Hinged cardboard covered wood box with 121 small wood blocks with letters printed on four sides in two colors, each fitted into a designated slot; on the opposite side of the blocks is a balsa wood matrix formed of ten lines wide enough to accommodate the blocks. The original metal tweezers for manipulating the blocks is also present. This is an example of a reading box - a teaching aid that found its way into German schools during the era of educational reform in the 18th century. The concept behind this didactic tool is based on phoneme-grapheme correspondence—the alignment of spoken sounds with written characters. Accordingly, the teacher could pronounce a word, which the students would then assemble using 1 x 1 cm cubes printed with letters of the alphabet as well as other sounds, such as digraphs. Gradually, this phonic approach to spelling fell out of favor after the war, thereby leading to the disappearance of this pedagogical approach. The title refers to the southwestern borough of Berlin, indicating its use in the schools in that area. A later example bearing a Heidelberg imprint containing fewer blocks and lacking the tweezers is recorded at the Museum Digital Brandenberg; otherwise this is unknown to institutional libraries. Minor rubbing to cardboard box edges, contemporary ink inscription of former owner inside matrix. Overall, a very good example of a rare survival.