The Dresden Trust

The Dresden Trust was founded in August 1993, as a considered response to the call which had issued from Dresden a couple of years earlier for help in rebuilding the Frauenkirche. It launched its appeal in January 1994 and later that year, following helpful advice from the Dresden and Federal authorities made the making and gifting of the Orb and Cross the centrepiece of this.

The initial aims of the Trust - the promotion of religion and the rebuilding of the Frauenkirche as a memorial to all who died in aerial bombardments throughout the war - were enlarged in 2002 to cover cultural relations in a broader sense. Early in the life of the Trust HRH The Duke of Kent, who was already patron of the British German Association, kindly agreed to become the Trust's Royal Patron too, whose Board included leading political, church and architectural personalities.

Royal Patron :

HRH The Duke of Kent

Other Patrons :

Richard Balfe Esq. erstwhile MEP

successive Bishops of Coventry :

The Rt Revd Dr Simon Barrington-Ward

The Rt. Revd. Colin Bennetts

Baroness Chalker

Lord Dahrendorf

Lord Dykes

Lord Radice

Lord Walker of Richmond

Professor Alan Watson

Lord Steel