The Dresden Cross and the 1998 German State Visit to the UK

“When Queen Elizabeth II hosted German President Roman Herzog for a State Visit in 1998, she presented the Dresden Cross and Orb during a ceremony at Windsor castle.

The British-made Orb and Cross was commissioned by the Dresden Trust, a UK charity that was founded in 1993 in the spirit of reconciliation to help rebuild Dresden’s famous cathedral, the Frauenkirche.

Image credit: Bundesregierung

Work on the Orb and Cross should have taken a year but the workshop that created it, Grant Macdonald London, had a deadline of six months, creating the almost 7 metres tall and 1 tonne heavy piece using the same techniques used to make the original in the 18th century.

In a twist of fate, one of the silversmiths involved in its construction, Alan Smith, was the son of a British pilot who had piloted a Lancaster bomber that took part in air raids on Dresden during World War II.

Reconstruction of the Frauenkirche began in 1993 and was eventually completed just over a decade later in 2005, with the Dresden Trust presenting the gold cross steeple which now sits on top of the cathedral as a gift from the British people to Dresden.

In 2015, the Dresden Trust’s Royal Patron HRH The Duke of Kent (pictured, far left) was awarded the Dresden Prize, an international peace prize, for his services to British-German reconciliation.”

Written by the German Embassy London.