To the church guides: Who do you encounter in the church?

Booking or spontaneously attending a tour with a volunteer church guide, you would get to know the history, aesthetic and contemporary messages delivered by Frauenkirche. Here we present a series of interviews with 10 of the volunteer church guides. Some of them have lived Dresden for long enough to have witnessed the ruins pf Frauenkirche, some of their families have undergone the bombing. They chose to become volunteer church guides at different time for different reasons and thus obtain various unforgettable experiences with the visitors coming to the Frauenkirche.

"It was at the end of 2023 when a group from the day care center of a retirement home came rather spontaneously and I took over the tour. I told them a few things about the Frauenkirche, showed them pictures and listened to the ladies' and gentlemen's own experiences. They all survived the war and saw the Frauenkirche lying in ruins.

One lady had very poor eyesight, but I realized this at the end of the conversation being told by a caregiver. I then asked the lady if she would like to take a closer look at the altar area. The lady still seemed very quiet and introverted. When we arrived at the altar and she could see everything, she literally opened up and started smiling and talking. She was so grateful and told me with tears in her eyes that I had given her the most beautiful gift ever. It touched me deeply and also encouraged me once again in my work as a volunteer church guide."

"I was deeply touched by the accounts of three different eyewitnesses who witnessed the destruction of the Frauenkirche as children. These are special moments that have left a deep impression on me. It is a gift when guests of the Frauenkirche give such deep insights into their lives."

"About two months ago, a group of pupils came from Central Africa, from Kenya. About 60 children, maybe between 12 and 14 years old, and their teachers. I talked to them a bit in English and then went with them to the lower church. I learned that the group of pupils was also a choir.

I showed them into the lower church and then they asked if they could sing a song. The lower church is normally a place of silence. I thought about it for a moment and said okay, one song. A twelve-year-old girl sang solo a cappella and the whole choir, boys and girls, took turns with her. It was very, very touching.

Afterwards we went back into the main church and I offered them the chance to sing another song together in front of the altar if they wanted. They lined up in front of the altar and sang a second song and were very happy and I was very happy too. The whole church suddenly became very quiet and listened to these children singing together."

"I've had a funny experience. Guests asked me how old I feel or if I experienced the bombing as a child. However, I was born in 1950, five years later. That startled me a bit, but it's always a special experience when leading a group. Sometimes there are people who look angry, but when the tour ends, they leave with a smile and thank me. That shows me that I did everything right – it's always a very nice moment."

"Maybe you could say that the first tour after the trial tour was special because my heart really dropped.

During the trial tour, I wrote down everything I wanted to say. At the beginning, I had ten A4 pages full of notes. Then I kept shortening and summarizing it. In the end, I only had a few bullet points because I realized that it wouldn't work to keep looking at my notes during the tour.

Of course, I didn't want to forget important facts and figures. My husband then gave me the tip of using pictures to structure the tour. He said that the pictures explain the tour by themselves: I start with the history, mention George Bähr and the King and Elector's vision of what the church originally looked like, and then make a big leap to the idea of rebuilding. I explain the call from Dresden, the archaeological demolition and so on.

After the trial tour, I wasn't satisfied at all. I had said far too much, hadn't kept to time and was constantly looking at my notes. That's why I decided to speak more freely and only use my pictures as a guide. That way I was able to organize the tour better and respond to the people without getting lost in my notes."

"For example, I conducted a tour for a donating family. The father of this family likely donated a fairly large amount for a stone, which I showed them in the lower church and then in the church itself. Later, they wrote an email to the foundation. Among other things, they mentioned that the highlight of Dresden was the tour with Frau Lämmel at the Frauenkirche. I believe this because when you deal with people, you always experience something that impresses you, and that is very nice."

"There are quite a few things. Not just with one group, but once I had an elderly lady with her children and her partner sitting in the front row. They were talking and it turned out to be this lady's 90th birthday. She told me that she came from the former eastern territories of Germany, from which they were expelled after the Second World War when the victorious powers advanced. They were refugees and lived in Dresden at the time. On February 13, 1945, they were transferred to Meißen at noon and saw the burning Dresden from there in the evening. We talked and they told me their story. It was her deepest wish to come to the rebuilt Frauenkirche on her 90th birthday and thank God that she had survived everything back then."

"There was an old lady in a wheelchair and her daughter complaining that there is no wheelchair access to the galleries and the crypt, which is true. I went to this lady in the wheelchair, and we talked a little. She explained that she had come from Berlin. She was in her 90s and she had always wanted to see the Frauenkirche before she dies. She told me her war experience that she was blocked in the ruins for two nights and two days and couldn't get out in Berlin. She has this experience of destruction over her head, not knowing whether she would be safe or whether she would survive as a child.

Thus, even though the reconstructed Frauenkirche was such a far place to come, it was the place she wanted to visit before she would pass away. And she took all that effort---- if you sit in a wheelchair; travelling isn't easy. Listening to her story made me so touched. It was actually this complaint that the daughter had to make over no wheelchair access that made me react through taking the time to talk to this lady and learning her reasons of the visit, even though I could not offer her a lift to the galleries."