Friedrichstadt (Dresden)

Friedrichstadt is a neighborhood in central Dresden, Germany. A factory district in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is known as the home of the founders of the artistic association known as Die Brücke.HistoryOnce known as Ostra, a Sorbian village going back to the year 1206, it was then turned into a manor farm for the elector's residence in Dresden. Augustus II the Strong of Saxony renamed the area Neustadt in 1730. This Neustadt should not to be confused with the neighborhood in Dresden now known as Neustadt, then called Neue Königstadt. In 1731, the people of Neustadt again renamed their settlement, this time to Friedrichstadt after Augustus the Strong's son, future elector Frederick Augustus II, known in German as Friedrich August II.After the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the city declared Friedrichstadt a factory district in 1878. The plight of the factory workers in this area became a common theme in the works of the artists of Die Brücke, who set up a studio in a former cobbler's shop.A good deal of the Friedrichstadt was destroyed in the bombing on 13–14 February 1945. Many of the neighborhood's attractions have been rebuilt since then.Today Friedrichstadt is a mixed industrial, commercial, and residential neighborhood with almost 6,000 residents.