Dresden would be reabsorbed back into Saxony after the reunification of Germany.

The district was established, with the other 13, on 25 July 1952, substituting the old German states.

After 3 October 1990 it was disestablished upon German reunification, becoming again part of the state of Saxony.

It, bordered on the 'Bezirke' of Cottbus, Leipzig and Karl-Marx-Stadt, as well as on Czechoslovakia and Poland.

It was broadly similar in area to the later Direktionsbezirk Dresden, which functioned from 1990 to 2012.