Localnauts · Rixdorf

Sources & Research

Every fact in our game rests on a source. Here we disclose where our knowledge comes from — and where something is handed down rather than hard-verified.

Why this page? For us, media literacy means not just talking but showing: we disclose the source for every fact in the game. What cannot be verifiably proven, we do not claim as fact.

verified Every fact on this page is backed by a verifiable source.

Key sources

Bohemian history (across all stations)

Arrival of the first Bohemian settlers on 25 March 1737, around 300 Protestants verified

FACETTEN (2012)

Invited by King Frederick William I of Prussia verified

FACETTEN (2012) · Wikipedia

18 families, almost all from Böhmisch-Rothwasser verified

FACETTEN (2012)

9 semi-detached houses + 9 barns, each with 2 horses / 2 cows + farm tools, tax-free for several years verified

FACETTEN (2012)

The king's motive was also economic: the Thirty Years' War + plague had depopulated Prussia verified

FACETTEN (2012)

Self-government (village mayor), exempt from taxes and military service, own congregations verified

Wikipedia · on-site research

Farmers AND weavers: the field by day, the loom in the evening verified

FACETTEN (2012) · Wikipedia

Services held in Czech until the First World War verified

FACETTEN (2012)

Malá ulička — the name of Kirchgasse until 1909 verified

FACETTEN (2012)

Museum im Böhmischen Dorf open since September 2005 verified

FACETTEN (2012) · Museum

Station 1 — Bohemian Monument

Bronze monument from 1912, sculptor Alfred Reichel, donated by descendants in gratitude verified

on-site research

Station 2 — School and Museum (Kirchgasse 5)

School/institution building 1753, bilingual (German/Czech), looms for the boys verified

on-site research · FACETTEN (2012)

Writing was done on slate tablets with a slate pencil verified

primary-school history, 18th/19th c.

Saved from the 1849 fire; the oldest surviving school building in Neukölln verified

on-site research

Cup symbol on the gable = the communion cup of the Hussites/Utraquists: communion 'in both kinds' (bread AND wine for all believers, not only the priest) → a sign of sharing/equality. Jan Hus burned at Constance in 1415 verified

Wikipedia (Laienkelch) · OME-Lexikon, Uni Oldenburg (Utraquists) · FACETTEN (2012)

Station 3 — Orchard Meadow / Karma Kultur

Officially the Streuobstwiese Rixdorf community garden, cultivated since 2017 verified

Karma Kultur / QM Berlin

Belonged to the Schudoma farm (Richardplatz 3), farm building 1885 verified

FACETTEN (2015)

1980s: demolition plans stopped; the preservation of an old right of way was decisive verified

FACETTEN (2015)

A standard apple tree lives around 100 years, some up to 150 verified

Pomological Society / horticulture

Preserving fruit in 1737: drying, cellaring, cider/must, plum butter verified

food history

Station 4 — The Barn (Die Scheune)

9 semi-detached houses / 9 barns, lodgers in the side chambers, farmer + weaver verified

FACETTEN (2012)

Today the youth club Die Scheune (AWO), Böhmische Str. 39a verified

AWO Südost

Barn doors were tall and wide so loaded harvest/hay wagons could pass through verified

farm/barn lore

Grain had to go to the windmill on the Rollberge (milling obligation); first German windmill 1739 verified

Neukölln district office · Wikipedia

Harvest brought from field to barn by ladder wagon + 2 horses verified

FACETTEN (2012) · agricultural history

Station 5 — Bethlehem Church

The oldest building in Rixdorf; roof turret/tower 1757 verified

Wikipedia · evkg-rixdorf.de

The name Bethlehemskirche only since 1912 verified

Wikipedia

Tower top: ball + star (no weathercock) verified

on-site photo · Wikipedia

Tower balls often served as a time capsule (documents, coins, letters) verified

Wikipedia Turmkugel

~1,350 known tower balls (CH/DE/AT), about half filled; opened only during tower renovation; the most curious filling a tortoise (Zurich, Fraumünster, 2004) verified

SRF / researcher Beat Kümin (2024)

The bell louvres direct the sound outward into the village verified

campanology

Station 6 — Rixdorf Forge

A forge documented since 1624 — one of the oldest active forges in Berlin; a residential forge from 1797 verified

feine-klingen.de · on-site research

Stood on the border of German/Bohemian Rixdorf; everyone used it verified

Wikipedia · on-site info board

Today a gold- and knife-smithy, all by hand; Berlin's last workshop that forges its own blades — knives & jewellery, plus up to ~160 sharpening jobs/month verified

feine-klingen.de (About us)

The 'Esse' = the open forge fire; in the fire iron becomes soft/malleable (glowing without melting), then is hammered into shape verified

blacksmithing basics

Station 7 — Water Pump

No running water in 1737; a shared well, common land = shared ground verified

on-site research

Cast-iron lever pumps (Lauchhammer type) date from the 19th c. — from the 1890s they replaced Berlin's old wooden pumps verified

Wikipedia — Berlin street pumps

Station 8 — Comenius Garden

Comenius Garden opened 11 June 1995; Comenius monument unveiled 1992 by Alexander Dubček verified

on-site research

Johann Amos Comenius (1592–1670), bishop of the Moravian Church, in exile his whole life verified

Wikipedia · Moravian Church

The Comenius Garden Foundation (founder Henning Vierck) tends the garden with nurseries & primary schools; over 1,000 children explore here in their free time (out-of-school learning site/workshop) verified

comenius-garten.de · Wikipedia

'Archive of Children's Knowledge' in the workshop (with the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science); greenhouse + raised beds; apple/pear harvest with children from the neighbourhood verified

Berliner Woche · MPIWG · Wikipedia

Station 9 — Moravian Church (Brüdergemeine)

Timeline Hus → Comenius → Herrnhut → Bohemian Rixdorf; cup in the coat of arms verified

Moravian Church (display case)

1944 prayer hall destroyed by an aerial mine; 1962 new church hall; 2018 meeting centre for all verified

Moravian Church

Station 10 — MyStone Mosaic / Alfred-Scholz-Platz

German and Bohemian Rixdorf united in 1874; renamed Neukölln in 1912 verified

Wikipedia

Čas radosti is still sung at Christmas today; some services still partly in Czech verified

FACETTEN (2012) · Moravian Church

Bonus — Karl-Marx-Platz (Guilds & Graveyard)

Six guilds on the signs at the Heinzelmann; a journeymen's/travelling-craft community (Walz) verified

heinzelmann-berlin.de

Bohemian graveyard: first burial 3 Sept 1751; Berlin's second-oldest continuously used cemetery; gate inscription 'I know that my Redeemer lives' verified

on-site info board

Gravestones bilingual until 1820; exclusion ('not respectable') verified

FACETTEN (2012) · on-site info board