[Bell Historians] Dresden

[David Cawley]

The largest bell from Dresden was received (?with the others) at Hamburg (there were four depositories for confiscated bells there). After WW2 Percival Price on behalf of the United States Army Special Services produced a 160-page report on confiscated bells entitled CAMPANOLOGY EUROPE 1945-47, which was subsequently published by Michigan University Press. At the Hamburg refinery he found 12,000 bells awaiting their fate, one of which was the GROSSE from Dresden, cast 1872, no founder given, 259cm (102") diameter c15000 kg (14.3/4-tons) (these are the quoted measurements). The principal partials were H78; F158; T292; Q278; N:323 = E-0.36. 24 other partials were measured along a segment of the bell - they should have had Bill H with them! As the bell was in Hamburg in January 1946, it clearly survived the War. One assumes it was the largest bell at the Frauenkirche as only "Dresden" is given rather than a specific building. The policy of the Allies following WWII was to return surviving non-German bells to their rightful owners, wherever possible and with considerable success. To Germany, however, the Office of Monuments, Fine Arts & Archives of the British Military Zone sent a chilling letter with such phrases as "To ask for the return of your bells, freely given, while so many stolen bells remain yet to be restored, is an act of effrontery". A large number of confiscated German bells of no historic interest were broken up, and recast into replacement bells for those churches in countries which had been invaded where the original bells had been seized and smelted up. There is no other reference to Dresden.

DLC
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Mike Chester 
To: bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 12:28 PM
Subject: [Bell Historians] Dresden


I see that bells have been put back into the Frauenkirche, tenor 1.8 
tonnes, the founder being Bachert.

See 

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/ap05-04-194825.asp?reg=EUROPE

They make them very shiny in Germany! It says that the bells are 
lighter than the ones lost in WWII. What was their weight?

Mike


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