On 2 March 1945, Dresden’s chief of police and the director of the Organisation Todt established two ”marching streets” which were to be cleared of the rubble from the February air raids more quickly. These streets were intended for the uninterrupted movement of military units through the devastated city centre: the route led from Wettiner Straße to Postplatz and from there along Wilsdrufferstraße and Johannstraße to Stübelallee.
The clearing of the main streets began just one week after the raids. At the beginning of March, seven Dresden construction companies with 270 labourers were at work alongside the police repair crews. They had only one excavator at their disposal. At the same time, the crews recorded the damage to the street network. They counted more than 1,000 bomb craters and more than 300 hits on the sewage system.

Marked in 2001