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Old Berlin Mission Complex Potchefstroom, North West

Date: n.d. Type: Mission Station Style: Gothic Revival Status: Extant Street: du Plooy Street

Pastor CW Moschutz of the Berlin Missionary Society arrived in Potchefstroom from Makapaanspoort on 28 March 1872 to establish a mission station. He built himself a parsonage, of which he took occupation on 21 August 1872. He also opened a school that began with 20 pupils. The foundation stone of the school building and the wagon house were laid on Ascension Day in 1875. Due to Moschutz's ill health, Pastor Kohler arrived on 5 October 1874 to assist him, but Moschutz died the same day. The old Berlin Mission Complex is the only church building in Potchefstroom that still forms part of a historic complex. The architecture of the church itself is Gothic Revival, while the school building is in nineteenth-century Karoo style. (Richardson, 2001: 267) All truncated references not fully cited below are those of Joanna Walker's original text and cited in full in the 'Bibliography' entry of the Lexicon.