The first of the cultivated plants with thick pink flowers are to be planted at sites associated with Friedrich: in Greifswald, at Cape Arkona on Rügen and also at his grave in Dresden.
Dresden, the former royal seat, was the centre of the artist and painter’s life from 1798 until Frederick’s death in 1840. There he studied the paintings of the old masters in the picture gallery, got involved in art debates, began to paint and created his main works. He also found motifs in the surrounding nature, on hikes in Saxon and Bohemian Switzerland, for example, and composed them into his paintings – which are considered masterpieces of German Romanticism.
