Following  contact in 2010/11 between Dr. Alan Russell of the Dresden Trust, and Renate Krömer, the daughter of one of the three ministers of the Kreuzkirche who died in the Firestorm of February 13th, 1945, the Trust sought to promote the idea of erecting a memorial in the Kreuzkirche.

After consultation with Pfarrer Joachim Zirkler and in the Church Council, it was decided that the memorial should take the form of an engraved sandstone plinth with a broken top, standing in the niche of the entry bay of the church, opposite the medieval sculpture of a “Schmerzensmann”.

It was agreed that the Plinth – or Postament – should be dedicated to the three ministers – Martin Johannes Krömer, Wilhelm Otto Schumann, Gotthold Ludwig Seidel, to the ten Kruzianer who were asphyxiated as they slept and to the countless others who died at the site on February 13th, 1945.
Stonemason Elmar Vogel was commissioned to shape the Plinth out of a tall piece of sandstone and to engrave the commemorative script on it.

The project was financed by the Dresden Trust with a substantial contribution from Renate Krömer. The dedication took place on February 12th, 2012 following a concert and a short but moving ceremony in the Kreuzkirche, in the presence of several members of the Krömer Family with  Dr. Alan Russell and Eveline Eaton representing The Dresden Trust.