Actually, the Rixdorf straw bale rolling Popráci should have taken place on September 10th for the 187th time. Now the competition, which is probably unique in the world, has to be canceled for the third year in a row. However, the background is not Corona, but the money: As initiator Norbert Kleemann explains, he has been fighting for the financing of the street festival for 13 years.
In 2008 he helped bring Popráci to life: Since then, it is said that a centuries-old tradition has been celebrated annually at Richardplatz in memory of the Bohemian immigrants. Because when Berlin-Neukölln was still called Rixdorf, the Rixdorfer straw bale rolling was invented. The rules are simple: Bales of straw are rolled in competition, and at the end the world champion title even beckons.
“We are a brand that cannot be compared with anything else: a mixture of sporting competition, culture and street festival,” describes Kleemann. Most recently, around 30 teams competed every year, most of them with imaginative costumes and many from abroad – having traveled especially for the competition.
According to research by the initiators, the history of the race goes far back into the history of Rixdorf: For example, the name Popráci comes from the Bohemian saying “Po Prací!”, which is supposed to stand for “after work”: With this, the Bohemian settlers are supposed to: reacted to the contact attempts of the German Rixdorfer:innen in the 18th century.
There should have been discussions between the two population groups: the latter, it is said, did not like the fact that the Bohemians did not have to pay taxes and did not have to do military service.
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In order to settle the disputes of the village youth, the village mayor Friedrich Fetzke and his Bohemian colleague Bohumil Pachl are said to have met secretly in the Spandau suburb – and there they invented the straw bale rolling. By 1911, 174 Rixdorf straw bale rolls are said to have taken place – and it wasn’t until 2008 that the Rixdorf artists’ colony revived the forgotten festival.
However, the event team had to start from scratch every year in order to finance the festival with donations, says Kleemann: so far, most have come from private donors and companies, with a small proportion being financed by the district office.
Then his partners also dropped out, reports Kleemann on the phone. “And I was faced with the question: Am I going to do it alone now?” That was simply too much for him, the organization had already “bordered on self-exploitation” in the team.
With the cancellation of this year’s rolling, he wanted to send a signal: “We need solid basic funding so that the festival can take place,” he says. But he hasn’t given up hope entirely. “The cancellation is a pity, after all this is my baby,” he says and hopes for new sponsors for the next few years – and voluntary support. Then maybe in the future it can be said again: On your balls, get set, go!
