Rixdorf – The Bohemian Quarter

Foto: -jkb- (Eigenes Werk) CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Our friend and Radio Prag editor Sarah Borufka wrote a really interesting piece on Böhmisch-Rixdorf, the old Bohemian quarter located between Richardstraße and Kirchgasse in Neukölln. She met up with Cordelia Polinna, the director of the local Bohemian Museum, and talked to her about the history of the neighborhood. A really interesting aspect of the village is it’s architectural style, which is quite untypical for a Bohemian settlement:
“That is very strange, we have been trying to research that and have not been able to clear that up. It is definitely not what the villages in Bohemia look like. Because those people who can trace their ancestors back to Bohemia, know the houses there and they are very different from the ones that have been built here in Berlin. The housing structure was quite elaborate and interesting. Nine houses were erected, split into two parts, so that two families could live in each house, side by side. The big walls faced each other to save energy and create courtyards. That was a very interesting and regular building structure, and it looks very much like a planned village.
“So nobody really knows how that came about. It may have been the same architect who was behind the expansion in Südliche Friedrichsstadt, a very Baroque expansion, who drew the plans for the village. We don’t think it was the Bohemians themselves, for that, it was too planned and too constructed. And we also are not sure how exactly this arrival happened. We know that they came here as a big group, around 350 refugees. And they must have camped somewhere in the meantime. Some of them were taken in by other families for some months while these buildings were erected. So the exact process of their arrival is hard to trace.”
Read the whole interview here:
Radio Prague, The Bohemian Quarter – a chapter of Czech history in the heart of Berlin
Foto: -jkb- (Eigenes Werk) CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Our friend and Radio Prag editor Sarah Borufka wrote a really interesting piece on Böhmisch-Rixdorf, the old Bohemian quarter located between Richardstraße and Kirchgasse in Neukölln. She met up with Cordelia Polinna, the director of the local Bohemian Museum, and talked to her about the history of the neighborhood. A really interesting aspect of the village is it’s architectural style, which is quite untypical for a Bohemian settlement:
“That is very strange, we have been trying to research that and have not been able to clear that up. It is definitely not what the villages in Bohemia look like. Because those people who can trace their ancestors back to Bohemia, know the houses there and they are very different from the ones that have been built here in Berlin. The housing structure was quite elaborate and interesting. Nine houses were erected, split into two parts, so that two families could live in each house, side by side. The big walls faced each other to save energy and create courtyards. That was a very interesting and regular building structure, and it looks very much like a planned village.
“So nobody really knows how that came about. It may have been the same architect who was behind the expansion in Südliche Friedrichsstadt, a very Baroque expansion, who drew the plans for the village. We don’t think it was the Bohemians themselves, for that, it was too planned and too constructed. And we also are not sure how exactly this arrival happened. We know that they came here as a big group, around 350 refugees. And they must have camped somewhere in the meantime. Some of them were taken in by other families for some months while these buildings were erected. So the exact process of their arrival is hard to trace.”
Read the whole article here:
Radio Prague, The Bohemian Quarter – a chapter of Czech history in the heart of Berlin

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.