Rotes Nowawes (DE/EN)

Cache description
This multi invites you to a 30-minute walk in remembrance of the Rotes (Red) Nowawes between the two world wars. It leads to several memorial plaques in today's Babelsberg. Special equipment is not required.

Historical introduction
On the orders of Frederick the Great, the first construction phase of the "Weaver colony near Potsdam" Nowawes began in 1751. Freely translated, the name derives from the Czech for small / new village. Already in the first year, the first Bohemian weaving families settled down. Due to poor or failing wage payments and non-compliance with contracts, the families between the two residential cities of Potsdam and Berlin were affected by extreme poverty. Often it came to uprisings of the weavers. The hardship and misery did not disappear with the further development and enlargement of the colony in the following decades. In the middle of the 19th century, ongoing industrialization also took place in Nowawes. Factories were built along the Großbeerenstraße. The social situation of the weavers got worse. The weaving machines in the factories produced faster and with less effort than the looms of the families. Their social structure dissolved and became part of the working class, which had to toil not only in textile manufacturing but also in shoe and locomotive factories or in the film industry. Social struggles were inevitable and so residents began to organize themselves first in and around the socialdemocratic party (SPD) and later the communist party (KPD). Ever larger distortions arose with the aristocratic Potsdam and the royalist Neuendorf. The Red Nowawes was born.

Start N 52° 23.536 E 013° 05.487
You stand in front of the Nowawes town hall. In 1897, the municipal council of Nowawes decided to build a town hall, which was officially opened on 19 January 1900. Seven years later, the two communities Neuendorf and Nowawes were merged. Until 1939 the city hall was the home of the Nowawes city administration.

On November 9, 1918, the general strike in Germany was declared. Workers from Nowawes also joined. In the afternoon the red flag was waving on the Nowawes town hall, after the building was occupied by the workers. The results of the parliamentary elections of the first German republic differ significantly in Nowawes from those of the neighboring city of Potsdam. In Nowawes, the left parties USPD and SPD received a clear majority. Until Hitler's seizure of power in January 1933, the nazi party NSDAP was unable to gain a seat in the city parliament of Nowawes. In 1974, the former Nowawes Town Hall was given the name Herbert Ritter.

Waypoint 1 - Friedrich-Kirch-Platz and Herbert Ritter N 52° 23.615 E 013° 05.787
The Friedrich-Kirch-Platz, today Weberplatz, located in the heart of the Red Nowawes, was always the meeting point for demonstrations and other protests. For example on January 30, 1933, a protest against Hitler's seizure of power formed and marched to Potsdams City Palace and back again to Nowawes. In today's Friedrich-Engels-Str. the 300 demonstrators were supposed to be stopped by police forces, but they could be beaten back by the demonstrants - the Red Nowawes had won for the last time.

You are standing in front of the memorial plaque for the murdered young communist Herbert Ritter. He was an active member of the Communist Youth Association of Germany (KJVD), the youth organization of the KPD. On the evening of November 12, 1931, the 17-year-old was on his way home after a KJVD event, when he and one of his three companions were hit by shots fired by a member of the nationalsocialist SA. Herbert Ritter died on the way to the hospital. He was the first fatality of fascism in Nowawes. The murderer was prosecuted solely for illegal possession of weapons. In addition to the city hall also today's Bendastr. was named after Herbert Ritter.

Mission: In front of the memorial plaque you will find possibilities to park your bicycles. Write down the quantity of these bows (quantity = A).

Waypoint 2 - Meeting place Otto Hiemke N 52° 23.774 E 013° 05.793
Pubs and restaurants played an important role in Red Nowawes. They were places of cooperation and organization of political work. The meeting places changed over time, the sportrestaurant Otto Hiemke was one of them. In 1919 the local chapter of the KPD and in 1924 of the Rotfrontkämpferbund (RFB, Alliance of Red Front-Fighters) were founded here. When you enter the saloon, you are taking two steps down today. In a cloak-and-dagger operation in the early 20s of the last century, the floor was excavated so far that the room height met the newly created minimum requirements. The Prussian bureaucrats had devised this directive in order to take action against the unpleasant assembly place of communists in the low weaver house. Due to the creative idea and the joint nightly effort, the Prussian official in charge of the closure had to leave the next morning without accomplishing his duty.

Mission: As you approach the memorial plaque from the east, you are prompted to do something by a sign. Write down the tiny written digit on the sign (digit = B) and the amount of screws holding the memorial plaque for the foundation of the local chapters of KPD and RFB (amount = C).

Waypoint 3 - Sports ground at the Priesterstraße N 52° 23.899 E 013° 05.729
You stand in front of the Karl-Liebknecht-Stadium, the ground of SV Babelsberg 03. In Nowawes football also looks back on a working class tradition. In 1894 the Freie Turn- und Sportvereinigung (Free Gymnastics and Sports Association) was founded. Twelve years later, it was followed by the founding of the proletarian football club Arbeiter-Sportverein Concordia 06 (workers' sports club Concordia 06). After the end of World War I both formed the Freie Turn- und Sport-Vereinigung Nowawes von 1894 (Free Gymnastics and Sports Association Nowawes of 1894) in the Arbeiter-Turn- und Sportbund (ATSB, Workers' Gymnastics and Sports Federation). In 1924, the members of the club layed out the sports ground on Priesterstraße (today's Karl-Liebknecht-Str.). On this site today is the stadium situated. In 1928 there was a division in the workers' sport. The clubs excluded from the ATSB organized themselves from now under the umbrella organization Rot-Sport (red sport). In March 1933, this association was banned, so that all affiliated clubs were dissolved - The ASV Concordia 06 officially ceased to exist.

Mission: Between the entrances of the stadium are several memorial plaques about the history of this ground. One informs about the beginning of the workers' sports in Nowawes. Write down the amount of screws holding this memorial plaque (amount = D).

Final
You have now determined values ​​for A, B, C, and D. The final can be found in a street with a name that connects to one of the above waypoints:

N 52° 23.X X = 113 + (A⋅B⋅C⋅D)
E 013° 05.Y Y = 110 + (A⋅B⋅C⋅D)

The renaming of Nowawes into Babelsberg 1938 was justified by the former NSDAP mayor Benz with the "ungerman name, which also still had the stain of a marxist stronghold attached." A year later Babelsberg became a district of Greater Potsdam as a result of a municipal reform.