Bohemian-Rixdorf

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Memorial plaque

Böhmisch-Rixdorf , also called Bohemian Village or Rixdorf ( Czech : Český Rixdorf ) was a small community of Protestant refugees from Bohemia founded near Berlin in 1737 . Together with the neighboring Deutsch-Rixdorf , today's district of Neukölln in the district of Berlin of the same name emerged from it.

location

Böhmisch- und Deutsch-Rixdorf 1857 and the current names:
[1]  Richardstraße ,
[2]  Richardplatz ,
[3]  Karl-Marx-Straße

At that time, Böhmisch-Rixdorf was located on Richardstrasse and Kirchgasse in Neukölln. Deutsch-Rixdorf followed directly to the south with its village green , Richardplatz .

history

After the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, Bohemia was re-Catholicized , which led to more and more Protestants leaving the country in the following decades because they were persecuted and killed. In 1722, not far from the headquarters of Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf in Berthelsdorf in Upper Lusatia, the municipality of Herrnhut ( Czech : Ochranov ) was established, a little later another one near Potsdam ( Nova Ves , since 1938 Potsdam-Babelsberg ). From 1737 onwards (350 in 1737), at the suggestion and invitation of Friedrich Wilhelm I , the refugees settled in the area of ​​Rixdorf, where the municipality of Richardsdorp had been located since 1360 and was divided into Deutsch-Rixdorf and Böhmisch-Rixdorf. Both parishes received their own administration. In 1805 Böhmisch-Rixdorf had 319 and German-Rixdorf 376 inhabitants.

Report on the fire of 1849 at the house at Richardstrasse 80

On April 28, 1849, a firestorm hit both villages, in which a total of 52 of the 135 houses in Deutsch-Rixdorf and the 56 houses in Bohemian-Rixdorf burned down. The reconstruction was completed in 1853, but the original architecture was not always preserved. The exception is the building Richardstrasse 80 (seat of the German Comenius Society ).

In the following years there was a significant increase in population. In 1858, Böhmisch-Rixdorf already had 1014 and German-Rixdorf 2823 inhabitants.

250 years of settlement,
postage stamp, 1987

On January 1, 1874, Rixdorf was unified, on April 1, 1899, Rixdorf received town charter, and on January 27, 1912, with the consent of Kaiser Wilhelm II, on his 53rd birthday, the name was changed to "Neukölln". It was decided by the authorities because Rixdorf had meanwhile become the epitome of frivolous entertainment for Berliners, and the then - and to some extent still - popular street hit In Rixdorf ist Musike expresses this. The negative appearance for the place should be stripped off with the name. The name Neucölln is derived from the Neucölln settlements north of the old Rixdorf, which indicate the location at the southern gates of the old Berlin - Cölln . Eight years later on October 1, 1920, the urban district of Neukölln, together with the neighboring communities of Britz , Buckow and Rudow, was incorporated into Greater Berlin as the 14th administrative district (Neukölln) under the Greater Berlin Act .

The entire building ensemble of the former Bohemian-Rixdorf is a Bohemian village under monument protection and is considered a cultural monument .

Development and structure of the community

Street sign with reference to the old name of Kirchgasse:
Mala ulicka ('Enge Gasse')

The refugees from Bohemia worked in agriculture, but mainly as craftsmen. They saw themselves as descendants of the Church of the Bohemian Brothers founded in Bohemia in 1457 . In Rixdorf, a total of three Protestant parishes emerged within a short period of time that still exist:

  • Evangelical Reformed Bethlehem Congregation (in the EKBO ), with the preaching places Prayer Hall Richardstraße 97 and Bohemian Church Berlin (destroyed in 1943).
  • Evangelical-Bohemian-Lutheran Bethlehem Community (until 2005) with the Bethlehem Church in Rixdorf
  • Evangelical (Herrnhuter) Brethren Congregation , originally founded in 1727 in Herrnhut / Ochranow by Count Zinzendorf, with the prayer room in Kirchgasse

The settlers used their Czech mother tongue for a very long time . The records of the rectory as well as the inscriptions on graves were initially in Czech; the parish records were kept in German from 1798, the tombstones were bilingual from 1780 to 1820, after that only German, the events of the Brethren were held in Czech until shortly before the First World War .

A few streets had Czech names, the longest being Mala ulicka ('Kleine Gasse'), which has only been called Kirchgasse since 1909. The last two women who still spoke or understood Czech died in 1940.

Buildings and green spaces

House Kirchgasse 5
The Bethlehem Church
  • The house at Kirchgasse 5 is one of the best preserved historical buildings in Böhmisch-Rixdorf . It was inaugurated on November 14, 1753 as a school; Classes ran here until 1909. On the gable you can clearly see a chalice, which is intended to make it clear that between 1754 and 1761 the first prayer room of the Brethren was located here. There is a small museum in two rooms. It is also the oldest surviving school building in the Neukölln district.
  • The Böhmischer Gottesacker lies between today's Karl-Marx-Platz and Kirchhofstrasse. It was created in 1751 because of an unusually high number of deaths for the time (136 people in the years 1737–1751 alone). The cemetery has so far been used jointly by all three church parishes; it is the second oldest cemetery still in use in Berlin.
  • The historic forge , which is located in the middle of Richardplatz, was first mentioned in 1624. It originally belonged to a blacksmith from Berlin who drove here once a week. In 1797 a blacksmith settled here, whose descendants ran the smithy for 150 years. It is still in operation, albeit mainly in the artistic and restoration sectors; In the former home of the blacksmith is the “women's meeting point forge”. The smithy takes part in the traditional Alt-Rixdorf Christmas market every year.
  • The Bethlehem Church on Richardplatz, generally known as the “Rixdorfer Dorfkirche”, dates from 1481. In the 16th century, the outer walls were destroyed in a fire. After 1737 the church was rebuilt and still used by the Lutherans (Evangelical Bohemian Lutheran Bethlehem Community). The service, which takes place once or twice a month, is held in German , but uses the old liturgy . The church is known for its good acoustics and concerts are held in it. The parish is active in the social field.
  • The Comenius Garden on Richardstrasse was opened on June 11, 1995 in the presence of the Lord Mayors of Berlin and Prague . Its architecture should tie in with the educational and philosophical ideas of Johann Amos Comenius ; On about 7000 m² it symbolically reminds of the history and activities of the Bohemian community. At the opening, the partnership between the two cities - Berlin and Prague - was sealed. The so-called "Richardsburg", a tenement with five backyards , stood on the grounds of the Comenius Garden at Richardstrasse 35 until 1971 . It was a historical monument for the “working class suburb” of Rixdorf / Neukölln and the site of important local conflicts until the early 1970s.
  • The listed day laborer's place and smithy at Richardstraße 37 with its historical pavement was built in 1795 by the day laborer Daniel Gutschwager and after the great fire in 1884 it was rebuilt in its original form with a smoke kitchen by the owner Friederike Gutschwager . The building, which has been expanded to include a forge and fittings, shows its roots in the horse head of the forge by Hermann Kiel from 1888, which adorns the facade.

literature

  • Richard Schneider: Neukölln - A district of Berlin. Nicolaische Verlagbuchhandlung 1993.
  • Johannes Wanzlik: The Bohemian Church of God on Neukölln Karl-Marx-Platz ; Wichern-Verlag, Berlin 1989.
  • Hans-Jürgen Rach: Bohemia in the market - From Bohemian exiles in the market. In: Die Mark Brandenburg , Issue 75, Berlin 2009 ISBN 978-3-910134-11-9 .
  • Werner Korthaase : The Bohemian Village in Berlin-Neukölln 1737–1987: Exulant for the sake of the chalice. Sites of the History of Berlin, Vol. 20. Berlin: Hentrich, 1987.
  • Manfred Motel: Chronicle of Rixdorf: A festive gift from the Bohemian village for the hundredth anniversary of the city development of Rixdorf / Neukölln. Support group Bohemian Village in Berlin-Neukölln, Berlin, 1999.

Web links

Commons : Böhmisch-Rixdorf  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ochranov a obnovená Jednota bratrská ( Memento from June 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (Ochranov and the re-established Church of the Bohemian Brothers), Czech
  2. ^ District management Richardplatz Süd
  3. ^ Richard Schneider: Neukölln - A district of Berlin , Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung 1993
  4. ↑ District Office Neukölln (Ed.): Berlin Neukölln , Berlin 1973
  5. ↑ Historical paths in Rixdorf. ( Memento from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: Berliner Morgenpost , November 20, 2004
  6. ^ The Bohemian Village in Berlin Neukölln (Böhmisch-Rixdorf), boehmisches-dorf.de , accessed on July 29, 2009
  7. ↑ Berlin and its coat of arms, accessed on July 29, 2009
  8. ↑ How Rixdorf became Neukölln. In: Berliner Morgenpost , October 7, 2008, accessed on July 29, 2009
  9. ^ The Bohemian Village in Berlin-Neukölln. A cultural-historical phenomenon . Lydie Holinková
  10. ↑ After the Second World War , the Bohemian Lutheran congregations in Neukölln and Mitte merged , whereby the latter had lost its Bohemian Church, which was owned together with the Reformed, in 1943 due to Allied air raids , to form a congregation that in turn joined three other Lutheran congregations (Ananias, Magdalenen and Tabea) merged to form the Evangelical Church Community Rixdorf in the EKBO.
  11. ^ A b Johannes Wanzlik: The Bohemian Gottesacker on Neuköllner Karl-Marx-Platz ; Wichern-Verlag, Berlin 1989.
  12. ^ Manfred Motel: Bohemian Village in Berlin-Neukölln , in Werner Korthaase (Ed.): The Bohemian Village in Berlin-Neukölln 1737-1987. For the sake of the cup Exulant , Berlin 1987, p. 21
  13. ↑ How did Böhmisch Rixdorf come about? Evangelical Brethren Congregation, Berlin. Retrieved August 3, 2014.
  14. ↑ “Museum in the Bohemian Village”, see the museum's website
  15. ↑ Karl Bankmann (www.denkmalbild.de), a poster at the Forge (April 2007); see the blacksmith's homepage
  16. ↑ Residential and commercial building Richardstrasse 37 . At: berlin.de
  17. ↑ Manfred Motel: Chronicle of Rixdorf: A festive gift from the Bohemian village for the hundredth anniversary of the city development of Rixdorf / Neukölln. Support group Bohemian Village in Berlin-Neukölln, Berlin, 1999.

Coordinates: 52 ° 28 '26 "  N , 13 ° 26' 38"  E