Neukölln (locality)

Quarter of the Neukölln borough in Berlin, Germany

This article is about the quarter of Berlin. For the administrative borough, see Neukölln. For the constituency, see Berlin-Neukölln (electoral district). For the railway and U-Bahn station, see Berlin-Neukölln station. For Neu-Cölln, the historical district of Berlin, see Cölln. For the David Bowie instrumental work, see Neuköln. For the neighborhood Neuköln in North Rhine-Westphalia, see Oberhausen. For the mine Neu-Cöln, see Borbeck-Mitte.

"Rixdorf" redirects here. For the manor in Schleswig-Holstein, see Lebrade. For the ship, see Neukölln (locality) § Ferry.

Quarter of Berlin in Germany

Neukölln

Quarter of Berlin

Hasenheide on the western outskirts of Neukölln with St. John's Basilica

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Coat of arms

Location of Neukölln in Neukölln borough and Berlin

Neukölln

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Neukölln

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Coordinates: 52°28′39.3″N 13°26′31.5″E﻿ / ﻿52.477583°N 13.442083°E﻿ / 52.477583; 13.442083
Country| Germany
State| Berlin
City| Berlin
Borough| Neukölln
Founded| 26 June 1360 (official), 1190–1210 (unofficial)
Subdivisions| 9 neighborhoods or 5 regions with 21 planning areas
Government

• Borough mayor| Martin Hikel (SPD)
Area

• Total

| 11.7 km2 (4.5 sq mi)
Elevation

| 43.6 m (143.0 ft)
Population

(2023-12-31)[1]

• Total

| 163,735
• Density| 14,000/km2 (36,000/sq mi)
Time zone| UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)| UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes|

12043, 12045, 12047, 12049, 12051, 12053, 12055, 12057, 12059

Vehicle registration| B
Website| https://www.berlin.de/ba-neukoelln/

Neukölln (German: [nɔʏˈkœln] ⓘ; officially abbreviated Neukö), formerly Rixdorf (German: [rˈɪksdɔɾf]), from 1899 to 1920 an independent city, is a large inner-city quarter of Berlin in the homonymous borough of Neukölln, and evolved around the historic village of Rixdorf. With 162,548 inhabitants (2025) the quarter has the second-largest population of Berlin after Prenzlauer Berg. Since the early 13th century, the local settlements, villages and cities down to the present day have always been a popular destination for colonists and immigrants. In modern times, it was originally shaped by the working class and gastarbeiters, but western immigration since the turn of the millennium has led to gentrification and a rejuvenation of the quarter's culture and nightlife.

## Geography

[edit]

Rixdorfer Höhe, Hasenheide

Neukölln is on the North European Plain, which is typically characterized by low-lying marshy woodlands with a mainly flat topography. The quarter lies on the geological border between the shallow Weichselian Warsaw-Berlin Urstromtal glacial valley and the northernmost edge of the Teltow young drift ground moraine plateau, specifically the Rollberge,[note 1] a small range of glacial hills rising to the south of Hermannplatz and the street Hasenheide, and to the west of Rixdorf and the street Karl-Marx-Straße. Neukölln's average natural elevation is 43.6 m (143 ft) above NHN, ranging from 32.3 m (106 ft) to 54.8 m (180 ft),[note 2] with the highest man-made elevation at 67.9 m (223 ft) achieved by the Rixdorfer Höhe, a schuttberg in the Volkspark Hasenheide.[note 3] Neukölln's geographical center, based on a minimum bounding plane, is located east of Richardstraße 101 near Kirchgasse at a linear distance of approximately 2.3 km (1.4 mi) to the river Spree with an elevation of 34.8 m (114 ft).

Landwehr Canal with Neukölln and the quayside bar Ankerklause on the right

### Location

[edit]

Neukölln forms the lower east side of Berlin's city center within the Ringbahn, and is the northernmost quarter in the homonymous borough of Neukölln, with the borough stretching all the way to Berlin's southern border with Brandenburg. The quarter is officially an Ortsteil, and the borough a Verwaltungsbezirk (administrative district), in Berlin designated Bezirk (district).[note 4] Different from the borough, the smaller quarter of Neukölln has no mayor or representative assembly of its own. To distinguish the quarter from the borough, the latter is sometimes informally called Groß-Neukölln ("Greater Neukölln"), while the quarter is also called Berlin-Neukölln[note 5] or Nord-Neukölln.[note 6]

The quarter Neukölln is adjacent to the quarter Britz in the south, which is also part of greater Neukölln, to the SO 36 and Kreuzberg 61 neighborhoods of the quarter Kreuzberg in the north and north-west (in the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough), and to the quarter Tempelhof in the west (in Tempelhof-Schöneberg). In the east and north-east, Neukölln borders on the quarters Alt-Treptow, Plänterwald and Baumschulenweg, which are all part of the Treptow-Köpenick borough in former East Berlin.

Neukölln is separated from Kreuzberg by the park Volkspark Hasenheide, the Landwehr Canal, and the streets Kottbusser Damm and Hasenheide as far as the city square Südstern, which conforms to Berlin's historical Weichbildgrenze (1861–1919). With Tempelhof, Neukölln shares the Tempelhofer Feld, the vast field of the former Tempelhof Airport, now a popular recreation area. The green corridor Heidekamppark with the trench Heidekampgraben, the Kiefholzstraße and several urban streets in the Harzer Kiez separate Neukölln from the quarters of Treptow-Köpenick in former East Berlin. Finally, the Stadtring motorway with the Carl-Weder-Park, streets like Britzkestraße, Juliushof and Grenzallee, as well as the southern end of the Neukölln Ship Canal and the Britz Canal, form the administrative border with the Britz quarter.

The Teltow Canal, on the other hand, forms the geographical and demographic border within the borough Neukölln. The canal separates the dense urban areas of Neukölln and northern Britz with their higher share of immigrants and lower-income citizenry from the borough's southern residential areas, which, with the exception of Gropiusstadt, are mainly characterized by a larger number of family homes and middle-class households.[note 7]

### Subdivisions

[edit]

#### Neighborhoods

[edit]

Primary neighborhoods Lifeworld-oriented regions

Neukölln has nine primary neighborhoods (Kieze), administratively called Ortslagen,[2] among them the historical sites of Neukölln's foundation south-east of the quarters's geographical center,

* Richardplatz-Süd[note 8]

to the south and south-east of the central plaza Richardplatz, and

* Böhmisch-Rixdorf[note 9]

to the north and north-west, which together are commonly referred to as Rixdorf or Alt-Rixdorf ("Old Rixdorf").[note 10] The other primary neighborhoods are (from north to south):

* Reuterkiez,[note 11]
* Flughafenkiez,[note 12]
* Schillerkiez,[note 13]
* Rollberg,[note 14]
* Weiße Siedlung,[note 15]
* Körnerpark,[note 16] and
* High-Deck-Siedlung.[note 17]

#### Other sites

[edit]

Several commonly recognized secondary neighborhoods exist in Neukölln. The most important and oldest central urban community is the Donaukiez along Donaustraße between Sonnenallee and Karl-Marx-Straße, including Hermannplatz at its western end.[note 18] The oldest suburban community is the historically important Dammwegsiedlung just south of the Weiße Siedlung, an early modern housing estate from the 1920s.[note 19] A recently evolved neighborship of cultural importance is the Weserkiez with its famous party mile around Weserstraße north of Sonnenallee.[note 20] Due to urban development and expansion, many other kiez communities have formed over the decades, sometimes distinguished in the city's official LOR framework (see below) or the focus of current or former neighborhood management,[note 21] while an outlier is Kreuzkölln, which is a meta-neighborhood and loosely defined cultural sphere, described by a modern jocular toponym,[note 22] which since the mid-2000s has often been used for the northern parts of the quarter and the surrounding regions of Kreuzberg.[note 23]

#### Urban planning

[edit]

Berlin's official urban planning framework, on the other hand, divides Berlin's boroughs and quarters into so-called Lebensweltlich orientierte Räume ("lifeworld-oriented regions"). In this LOR framework, the quarter of Neukölln, non-administrative district 10 in borough 08, as of 2025, is divided into five regions, each of them further compartmentalized into a total of 21 LORs, also called Planungsräume (planning areas).[3]

Overview: regions, planning areas, neighborhoods and other areas of Neukölln  Region | Region number | Planning area (LOR) | Area number | Primary neighborhoods | Secondary neighborhoods | Neighborships | Other areas | Industry | Other localities

|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|

Schillerpromenade  | 01  | Hasenheide  | 01  |  | Hasenheide  |  | Volkspark Hasenheide  |  | Tierpark Neukölln
Schillerpromenade Nord  | 02  | Schillerkiez |  |  | Tempelhofer Feld  |  |
Schillerpromenade Süd  | 03  |  |  |  |
Wartheplatz  | 04  |  | Warthekiez  |  |  | Werner-Seelenbinder-Sportpark
Silbersteinstraße  | 05  |  | Silbersteinkiez  |  |  |  | Emmauswald, Carl-Weder-Park
Neuköllner Mitte/Zentrum  | 02  | Flughafenstraße  | 06  | Flughafenkiez |  |  |  |  |
Rollberg  | 07  | Rollberg |  |  | Lessinghöhe  |  |
Körnerpark  | 08  | Körnerpark |  |  | Thomashöhe  |  | Körnerpark
Glasower Straße  | 09  |  | Glasower Kiez  | Kranoldkiez  |  | Industrial park Lahnstraße  |
Reuterstraße  | 03  | Maybachufer  | 10  | Reuterkiez |  | Friedelkiez  | Kreuzkölln |  |
Reuterplatz  | 11
| Weserkiez  |  |
Weichselplatz  | 12
Bouchéstraße  | 13  |  | Harzer Straße  |  |  |  |
Donaustraße  | 14  |  | Donaukiez  |  |  |  | Hermannplatz
Rixdorf  | 04  | Ganghoferstraße  | 15  |  |  | Ganghoferstraße  |  |  |
Alt-Rixdorf  | 16  | Böhmisch-Rixdorf |  |  |  |  |
Richardplatz-Süd |  |  |  |  | Richardplatz
Braunschweiger Straße  | 17  |  |  |  |  |
Hertzbergplatz  | 18  |  |  | Weserkiez  | Wohnanlage Ossastraße  | Treptow freight yards, industrial park Ederstraße, Neukölln Docklands  | Wildenbruchplatz
Treptower Straße Nord  | 19  |  | Harzer Straße  |  |  | Treptow freight yards, industrial park Treptower Straße  |
Köllnische Heide  | 05  | Weiße Siedlung  | 20  | Weiße Siedlung | Dammwegsiedlung  |  |  | Neukölln Docklands  | Heidekamppark, suburban garden allotments
Schulenburgpark  | 21  | High-Deck-Siedlung |  | Schulenburgpark  |  | Neukölln Harbor, industrial parks Köllnische Heide (Nobelstraße) & Lahnstraße  | Heidekamppark, Von-der-Schulenburg-Park

## Nature

[edit]

* Tempelhofer Feld

* Hasenheide

* Körnerpark

* Emmauswald

* Neukölln Ship Canal

* Rixdorfer Teich, Hasenheide

* Red fox, Tempelhofer Feld

* Common kestrel, Tempelhofer Feld

As of 2024, Berlin ranks among the greenest cities in Germany with only 44.5% of sealed ground, an average of 4.24 m3/m2 (4.64 cu yd/sq yd) of vegetation, and a 50.6% share of surface area with green space (44%) or water bodies (6.6%), which provides a cooler urban climate and many options for natural habitats and urban recreation.[note 24] Similarly, the borough of Neukölln has only 45.6% of sealed ground, mainly due to its extensive recreational parks, which, together with other nature areas, have a share of ca. 43%, with green spaces at 35%, of which 19.9% are parks and meadows, and up to 8% of water surfaces. However, due to the absence of large-scale true forests (see below), the borough only has an average of 3.0 m3/m2 (3.3 cu yd/sq yd) of vegetation. Nevertheless, from 2019 to 2024 this was still enough to ensure an average maximum summer midday surface temperature of 36.01 °C (96.82 °F), more than one degree Celsius (two degrees Fahrenheit) lower than Berlin's hottest borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, which measured 37.22 °C (99.00 °F). Together with Pankow, this makes Neukölln one of the coolest boroughs in Berlin's inner city, and places it slightly below the class of boroughs that is categorized by an above-average risk of heat exposure for its residents.[4] However, average estimates for the northern quarter of Neukölln with 72.5% sealed ground and only 15% green areas would result in a much higher heat exposure compared to the borough's southern quarters, even though at approximately 7.5%, the quarter Neukölln (including Kreuzberg's Landwehr Canal) has a rather high share of water surface area.

### Parks and forests

[edit]

The borough of Neukölln, and especially its homonymous quarter, is densely populated and urbanized, and only has 3.1% (2019) of original natural land and true forests left, second to last before the borough Tempelhof-Schöneberg.[5] However, the lack of true forests, which in Neukölln are only 0.1% of the overall surface area, is offset by many green plazas, parks and other vegetated recreational areas at an overall share of 35%, not counting active cemeteries,[note 25] which actually make Neukölln one of the greenest of all Berlin boroughs, even taking the city's top spot with 19.9% of parks and meadows.[note 26]

Green space in the quarter Neukölln has a relatively low share of approximately 15% and is dominated by small to medium-sized parks, but the two major parks in the western part of Neukölln, the Volkspark Hasenheide and the Tempelhofer Feld, more than make up for the lack of large green areas in other spots. Smaller parks are found in all neighborhoods, many of which are among Neukölln's historical garden monuments,[6] for example the Anita-Berber-Park (Schillerpromenade), a former cemetery, and the stadium park of the Werner Seelenbinder sporting grounds, both of which connect to the Tempelhofer Feld, the recently decommissioned cemetery Neuer St. Jacobi Friedhof (Schillerpromenade), now mostly used as a park, with parts under management by the Prinzessinnengärten gardening project, Lessinghöhe and Thomashöhe (Körnerpark), the Körnerpark itself, a former gravel quarry, with the Rübelandpark connecting Thomashöhe and Körnerpark, the Comenius Garden (Rixdorf), Herbert-Krause-Park and Von-der-Schulenburg-Park near High-Deck-Siedlung, and extensive stretches of garden allotments like Helmutstal and Märkische Schweiz close to the quarter's eastern border, including the Heidekamppark, a long green corridor adjacent to the trench Heidekampgraben. On the southern and south-western borders to the quarters Britz and Tempelhof respectively is the Carl-Weder-Park, a stretched park above the underground Stadtring autobahn west of the Britzer Damm. Immediately adjacent to the north is the Emmauswald, a former cemetery and Neukölln's only true forest, with the Emmauskirchhof, a still active graveyard, connecting to the east. Furthermore, several inner-city squares and building complexes have been designed with green stretches.[note 27]

### Water bodies

[edit]

In the borough Neukölln, water bodies are up to 8% of the whole surface area, with the northern quarter at approximately 7.5% trailing behind Rudow and especially Britz, two of Neukölln's four other quarters. Like its parks and forests, with the exception of the Emmauswald, all of Neukölln's water bodies are man-made. Several of the quarter's parks contain artificial lakes and ponds, for example the Volkspark Hasenheide (Rixdorfer Teich), the Comenius Garden (Weltenmeer), the Karma Culture Garden in Rixdorf, and the Von-Der-Schulenburg-Park (High-Deck-Siedlung). Neukölln's prominent waterway is the Neukölln Ship Canal, which connects the Teltow and Britz Canals with the Landwehr Canal and (through Kreuzberg) the river Spree. The Neukölln Harbor, consisting of an upper and lower basin and connected via the Neukölln Watergate, was built in tandem with the Britz Harbor north of the Teltow Canal. Smaller landing stages are located along the Neukölln Ship Canal until Kiehlufer, and these Neukölln Docklands are currently subject to extensive redevelopment.

### Wildlife

[edit]

Like all of inner-city Berlin, Neukölln, despite its high level of urbanization, has a diverse and thriving population of urban wildlife.[7] The quarter's large share of vegetation, parks and other green areas (see above) not only provides a cooler urban climate, but also promotes the settlement of wildlife. Wild species in Neukölln have usually found their safe retreats along the waterways and in the bigger parks and cemeteries, while using migration routes into the central neighborhoods along train tracks and through the interconnected park and cemetery areas, for example from Tempelhofer Feld to Lessinghöhe. Greener quarters adjacent to Neukölln in the south and east also promote migration into the quarter.

Neukölln's nature and wildlife are primarily managed by rangers from Berlin's Stiftung Naturschutz (Charity for Nature Conservation). Political measures over the past years have improved natural habitats and the ecological component of Berlin's path toward a more sustainable development. Among them are a strict urban tree planting and replacement policy, an emphasis on discreetly controlled rank growth, both in parks and on median strips, protected nature areas in larger parks, and more neighborhood-oriented action like roof gardens, for example the Kranichgarten at the Neukölln Arcaden, vegetated and partially fenced Baumscheiben around road trees instead of tree grates, as well as vegetated parklets. The Tempelhofer Feld is home to several protected and endangered plant and animal species like the Italian locust and the wood white butterfly. Almost half of the vast park's bird species are on the list of highly endangered species, among them the whinchat and the wheatear.[8]

Generally, Neukölln's wildlife is no different from that of other inner-city quarters of Berlin, so red foxes, rabbits and smaller rodent species like the red squirrel and several muroidea as well as urban birds like doves, crows and (on the quarter's canals) swans, geese and ducks are almost ubiquitous. Less noticeable species include the badger, the beech marten, the hedgehog, bats, the true toad and other species of frog. In recent years, otters and beavers have also made a comeback in Neukölln, for example at the Landwehr Canal.[9] To date, no sightings of wild boar have been recorded for the quarter Neukölln.[note 28]

While the plain and unadorned surfaces of modern architecture have all but pushed out traditional urban bird species like the common swift and the house martin, Berlin, unlike other German cities, is still a safe haven for many others. A prominent example is the sparrow, and Berlin is now regarded as the "sparrow capital" of Germany.[10] Predatory birds, though common to Berlin,[11] are not native to the quarter of Neukölln, but sometimes intrude from other peripheral areas, for example the common kestrel from the borough's southern quarters. Rank growth and gardening policies have been the basis for a slight revival of the urban insect population, including endangered or almost extinct species like the vine weevil, which also reattracts bird species to the urbanized areas. Furthermore, Neukölln is now home to 300 species of wild bees.

Like all cities in today's globalized world, Berlin and Neukölln are also home to several invasive species like the raccoon or the Himalayan balsam.[12] Neukölln in particular has a fairly large population of nutria and muskrat. Several foreign species of fish and crustaceans have settled in Berlin's waterways, and have markedly shifted the balance of indigenous species. Especially the population of red swamp crayfish has risen sharply in the past decade, including in the Landwehr Canal, and the reintroduction of eels into Berlin's waterways is planned as a countermeasure.[13]

## Etymologies

[edit]

* Knights Templar cross, Templar village church, Tempelhof

* Richard of Cornwall

* Richard de Bures, family coat of arms

* St. Richard of Chichester

* Neu-Cölln am Wasser, coat of arms

### Rixdorf: Richard's village

[edit]

At the time of its official foundation in 1360 as a Knights Hospitaller angerdorf, Rixdorf was called Richarsdorp (Richardsdorf, "Richard's Village"), while a proposed earlier toponym for the preceding Knights Templar hamlet is *Richardshof[note 29] ("Richard's Court"). Two alternate Low German spellings, Richarstorp and Richardstorff, are already present in the foundational charter. The village's name was usually pronounced with mostly elided or shifted consonants (German: [rˈɪkasdˌɔɾp]). Alternate spellings of the 14th century were Richardsdorp and Richardstorpp, while the 15th century introduced Reicherstorff, Richerstorp and Rigerstorp (1435).

From the 16th century onward, vernacularly contracted forms took hold.[note 30] Ricksdorf (1525) became a widely accepted spelling for two centuries, with many alternate forms appearing in historical records, for example Reichstorff (1541), Richstorff, Rigstorff (1542) and Richsdorf (1543), and in the 17th and 18th century Rechsdorff, Rechsdorp, Risdorf, Reichsdorp, Rieksdorf, Riecksdorff (1693) and Riechsdorf (1737). The earliest known source for Rixdorf is from the year 1709, and it became the official modern High German spelling in 1797.

The mainstream theory on the etymology of Richardsdorf, and therefore of Rixdorf, assumes an eponymous individual called Richard,[note 31] allegedly a local Knight Templar, bailiff or commander of the Tempelhof commandery, or even the original administrator or chief settler (Lokator) of *Richardshof in the early 13th to 14th century. However, no Richard is mentioned in historical sources in connection with the Templar villages of the Teltow, let alone an actual Knight Templar per Alemanniam et Slaviam, so alternate etymologies were eventually propagated,[note 32] while exaggerating folk etymologies also emerged and tried to connect the toponym to important historical or canonized Richards.[note 33] In modern times, alternate spellings like Reichsdorp spawned secondary folk etymologies different from Richard, namely from Reich ("empire") or the surname Reich, but without taking the documented earlier variants and vernacular contractions into account.[note 34]

### Neukölln: the new colony

[edit]

In the 12th and early 13th centuries, during the time of Albert the Bear's and his successors' foundational advances into the region of modern-day Brandenburg and Berlin, Latin had been the administrative lingua franca of the Mediaeval Holy Roman Empire. The immigrating colonists mostly spoke dialects of the German common language,[note 35] while the Hevelli and Sprevane, the Slavic tribes who had replaced the original Germanic natives of the region, spoke West Slavic languages, for example Old-Polabian. For this reason, the toponyms of many of Berlin's localities have a Slavic origin, including Berlin itself, whose name, in spite of its earliest Latin form as Berolinum,[note 36] possibly stems from Proto-Slavic *berl-/*brl-, an obscure root which is usually interpreted as "bog", "moor" or "swamp".[note 37]

The name Neukölln, however, is in many ways an exception to Berlin's toponymic rules. When Rixdorf was rechristened Neukölln in 1912, the city's new name was a catch-all term. It logically referenced several places in the vicinity, namely the Cölln Heath to the east, as well as Cölln itself, Alt-Berlin's historical twin city, which had been Rixdorf's feudal parent city for several generations (see below). The primary reference, however, was to the Neucöllner Siedlungen (Neucölln Estates), which had been constructed on the Berlinische Wiesen north of the old Rixdorf in the decades before the renaming. The estates' name recalled the meadows' old name Cöllnische Wiesen (Cölln Meadows), and thereby, whether intentionally or not, imitated Neu-Cölln, an old district south of the medieval part of Berlin and Cölln proper. This historical Neu-Cölln, sometimes written Neu-Cöln or neu Cölln, was at first also called Neu-Cölln am Wasser ("New Cölln by the water").[note 38] It was built in 1662 as the southern military extension of the city of Cölln, and remained a small district of Berlin until the Greater Berlin Act of 1920, when it was dissolved in the new Mitte quarter of the homonymous borough.[note 39]

The etymology of Cölln, and therefore of Neukölln ("New Cölln"), is from imperial Latin colonia ("colony", "settlement", "colonial town"),[note 40] and the colonial town in Brandenburg was at first called Colonia (1237)[note 41] and Colonia juxta Berlin (1247, "colony near Berlin"). In the same manner as the toponym of modern-day Köln (Cologne), the former Roman Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (50 CE) and Colonia Agrippina (322), was gradually germanized from post-Roman Colonia (since 450) to its Mediaeval names Colne, Coellen, and Cölln, so was Brandenburg's Holy Roman Colonia, first partially to Colne prope Berlin (1344, "Colne near Berlin"), then to Collen (1440), before settling on Cölln in later centuries.[note 42] Latin literature kept referring to Cölln as Colonia. To distinguish it from Cologne, toponym extensions were often applied, for example Marchiae ("of the March [Brandenburg]"), or ad Spream, ad Spreeam or ad Spreham ("on the [river] Spree"), or Brandenburgica ("Brandenburgian").[14] Even though neither Neukölln nor the historical Neu-Cölln were ever officially called Nova Colonia,[note 43] etymologically Neukölln still translates as "New Colony", which was a fitting new name for a city that since the first German colonists of the early 13th century until today has always been a prominent destination for settlers and immigrants.

## History

[edit]

### Timelime

[edit]

Date  | Toponym  | Notes

|
|

1190[tpq] – 1210[taq] | n/a  | established as a Knights Templar military stronghold
1245 (approx.)  | *Richardshof[note 44] | rededicated as a Templar access yard
26 June 1360  | Richardsdorf  | officially founded as a Knights Hospitaller village
23 September 1435  | Richardsdorf  | treasury village and fief of Alt-Berlin and Cölln
24 August 1543  | Ricksdorf  | treasury village and fief of Cölln
1 January 1710  | Rixdorf  | treasury village and fief of the newly unified Berlin
31 May 1737  | Böhmisch-Rixdorf  | new Bohemian colony founded
1791  | Böhmisch-Rixdorf  | granted its own administration
1797  | Böhmisch- & Deutsch-Rixdorf  | Rixdorf becomes the official spelling
13 December 1872  | Böhmisch- & Deutsch-Rixdorf  | become part of Brandenburg's 24th bailiwick
1 January 1874  | Rixdorf  | Böhmisch- and Deutsch-Rixdorf unite, join the Kreis Teltow
1 April 1899  | Rixdorf  | independent city
1 May 1899  | Rixdorf  | free city
27 January 1912  | Neukölln  | Rixdorf rechristened Neukölln
1 October 1920  | Berlin-Neukölln  | Neukölln becomes a quarter in Greater Berlin's 14th borough Neukölln
1 January 2001  | Berlin-Neukölln  | borough Neukölln reorganized as Berlin's 8th borough

### Historical maps

[edit]

* Germanic peoples of Germania Magna, 50 CE

* Slavic settlements in the Berlin region, ca. 1150

* Templar villages and courts on the Teltow, 13th century[note 45]

* Undeveloped Ricksdorf lot with Hasenheide, 1685[note 46]

* Rixdorf with its new Bohemian settlement, 1740

* Rixdorf with Hasenheide and the Cöllnische Wiesen, 1786

* Undeveloped Reuterkiez, 1827[note 47]

* Hasenheide and the Berlinische Wiesen, 1842

* Deutsch- and Böhmisch-Rixdorf, 1857[note 48]

* Deutsch- and Böhmisch-Rixdorf with Hobrecht's development plan, 1862

* Rixdorf with modern development plan, 1900

### Prehistory

[edit]

Germanic equestrian tomb of Neukölln

Archeological finds on the Rixdorf lot point to a Germanic prehistory of Neukölln,[note 49] with evidence of a settlement since the late Neolithic age, like early flint tools, potsherds from the Bronze Age on Richardplatz, or Iron Age burial urns in the Hasenheide.[15] Finds from the era of the Roman Empire were ubiquitous in Berlin, which includes West-Germanic terps and ceramics on the Richardplatz, a Gordianic bronze coin on the Rollberge,[note 50] and nearby the important Reitergrab von Neukölln (equestrian tomb) south-west of Richardplatz at the Körnerpark, which stems from the onset of the Merowingian era in the first half of the 6th century.[note 51]

The original tribes that lived in the Berlin region belonged to the Elbe-Germanic Suevian Semnones. They eventually migrated southwestward during the era of the Barbarian Invasions[note 52] and were superseded by the West Slavic Sprevane and Hevelli, historically called the Wends, but archeological traces pertaining to a successive Sprevane settlement were never found in the area of modern-day Neukölln.[note 53] From the early era of post-Germanic German colonization, only scanty potsherds were excavated, and the remnants of mediaeval chain mail were typical of the 13th or 14th century, the times when the Knights Templar and Hospitaller already ruled over nascent Neukölln.

### Early history

[edit]

Seal of Albert the Bear

After four centuries of colonization, the region around modern-day Berlin came under lasting Holy Roman rule in the 12th century as part of the Ascanian Margraviate of Brandenburg, founded by Albert the Bear in 1157.[note 54] The region was situated near the borders to the Principality of Copnic, ruled by Sprevan prince Jaxa of Köpenick,[note 55] and the Duchy of Pomerania-Demmin, ruled by Casimir I, which had all fought for dominance during the colonization of the Teltow and the formation of Brandenburg. Albert's successor Otto I defeated Casimir I in 1180, and following the rule of Otto II, margrave Albert II managed to secure a large part of the Teltow until 1212, but lost the Duchy of Pomerania again to the House of Griffin. His two sons, margraves John I and Otto III, jointly ruled Brandenburg from 1220 to 1266/67, secured the remaining parts of the Teltow, established many new towns, and are regarded as the conditores (framers) of Colonia (Cölln) and the old town of Berlin.[note 56]

#### Knights Templar stronghold

[edit]

Denarius, ca. 1250

Statue, 1905

Margraves John I and Otto III

Around the year 1200, a military hamlet, at some point possibly called Richarshove (*Richardshof,[note 57] "Richard's Court"), was established[note 58] together with two unnamed folwarks[note 59] at the foot of the Teltow on the edge of the grasslands later known as Cöllnische Wiesen (Cölln Meadows)[note 60] on the road to nearby Slavic Trebow and Copenic as an eastern Knights Templar stronghold,[note 61] administered by the neighboring Commandery Tempelhof (Tempelhove),[note 62] which had developed during the early days of the Holy Roman Empire along the old Via Imperii.[note 63] The Templar functioned as a neutral institution, and after the primary conflicts had ended in 1231,[note 64] the stronghold was at some point abandoned by the military and rededicated as a Templar access yard, probably after the end of the Teltow and Magdeburg Wars between the Houses of Ascania and Wettin (1239–45), which definitively ended the major regional conflicts of the Ostsiedlung era.[note 65]

On 21 November 1261, margrave Otto III gifted the forest region Mirica, parts of which would later belong to Rixdorf and Neukölln, to the city of Cölln in what is also the first historical mention of Berlin's aula. Soon after, the heath would be known as Cöllnische Heide, and its western marshes and grasslands as Cöllnische Wiesen. The windmills of Cölln and Alt-Berlin along the river Spree were mentioned for the first time in a document dated 2 January 1285, which also refers to a royal domain office, the Amt Mühlenhof, which would administrate the Bohemian colony Böhmisch-Rixdorf for most of the 18th and 19th century.

When the Knights Templar became too powerful, the order was proscribed and effectively dissolved in 1312 by Pope Clement V under accusations of apostasy, but different from other Templar possessions, the Tempelhof commandery including *Richardshof did not immediately transfer into Hospitaller ownership, probably because the remaining Knights Templar offered resistance.[16] Instead, the estate was fiducially held by Waldemar the Great for six years, and legally transferred to the Knights Hospitaller only in 1318.[note 66]

### Richardsdorf

[edit]

Charter, 1360

Roger de Pins

Richardsdorf's foundation

When first mentioned in its foundational charter of 26 June 1360, the only known foundational charter for a Brandenburg village, the angerdorf 5.5 km (3.4 mi) south-east of Cölln and Alt-Berlin around the present-day Richardplatz,[note 67] and approximately 3 km (1.86 mi) from the river Spree, was already called Richarsdorp (Richardsdorf, German: [rˈɪçaɾtsdˌɔɾf], "Richard's Village"), signifying decades of development from yard (hove) to village (dorp), now officially recognized under the sovereignty of Knights Hospitaller grand master Roger de Pins and the joint Electors of Brandenburg Otto VII and Louis II, and under the regional authority of Hermann von Werberg, Statthalter (Governor) and first Herrenmeister (Lord of the Knights) of the Brandenburg bailiwick.[note 68] The historical document containing the Richardsdorf charter, itself a mid-15th century copy of the original deed, has been lost since World War II, but its contents have been preserved,[note 69] and 26 June 1360 has since been commemorated as the official date of Neukölln's foundation,[note 70] even though the quarter's history dates back at least another 150 years.

The village with its twelve farmers was mentioned again in 1375 as Richardstorpp in the Landbuch der Mark Brandenburg.[note 71] Around the beginning of the 15th century, Richardsdorf erected its first official chapel.[note 72] After ongoing border disputes and an ill-fated armed conflict,[note 73] the Knights Hospitaller were forced to sell their possessions into permanent fiefdom to the cities of Alt-Berlin and Cölln on 23 September 1435, including Richardsdorf.[note 74]

### Ricksdorf

[edit]

The village was mentioned again in deeds of 1525 as Ricksdorf, for the first time officially in its modern contracted form. On 1–2 November 1539, margrave Joachim II converted to the teachings of Martin Luther, and the Reformation was introduced in Ricksdorf.[note 75] Disputes over Ricksdorf continued between Cölln and Berlin,[note 76] and with a compromise settlement Ricksdorf became the sole fief and a kämmereidorf (treasury village) of Cölln on 24 August 1543.[note 77] The documents of 1543 already mention a tavern at the crossing of the postal and trade road through Ricksdorf to Mittenwalde and the Ricksdorfscher Damm, modern-day Kottbusser Damm, which in 1737 became Rixdorf's famous tavern Rollkrug at Hermannplatz. On 2 February 1546, the right to inaugurate priests in Tempelhof and Ricksdorf was transferred to the parishes of Cölln and Berlin. On 14 April 1578, a fire destroyed most of the village's original infrastructure. Ricksdorf then created Die alte Kufe ("the old trough"), a small pond on the central meadow on Richardplatz, which was not only used as a horse pond, but primarily as a Feuerkufe, a reservoir for the new fire hose.

Historical forge, Richardplatz, Rixdorf, 1624 (first mention)

In 1624 the population had grown to 150,[note 78] and the village had built a forge for traveling blacksmiths, which after several renovations and enlargements remains in operation to this day as Berlin's oldest forge, the Schmiede am Richardplatz. During the Thirty Years' War (1618–48)[note 79] Ricksdorf was mostly depopulated, with buildings and parts of the chapel destroyed by fire.[note 80] At the end of the war, the village was also plagued by the Black Death, and in 1652 only seven farmers and cotters (Kossäten) and their relatives remained. In 1650, the Great Elector Frederick William gifted Ricksdorf its first windmill. In 1678, he created a hares' garden in the forest Hasenheide. The first mention of a village tavern (Dorfkrug) at the central Richardplatz is found in the town's oldest preserved court report from 29 January 1685.[note 81] The first mention of a school in Ricksdorf is from the year 1688, when the local authorities deposed the schoolmaster.[note 82] On 26 June 1693, Ricksdorf's chapel left the Tempelhof parish and joined the Britz parish, and the village's first parish register was opened by incumbent priest Johann Guthke. On 29 November 1700, the first official brewery concession and distribution rights were granted to Johann Wolfgang Bewert, the proprietor of Ricksdorf's schultheiß court.

### Rixdorf

[edit]

On 17 January 1709, the old city of Cölln merged with Alt-Berlin, Friedrichswerder, Friedrichstadt and Dorotheenstadt, forming the Königliche Haupt- und Residenzstadt Berlin (Royal Capital and Seat Berlin). At the time, Ricksdorf was already spelled Rixdorf in several documents, and when Berlin's new municipal constitution came into effect on 1 January 1710, Rixdorf became a treasury village of the Berlin magistracy. In 1712, the new postal, trade and military road from Berlin to Dresden, the Dresdener Heerstraße, today's Hermannstraße, opened south of Hermannplatz as an extension of the Ricksdorfscher Damm. On 28 September 1717, the royal administration introduced general compulsory schooling in Berlin, Rixdorf and the rest of Prussia. Rixdorf financed the construction of its first windmill in 1729,[note 83] and five years later the population had grown to 224.

#### Deutsch-Rixdorf and Böhmisch-Rixdorf

[edit]

Böhmisch-Rixdorf and Rollberge, 1755

In 1737, King Frederick William I of Prussia invited 18 families of Hussite Moravian Protestants, who had been driven out of Bohemia, to settle near the village,[note 84] where they built new houses, industrial infrastructure[note 85] and eventually their own chapels[note 86] off the village center along the road to Berlin, today called Richardstraße. 31 May 1737 is regarded as the official date of the Bohemian village's foundation, although the first settlers had already arrived in Rixdorf on 25 March of the same year. Twenty more colonists were granted their own land and construction rights in 1748. Already in 1751, the new settlement received its own cemetery, the Böhmischer Gottesacker. In 1753, the oldest school building of Neukölln was constructed on the Bohemian Kirchgasse,[note 87] which from 1797 onward also housed the village's assembly hall. Rixdorf suffered from destruction and pillaging by Austrian and Russian troops during the second year of the Seven Years' War (1756–63), but this did not prevent its subsequent development. In 1760, Berlin statesman Ewald Friedrich von Hertzberg became the proprietor of Rixdorf's Schulzengericht (schultheiß court). The original village of Rixdorf was further expanded in 1764 with new residential buildings and a brickyard, and since 1801 it was mostly called Deutsch-Rixdorf. In 1765, Frederick the Great gifted Böhmisch-Rixdorf its first windmill. In spite of its expansion, Deutsch-Rixdorf at first remained the smaller of the two villages, with roughly 200 residents in 1771, while the new Bohemian village Böhmisch-Rixdorf[note 88] had counted 300 residents already in 1747.

View of the Hasenheide, Cölln and Alt-Berlin from the Rollberge, with Rollkrug and Ricksdorfscher Damm, ca. 1834 Memorial for the fire of 1849, Böhmisch-Rixdorf

In 1797, Böhmisch-Rixdorf was granted its own administration, and the two villages settled on the official modern spelling Rixdorf, which had been in use since 1709. In the same year, Deutsch-Rixdorf acquired the forge on Richardplatz and sold it to a local resident, who was therefore allowed to operate the forge permanently, which until then had been prevented by the Berlin blacksmiths' guild to stifle competition. The French Army under Napoleon occupied Rixdorf in 1806. The overall population in 1809 was 695.[17] In 1811, Germany's first public outdoor gymnasium was established in the Hasenheide forest by Turnvater Jahn. The Hasenheide itself temporarily became a Regierungsbezirk of Berlin (governmental district) from 1816 to 1821, before coming under Rixdorf's jurisdiction. Rixdorf residents fought in the 1813 Wars of Liberation, for example at the Battle of Großbeeren, and the subsequent sovereign and political liberty, also gained from the Prussian abolition of serfdom on 11 November 1810, laid the foundation for Rixdorf's rapid development and industrialization, which began in the early second half of the 19th century. In 1827, the street to Berlin was paved, and by 1830 Rixdorf had already become the largest village of the Berlin periphery with more than 2,000 inhabitants. On 28 April 1849, more than a quarter of the buildings in both Rixdorf villages were destroyed in a firestorm,[note 89] and reconstruction lasted until 1853.[note 90]

On 1 January 1853, the parish of Deutsch-Rixdorf was declared an independent parish by the Berlin Evangelical Consistory. In 1854, the first horsebus connection was established between Berlin and the two Rixdorf villages, followed by the first regular bus line from Hermannplatz to Berlin since 1 May 1860, the Ringbahn launch on 17 July 1871, and an additional bus line from Bergstraße, today's Karl-Marx-Straße, to Hallesches Tor in 1876. Meanwhile, the construction of new streets, plazas and residential estates in the Berlin periphery had been set in motion as part of the 1862 Hobrecht-Plan, which created what would come to be known architecturally as the Wilhelmine Ring. In 1866, the Rixdorf villages were hit by epidemics of cholera and smallpox with at least 170 fatalities. In 1867, Deutsch-Rixdorf had a population of approximately 5,000, and Böhmisch-Rixdorf of 1,500. In 1870 the villages received their first train station, the Bahnhof Rixdorf, which still exists today as Neukölln station.[note 91] On 10 August 1872, the original Jahndenkmal memorial for Turnvater Jahn was inaugurated in the Hasenheide forest. On 13 December 1872, Berlin's administration merged both Rixdorf villages and the commune Britz into the 24th Amtsbezirk (bailiwick).

#### Unification

[edit]

Both villages were united as Rixdorf on 1 January 1874 by royal decree of 11 July 1873,[note 92] and the new town became a municipality of the Kreis Teltow. On 4 February 1874, Hermann Boddin became the first principal municipal magistrate (Amts- und Gemeindevorsteher) of the unified Rixdorf.[note 93] For the next decades, Boddin would conduct Rixdorf's evolution into the fastest-growing and eventually largest village of the Prussian monarchy with 90,000 residents already in 1895, which also created a poverty gap and social problems. Boddin's responsibilities were immense, and he soon fought for an equalization of burdens, and for Rixdorf's admission into the Greater Berlin city alliance. He became known as an upright and resilient, though also dominant and self-centered patriarch, but was still venerated by Rixdorf's officials and citizens alike.[18]

The inaugural meeting of Rixdorf's municipal committee commenced on 27 April 1874 at the old schultheiß court on Richardplatz. In 1874, Rixdorf had 12,300 inhabitants, growing to 15,328 the next year, mainly due to thousands of new residents, who since 1870 had been immigrating from Pomerania, Silesia and other primarily Eastern regions of the German Empire as far as East Prussia, looking for work in the town's growing industry, a migration wave that would not significantly weaken until the year 1910.[19] One of the more important early ordinances of 1874 was to revoke the herding warrant for the Berlinische Wiesen, formerly called Cöllnische Wiesen, which created a large area for residential developments, among them the Neucöllner Siedlungen (Neucölln Estates), whose name later inspired the city's renaming to Neukölln.

Rixdorf's first daily newspaper, the Gemeinnütziger Anzeiger (Charitable Gazette), was published since 1874, later reestablished as Rixdorfer Zeitung (Rixdorf Newspaper) by editor-in-chief Wilhelm Hecht in 1882.[20] The city's first telegraph station opened the same year. On 1 October 1874, the Vereinsbrauerei, which had been founded in 1872 and would later become Berlin's Kindl brewery, opened to the public in Rollberg after almost a year of unofficial pourage. Urbanization quickly took off with new residential estates, schools, churches, infrastructure, paved streets with sewers, and an increasing number of industrial settlements. The first Kremser horsebus line to Berlin started its operations on 2 July 1875 under private management. The city's first gasworks and the original Amtshaus (administrative building) were built in 1878, the first municipal court (Amtsgericht) in 1879, which was quickly replaced in 1901 by the new municipal court and prison, and the city's new telegraph office in 1882. Rixdorf's first public open-air bath opened in 1883 south of the Ringbahn, but had to close again in 1913, when Neukölln's harbor and docklands were built. On 14 August 1884, Richardplatz was hit by a large fire. On 6 November 1884, Rixdorf sold its old village chapel to the Bohemian-Lutheran parish for 6,300 silver mark, approximately $31,800 (2024).

Glass mosaic compositor hall, Puhl & Wagner, Rixdorf, 1897

In 1873, Rixdorf had already had 8 paved streets, and 24 in 1876, which grew exponentially in the following decade, enabling additional bus lines to Berlin, followed by the introduction of the first tram lines, beginning in 1884 with the so-called Pferde-Eisenbahn from Rollberg to Spittelmarkt in Berlin, and a communal line from the Rollkrug tavern at Hermannplatz to Knesebeckstraße near Kurfürstendamm a year later, which formed the basis for the Straßenbahnen der Stadt Berlin (SSB), the first communal public transportation company of Berlin, which was established with grants from the Rixdorf citizenry. On 20 March 1892, the first issue of the daily newspaper Rixdorfer Tageblatt (Daily Rixdorf) was published, renamed Neuköllner Tageblatt in 1912. The city's infrastructure continued to grow with the introduction of a telephone network in 1885, the first public telephone installation at Rixdorf's post office in 1886, a new water network connection to the Charlottenburg waterworks in 1887–88, a new sewage system and drainage facility between 1891 and 1895, the building of a new inner-city hospital, a community hall and a poorhouse in 1893, the 1895 reconstruction of Rixdorf station, and the 1899 opening of Hermannstraße station on the Ringbahn. On 1 October 1897, local teacher Emil Fischer (1865–1932) founded the Naturhistorisches Schulmuseum (School Museum of Natural History), the precursor to the Museum Neukölln, in the old school building on Hohenzollernplatz, today's Karl-Marx-Platz, to counter the social and educational deficits of Rixdorf's working class. On 9 February 1899, the first electric tram line began its operation.

#### Independence

[edit]

Rixdorf's 1899 independence was executed in two legal steps. On 1 April, the town was chartered as an independent city and released from the Kreis Teltow,[note 94] and Hermann Boddin immediately transitioned into his new office as the city's mayor. Rixdorf then declared itself a free city (Kreisfreie Stadt) on 1 May, and Boddin received the official title Erster Bürgermeister auf Lebenszeit (First Mayor for Life) from district president Robert Earl Hue de Grais on 4 May. On 1 November, the city obtained its own police force and law enforcement agency, including a criminal investigation unit, with the first precinct established on Hermannstraße south of Hermannplatz. At year's end, Rixdorf's population stood at 90,422.

Foundation of Tasmania 1900 Rixdorf Station, 1901

Rixdorf's first professional association football and sports club, the Rixdorfer TuFC Tasmania 1900, was founded on 2 June 1900.[note 95] On 17 December of the same year, the last Pferde-Eisenbahn of Rixdorf was converted to electric operation, while the omnibus lines continued to be horse-drawn at first. The new city received its coat of arms in 1903, and its population quickly grew to 237,289 in 1910.[21] It was during this boomtown era that the architect Reinhold Kiehl was called on by Rixdorf's assembly to further upgrade the city's infrastructure, which led to some of the quarter's most iconic buildings and locations being constructed, such as the city hall (Rathaus Neukölln) between 1905 and 1908, which gradually replaced the older Amtshaus,[note 96] the 1912 Stadtbad Neukölln, a public bath house, and many more after 1912 like the Körnerpark and its orangerie.[note 97] The Rixdorf Harbor in the southern part of the city was built between 1900 and 1906 together with the Teltow Canal, the Britz Canal and the Britz Harbor. The first stage of the harbor's watergate was constructed in 1902, at first used as part of a drainage facility for the surrounding wetlands. In the north, the Landwehr Canal was extended eastward between 1902 and 1905 with the Rixdorfer Stichkanal (Rixdorf Branch Canal) to the city's new gasworks, replacing the old Wiesengraben (Meadow Trench), which had originally been called Schlangengraben (Snake Trench). The year 1909 saw the inauguration of Rixdorf's first municipal hospital (Rixdorfer Krankenhaus), situated outside of the city near modern-day Buckow.[note 98] By 1911, Rixdorf had become largely defined by its multifaceted industries and artisanry.[note 99]

#### Early neighborhood formation

[edit]

* Kottbusser Brücke with Maybachufer (right background), Reuterkiez, 1894

* Hermannstraße with Rollkrug, Flughafenkiez, 1900

* Berliner Straße with City Hall (background), Rixdorf, ca. 1910

* Hermannstraße near Schierker Straße, Körnerpark, ca. 1914

* Schillerpromenade with Herrfurthplatz and Genezareth Church, Schillerkiez, 1933

* Mercedes-Palast movie theater, Rollberg, 1936

* Hermannplatz with Karstadt department store, Donaukiez, 1936

It was during the 1850s when construction of the first residential areas began in the western part of the Berlinische Wiesen in what is today the Reuterkiez. After the completion of the Landwehr Canal in 1850 near the location of the older Müllen-Graben (Mühlengraben, Mill Trench),[note 100] industry and workshops began to settle along its shores in the marshes and meadows south of the Berlin Customs Wall,[note 101] on and near today's Maybachufer. The Cottbuserdamm (Kottbusser Damm)[note 102] and several parallel streets like the Friedelstraße,[note 103] an important street in Berlin's first communal electric tram network,[note 104] were built shortly afterwards.[note 105] Between 1871 and 1905, the population increased, as several Gründerzeit apartment blocks were erected, often with industrial backyards that are still typical of Berlin today. Construction was temporarily set back due to a devastating fire in 1886 that destroyed nearly all of the city block between Kottbusser Damm, Maybachufer and Schinkestraße. Different from other neighborhoods of northern Rixdorf, most residential development in the Reuterkiez had from the beginning always been aimed at more affluent residents and a higher quality of living, but except for the Reuterplatz forgone any development of green urban plazas. Due to the marshy substrate, the new neighborhood was at first only developed between Kottbusser Damm and Weichselstraße,[22] and was instead extended southward into and beyond the modern Donaukiez of the Flughafenstraße neighborhood. In the decades that followed, Rixdorf, the new Reuterkiez and Donaukiez were expanded west- and southward respectively, forming Neukölln's younger neighborhoods of Schillerpromenade, Körnerpark and the historical Rollberg.

Starting in 1875 after the approval of a new development plan, construction of the Neucöllner Siedlungen (Neucölln Estates) began in the northern parts of the Rixdorf lot. Equally important, construction also began in the areas immediately west of Rixdorf. Present-day Rollberg and the remainder of Flughafenstraße, were developed first, with Rollberg mainly as working-class outskirts with backyard manufacturing and larger industries,[note 106] tightly packed tenements, small apartments and tiny residential backyards.[note 107] To this end, and to also furnish raw material for construction in the rest of Berlin, most of the rolling agricultural hills of the Rollberge range were excavated and leveled, and Rixdorf's sixteen windmills torn down,[note 108] with the last windmill dismantled in 1899. In the first wave, four new parallel streets as well as the Kopfstraße between Bergstraße, present-day Karl-Marx-Straße, and Hermannstraße were constructed together with the crossways Falk- and Morusstraße on the flattened Rollberge slopes. The working-class tenements, even in the front buildings, were small and overcrowded,[note 109] sunless and unaerated, and unsanitary without personal water closets or rooms for hygiene, which promoted diseases and epidemics, infant and child mortality, violence and crime, but also ignited the spark that changed Rixdorf and Neukölln into a Socialist heartland, fueling the city's widespread support for the November Revolution, the class struggles of the 1920s and '30s, and later also the quarter's potent resistance movement against the Nazis (1933–45). However, the financial crises and wars in early 20th century Germany prevented any contemporary redevelopment in Rollberg until the 1960s and '70s.

Schillerpromenade and parts of Körnerpark, on the other hand, followed the Reuterkiez model with apartment buildings for wealthier residents, and the two neighborhoods still have a large Gründerzeit architectural foundation with broad streets and sidewalks, and Berlin's usual grid plan street layout that originated mostly in this era.[note 110] For the Körnerpark neighborhood, this development was a natural evolution due to its proximity to Alt-Rixdorf, though the street blocks further south were for the most part developed in the 1920s and '30s, so the area has not evolved as uniformly. Schillerpromenade benefited from its location on even farmland adjacent to the Tempelhofer Feld, which was better suited than the area on the Rollberge slopes. Construction of the new residential park in present-day Schillerkiez began with Rixdorf's 1901 development plan. The ambitious Gründerzeit estates, the broad promenade parallel to Hermannstraße and the circular central plaza (Herrfurthplatz) with the Genezareth Church were markedly aimed at wealthier settlers, as a counterpoint to the older Rollberg neighborhood of ill repute. In 1905, residential construction was in full swing, schools and an academy were built, and main development ended around 1914 except for the westernmost city blocks at Oderstraße, which were developed only in 1927 by Bruno Taut according to modern reformist ideals. The large sports grounds in the neighborhood's south-western corner (Sportpark Tempelhofer Feld), today the Werner-Seelenbinder-Sportpark, opened in 1928.

### Neukölln

[edit]

Rixdorf had become notorious across Germany for its taverns, amusement sites and red-light districts, which dampened investments, economic development and the immigration of wealthier citizens, exacerbated by the enduring popularity of the 1889 proletarian song Der Rixdorfer. So in 1912 the local authorities took up former mayor Boddin's earlier plan, which until then had been consistently rejected, to get rid of this reputation by assuming a new name. Voting against Boddin's original proposal, the city officials chose Neukölln,[note 111] which referenced both Rixdorf's historical parent city Cölln and the Cöllnische Heide (Cölln Heath) to the east, but was mainly derived from the Neucöllner Siedlungen ("Neucölln Estates") north of Rixdorf,[note 112] whose name, whether intentionally or not, imitated Neu-Cölln, a historical district south of the medieval part of Berlin and Cölln proper. The renaming was primarily lobbied for by real estate speculators, local industrialists in fear of market losses, and the Crown, represented by a group of imperial supporters, and was swiftly adopted by the conservative council majority against the dissenting populace and social democrats, who, much to the dismay of the conservatives, had gained a lot of political traction in the years before.[note 113] The renaming was then petitioned pro forma by mayor Curt Kaiser and eventually granted by Emperor William I on 27 January 1912. At the time, Neukölln's population stood at 253,000.

Abteibrücke at the Insel der Jugend

In 1913, the city of Neukölln bought the Spree island Abteiinsel, today's Insel der Jugend (Youth Island), which had originally been owned by one of Rixdorf's citizens,[note 114] and constructed the Abteibrücke between the exclave and the mainland of Alt-Treptow, one of Germany's first reinforced concrete bridges.[note 115] Neukölln's bath house opened to the public on 10 May 1914. From 1912 to 1913, the Rixdorf Branch Canal became the Neukölln Ship Canal, further extended southward to the Neukölln Harbor and the Teltow Canal. Construction of the second stage at the Neukölln Watergate concluded in 1914, and the canal officially opened on 1 April of the same year. 6,600 of Neukölln's residents fell serving at the frontlines in World War I (1914–18). Despite the war years, urban development had continued unabated at first, and Rixdorf had become one of the most important suburban cities outside of Berlin. From 1 October 1917, waste management services were provided directly by the city.

November Revolution, Neukölln City Hall, Rixdorf, 9 November 1918[note 116] Kapp Putsch: Reichswehr on the Weisestraße, Schillerkiez, March 1920

At the end of the war, the November Revolution led to the formation of the city's Workers' and Soldiers' Council. On 8 November 1918, the first soldiers who were stationed at Mahlower Straße in the Schillerkiez, joined the new revolutionary movement.[23] One day later, the council seized power in Neukölln, dissolved the city's assembly, and disempowered Lord Mayor Curt Kaiser. The ruling council, consisting of 24 SPD members, 24 independents, who were mostly Spartacists, and 24 soldiers, now decided on all political issues from executive orders to decrees on food rationing. On 25 November, the socialist council voted to abolish all of Neukölln's municipal authorities, take over the city's banks, and declare all private real estate as communal property, while threatening to expropriate uncooperative local industrialists without indemnity. However, a faction of the Prussian Army's 17th infantry division, presumably ordered by the provisional government and Gustav Noske, deployed in January 1919 and laid siege to Neukölln, eventually occupying and dissolving the Workers' and Soldiers' Council. The counter-putsch angered the populace, and many of Neukölln's workers, employees and officers threatened a general strike, forcing the troops to reinstate the council and retreat. The SPD, however, was barred from the reformed council, as the party was blamed for the short-lived counter-putsch.[24] Shortly before their executions at the hand of the Freikorps, revolutionaries Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht found refuge in Neukölln, probably in the Weisestraße (Schillerkiez), before relocating to Wilmersdorf, where they were captured by the local militia (Bürgerwehr). Alfred Scholz (SPD), whose wife Gertrud had been the only female member of Neukölln's Workers' and Soldiers' Council, was elected mayor in April 1919, while Neukölln's Lord Mayor Curt Kaiser stayed in office until the end of his term on 1 November 1919. The revolutionary councils eventually disbanded after the inauguration of the Weimar National Assembly in 1919, and Neukölln's council was dissolved on 7 November 1919, which resulted in riots at City Hall. Even though the councils were short-lived, Neukölln's prominent and early role in the November Revolution sustainably mainstreamed socialist ideals in local politics.

During the Kapp Putsch (13–17 March 1920), which aimed to undo the German Revolution and overthrow the new Weimar Republic, parts of Neukölln were temporarily occupied by the Reichswehr, until the coup d'état was aborted after 100 hours.

### Berlin-Neukölln

[edit]

The newly forming societies and infrastructures of Berlin and its periphery created problems and threatened to thwart further development, because the disparity between the different communities, which naturally aimed to expand beyond the old municipal boundaries, now created cross-border administrative conflicts and gridlock. Therefore, the Greater Berlin Act was passed by the Prussian parliament in the spring of 1920, and the city of Neukölln ceased to exist on 1 October 1920 after only two decades of independence, when it was incorporated as a part of Greater Berlin together with a large number of other suburban communes and cities. Together with the quarters Britz, Rudow and Buckow, Neukölln now formed the new homonymous borough of Neukölln, Berlin's 14th (and since the 2001 reform 8th) administrative district, which eventually added the newly separated quarter of Gropiusstadt in 2002. At the time of the merger, the city of Neukölln had a population of 262,128.[note 117] The old Rixdorf continued to exist, and is today represented by two neighborhoods in the center of Neukölln, Böhmisch-Rixdorf and Richardplatz-Süd. In preparation for Neukölln's incorporation, the first election of the new assembly of borough representatives (Bezirksverordnetenversammlung, BVV) was held on 20 June 1920, but had to be repeated on 16 October 1921.[note 118]

Bloody May barricades at the Briesestraße, Rollberg, 1929

In the Weimar Republic, Neukölln's population eventually grew to 278,208 in 1930.[note 119] On 22 October 1921, a patronage society for Neukölln's museum was founded, which led to a large expansion of the museums exhibits in 1922. Berlin Tempelhof Airport, whose airfield was part of Neukölln and Tempelhof, opened on 8 October 1923 and was expanded in several phases until 1941. To relieve the older tram networks, the Berlin S-Bahn was electrified starting in 1926, while Neukölln's Südring (south ring) lines were modernized in 1928. Additionally, two lines of the Berlin U-Bahn, the Nord-Süd-Bahn and the GN-Bahn, were extended through Neukölln between 1926 and 1930.[note 120]

Hitler at the Neue Welt, 1930

Neukölln remained a working-class quarter and communist stronghold, especially in the Rollberg neighborhood. This led to increasing tensions between left-wing radicals like the KPD and the Berlin police, culminating in the Bloody May riots of 1929 (Blutmai) with 14 fatalities and 17 injured. The Nazis viewed the quarter as "Red Neukölln", and tensions with the rivaling socialist and communist groups ensued as early as November 1926, when Joseph Goebbels sent over 300 men of the Sturmabteilung (SA) on a propaganda march through Neukölln, ending in clashes on the Hermannplatz. The emerging resistance against National Socialism also spilled over into regional church politics as the 1929 Neuköllner Kirchenstreit (Neukölln church conflict), when Protestant priest Arthur Rackwitz was only granted his inauguration at Neukölln's Philipp Melanchthon Church after an intervention by cultural minister Adolf Grimme, which had previously been denied due to his religious-socialist and anti-fascist positions, as well as his open criticism of the Protestant authorities' support for the Nazis. The beer hall Neue Welt on Hasenheide near Hermannplatz was the 1930 location of one of Adolf Hitler's early speeches in Berlin.[note 121] The conflicts eventually intensified until the end of the republic, leading to occasional armed engagements like the Rixdorf shootout of October 1931, when communists attacked the Richardsburg, a Sturmlokal of the SA.

After Hitler's Machtübernahme in 1933, the SA extended their campaigns and also targeted rallies and events by moderate parties like the SPD.[25] Neukölln's borough mayor Alfred Scholz (SPD) and all officials of Neukölln's district office had to resign under pressure from the new ruling Nazi Party and the enactment of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service.[note 122] Many of Germany's resistance fighters and activists against Nazi rule operated from "red Neukölln", for example Heinz Kapelle and Ursula Goetze, who coordinated with the Red Orchestra in the quarter.[note 123] Neukölln's museum was reenvisioned as a museum for education and local history in 1934 under its director Felix Woldt. In time for the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, the 1872 Jahndenkmal memorial for Turnvater Jahn in the park Hasenheide was relocated, slightly redesigned and expanded with a commemorative grove, which exists to this day.

Hall of Honor, Lilienthalstraße cemetery, Hasenheide Commemorative light installation at the location of the Rixdorf concentration camp, Sonnenallee

As a prelude to the Shoah, Neukölln's only synagogue on Isarstraße (Flughafenkiez) as well as numerous Jewish businesses and property were attacked and demolished during the Kristallnacht of 1938. Today, only a commemorative plaque remains of the synagogue.[note 124] After the onset of World War II in 1939, the Rixdorf factories of the Krupp-Registrierkassen-Gesellschaft and American company National Cash Register, which had merged as the National Krupp Registrierkassen GmbH during the Weimar Republic, were transformed into military production facilities.[note 125] In 1941, the Friedhof Lilienthalstraße in Hasenheide, which had been built by Wilhelm Büning, opened as a cemetery for the fallen soldiers of the Wehrmacht. Today, it is a general cemetery for the victims of World War II. In 1942 a forced labor camp for up to 865 mainly Jewish and Romani women from the conquered Eastern territories was established on the National Krupp factory grounds. In 1944 it was absorbed as one of several Berlin outposts (Außenlager[26]) of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, primarily for female Jewish-Polish forced laborers, who had been transferred from the Łódź Ghetto and Auschwitz respectively.[27] The camp's last remaining barracks stood until the year 1957,[28] long after the Jewish survivors had emigrated.[note 126] At the end of the war, Neukölln's population had decreased by roughly 30,000, and 9% of the quarter's buildings had been destroyed, with 12% severely damaged by allied bombing raids, including the Mercedes-Palast in the Rollberg neighborhood, which since 1927 had housed Europe's largest movie theater.[note 127]

Sonnenallee border crossing, 1964

Following the withdrawal of the occupying Soviet forces in 1945, Neukölln became part of the American sector of Berlin from 1945 to 1949, encompassing the south and south-east of what would later become West Berlin, an enclave of West Germany within Communist East Germany from 1949 until German reunification in 1990. The Sonnenallee, connecting Neukölln with Baumschulenweg in former East Berlin, was the site of a border crossing of the Berlin Wall from 1961 to 1990.[note 128] After a long war hiatus since 31 August 1944, Neukölln's daily newspaper Neuköllner Tageblatt returned to the newsstands on 28 May 1953, before being discontinued for good on 18 August of the same year due to low profits.[29] On 2 October 1960, Neukölln's new borough library opened on Erlanger Straße,[note 129] and the Heimatmuseum Neukölln moved into the library's former building on Ganghoferstraße. In 1963, the U-Bahn line CI was extended from Grenzallee station further into the Britz quarter, eventually leading to Neukölln's last remaining tram line being shut down in 1966.[note 130] In 1965, Neukölln's professional association football club SC Tasmania 1900 Berlin was promoted from Berlin's second league directly to the Bundesliga for political reasons,[note 131] and in the 1965–66 season, the club only won two games and became the worst-performing club in league history, a notorious record that stands to this day.[note 132] In 1967, Europe's largest poultry farm, the so-called Hühnerhochhaus ("chicken high-riser") opened in Neukölln's industrial park Nobelstraße, but was closed down again in 1972 due to unprofitability, and after continuing animal rights protests, which evolved into the spearhead of sustainable and free-range farming in Germany. During the Cold War, Neukölln retained its status as a traditional working-class area and one of Berlin's red-light districts. Many gastarbeiters, especially from Turkey and Greece, settled in Kreuzberg and Neukölln since the 1950s, later followed by Palestinian and Arabic refugees from the Lebanese Civil War.[30] Neukölln's current U-Bahn network into the southern quarters via the U7 was constructed between 1970 and 1972, while the final U8 section between Leinestraße and the S-Bahn wasn't implemented until 1996. The Körnerpark, which after the war had fallen into disrepair due to its location beneath the nearby airport's eastern approach path, was restored in its historical form since 1977 and reopened to the public on 4 August 1983, with its orangerie following on 10 October of the same year. From 1981 to 1985, the Heimatmuseum Neukölln was reconceived under the administrative guidance of Dorothea Kolland to also focus on Neukölln's social and cultural history, including decentralized cultural projects all over the borough. The Neukölln Opera, which had originally been founded in 1972, received its own venue in 1988 and became one of Berlin's four opera houses. Another important cultural venue, the Saalbau Neukölln, the location of the former Bürgersalon Niesigk ("citizens' parlor"), reopened in 1990 and is today known as Heimathafen Neukölln.

Rollheimer, Schillerkiez, 2024

Since the 1970s and '80s, Neukölln, like the neighboring Kreuzberg, has embraced independent forms of living like alternative trailer parks, for example the Rollheimer in the Schillerkiez, Germany's oldest Wagenburg,[note 133] squatting,[note 134] and an often anti-establishment and anti-fascist counterculture that is still active to this day. In the 1990s, late repatriates from formerly Soviet states like Ukraine and Russia, including many Russian Jews, resettled in Germany, and especially in Berlin and Neukölln. An honorary statue of John Amos Comenius, who had been the last bishop of Rixdorf's Moravian colonists before their flight from Bohemia, was unveiled in Böhmisch-Rixdorf on 21 March 1992, followed on 15 November of the same year by the founding of the new German Comenius Society in Rixdorf's Moravian oratory. The decade after German reunification mainly transformed the eastern parts of the city, but western quarters like Neukölln were able to benefit as well. In 1994, the Estrel Hotel with convention center opened in Rixdorf's former industrial outskirts on the eastern shore of the Neukölln Ship Canal, and many new shopping malls and cultural locations sprung up all over Neukölln. In 1995, ethnologist Brigitte Walz and Anett Szabó developed the concept of a multiethnic carnival at Neukölln's transcultural Werkstatt der Kulturen, which became Berlin's famous Karneval der Kulturen one year later.[31]

#### Modern neighborhood formation

[edit]

* Neues Bauen at Ossastraße, Reuterkiez, 2014

* Die Ringe, Rollberg, 2024

* Weiße Siedlung, 2019

* High-Deck-Siedlung, 2011

* Estrel Convention Center, Rixdorf, 2023

Over the generations, all of Neukölln's southern neighborhoods of Rixdorf, Körnerpark and Schillerpromenade have gradually expanded south- and southeastward, while the Reuterkiez was finally expanded onto the marshy areas to the east. Major settlement constructions occurred as part of the new objective movement of the 1920s and '30s, in Germany often called Neues Bauen (New Building). In that era, many modern estates were constructed within Neukölln proper, for example the areas around Ossastraße, a 1927 Reuterkiez housing estate by Bruno Taut, or around the crossing of Innstraße and Weserstraße in Rixdorf (1924–26), but a notable example for a complete early modern settlement is the Dammwegsiedlung south-east of Rixdorf, which was constructed between 1920 and 1922, based on earlier designs by Reinhold Kiehl.

After World War II, almost a quarter of the buildings in Neukölln were destroyed or severely damaged. This affected all neighborhoods except the Schillerkiez, where the destruction remained minimal, though the quarter, like Körnerpark, was eventually expanded and compacted further south beyond the Ringbahn. Other neighborhoods quickly began to rebuild in the bombing gaps from the war, but naturally had to disregard the classical models of Neukölln's original architecture. Quick modern construction was the order of business, at best with a social reformist slant. In the 1960s, however, a public housing boom ensued in Berlin, which also changed the face of many parts of Neukölln's neighborhoods. Most older Gründerzeit areas were only expanded with compacting measures and discreet perimeter block development, but the bulk of Rollberg and the new quarters southeast of Rixdorf were built during this era.

Flächensanierung (district redevelopment)[note 135] in the Rollberg neighborhood began in the 1960s,[note 136] which meant completely demolishing and reconstructing most of its old working-class estates. Of Rollberg's more than 5,000 apartments, only about 340 remained, 200 of them in Gründerzeit estates, and 140 in existing houses from pre-war developments and initial post-war reconstructions. Furthermore, Berlin's historical grid plan street layout was partially dismantled. The modernist meandering block structures (Mäanderbauten) in the eastern part were constructed first, while the rest of the newly designed quarter, including Die Ringe ("The Rings") in the western part, was finished in the mid to late 1970s.[32] Approximately 2,000 new apartments were constructed, but many of the original residents had left and never returned, opening up rental space for Neukölln's new immigrant population. These developments created new problems, which persist to this day, because the new neighborhood is neither urbanistically nor socially integrated with the rest of Neukölln.

During the same era, the Weiße Siedlung southeast of Rixdorf was built as a typical 1970s modernist suburban housing estate north of the older Dammwegsiedlung. Due to its distinctive high-rise design, the quarter is widely visible. Construction of the youngest neighborhood further south, the High-Deck-Siedlung, began in 1975 and ended in 1984 as a follow-up to the earlier large-scale housing developments Gropiusstadt and Märkisches Viertel. Both settlements suffer from a fate similar to that of Rollberg, being foreign architectural bodies with geographical and social separation from the rest of urban Neukölln.

After the end of Neukölln's public housing wave, the Schillerpromenade neighborhood at last became part of the borough's official urban renewal program, which was passed by the assembly of representatives on 23 January 1990. At first, the focus was on modernizing the deficits of the old infrastructure, but from 1996 onward, specific emphasis was placed on conservation and neighborhood management, to counter gentrification and the displacement of the old-established citizenry. This proved complicated, as many former tenements had already been converted into condominiums. In addition, more recent gentrification could not be blocked completely, since the neighborhood, beside the Reuterkiez, became one of the most popular destinations for 21st century western immigrants.

In contrast, conservation efforts had been placed on a more solid footing in the historical neighborhoods of Böhmisch-Rixdorf and Richardplatz-Süd. The new 1990 development procedures officially designated both the Bohemian and the contiguous German areas of Alt-Rixdorf as a Kulturdenkmal von europäischem Rang (cultural monument of European importance). This measure, which had been demanded since 1979 by Rixdorf's Bohemian descendants and supported by the local society Förderkreis Böhmisches Dorf since its foundation in 1984, has since preserved Rixdorf's old infrastructure and prevented any large-scale modern redevelopment.

##### Future residential development

[edit]

Undeveloped property, Rollberg

In the 21st century, further residential development in Neukölln is still possible by repurposing many of the garden allotments, the largest of which have primarily formed on or near the historical border to former East Berlin. However, important recreational areas would be lost, and there are no plans by the administration to let the relevant leases expire. Alternative plans to clear green spaces like the forest Emmauswald, a former cemetery, regularly encounter strong resistance,[33] but the assembly of borough representatives generally favors a partial development of Neukölln's old cemeteries over nature conservation.[34] Similarly, the plans for a residential boundary development of the Tempelhofer Feld are a recurring topic of contention in Berlin politics.[35] Unconfrontational development mainly has to rely on compacting measures by covering the last remaining bombing gaps from World War II or undeveloped properties, on redeveloping former industrial neighborhoods like the Neukölln Docklands,[note 137] and on perimeter block development, where possible. A recent example can be found in the Harzer Kiez, where the mainly industrial block Harzer Straße/Elsenstraße will be undergoing residential redevelopment.[note 138]

#### Berlin-Neukölln in the 21st century

[edit]

Memorial for the victims of German colonial rule in Namibia Tempelhofer Feld, Neukölln, 2019

As part of Berlin's administrative reform, the city's 14th borough Neukölln was reorganized as the 8th borough of Berlin on 1 January 2001.[note 139] In 2002, the final restoration stage concluded at the Körnerpark with the reopening of the park's cascade and adjacent water passages. In 2009, the 1907 Hererostein on the grounds of the Columbiadamm cemetery, which honors seven volunteer soldiers who between 1904 and 1907 had fallen while serving in the Imperial Schutztruppe of German South West Africa, was augmented with a plaque commemorating the victims of German colonialism in Namibia, including those of the Colonial War, which resulted in the Herero and Nama genocide, until now the only memorial of its kind in Berlin. The closedown of Tempelhof Airport on 30 October 2008 had relieved many of Neukölln's central residential areas, which had been located beneath the airport's eastern approach path, of aircraft noise, especially Körnerpark and the Schillerkiez. In 2010, the Museum Neukölln, after its 2004 renaming from Heimatmuseum Neukölln, was relocated from the quarter Neukölln to Schloss Britz. In the same year, the city opened the Tempelhofer Feld to the public, the former airfield, which had been shared by the quarters Neukölln and Tempelhof.[note 140] Over night, this created a new and unique area for recreation, sporting activities, small and large cultural events like Lollapalooza, sustainability projects and natural habitats for many wild species. During the 2020–23 COVID-19 pandemic, Neukölln was one of the early hotspots of Germany,[36] resulting in more than 600 fatalities.[note 141]

Urban hotspot Neukölln before gentrification: the "Haunted House on Hermannplatz", 2014[note 142] Rooftop bar Klunkerkranich at the Neukölln Arcaden, Karl-Marx-Straße, 2017

Following the 1990s as a typical inner-city hot spot with high rates of immigration, poverty, crime, educational discrimination[note 143] and inadequate asylum laws,[37] early 21st century Neukölln had experienced an influx of students, creatives and other young professionals of mostly Western origin avoiding higher rents charged in other parts of Berlin.[note 144] It was during this time that the informal cultural toponym Kreuzkölln developed, as the northern neighborhood's culture and nightlife was slowly being resurrected.[note 145] The trend increased with the 2008 financial crisis and Euro area crisis, when many young EU citizens left their home countries for Germany in search of work, leading to rapid cultural shifts in certain neighborhoods within Neukölln, especially the neighborhoods to the north and west from Reuter- to Schillerkiez. Coupled with increasing domestic and foreign real estate investments, this had caused a knock-on effect of rents to rise in many parts of Neukölln. Gentrification eventually stalled in the early 2020s,[note 146] but since then, rent inflation has also shifted from residential to commercial real estate, which now threatens to favor corporatized lighthouse projects over Neukölln's smaller entrepreneurs and traditional businesses, who were initially saved by the federal stimulus during the COVID-19 lockdowns.[note 147]

The gentrifying migration, together with later migrational waves after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and primarily the ongoing European migrant crisis from mainly Islamic countries,[note 148] have significantly increased Neukölln's population since the 2010s, also spawning social and religious conflicts in some neighborhoods, shifting the political climate to the right across Germany, with Neukölln remaining a symbol of societal decline.[note 149] However, Neukölln's partly precarious demographic makeup also led to a contrarian landslide victory in the 2025 German federal election for the socialist party Die Linke and Ferat Koçak, who became the first ever direct socialist representative of a West German electoral district.[note 150] The electorate had broken with the borough's secular centrist voting behavior, and returned Neukölln to its historical pre-war socialist roots. While the borough's southern quarters mostly still voted conservative, the victory was secured by the electorate in the quarter of Neukölln.[38] Here, the vibrant immigrant culture and recent cosmopolitan evolution, especially in the northern neighborhoods, have consistently defied the more dire academic theories of a fundamental social polarization in Neukölln. Over the years, the quarter has retained its special role as a centuries-old melting pot, which has now become one of the trendiest and most diverse districts of Berlin, and, for better or worse, the epitome of socioeconomic change in the city.[39] Accordingly, the quarter has often ranked as one of the world's most desirable places to visit and live.[40]

## Coat of arms

[edit]

Rixdorf

Neukölln

Maltese cross

Eagle[note 151]

Hussite flag with chalice

Mural crown of Berlin's boroughs

Berlin

Neukölln's coat of arms is a modern variant of Rixdorf's original shield. After Rixdorf's independence on 1 April 1899, the city's first coat of arms had been commissioned on 10 November of the same year. The final design, which swapped the placement of the cross and chalice, was ordered by emperor Wilhelm II and approved on 29 May 1903.

The most prominent element on Neukölln's shield is in the bottom field, the escutcheon with the silver on red Maltese cross, which signifies the official foundation of the historic village of Richardsdorf on 26 June 1360 under the sovereignty of the Catholic Johannite Knights Hospitaller, who had assumed the angerdorf from the Knights Templar in the year 1318. In the upper right charge is the red and gold heraldic right-facing eagle on silver background, which is actually a double reference, mainly to Rixdorf's feudal parent city of Cölln (23 September 1435 – 17 January 1709[note 152]), but also to the later Province of Brandenburg, which likewise used Cölln's historical eagle on its coat of arms.[41] In the upper left field is the silver on black common chalice of the Protestant Hussite colonists, who began to settle on the Rixdorf lot in the year 1737 and eventually built their own village, which as Böhmisch-Rixdorf was granted its own administration in 1797, before both Rixdorf villages were united on 1 January 1874.[note 153] The original coronet with the mural crown, consisting of a city wall with three towers made of red bricks with black seams, was similar to the modern variant, but contained a city gate as its central element, signifying Rixdorf's 1899 independence.

Unofficially, the historical coat of arms remained in use at first, after Rixdorf, then already renamed Neukölln, had joined the new Neukölln borough of Greater Berlin on 1 October 1920. On 13 May 1954, however, Berlin passed legislation which allowed its boroughs to carry official heraldic emblems. To this end, Rixdorf's old coat of arms was slightly redesigned, altered from the French to Berlin's official Iberian form, and the only major elemental change was applied to the coronet, which was replaced by the new mural crown now used by all of Berlin's boroughs, including the silver shield with right-facing black bear, as found in Berlin's own coat of arms. The changes were approved by Neukölln's district office and representative assembly by 12 March 1956. The new coat of arms was admitted by the city of Berlin in April 1956 and awarded to the borough Neukölln on 16 May 1956. Therefore, it is now used not only by the quarter of Neukölln, but also by the borough's other quarters of Britz, Buckow, Rudow and Gropiusstadt.[42]

## Demographics and social statistics

[edit]

As of 2025,[43] Neukölln with its 162,548 inhabitants has the second-highest population of Berlin's quarters after Prenzlauer Berg. The borough's current budget deficit stands at €10.2 million ($11,39 million), and in 2024 Neukölln's district office declared the third spending freeze in a year.[44] In 2023, the unemployment rate in Neukölln was at 14.1%. The poverty rate was at 29%, more than a third of Neukölln's children and adolescents were poor or at risk of poverty,[45] and the borough is currently the only German district with its own poverty commissioner.[46]

Gaza protest, Hermannplatz, 2019

As of 2025, 58.3% of residents in the quarter Neukölln are German or foreign first or later-generation immigrants, up from 46% in 2019[47] and 48% in 2021, with roots in more than 155 countries.[48] The overall share of foreigners in the quarter currently stands at 36%, and has continued to rise in the past years due to western immigration and the ongoing European migrant crisis,[49] while the number of Ukrainians in the borough Neukölln increased by 11.9% in 2023 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[50] Due to the quarter's dense urban character, only far less than five percent of Berlin's refugees can be accommodated in Neukölln.[note 154] As of 2025, the percentage of foreigners without German citizenship is 21.6% on the low end in Bouchéstraße (LOR 100313), and as high as 42.9% in Treptower Straße Nord (LOR 100419), while the highest share in the quarter's historical center stands at 40.3% in the Donaustraße neighborhood (LOR 100314).[51] The bulk of the most recent migration originated in Islamic countries,[note 155] and over the years this development, coupled with a strong local grassroots radical left counterculture, has led to a significant increase in antisemitism[note 156] and pro-Palestinian propaganda,[note 157] also fueled by the politicians of Neukölln's chapter of Die Linke.[52]

### Crime, police and fire safety

[edit]

Revolutionary 1st of May demonstration, Sonnenallee, Neukölln, 2021

Two out of Berlin's seven so-called "crime-burdened locations" (kriminalitätsbelastete Orte, kbOs) are in Neukölln, Hermannplatz with Donaukiez including Sonnenallee, and Hermannstraße around Hermannstraße Station,[53] with the local U-Bahn lines connecting to four of Berlin's five other kbOs.[note 158] Especially in these two kbOs and their surrounding city blocks, Neukölln is also characterized by social and religious conflicts, manifesting in educational challenges,[54] violent felonies[note 159] including occasional gun violence,[55] organized crime by Islamic clans with recurring gang and drug violence,[56] occasional rioting and arson, transphobia and homophobia.[note 160] Among the critical annual events for the Berlin Police are the so-called Revolutionary 1st of May Demonstration, which usually takes place in Kreuzberg and Neukölln as part of the local May Day, and the New Year's Eve festivities, which in recent past have often resulted in rioting and arson.[57] Since 2022, Neukölln has had the highest garbage pollution of all Berlin boroughs.[58]

Neukölln, together with the borough Neukölln, is part of the Directorate 5 of the Berlin Police. The quarter Neukölln is patrolled by Precinct 54 (Sonnenallee) and Precinct 55 (Rollbergstraße), while the S-Bahn trains and stations are patrolled by the German Federal Police. For Berlin's and Neukölln's kbOs, the police have been granted special authorities, specifically identity verification and searches of persons or their belongings without a warrant, probable cause or reasonable suspicion, which is embedded in a general weapons ban including the right to warrantless searches for the whole of Berlin's public transport system, enacted by the Berlin Senate in July 2025 after amendments to Berlin's ASOG law and constitution.[59] Additional continuous AI-assisted video surveillance of all kbOs is to commence in 2026.[60]

As with the police, Neukölln is part of the Directorate 5 of the Berlin Fire Brigade. It is served by the Fire Stations 5000 and 5001, whereas the latter is part of Berlin's volunteer fire department. Both stations are in the center of Neukölln on Kirchhofstraße in Rixdorf, so the neighborhoods of Neukölln are often served by stations in adjacent quarters, for example the Reuterkiez by Fire Stations 1600 and 1601 on Wiener Straße in Kreuzberg nearby.

### Religion

[edit]

The old village of Rixdorf had been part of the Holy Roman Empire as a Knights Templar and Hospitaller settlement, so it was historically a Roman Catholic village. However, the Reformation in the 16th century changed the religious makeup of many German regions, especially in the northern and eastern parts of the empire. Furthermore, in the early 18th century, Rixdorf came under Prussian political and cultural hegemony, which included Protestantism as the effective church of the state, so the Christian affiliative distribution gradually shifted away from the Roman faith. Rixdorf in particular was a prominent example of this development, because it eventually obtained a strong Protestant community, descended both from the early 18th century Moravian colonists and the industrial immigrants from the Eastern parts of the German Empire (1870–1910).[note 161] In the course of the 20th and 21st centuries, the Christian parishes of Berlin, and in particular of Neukölln, hemorrhaged a significant share of their members. Following the secularization in the age of Enlightenment after the Reformation, many of the 20th century's global secular, atheist and sometimes downright antireligious political ideologies like communism, socialism and national socialism flourished (and clashed) in Berlin (see above), and a Marxist-Leninist regime eventually ruled over the Eastern parts of Germany and East Berlin for many decades. For this reason, a large part of Germany's population today is not affiliated with any religion, and Berlin in particular is often called the "atheist capital of the world".[61] Beyond that, Neukölln had always been a left-leaning working class district, and a home to progressive voices from social reformists to Biblical critics like Bruno Bauer, so the effects with regard to irreligion are visible to this day.

German statistics offices are not required to gather information on the religious affiliations of the citizenry. The German church tax system, however, offers insight into the membership strength of at least the two primary Christian denominations in the borough of Neukölln. As of 2025, only 19.02% of Neukölln's residents are Christian, of which 7.18% are Catholic, while 11.84% belong to one of Germany's associated mainstream Protestant denominations (EKD). At roughly 72%, the vast majority of Berlin's residents, however, is irreligious, while 1.5% are of other faiths, not counting Islam, with similar numbers to be expected for Neukölln.[note 162] Due to the quarter's ethnic makeup and history of Ottoman, Turkish and modern Muslim immigration, a significant minority adheres to the Islamic faiths, of which the Sunni branch forms the majority. Statistics for the quarter itself do not exist, but based on reliable, but partially outdated numbers for the whole of Berlin (4%) and the borough Neukölln (7–9%), the share of the Muslim population in the quarter Neukölln would be at least twice as high as the borough's overall share. In 2012, residents of Turkish descent made up 45% of the immigrant and 12% of the overall population, accounting for two thirds of the quarter's Muslim population, which at the time stood at a share of 18%.[62] Increasing immigration from Islamic countries since 2015 therefore suggests that unofficial estimates of at least 20% and up to 25% (2024) are not false.[note 163] Either way, Islam and (more precisely) Sunni Islam forms the largest religious cohort in the quarter Neukölln, dwarfed only by the number of irreligious residents at approximately 50–60%.

Within Neukölln's cosmopolitan citizenry, many other religions and denominations are present and thriving. The borough of Neukölln is home to several thousand Hindus, mainly from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and especially the number of Indian expats has been rising steadily since the 2022 enactment of the Deutsch-indisches Migrationsabkommen (German-Indian Treaty on Migration). Still, the religious and cultural diversity of German society, not least in Berlin, has suffered greatly in the past 90 years, namely from the loss of Jewish culture due to the Shoa and Jewish exodus from Germany. Jewish life cautiously resurged in the 1990s with the immigrating late repatriates from Eastern Europe, and the trend continued with the 21st century influx of young people from all around the world, many of whom come from Israel. However, in 2022 only 1% of Berlin's residents had been Jewish.

### Historical population numbers

[edit]

Around the time of Rixdorf's unification in 1874, the population was approximately 12,300. After Rixdorf's independence in 1899, the population stood at 90,422 (1900), while the final count for the rechristened city of Neukölln was 262,414 (1919), mainly due to early modern industrial immigration. The largest ever population of the quarter Neukölln was 278,208 in 1930. Modern immigration began in the mid-2000s and accounted for a population increase of approximately 20,000 at its peak in 2015, declining to now 12,000 compared to the beginning of the millennium.

Population of the early settlements *Richardshof, Richardsdorf and Rixdorf (1200–1736)  Year  | Population[note 164] | Toponym  | Notes

|
|
|

1200 | 020 | n/a | Knights Templar military stronghold
1245 | 030 | *Richardshof[note 165] | Templar access yard
1360 | 050 | Richardsdorf | Knights Hospitaller angerdorf; 14 farmers and families
1375 | 040 | Richardsdorf | 12 farmers and families
1624 | 150 | Ricksdorf | fief of Cölln
1652 | 020 | Ricksdorf | Thirty Years' War and Second plague pandemic; 7 farmers and families
1734 | 224 | Rixdorf | treasury village of Berlin
Population of the two Rixdorf villages Deutsch- and Böhmisch-Rixdorf (1737–1873)  Year  | Deutsch-Rixdorf  | Böhmisch-Rixdorf  | Total[63] | Notes

|
|
|
|

1747 | 0210 | 0300 | 0510 | approximate; first Bohemian settlement in 1737
1771 | 0200 | 0350 | 0550 | approximate
1805 | 0376 | 0319 | 0695 | Böhmisch-Rixdorf (1797 administration)
1840 | 2,146 | 0520 | 2,666 |
1858 | 3,077 | 1,014 | 4,091 |
1867 | 5,007 | 1,506 | 6,513 |
1871 | 5,996 | 2,129 | 8,125 | start of industrial immigration
Population of the unified and later independent Rixdorf and Neukölln (1874–1919)  Year  | Population[64] | Notes

|
|

1874 | 012,300 | approximate; Rixdorf unification
1875 | 015,328 |
1880 | 018,729 |
1887 | 030,000 | approximate
1890 | 035,702 |
1895 | 059,945 |
1900 | 090,422 | independent city (1899)
1905 | 153,572 |
1910 | 237,289 | peak of industrial immigration
1912 | 253,000 | approximate; renamed Neukölln
1919 | 262,128 | final census (8 October 1919)
1919 | 262,414 | population at year's end
Population of the quarter Neukölln in the Neukölln borough (1920–2000)  Year  | Population[65] | Notes

|
|

1925 | 271,658 | borough formation (1 October 1920)
1930 | 278,208 | quarter's highest ever population count
1935 | 248,658 |
1938 | 242,704 |
1946 | 213,486 | World War II (1939–45)
1950 | 222,533 |
1960 | 199,097 |
1970 | 159,362 |
1987 | 139,930 |
1995 | 158,436 | German reunification (1990)
2000 | 146,522 |
Population of the quarter Neukölln in the Neukölln borough (21st century)  Year  | Population[66] | Notes

|
|

2007 | 149,466 | start of modern immigration
2010 | 154,066 |
2015 | 168,035 | 2015 European migrant crisis
2020 | 164,636 |
2021 | 163,852 |
2022 | 164,809 |
2023 | 163,735 |
2024 | 162,548 |

## Transport

[edit]

### Public transport

[edit]

In Berlin, urban railway services are managed by the S-Bahn Berlin GmbH, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, while all other public transport systems are managed by the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG).[note 166] Together with the Brandenburg public transport providers, they form the network group Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg (VBB).

#### U-Bahn

[edit]

Hermannplatz U-Bahn station

Neukölln is served by two U-Bahn (subway) rail lines, the northwest-to-southeast U7 (Rathaus Spandau ↔ Rudow) and the north-to-south U8 (Wittenau ↔ Hermannstraße), with an interchange between the two at Hermannplatz.[note 167] Within Neukölln, the U7 has three additional eastbound stations along the Karl-Marx-Straße: Rathaus Neukölln, Karl-Marx-Straße and Neukölln, the latter being an interchange between U- and S-Bahn. The U8 has three additional southbound stations along the Hermannstraße: Boddinstraße, Leinestraße and Hermannstraße, the latter being the quarter's second interchange between U- and S-Bahn.

Three U-Bahn stations just outside of the quarter offer quicker access to certain neighborhoods of Neukölln: Südstern (U7) to the western parts of Hasenheide, Schönleinstraße (U8) to the Reuterkiez, and Grenzallee (U7) to the southern and south-eastern industrial parks including the Neukölln Harbor.

During workday nights, approximately between 1:00 and 4:00, Berlin's subways are not operational, but are replaced by buses. In Neukölln, the U7 and U8 are replaced by the bus lines N7 and N8 respectively. During nights before Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, the U-Bahn lines operate continuously.

#### S-Bahn

[edit]

Neukölln S-Bahn station

Neukölln is served by five S-Bahn (urban railway) lines, with U-Bahn interchanges at Berlin-Hermannstraße (U8) and Berlin-Neukölln (U7), each for all of the five lines. The S45 connects Neukölln and the airport (see below). Two additional important services are the Ringbahn circle lines S41 (clockwise) and S42 (counter-clockwise), connecting i.a. to Südkreuz, Westkreuz, Gesundbrunnen (Nordkreuz) and Ostkreuz. The other two lines are the S47 via Niederschöneweide to Spindlersfeld in the south-east, and the S46, which connects Neukölln to Westend in the far west and the town Königs Wusterhausen south-east of Berlin via Adlershof, Grünau and the town Zeuthen. Overall, Neukölln has four S-Bahn stations, the aforementioned Hermannstraße and Neukölln as well as Sonnenallee on the Ringbahn at the outskirts of Rixdorf, and Köllnische Heide on the southeastbound railway, providing S-Bahn access to the inhabitants of Weiße Siedlung, High-Deck-Siedlung and Schulenburgpark.

#### Bus

[edit]

MetroBus M29 to Hermannplatz

Due to sufficient access to U- and S-Bahn for most areas of Neukölln, the quarter is currently not served by any of Berlin's ExpressBus lines. Still, Neukölln has several regular bus lines, connecting for example Marzahn (194) and Marienfelde (277). There are also four MetroBus lines, the most important ones being the M29 connecting to the western city center including Kurfürstendamm, the M41 to Berlin Central Station, and the southbound M44 to Buckow-Süd, the destination of a potential extension of the U-Bahn line U8 (see below). In addition to the U-Bahn replacement bus lines during night hours, Neukölln is served by several regular night bus lines, for example the N47 connecting Hermannplatz and Berlin East railway station (Ostbahnhof).

#### Airport connections

[edit]

Since the closing of the airports Tegel and Tempelhof, whose airfield was partially situated in Neukölln, Berlin only has one remaining international airport,[note 168] Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER), the former (and greatly extended) Berlin Schönefeld Airport just outside of Berlin. As of 2024, BER passengers to or from Neukölln can only use buses or the S-Bahn for direct connections.[note 169]

When using the U-Bahn, an interchange between subway and the airport express bus lines X7 and X71 is necessary at the U7 terminus Rudow.[note 170] For S-Bahn access, an interchange is necessary between U-Bahn and the S45 at the stations Hermannstraße (U8) or Neukölln (U7). As of 2024, the S45 operates every 20 minutes from 5:00–24:00 and 7:00–24:00 on Sundays respectively. During the night, the U-Bahn service is replaced by the night bus line N7, which directly connects Neukölln and the airport.[note 171]

#### Ferry

[edit]

The Rixdorf at Kottbusser Brücke landing

Neukölln does not offer any regular ferry transport, but several landing stages for a variety of charter tours exist in Neukölln. Berlin shipping company Stern und Kreisschiffahrt, which is based at the Treptow Harbor, operates a landing at the Estrel Hotel on the Neukölln Ship Canal, with one route through Neukölln along the Landwehr Canal. Former Kreuzberg shipping company Reederei Riedel, which is now based at the Rummelsburg Harbor in Oberschöneweide, operates two landings, the Kottbusser Brücke at the Landwehr Canal, and the Wildenbruchbrücke at the Neukölln Ship Canal. One of their ships is the 1962 Rixdorf, which has been in their service since 1987 and is authorized for 250 passengers and crew.[note 172]

#### Future

[edit]

##### U-Bahn

[edit]

There are concrete medium-term plans to extend the U7 south beyond Rudow to directly connect the airport BER to Neukölln and the rest of Berlin via U-Bahn, adding a minimum of two and up to seven additional stations inbetween, with Schönefeld also functioning as an S-Bahn interchange.[note 173] In 2024, two performance audits for the extension began, with the Berlin audit still under way,[67] while the audit by the Schönefeld municipality ended with a positive result in April 2025.[68] The extended U7 would be the first of Berlin's U-Bahn lines to reach beyond the city's borders.

As Greater Berlin has been steadily growing since German reunification to now almost 4.8 million inhabitants, with extensive residential construction happening in Berlin's immediate surrounding regions, public transport extensions to the city's periphery are propagated frequently. With regard to Neukölln, an internal 2023 BVG feasibility study on long-term U-Bahn network expansion included a southbound extension of the U8 beyond Hermannstraße, terminating in the south of Buckow on the border to Brandenburg's Gartenstadt Großziethen.[69]

##### S-Bahn

[edit]

The borough administrations of Treptow-Köpenick and Neukölln have often pushed for an additional station on Berlin's Ringbahn, primarily at the Kiefholzstraße on the border of the two boroughs. However, the Berlin transport providers aim at one Ringbahn revolution every 60 minutes. Under this guideline, only one station can be added to the lines S41/42 for the whole of Berlin. The Kiefholzstraße therefore competes against four other proposed stations, one of them in Neukölln as well, namely Oderstraße at the south-eastern corner of the Tempelhofer Feld.[note 174]

##### Bus and DRT

[edit]

Two new MetroBus and ExpressBus lines are planned, the M94 to Friedrichsfelde-Ost via Treptow and Ostkreuz station, and the X77 from Hermannstraße to Marienfelde via Alt-Mariendorf.[70]

Mainly two neighborhoods of Neukölln are insufficiently connected to the Berlin public transportation system, either because they were never developed (Schillerpromenade), or because the old and narrow streets prevent the establishment of bus lines (Alt-Rixdorf). Therefore the Berlin Senate and the BVG plan to create a network of DRT bus lines (Rufbus) for large parts of Neukölln, from the western neighborhoods at the Tempelhofer Feld to the Sonnenallee in the east, covering Schillerpromenade, Flughafenstraße, Rollberg, Körnerpark and both Rixdorf neighborhoods.[71]

##### Tram

[edit]

Despite Rixdorf's and Neukölln's important role in the historical development of Berlin's tramway, the quarter currently has no connection to the city's modern MetroTram system. Due to the Teltow slopes and narrower streets in places like Flughafenstraße, only Neukölln's northern neighborhoods in the glacial valley are immediately suitable for tram expansion. A long-gestating plan proposes to extend Berlin's so-called "party tram"[72] line M10 by the year 2031[note 175] from Kreuzberg (SO 36) through the Görlitzer Park and crossing the Landwehr Canal into Neukölln, with stations in the Reuterkiez planned at Framstraße, Pannierstraße and U Hermannplatz on Urbanstraße via Sonnenallee.[note 176] This would create a direct public transport connection from Neukölln (Reuterkiez) to Kreuzberg, Friedrichshain, Prenzlauer Berg, Mitte, Moabit via Berlin Central Station, and Jungfernheide station in Charlottenburg-Nord.[73]

To replace Neukölln's overstrained "ghetto bus"[74] line M41, the Berlin Senate also has concrete plans to create a new tram line from Schöneweide S-Bahn station through Johannisthal along the Königsheide, part of the former Cölln Heath, through Baumschulenweg, Neukölln and Kreuzberg 61 along Sonnenallee and Urbanstraße via Hallesches Tor to Potsdamer Platz.[note 177]

### Individual transport

[edit]

#### Motorized individual transport

[edit]

Columbiadamm

Since Neukölln is densely populated and highly urbanized, most of its streets come with a speed limit of 30 km/h (19 mph) for motorized vehicles, including more aggressive urban planning measures in recent years aimed at reducing traffic with one-way roads and concepts like the Spielstraße ("play street"), modal filters or larger-scale neighborhood blocks (Kiezblock, LTN).[note 178] Furthermore, in 2024 the Senate of Berlin and the borough's administration have begun to monetize public parking space in the northern neighborhoods to steer away some of the excess traffic.[75]

Nevertheless, several main roads function as important arterial connections to other parts of Berlin: Columbiadamm, Urbanstraße and Hasenheide connect to the western parts of Berlin south of the city center via Tempelhof and the western neighborhood of Kreuzberg 61 respectively, while Sonnenallee, Karl-Marx-Straße and Hermannstraße connect to southern and south-eastern parts of Berlin via Britz and Baumschulenweg respectively. The Kottbusser Damm is the main road to the SO 36 neighborhood of Kreuzberg in the north, but traffic calming measures have reduced its importance in recent years. Except for the Columbiadamm, all of the above arterial roads converge at Hermannplatz.

The A100 autobahn just outside of Neukölln's border with Britz connects to the western parts of Berlin, with an eastern extension through parts of Neukölln to Alt-Treptow under construction, and a highly contended[76] final stage planned to extend further into Friedrichshain and Lichtenberg via Ostkreuz. At the interchange Autobahndreieck Neukölln, the A100 connects to the A113 autobahn, which leads south to BER airport and the A10, Berlin's orbital autobahn.

#### Bicycle traffic

[edit]

Bicycle lane, Hasenheide

Most of Neukölln's one-way streets are two-way for cyclists. In 2017, the western parts of Weserstraße opened as Neukölln's first bicycle boulevard, and in the following years, several side streets have been rededicated as such, at first especially in the trendier districts of Reuter- and Schillerkiez, but now slowly expanding into other neighborhoods.[note 179] Larger main roads have been reconstructed to include properly separated bike lanes, for example Kottbusser Damm and Hasenheide, with plans for more reconstruction in the coming years. Neukölln's most ambitious project is the 20.2 km (12.55 mi) "Y route" (Y-Trasse), a forked dual bicycle highway (Radschnellverbindung) from south-eastern Berlin through Neukölln to Kreuzberg.[note 180] Berlin and Neukölln have several bicycle-sharing systems with a large fleet of standard and electric bicycles, as well as cargo bikes and e-scooters.

#### Pedestrian traffic

[edit]

Heidekamppark

Due to Berlin's usually broad sidewalks, extensive speed limits, especially on side streets, and other measures like play streets and an increasing number of one-way streets, Neukölln has become a rather safe environment for pedestrians. However, compared to other German cities, very few pedestrian zones exist in Neukölln, currently only the "youth street" Rütlistraße (Reuterkiez) and the Tempelhofer Feld. There are proposals and concrete plans to rededicate certain locations as either pedestrian zones or mixed zones for pedestrians and cyclists, for example the Elbestraße and Weichselstraße in the Reuterkiez.

Several hiking trails exist along the waterways within or bordering Neukölln, primarily the Landwehr Canal, parts of the Neukölln Ship Canal, the Britz Canal, and the Heidekampgraben in the east, which is part of Berlin's Mauerweg. Other green trails are limited to Neukölln's parks, especially the Hasenheide, the Tempelhofer Feld, the Carl-Weder-Park, and the eastern garden plots. However, due to Neukölln's highly urbanized and partially industrialized character, few of the trails are sufficiently interconnected, as it is often found in the suburban quarters of Berlin. Still, Trail 18 of Berlin's officially designated Grüne Hauptwege (main green trails) leads from the Tempelhofer Feld through Neukölln's western cemeteries and parks, Alt-Rixdorf and along the Neukölln Ship Canal via Trusepark into Kreuzberg and beyond.[77]

### Freight transport

[edit]

* Neukölln Harbor and Watergate

* Freight yards, Neukölln station

* Neukölln–Mittenwald industrial railroad

* Treptow freight yards, Neukölln, 1986

* Industrial through track, Lahnstraße, Neukölln Harbor

Almost all of Neukölln's industrial parks are situated in the southern and eastern parts of the quarter. Both the A100 and A113 highways function as vital access ways, not least for connecting to the BER airport's freight terminals.

The Neukölln Harbor alongside Berlin's waterways also plays a prominent role in the transportation of goods, because all major canals of Berlin are part of the network of German Federal Waterways, which connects many German industrial regions, all important international maritime and inland ports, the North and Baltic Sea, and all of Germany's neighboring countries. The infrastructure of Neukölln's harbor sans railways (see below) is managed by the state-owned Berliner Hafen- und Lagerhausgesellschaft (BEHALA). The Neukölln Ship Canal, together with Neukölln Harbor and the Neukölln Watergate, is owned by the state of Berlin and managed by Neukölln's district office. All of Neukölln's other waterways, including many rivers and canals outside of the quarter and borough, are managed by the Neukölln branch of the federal Wasserstraßen- und Schifffahrtsamt Spree–Havel (Office of Spree–Havel Waterways and Shipping), which is situated in the eastern Britz docklands south of Neukölln Harbor.

Besides S-Bahn services, the stations Hermannstraße, Sonnenallee with its northern terminals along the western shore of the Neukölln Ship Canal into the freight terminus Güterbahnhof Treptow,[note 181] and especially Neukölln offer additional capacities for freight traffic via railways. The main lines connect eastbound via Köllnische Heide and westbound alongside Berlin's orbital S-Bahn infrastructure, continuing either westbound via Südkreuz or southbound and southwestbound via Tempelhof.

A smaller and mainly single-track historical railroad, whose northern parts within Berlin are still in operation for industrial transport, is the Neukölln–Mittenwald railroad (NME). It originates at Berlin Hermannstraße freight station[note 182] and branches off in the Tempelhof quarter south of the Tempelhofer Feld and traverses the Teltow Canal to connect other industrial areas in the south of Berlin, with the first (and primary) freight station Berlin Teltowkanal located in Tempelhof near Saalburgstraße south of the canal, which also services Neukölln's Britz quarter via auxiliary through tracks along Gradestraße. The railroad leads further south back into the Neukölln borough via the decommissioned station Berlin-Britz at Mohriner Allee[note 183] and the non-operational terminal Berlin-Buckow at Kölner Damm, ending at the small dual-track freight yards Berlin-Rudow Nord[note 184] west of Wutzkyallee.[note 185] An adjacent secondary freight line is still in operation, the Rudow industrial through track (Industriestammgleis Rudow) east of Gropiusstadt, which branches off at the NME's Berlin-Rudow Nord yards and leads north-east via Zwickauer Damm and Stubenrauchstraße to a diesel fuel facility at the Teltow Canal near Massantebrücke.

Furthermore, industrial through tracks, which are managed by the Industriebahn Berlin, connect Neukölln station via the Treptow freight yards north of Sonnenallee to several industrial plants in the Neukölln quarter, which are mainly located within the industrial park Nobelstraße north of the Britz Canal near High-Deck-Siedlung. They connect through the eastern parts of the Neukölln Harbor, with several auxiliary tracks currently or permanently decommissioned.[note 186] Due to Neukölln's dense urban development and its inner-city industrial areas, the quarter's freight trains always needed to be switched and shift directions several times.[note 187]

## Culture and notable sights

[edit]

### Main sights

[edit]

* Neuköllner Oper: opera house that hosts a wide range of performances including musicals, baroque opera, operetta, or experimental music theatre. Famous for its aim to bring elitist culture to a wider audience.[78]
* Stadtbad Neukölln, the local swim hall which consists of antique thermal baths inspired by Greek temples and basilicas.
* Körnerpark: park in neobarock style with fountains, orangerie, exhibition rooms and a cafe, founded 1910.

### Places of worship

[edit]

Even though the quarter's number of Christians has been steadily decreasing in the past decades (see above), Neukölln has a diverse Christian heritage, on the one hand as a historically Roman Catholic Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller village, and as the seat of the Holy See's Apostolic Nunciature, and on the other hand as a prominent Protestant center of Germany, not least due to Moravian immigration in the 18th century. Furthermore, Neukölln is also an important place for the Islamic faiths due to the decades-long Muslim immigration. Most of the major religions are well represented in Neukölln today. Generally, most of Neukölln's places of worship have converged around the quarter's historical neighborhoods of Reuterkiez, Flughafenstraße, Schillerpromenade and especially Rixdorf.[note 188]

#### Christianities

[edit]

##### Roman Christianities

[edit]

* St. John's Basilica

* St. John's Basilica

* St. Clara

* St. Christopher

* St. Richard

* St. Edward

* St. Boris the Baptist Cathedral

* Catholic-Apostolic Church

The most prominent Roman Catholic church is the Basilica of Saint John the Baptist at the western edge of the Volkspark Hasenheide next to the Holy See's Apostolic Nunciature near Südstern. A Basilica minor since 1906, it was constructed by August Menken between 1894 and 1897 in the Rhenish-Romanesque style, and to this day remains the largest Roman church of Berlin. It is also home to the expatriate Polish Catholic community. Originally constructed as a garrison church for Berlin's Roman Catholic soldiers, it today still serves as the cathedral for the Military Ordinariate of Germany. It is the oldest Roman church in Neukölln, with construction having begun shortly before Rollberg's St. Clara.

The youngest original Roman church is St. Christopher at the Reuterplatz, built between 1929 and 1930 in the new objective style, while postmodernist St. Richard in Rixdorf was technically constructed in 1975, but replaced an older chapel at the same location. Overall, together with St. Edward in the Silbersteinkiez, Neukölln has five Roman Catholic churches.

The only church in Neukölln belonging to one of Berlin's Roman Orthodox denominations is Saint Boris the Baptist Cathedral of the Bulgarian Orthodox parish, which is located near Hermannstraße on the grounds of the cemetery Jerusalem und Neue Kirche.[note 189] Finally, the church on Rollberg's Roland-Krüger-Straße near the park Lessinghöhe is home to the free Catholic Apostolic community.

##### Mainstream Protestantism

[edit]

* Bethlehem Church

* Church of Mary Magdalene

* Genezareth Church

* Martin Luther Church

* Phillipp Melanchthon Church

* Nicodemus Church

* Tabitha Church

The most famous Protestant church, while also the oldest church in Neukölln, is the historical village chapel of Rixdorf, which had originally been built in late Gothic Margraviate style around the year 1400, but might actually be at least a century older, preceded by a smaller field chapel (see above). It was partially destroyed in the 1639 Rixdorf firestorm and reconstructed the same year, but only the nave's plinth and three choir walls could be saved. It was renamed Bethlehem Church in 1912 and discretely renovated and expanded in the 1930s. Originally a Catholic chapel, it was later also used by both the Catholic and one of the three Protestant Bohemian parishes of Rixdorf, before eventually becoming a purely Protestant place of worship of the Bohemian-Lutheran denomination.

In addition to Bethlehem Church, Neukölln has six other mainstream Protestant churches. The most prominent is the Church of Mary Magdalene, which was constructed between 1877 and 1879 in Rixdorf on Karl-Marx-Straße. Two other notable ones are the 1903 Genezareth Church in the Schillerkiez on Herrfurthplatz, and the 1909 Martin Luther Church in the Reuterkiez on Fuldastraße, both of them Gothic revivalist buildings. The only Christian church in the problematic neighborhoods of south-eastern Neukölln is the Protestant Tabitha Church (Tabeakirche) between High-Deck-Siedlung and Weiße Siedlung.

##### Other Protestant denominations

[edit]

* Reformed Bethlehem parish hall

* Hussite parish hall

* St. Paul

* Salem Church

* Baptist church

As a denominational counterpoint to the original Rixdorf chapel, the second Bohemian community had founded the Reformed Bethlehem Church on Richardstraße, which is the parish of Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. In turn, the traditional Moravians (Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine) had settled in their own oratory on the Kirchgasse. The historical Moravian oratory had already been built there in 1771, but was destroyed during World War II and rebuilt in 1962 as a late-modernist oratory and parish hall.

Some of Neukölln's churches house additional denominations, faiths and associations. The Martin Luther Church not only serves as the home to the Romanian Orthodox parish of Neukölln, but also to five other minority Protestant faiths, for example the Evangelical Blood of Jesus Foundation Ministry, the Indonesian Reformed Evangelical Church, the House of Prayer of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana, and the free Evangelical Missionaria da Paz Mundial association. The Genezareth Church is also home to the Pentecostal Precious Blood of Jesus Christ Ministries. The Church of Mary Magdalene is shared with the Evangelical United Brethren in Christ, and the Reformed Bethlehem Church on Richardstraße with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Iran and the Free Evangelical Bible association, one of Neukölln's two Baptist communities.

The Haus Gotteshilfe on Rollberg's Werbellinstraße belongs to the Evangelical Landeskirchliche Gemeinschaft (state church association), an independent member of Germany's Protestant churches. St. Paul at the Kranoldplatz in the Silbersteinkiez is home to the independent Evangelical-Lutheran community. Right beside it is the Salem Church of the Evangelical Methodist community. Neukölln's nameless Baptist church is on Herzbergstraße, informally called Kiezkirche Rixdorf (neighborhood church), and it belongs to the Evangelical free church parish of Neukölln. The quarter has two Seventh-day Adventists parishes, one in the Schillerkiez on Lucy-Lameck-Straße, the Adventgemeinde an der Hasenheide, the other in the Flughafenkiez on Isarstraße. Finally, Jehovah's Witnesses maintain a Kingdom Hall on the Naumburger Straße in southern Rixdorf.

#### Other major religions

[edit]

* Synagogue Isarstraße commemorative plaque

* Fraenkelufer Synagogue, ca. 1917

* Şehitlik Mosque

* Şehitlik Mosque

* Şehitlik cemetery

* Al-Nur Mosque

* Sri Ganesha Temple

##### Judaism

[edit]

All Jewish places of worship in Berlin were destroyed or severely damaged during the National Socialist reign over Germany. In Neukölln, the synagogue on Isarstraße (Flughafenkiez) was demolished during the Kristallnacht of 1938, and only a commemorative plaque remains. There are no plans to reintroduce a new Jewish house of prayer in Neukölln, even though the number of Jewish citizens is rising. However, the Fraenkelufer Synagogue, an important center for Berlin's former Orthodox and now conservative Judaism, still exists. It is situated at the Landwehr Canal near the Reuterkiez just beyond the border to Kreuzberg. Construction to augment the remaining historical building is planned to begin in 2027,[79] which will again elevate it to one of the most important synagogues and Jewish cultural centers of Berlin beside the New Synagoge in Mitte and the Rykestraße Synagogue in Prenzlauer Berg.

##### Islam

[edit]

Neukölln has a large number of Sunni mosques, most of them founded originally for Neukölln's Turkish Muslims. Almost all of them exist as nondescript Vereinsheime (club houses) in smaller assocations and with different ideologies, from moderate like the mosque of the Zentrum für Religion, Mensch und Gesellschaft (ZRMG, Center for Religion, Man and Society) on Rixdorf's Finowstraße, to mainstream conservative like the Hamidiye mosque on Sonnenallee or the Dar Assalam mosque on Flughafenstraße,[note 190] to fundamentalist like the Al-Nur mosque near High-Deck-Siedlung, which together with the Furkan association in southern Körnerpark is one of Berlin's main Salafi centers under surveillance by the German domestic intelligence agency.[80] Three mosques are home to specific national or ethnic branches of Sunni Islam, Isa Beu on Karl-Marx-Straße (Rixdorf) for the Albanian Muslim community, Baitul Mukarram Masjidis for the Bengali Muslims on Fontanestraße in the Schillerkiez, and Mizgefta Navenda Mezopotamya for the Kurdish Muslims on Karl-Marx-Allee in the Körnerkiez.

The largest mosque, and one of the most important in Germany, is the Şehitlik Mosque[note 191] on Columbiadamm near the edge of the Tempelhofer Feld. The mosque derives its name from the surrounding Islamic martyrs' graveyard, which was laid out between 1863 and 1866[note 192] as a successor to a smaller diplomatic burial ground in Kreuzberg, which had been acquired from Frederick William III and established in 1798 for the Ottoman members of the Prussian Army.[note 193] After its foundation in 1987, the mosque was constructed between 1999 and 2005 in grand Ottoman style by Hilmi Şenalp and can house up to 1,500 people.

The Shia branch of Islam is less represented in Germany than Sunni Islam, but Neukölln nevertheless has several Shiite places of worship, for example the mosques Markaz Al-Qaim on Flughafenstraße in the Schillerkiez, or Imam Riza on Reuterstraße in the Flughafenkiez. The Lebanese Shiites have a home at the mosque Al-Mustafa on Kienitzerstraße in the Schillerkiez.

The prominent German Sufi Rabbaniyya association left Neukölln for Eigeltingen in 2014. Still, the Sufi community in Neukölln remains organized, for example in the Turkish Sufi order Tekke-i Kadiriyye Mescidi in Rixdorf.

##### Hinduism

[edit]

The borough of Neukölln is home to several thousand Hindus, mainly from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and especially the number of Indian expats has been rising steadily since the 2022 enactment of the Deutsch-indisches Migrationsabkommen (German-Indian Treaty on Migration).

In order to relieve the Sri Mayurapathy Murugan Temple in Britz, the new Sri Ganesha Temple at the edge of the Volkspark Hasenheide opened in 2024, with further construction still underway, which will eventually make it the largest Hindu temple in continental Europe.

#### Minority religions

[edit]

Other religions, denominations and belief systems are represented marginally at best, but have found ways to organize, for example at the Buddhist centers on Neckarstraße (Flughafenkiez) or the Yun Hwa Dharma Sah on Nannsenstraße (Reuterkiez), the Turkish Mormon chapel and the Rosicrucian Lectorium Rosicrucianum, both on Rixdorf's Richardstraße, and the Baháʼí prayer rooms on the Sonnenallee.

#### Interfaith dialog

[edit]

Many of Neukölln's interfaith frameworks and outreach projects have achieved city-wide to sometimes national prominence, for example the Islamic ZMRG (see above) or the Neuköllner Begegnungsstätte (NBS, Neukölln Meeting Place) at the Dar Assalam mosque, the Protestant Interkulturelles Zentrum Genezareth (IZG, Intercultural Center Genezareth) on Herrfurthplatz, formerly known as the Treffpunkt Religion und Gesellschaft, the Jewish-Islamic Salaam-Schalom Initiative, the Protestant-Muslim ecumenical working group, run by the Rixdorf parishes and the Gazi Osman Paşa mosque, the Jewish outreach project Schalom Rollberg! on Morusstraße (Rollberg), the German–Arabic language school Ibn Khaldoun on Uthmannstraße (Rixdorf), which also runs a Jewish exchange project, the Protestant city mission Refugio on Lenaustraße in the Reuterkiez, and a branch of the Mennonite Friedenszentrum (Center for Peace) with their Café Abraham–Ibrahim at the Roman Catholic International Pastoral Center on Kranoldstraße in the Silbersteinkiez. The prominent Werkstatt Religionen und Weltanschauungen (Working Group for Religions and Worldviews), which was originally part of the Werkstatt der Kulturen, continues to operate after the latter's closure.

### Agriculture and livestock farming

[edit]

Neighborhood garden, Schillerkiez

The borough of Neukölln has 40 ha (0.400 km2) or 99 acres (0.15 sq mi) under cultivation, but only very few areas of the highly urbanized northern quarter of Neukölln are officially designated as agricultural land. Agriculture and livestock farming are usually found on small lots for school and preschool projects or in larger parks. Examples are the urban garden at St. Jacobi cemetery, the academically maintained community garden Allmende-Kontor for urban gardening and cultivation on the Tempelhofer Feld, and the Tierpark Neukölln (animal park) in the Volkspark Hasenheide, which together with the Naturhaus Hasenheide (nature house) also emphasizes farm animals for educational purposes. Urban beekeeping is relatively widespread, for example on the Tempelhofer Feld or in the Lern- und Nachbarschaftsgarten (Educational Neighborhood Garden) between Kottbusser Damm and Hobrechtstraße (Reuterkiez). Furthermore, a permanent grazing herd of one hundred Skudde sheep as well as a couple of Coburg Fox sheep are kept on the Tempelhofer Feld. In most cases, however, the cultural aspect of Neukölln's nature and agriculture is for the purpose of environmental education, managed by the city-wide project Naturstadt Berlin ("environmental city") and the borough's own Koordinierungsstelle Umweltbildung (Office for the Coordination of Environmental Education).

#### Cannabis cultivation

[edit]

Since the 2024 partial legalization of cannabis in Germany, citizens are allowed to grow and cultivate their own cannabis plants, either privately or in special associations called Cannabis Social Clubs (CSCs), which started operating in July of the same year. In Berlin, the city's administration at first failed to create the necessary state authority and framework in time, and passed responsibility to the blindsided boroughs instead, so many CSCs established their farming areas in Brandenburg to avoid Berlin's bureaucratic gridlock.[81] As of 2025, Neukölln has no registered clubs yet. However, Germany's governing body Dachverband deutscher Cannabis Social Clubs (CSCD) is located on Siegfriedstraße in the Rollbergkiez.

#### Garden allotments

[edit]

Garden allotment

An often overlooked part of domestic agriculture in Germany, and especially Berlin, is the Schrebergarten or, in its organized form, the Kleingartenanlage (KGA, lit. "small garden site"), which is an agglomeration of privately leased garden allotments. Especially large cities contain wide areas of these KGAs, and Berlin takes the top spot with more than 65,000 allotments—two for every hundred residents. Since these allotments usually contain shacks or small summer houses, the KGAs have occasionally been called the "German shanty towns".[82] The Kleingarten was originally meant as a small private nursery to counter malnutrition in the urban citizenry, but in modern times evolved into a place for local recreation. In recent years, increased ecological awareness has reintroduced the agricultural aspect, and a new generation of young people have been rediscovering the Kleingarten, especially with cultivation in mind. Neukölln has large swaths of KGAs, most noteworthy the areas on both sides of the former border to East Berlin. Smaller ones have also formed in the west near the Tempelhofer Feld, and even in the central urban locations of Neukölln, for example near Reuterplatz, north of Sonnenallee and south of the Ringbahn.

#### Wineries, distilleries and breweries

[edit]

Since 13 April 1973, winegrowing had been part of Neukölln's culture in the Schulgarten Dammweg south of the Weiße Siedlung, supported by the Weinbruderschaft der Pfalz (Wine Fraternity of the Palatinate), but the business was forced to move to the Britz quarter in 2019. The wine itself (Rixdorfer Weinmeister) is still auctioned off at the annual Rixdorf Christmas market (see below). Neukölln has only a few small distilleries, for example the Ratzeputz on Weserstraße (Reuterkiez), which sells its own schnaps.

Like many other places around the world, Neukölln has also witnessed the rise of small breweries and entrepreneurial craft brewing in recent years. The Sudhaus of the former Kindle brewery now also houses the Privatbrauerei am Rollberg, offering guided tours, and includes a taproom. Other breweries have formed all over Neukölln, for example the Lager Lager brewery and taproom on Pflügerstraße (Reuterkiez), and the Berliner Berg Brauerei in Neukölln's north-east corner on Treptower Straße (Rixdorf), whose brewery comes with a beer garden, with their official taproom Bergschloss located on Kopfstraße (Rollberg). Far more than taprooms are offered by the breweries Brauhaus Südstern on the street Hasenheide, which is combined with a pub, a restaurant and a beer garden, and the Brauhaus Neulich on Selchower Straße (Schillerkiez), a rustic tavern with occasional live music performances.

### Street markets

[edit]

Türkenmarkt on Maybbachufer Rixdorf Christmas market, ca. 1900

Unlike Berlin, the former city of Neukölln never had a traditional market hall, and the closest one still in operation is the Markthalle IX in Kreuzberg nearby. However, Neukölln has many popular street markets instead. The Maybachufer (Reuterkiez) along the Landwehr Canal has four market days, hosting the famous weekly general market on Tuesdays and Fridays, colloquially called Türkenmarkt ("Turks' market"), and a smaller handicraft market on Saturdays (Neuköllner Stoff), both of them situated just east of the Kottbusser Brücke, as well as the flea market Nowkoelln Flowmarkt east of the Hobrechtbrücke, usually hosted from March to October every second Sunday.

Rixdorf has two weekly market days, with a general market hosted on Wednesdays and Saturdays on the Karl-Marx-Platz near the historical center around Richardplatz. A general weekly market for local and regional produce is the Dicke Linda ("Fat Linda"), which is hosted every Saturday on the Kranoldplatz in the Silbersteinkiez. The Kranoldplatz is also the location of a small flea market, hosted on the second Sunday of every month from March to November. A smaller, but popular mixed market is the Schillermarkt, which is hosted every Saturday on the Herrfurthplatz in the Schillerkiez. The Hermannplatz hosts general markets on the plaza's central island Monday through Friday in varying sizes.

The association Berliner Fahrradmarkt (BFM) conducts regular bicycle markets across four locations in Berlin, two of them in Neukölln. Twice every month, the market is hosted in the Rütlistraße (Reuterkiez) and on the Herrfurthplatz (Schillerpromenade) respectively.

#### Christmas markets

[edit]

The annual Christmas market in Rixdorf takes place at the Richardplatz on the weekend of the second advent Sunday. The quarter's Christmas market was resurrected in December 1974 after a long hiatus following the historical Rixdorf Christmas market, which had been conducted since at least the 19th century. A modern Christmas market is hosted at the venue Klunkerkranich, the popular rooftop bar of the Neukölln Arcaden. In addition, some of the regular markets and flea markets will usually expand into Christmas markets in December, for example the Nowkoelln Xmas Flowmarkt on the Maybachufer and the Dicke Linda on Kranoldplatz. Since 2024, the German Christmas shopping event Holy Shit Shopping has been organized at the CANK, a pop-up event venue in a former mall in Rixdorf.

### Cinemas

[edit]

Rollberg Kinos

Neukölln has one modern multiplex movie theater, the Cineplex Neukölln in the Neukölln Arcaden. The shopping mall was constructed in the late 1990s as the Forum Neukölln, and the multiplex with nine auditoriums opened its doors in the year 2000. It is operated by UCI Cinemas and the German Cineplex group.

The Yorck Cinema Group, an association of formerly independent and often historical movie theaters, operates several cinemas in Berlin, three of them in Neukölln, the single-auditorium Neues Off, originally a 1919 vaudeville theater, which became a movie theater in 1926, renovated in the 1950s and fully restored in the 1990s, the Passage with four auditoriums, a movie theater since its 1910 inception, but extensively renovated at the end of the 1980s, and the Rollberg Kinos with five auditoriums, which opened in 1996 next to the site of the Mercedes-Palast, which since 1927 had housed Europe's largest movie theater, later destroyed at the end of World War II.[note 194]

Neukölln still has two truly independent movie theaters, which mainly rely on arthouse films. Both locations offer a blend of cinema, café and bar. The single-auditorium Il Kino in the Reuterkiez opened its doors in 2014 as a branch of the Roman movie theater of the same name. The newest addition to Neukölln's family of cinemas is the Wolf in the Weserkiez, which opened its two auditoriums in 2017, together with the Wolf Studio, a modular location for screenings, exhibitions and workshops.

On the Kreuzberg side of the Kottbusser Damm, just outside of the Reuterkiez, lies the Moviemento, which has three auditoriums. It opened as a small bioscope in 1907 and has been a movie theater ever since, which makes it the oldest continuously operating cinema of Germany, now mainly showing arthouse and documentary films, while also being a major player in Berlin's independent film festival scene.[83]

Film screenings in other locations are commonplace, either officially like the outdoor movie theater in the Volkspark Hasenheide, which opens its gates in the summer months, or at more informal gatherings, such as silent film screenings with live music accompaniment in the bar Froschkoenig.

In recent years, theater owners have adapted to the ever more diverse international citizenry, so all of Neukölln's movie theaters are also screening many of their movies without the usual German dub in their original languages, sometimes with German subtitles. In particular, the Cineplex Neukölln has cornered the market for original Turkish movies.

#### Film festivals

[edit]

Beside the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), more than a hundred independent film festivals are hosted in Berlin annually, many of them with venues in Neukölln or at the Moviemento theater on the border to Kreuzberg. The interfilm short film festival including the KUKI festival for young filmmakers is also screening at the Rollberg Kino. Most of Berlin's other independent festivals usually have their Neukölln screenings only at the quarter's independent movie theaters, namely the Moviemento, Il Kino and Wolf. Among the more important festivals are Achtung Berlin, one of the more prominent independent festivals highlighting film works by young and aspiring filmmakers, the XPOSED queer film festival, the Pornfilmfestival Berlin, the KinoKabaret short film festival, the Female Filmmakers Festival, as well as Berlin's Jewish and Arabic film festivals. Furthermore, important films from the previous Berlinale usually receive second showings in the Hasenheide open air movie theater during the summer season.

### Architecture

[edit]

Aside from Neukölln's numerous places of worship, many of them more than a hundred years old (see above),[note 195] the quarter offers many architectural highlights from various epochs. These range from the oldest structures of the early 15th century via stately Wilhelmine Gründerzeit era buildings and estates to 20th century modernist and 21st century postmodernist development, which began to take hold in the 1920s.

Modern residential architects still have to adhere to the city's regulations regarding a uniform eaves height, but have broken with almost all of the other classical concepts of style, structure and dimension, at first based on social reformist ideals, then out of necessity to quickly rebuild after the bombing of Berlin in World War II, but in later and more recent decades also due to new academic architectural ideologies, fast digital design phases, and less erudite urban planners in the city's administration. While this has broken Berlin's and Neukölln's original homogenous urban design, it has also visually boosted the character as an ever-changing and wildly diverse, albeit sometimes unaesthetic urban sphere. Still, classical styles and traditional construction, including reconstructions, have made a cautious comeback in recent years.[84] A grand example is the planned expressionist reconstruction of the Karstadt department store on Hermannplatz,[note 196] which was built in the late 1920s, but destroyed by the SS at the end of World War II except for a small piece of the original facade on the street Hasenheide.

#### Gründerzeit

[edit]

* Richardplatz 20, Rixdorf

* Jonasstraße 1, Körnerpark

* Bürknerstraße 22–23, Reuterkiez

* Emser Straße 102, Körnerpark

* Fuldastraße 45–46, Flughafenkiez

* Herrnhuter Weg 17, Rixdorf

* Isarstraße 3, Flughafenkiez

* Turmblock, Sonnenallee 125–33, Rixdorf

* Idealpassage, Fuldastraße 55–56, Flughafenkiez

* Schillerpromenade

As a general makeup, like most of Berlin's inner-city quarters, many parts of Neukölln belong to the Wilhelmine Ring with its historicist Gründerzeit residental houses, which are most prominent in the older neighborhoods of Reuterkiez, Flughafenstraße, Rixdorf, Körnerpark and Schillerpromenade. Part of the homogenous nature of Berlin's so-called Altbauten (old structures) stems from the city's regulations regarding a uniform eaves height. Furthermore, Berlin's classically trained architects had never strayed far from the dimensional design of the adjacent buildings, especially the height of their floors. These measures all contribute to the harmonious nature of Berlin's old residental blocks from the Gründerzeit era.

#### Alt-Rixdorf

[edit]

* Blacksmith's shop, Richardplatz

* Blacksmith's shop, Richardplatz

* Villa Rixdorf, Richardplatz

* Backyard, Richardplatz 17

* Backyard, Richardplatz 3

* Bethlehem Church

* Bohemian duplex house, Richardstraße 36–37

* Bohemian house, Richardstraße 80

* Reformed Bethlehem parish, Richardstraße 97

* Belfry, Reformed Bethlehem Church

* Comenius Garden

* Hussite school building, Kirchgasse 5

* Bohemain house, Kirchgasse 6

* Cemetery Böhmischer Gottesacker

The oldest areas of Neukölln are to be found in the historical center of Rixdorf around Richardplatz and along both Richardstraße and Kirchgasse. Among them are the 15th century Bethlehem Church, partially reconstructed after a fire, the historical blacksmith's shop, Berlin's oldest forge still in operation, a few old eclecticist residential houses like the Villa Rixdorf, the Bohemian cemetery Böhmischer Gottesacker, and two original estates (Richardstraße 36–37), which represent the Moravian colony's traditional style of duplex houses and have retained backyard structures from as far back as the year 1670, even before the first settlers arrived. Other Bohemian remnants can also be found, like traditional backyards, stables, old narrow streets, the former Hussite school on Kirchgasse, the oldest school building of Neukölln and now a museum, and the Reformed Bohemian parish house with its separated wooden belfry on Richardstraße.

#### Modern architecture

[edit]

* Bürknerstraße 12–14, Reuterkiez

* Oderstraße 45, Schillerkiez

* Ossastraße 6, Reuterkiez

* Die Ringe, Rollberg

* Weiße Siedlung

* High-Deck-Siedlung

* Apostolic Nunciature, Hasenheide

* School entrance wing, Drorystraße, Rixdorf

* Estrel Berlin, Rixdorf

On the other end of the spectrum are the early modernist estates like the projects by Bruno Taut, among them the 1910 estate on Bürknerstraße 12–14, the 1927 Ossastraße settlement, both in the Reuterkiez, and the 1927 buildings on Oderstraße (Schillerkiez). Later modernist developments originated from the public housing projects of the 1960s to '80s like Weiße Siedlung, High-Deck-Siedlung and most of Rollberg. While the Weiße Siedlung was still built using the high-rise concept of urbanity through concentration, the High-Deck-Siedlung as well as the Rollberg redevelopment, with its meandering estates in the east and Die Ringe (The Rings) in the west, used a more open and locally interconnected approach instead, especially the High-Deck-Siedlung with its eponymous pedestrian skyways. Due to the quarter's older compact urban characteristics, 21st century postmodernist stand-alone buildings or estates are more scarce in Neukölln than in other quarters of Berlin. Examples are the perimeter block estate at Böhmische Straße 38 in Rixdorf, the Apostolic Nunciature near Südstern, or the primary school in Rixdorf's Drorystraße. One of the most prominent redevelopment undertakings in the whole of Berlin, comparable to the 1990s construction on Potsdamer Platz, is happening in the Neukölln Docklands, an industrial neighborhood along the Neukölln Ship Canal north and south of the Sonnenbrücke at the outskirts of Rixdorf, which will include the Estrel Tower, Berlin's tallest skyscraper and Germany's tallest hotel at 176 m (577 ft), providing an upgrade to the nearby Estrel, Germany's largest hotel, and its convention center.

#### Reinhold Kiehl

[edit]

* Rathaus Neukölln (City Hall), Rixdorf

* Stadtbad Neukölln (public bath house), Rixdorf

* Stadtbad Neukölln (public bath house), Rixdorf

* Orangerie, Körnerpark

* Pump room kiosk, Richardplatz, Rixdorf

* Sonnenallee station, Rixdorf

* Chapel, Alter Friedhof St. Jacobi

* Dammwegsiedlung

The most popular architectural locations, however, originated from Rixdorf's boomtown phase, which spanned the mid-19th to early 20th century.[note 197] Aside from the ubiquitous Gründerzeit apartment blocks, many important stand-alone buildings and representative locations were constructed in this era, in which Reinhold Kiehl played a central role, both as an architect and as director of Rixdorf's Hochbauamt (office of public works service) in charge of urban planning and development. Together with development official Hermann Weigand, architect Heinrich Best and design director John Martens, Rixdorf's building authority received a stellar reputation across the German Empire, which attracted young architects like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Bruno and Max Taut, Franz Hoffmann and others, who all earned their stripes in Rixdorf before becoming renowned independent architects. After Kiehl stepped down in 1912, most of his remaining projects were finished by his colleague Heinrich Best or under Neukölln's new building official Friedrich Zollinger (1912–18).

Kiehl's two most important projects, both of them in Rixdorf, are the 1905 Rathaus Neukölln (city hall) on Karl-Marx-Straße, inspired by the German Renaissance and expanded in the 1950s, and the 1912 neoclassicist Stadtbad Neukölln (public city bath) on Ganghoferstraße, with a green neoclassical atrium and interior stylistic callbacks to the thermae and temples of Roman and Greek antiquity. Among his lesser known, but nonetheless important works, are the Baroque orangerie in the Körnerpark, the central pump room kiosk on Richardplatz,[note 198] and the 1911 entrance building at the Sonnenallee S-Bahn station. Kiehl is buried on the cemetery Alter Friedhof St. Jacobi, whose chapel (near Hermannplatz) he had designed in the style of ancient Roman temples. After his death in 1913, more of his original plans were implemented, for example the modern-day Carl Legien School on Leinestraße (Schillerkiez), which was originally constructed in 1924 as a building academy (Baugewerbeschule Neukölln), and the proto-modernist settlement in the south-eastern outskirts of Rixdorf, the Dammwegsiedlung, which was finished in 1922 south of modern-day Weiße Siedlung.

#### Other representative buildings

[edit]

* Alte Post (old post office), Rixdorf

* Kindle Ballrooms, Flughafenkiez

* Amtsgericht Neukölln (municipal court), Rixdorf

* Neue Welt, Hasenheide, Schillerkiez

* Neuer Rollkrug, Flughafenkiez

* Hermannplatz U-Bahn station (U7)

Many other architects have added to Neukölln's important historical building structure. Examples are the 1905 imperial Alte Post (Old Post Office) on Karl-Marx-Straße, primarily styled after Renaissance buildings, the 1893 Kindl Ballrooms on Hermannstraße, and the 1899–1901 Renaissance revivalist Amtsgericht Neukölln, the borough's municipal court and former prison on Karl-Marx-Straße, which replaced the original 1879 Amtsgericht. The beer hall Neue Welt (New World) on the street Hasenheide close to Hermannplatz, originally founded in 1865 as a beer garden, was constructed in 1902, and is today a concert venue called Huxleys Neue Welt (see above). Directly on Hermannplatz is the 1907 Neuer Rollkrug, an old office building which was built at the location of the demolished Rollkrug, Rixdorf's most famous historical tavern. Next to it is the plaza's U-Bahn station, of which the lower U7 platform is especially noteworthy due to its spacious Art Deco design and direct access to the Karstadt department store. Both were constructed together in 1923, and the subway station's main hall opened in 1926.

#### Commercial and industrial buildings

[edit]

* Passage, Rixdorf

* Banking house, Alfred-Scholz-Platz, Rixdorf

* Reichsbank building, Ganghoferstraße, Rixdorf

* Eisenwerk Franz Weeren, Körnerpark

* Industrial villa, Eisenwerk Franz Weeren, Körnerpark

* Hermannshof, Hermannstraße, Schillerkiez

* Niemann factory, Sonnenallee, Rixdorf

* Transformer station, Richardstraße, Rixdorf

* Neukölln water tower, Rollberg

* Geyer film factory, Reuterkiez

* Sudhaus, Kindl brewery, Rollberg

* Bergschloss-Brauerei, Schillerkiez

* Institute for Disinfection, Rixdorf

* Jacobs factory, High-Deck-Siedlung

Neukölln's central industrial and commercial areas evolved in the same boomtown period. Important buildings from Rixdorf are Reinhold Kiehl's 1909 arcade building (Passage) between Richardstraße and Karl-Marx-Straße, which now houses a cinema and Neukölln's opera (see above), the 1912 banking house at the Alfred-Scholz-Platz, and the former Reichsbank branch office on Ganghoferstraße, built between 1912 and 1914. Industrial buildings of note are the 1887 Franz Weeren Eisenwerk (ironworks) with industrial villa on Glasower Straße (Körnerpark), the 1904 Hermannshof on Hermannstraße (Schillerkiez), the 1916 Niemann factory on Sonnenallee, the 1928 Umspannwerk (transformer station) on Richardstraße, the heating power plant on Weigandufer with many of the old factory buildings still intact, the Neukölln Water Tower in the Rollberg neighborhood, the 1914 Geyer film factory on Harzer Straße, and the 1926 expressionist Gothic revivalist Sudhaus der Berliner Kindl-Brauerei, an old brewery and today a center for arts and culture, including a museum of modern art (see above). Another notable brewery is the Bergschloss-Brauerei near Hermannplatz, which has been housing cultural centers for many years. In Rixdorf's periphery south of Neukölln's industrial railroad around Mittelbuschweg, some old factories and workshops have survived, for example a former liquor factory, or the 1914 former Institute for Disinfection, another building supervised by Reinhold Kiehl. After World War II, many newer factories and industrial plants were built further south, for example the Jacobs factory at the Britz Canal south of the High-Deck-Siedlung, and many of them are already under industrial monument preservation as well.

### Nightlife

[edit]

#### Clubs

[edit]

SchwuZ

Berlin's club scene, while famous around the world, was mostly dominated by the establishments that formed in vacant residential and industrial lots in the inner-city neighborhoods of former East Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall during the nonregulated, often ephemeral and highly diverse subcultural boom of the 1990s and early 2000s. Since the 2010s, the successors in Berlin's nightlife scene became more professional, but have mainly used the same urban areas for their venues. Similar open spaces were at first unavailable in Berlin's western boroughs, whose nightlife remained in limbo for almost two decades, because it was still relying on long-established clubs and discotheques of the Cold War era.

The status quo slowly changed in the 21st century, as more and more young creatives moved to Berlin. Since then, western industrial lots have been repurposed in higher numbers, and even Neukölln has seen its share of prominent clubs that have already come and gone, for example the Loftus Hall and the Griessmühle. Nevertheless, the quarter's club life is still not dominated by large venues or local centers of attraction. One notable exception to the rule is the SchwuZ, Berlin's first alternative public gay club, founded in 1977, which since 2013 resides in the former Kindl brewery (see above) in the Rollbergkiez. Today it is one of the most important locations for Berlin's queer culture, and generally among the prominent clubs of Berlin, also open to heterosexual and cisgender partygoers.

However, Berlin has always had smaller clubs and bars with (sometimes tiny) dancefloors, which were initially created out of necessity due to the finite space in the urbanized enclave of former West Berlin, but have since become a staple of Berlin's nightlife. In this respect, Neukölln is no exception and offers a plethora of clubs, especially in the northern neighborhoods closer to the gravitational centers of Berlin's nightlife in Friedrichshain, Mitte and Kreuzberg, for example the Loophole on Boddinstraße (Flughafenkiez), a callback to Berlin's 1990s' style underground clubs, or in Rixdorf like Sameheads and the Arkaoda. Gentrification further south has also spawned clubs in the Schillerkiez like the Promenaden-Eck on Schillerpromenade with two dancefloors.

#### Bars

[edit]

Ankerklause Velvet Bar Klunkerkranich

In Berlin, the city once called the Bar des Planeten ("bar of the planet"),[85] bars and pubs are a dime a dozen, and Neukölln, as the spiritual heir to the historical vice of Rixdorf, never dared to be an exception. While for some locals, the spätis can work as the be all and end all, most visitors only frequent them for pre-gaming and eventually prefer a club, a corner pub, whether modern or traditional, or one of Neukölln's many bars, whether with live music, a dancefloor, dining options, or as a traditional cocktail lounge or wine bar. The range in Neukölln spans from extravagantly creative to charmingly regular, like the Ankerklause, one of Neukölln's long-lasting pubs in the style of a harbor tavern on the border to Kreuzberg at the Landwehr Canal, or in the quarter's center like the Klunkerkranich, a popular rooftop bar atop the Neukölln Arcaden on Karl-Marx-Straße (Flughafenkiez). The main areas for the widest variety of bars with the most Rixdorfian torchbearers are found in the northern neighborhoods like the Donau-, Weser-, Reuter- and Friedelkiez. Especially the area around the western part of Weserstraße has become one of Berlin's most prominent locations in this respect and a downright invitation to bar-hoppers. The Weserkiez offers many standouts like the Thelonius Bar, Jaja Naked Wine, the Beuster Bar and Wax On, but in the end there are effectively too many to count. Other central neighborhoods seldomly fall behind, like Alt-Rixdorf with Velvet, Drei Flaschen and Herr Lindemann, which operates at the location of Rixdorf's very first village tavern. Since the gentrifying wave in Neukölln has slowly been moving south, other neighborhoods like the Donaukiez, Flughafenstraße and Schillerpromenade are now experiencing the same explosion of nightlife, with many new bars now revalueing their surroundings, for example Donau 115, Klunkerkranich, Paolo Pinkel, Zweiners, the Muted Horn or Villa Neukölln.

#### Beer gardens

[edit]

Densely packed Neukölln has little open spaces left, and many historical places like the Neue Welt garden were closed and redeveloped, so beer gardens are far and few between. However, most cafés, restaurants, bars and pubs extend their patron space outside as early in the year as possible, and Berlin's usually broad sidewalks provide enough room for this specific part of the city's street life. Some bars even utilize the backyards for this purpose, like the TiER on Weserstraße. Still, some beer gardens do exist, for example the Klunkerkranich terrace, the Tempelgarten on the Tempelhofer Feld, the Zosse in Rixdorf, and the outdoor areas of two breweries, Berliner Berg Brauerei in the Harzer Kiez, and the Brauhaus am Südstern near Hasenheide.

#### Corner pubs

[edit]

The Altberliner Eckkneipe (old Berlin corner pub) used to be one of the mainstays of Berlin nightlife, and the historical tavern Rollkrug near Hermannplatz, originally founded in the early 16th century, was doubtlessly the big bang for Neukölln's corner pub scene. To save these traditional establishments from extinction, the Berlin administration even went so far as to effectively exempt most of them from the city's non-smoking rules.[note 199] Overall, Neukölln still has a lot of these traditional pubs to offer, but in the course of gentrification, many of them were replaced by restaurants, cafés or stores. Especially in the Reuterkiez, traditional corner pubs suddenly became hard to find,[86] though some managed to survive, either still run in their traditional guise like the Lenau-Stuben on Hobrechtstraße, or continued under new management, for example Zum Böhmischen Dorf on Sanderstraße, the Mondhügel Bar on Bürknerstraße, Goldberg on Pflügerstraße, Ä on Wesertraße, or Kauz & Kiebitz on Reuterstraße with its semi-secret back room bar Truffle Pig. However, in other less gentrified neighborhoods of Neukölln, corner pubs are still prevalent, like the traditional Bäreneck on Hermannstraße, but modern iterations like the Trude Ruth und Goldammer on Flughafenstraße can also be found.

## Notable people

[edit]

* Bruno Bauer

* Lena Braun

* Horst Buchholz

* Lee Lawrie

* Jutta Limbach

* Susan Neiman

* Antonio Rüdiger

* Wilhelm Voigt

Many of Rixdorf's and Neukölln's natives became world-renowned in their respective professions, for example architectural sculptor Lee Lawrie, actor Horst Buchholz, president of Germany's Supreme Court Jutta Limbach, or Real Madrid's centre-back Antonio Rüdiger. Other important people have lived or settled in Rixdorf and Neukölln, for example Bible critic Bruno Bauer, philosopher Susan Neiman, artist Lena Braun, or Wilhelm Voigt, the infamous Captain of Köpenick.

List of notable natives and current or former residents or associates of Rixdorf, Neukölln and Berlin-Neukölln  Name  | Profession  | Status  | Born  | Died  | Notes

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Werberg, Hermann von | other  | associated  | 1324[taq] | 1371  | Knights Hospitaller commander, governor of Brandenburg, co-founder of Richardsdorf; a.k.a. Hermann von Werberge
Sasar, Dietrich von  | other  | associated  | 1360[taq] | 1360[tpq] | commander of Tempelhof's Knights Hospitaller, co-founder of Richardsdorf
Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg | other  | associated  | 1620-02-16  | 1688-04-29  | nobility, general; built a public garden in the forest Hasenheide
Frederick William I of Prussia | other  | associated  | 1688-08-14  | 1740-05-31  | nobility, king of Prussia; patron of the Moravian refugees in Böhmisch-Rixdorf
Liberda, Johann  | other  | associated  | 1700-09-05  | 1742-08-09  | theologian, immigrant leader, Bohemian-Lutheran priest
Bewert, Johann Wolfgang  | industrialist  | native  | 1700[taq] | 1721  | brewer, distributor, proprietor of Rixdorf's schultheiß court
Hertzberg, Ewald Friedrich von | politician  | associated  | 1725-09-02  | 1795-05-22  | statesman, proprietor of Rixdorf's schultheiß court (since 1760)
Jahn, Johann Friedrich Ludwig Christoph | other  | associated  | 1778-08-11  | 1852-10-15  | gymnastics educator, publicist, politician, nationalist Anti-Napoleonic liberationist, founder of the German gymnastics movement; built Germany's first public outdoor gymnasium in Neukölln's Hasenheide; a.k.a. Turnvater Jahn
Charles, Prince of Prussia | other  | associated  | 1801-06-29  | 1883-01-21  | nobility, general; built a public garden in the forest Hasenheide
Bauer, Bruno | scientist  | resident  | 1809-09-06  | 1882-04-13  | theologian, historian, philosopher, Bible critic
Müller, Eduard | politician  | associated  | 1818-11-15  | 1895-01-05  | priest, state representative; initiated the foundation of Rixdorf's St. Edward parish
Pannier, Rudolf | jurist  | associated  | 1821-08-31  | 1897-12-12  | president of the Landgericht Berlin (state court); initiated the establishment of Rixdorf's municipal court
Wrede, Wilhelm August Julius | industrialist  | resident  | 1822-01-23  | 1895-12-28  | liquor factory owner, banker; built Neukölln's Juliusburg estate
Prince Handjery, Nicolaus | politician  | associated  | 1836-12-18  | 1900-12-07  | nobility, jurist, county administrator of the Kreis Teltow including Rixdorf (1870–85)
Körner, Franz Wilhelm Theodor | industrialist  | native  | 1838-03-01  | 1911-06-02  | mining industrialist; eponymous owner of the gravel quarry, which became the Körnerpark
Kranold, Viktor Ferdinand von | other  | associated  | 1838-09-19  | 1922-09-22  | railroad executive, KED Berlin president; built Hermannstraße station
Jonas, Ernst Wilhelm Karl Ehrenfried  | other  | native  | 1842-09-01  | 1914-07-24  | theologian, Protestant priest at Rixdorf's Church of Mary Magdalene, founder of Rixdorf's first Froebelian kindergarten
Voigt, Friedrich Wilhelm | other  | resident  | 1849-02-13  | 1922-01-03  | con man, impostor, shoemaker; a.k.a. Der Hauptmann von Köpenick (The Captain of Köpenick)
Lisco, Hermann | jurist  | resident  | 1850-01-30  | 1923-11-07  | Rixdorf district judge (1879–83), government official
Ziegra, Hugo  | industrialist  | resident  | 1852-03-25  | 1926-12-28  | director of the Kindl brewery (Rollberg), city councilor (until 1919), city elder (1924)
Moras, Walter | artist  | native  | 1856-01-20  | 1925-03-06  | painter
Menken, August Aloysius Johannes | architect  | associated  | 1858-06-23  | 1903-09-18  | built Neukölln's St. John's Basilica
Arons, Leo | scientist  | resident  | 1860-02-15  | 1919-10-10  | physicist, inventor, politician
Geyger, Ernst Moritz | artist  | native  | 1861-11-08  | 1941-12-29  | sculptor, medalist, painter, etcher
Möhring, Bruno | architect  | associated  | 1863-12-11  | 1929-03-25  | urban planner; designed several buildings in Berlin and Neukölln
Fischer, Emil  | other  | resident  | 1865  | 1932  | teacher, founder of the Neukölln Museum (1897)
Poppe, Oskar | industrialist  | resident  | 1866-07-09  | 1918-08-08  | chemist, chemical factory manager
Agahd, Konrad Rudolf Friedrich | other  | resident  | 1867-03-01  | 1926-11-18  | pedagogue, author, journalist
Jogiches, Leo | politician  | resident  | 1867-07-17  | 1919-03-10  | Marxist revolutionary, key member of the Spartacus League, KPD co-founder; born Leon Jogiches; a.k.a. Jan Tyszka
Rungius, Carl | artist  | native  | 1869-08-18  | 1959-10-21  | painter
Luxemburg, Rosa | other  | resident  | 1871-03-05  | 1919-01-15  | Marxist revolutionary and theorist; found refuge in Neukölln with Karl Liebknecht before their execution, probably in the Weisestraße; born Rozalia Luksenburg
Liebknecht, Karl Paul August Friedrich | politician  | resident  | 1871-08-13  | 1919-01-15  | Socialist revolutionary; found refuge in Neukölln with Rosa Luxemburg before their execution, probably in the Weisestraße
Silberstein, Raphael | politician  | associated  | 1873-03-19  | 1926-08-23  | Berlin city councilor (1899–1918); motivated the construction of the Stadtbad Neukölln
Franke, Otto | politician  | native  | 1877-09-15  | 1953-12-12  | unionist, politician, peace activist
Lawrie, Lee Oscar | artist  | native  | 1877-10-16  | 1963-01-23  | architectural sculptor; creator of Atlas; born Max Leo Hugo Belling
Barth, Emil | politician  | resident  | 1879-04-23  | 1941-07-17  | plumber, author, leading November revolutionary, member of the Council of the People's Deputies
Wittbrodt, Wilhelm | other  | resident  | 1879-11-08  | 1961-05-12  | reform pedagogue, politician
Bielicke, Oskar Willy Friedrich | industrialist  | resident  | 1881-09-25  | 1945-09-23  | optics entrepreneur; a.k.a. William Friedrich Bielicke
Schultzenstein, Karl Julius Siegfried | jurist  | native  | 1881-12-15  | 1951-11-07  | district and regional judge, public official, author
Richter, Karl Franz | scientist  | resident  | 1882-08-02  | 1971-08-01  | teacher, classical philologian, Pauly–Wissowa co-author
Treffer, Joseph | politician  | resident  | 1883-05-20  | 1963-02-08  | editor, unionist, communal politician
Schröder, Karl Bernhard Fritz | politician  | resident  | 1884-11-13  | 1950-04-06  | Communist functionary, author, editor, co-founder of the Rote Kämpfer, director of Neukölln's folk high school (1945–49)
Görner, Karl Theodor | industrialist  | resident  | 1884-12-10  | 1971-08-07  | printing company owner, humanitarian, Righteous Among the Nations; aided over 100 German Jews, of which 22 survived, i.a. Inge Deutschkron, during the Shoah with his daughter Hanni Nörper
Grylewicz, Anton | politician  | native  | 1885-01-08  | 1971-08-02  | metalworker, carpenter, Trotskyist, leading November revolutionary, Spartacist insurgent, member of the Reichstag (1924, KPD) and the Landtag of Prussia (1924–28), post-war Social Democrat
Nathan, Helene | other  | resident  | 1885-08-23  | 1940-10-23  | librarian, director of Neukölln's borough library
Karsen, Fritz | other  | resident  | 1885-11-11  | 1951-08-25  | pedagogue, school reformer (comprehensive schooling, second-chance college)
Werkmeister, Lotte | artist  | native  | 1885-12-26  | 1970-07-15  | chanson singer, Kabarett performer, actor
Glaeser-Wilken, Lisbeth | artist  | resident  | 1887-04-01  | 1977-04-11  | actor, teacher; born Lisbeth Wirtson
Rosebery d'Arguto, Martin | artist  | resident  | 1890-12-24  | 1942-10 (approx.)  | composer, industrial folk musician, conductor, choir director, vocal pedagogue, voice trainer; born Martin Rozenberg; a.k.a. Mosche Rosenberg
Zobeltitz, Gerda von | other  | native  | 1891-06-09  | 1963-03-29  | tailor; one of Germany's first recognized transvestites; born Georg Ernst Hans von Zobeltitz
Seiler, Karl Robert | artist  | native  | 1891-12-06  | 1971  | painter, illustrator, professor
Sorge, Reinhard | artist  | native  | 1892-01-29  | 1916-07-20  | dramatist, poet
Sander, Erwin | other  | native  | 1892-03-05  | 1962-12-07  | Berlin police major, military officer, Wehrmacht general
Piechowski, Paul | other  | resident  | 1892-06-30  | 1966-06-09  | theologian, physician, Protestant priest, religious socialist, chairman of the Union of Socialist Theologians
Rackwitz, Arthur | other  | resident  | 1895-08-04  | 1980-08-16  | Protestant priest, religious socialist, anti-fascist, publicist
Zaschka, Engelbert | scientist  | resident  | 1895-09-01  | 1955-06-26  | engineer, technical designer, inventor, helicopter pioneer
Vetter, Karl Otto Paul | journalist  | native  | 1897-03-18  | 1957-09-15  | author, editor, politician, peace activist, RNZ editor-in-chief
Meisel, Will | artist  | native  | 1897-09-17  | 1967-04-29  | composer, film composer, dancer, publisher
Schuhmann, Walter | politician  | resident  | 1898-04-03  | 1956-12-02  | Nazi Party official, Alter Kämpfer, Neukölln borough section leader, member of the Reichstag (1930–45)
Ley, Gritta | artist  | native  | 1898-08-23  | 1986-12-17  | actor
Baberske, Robert | artist  | native  | 1900-05-01  | 1958-03-27  | cinematographer
Bennewitz, Erwin | politician  | native  | 1902-06-05  | 1980-10-22  | mechanic, Treptow borough representative (SPD/GDR), Treptow borough mayor (1946–48)
Riefenstahl, Leni | artist  | resident  | 1902-08-22  | 2003-09-08  | film director, photographer, actor; sister of Heinz; born Helene Bertha Amalie Riefenstahl
Beese, Hertha | politician  | resident  | 1902-09-10  | 1987-10-15  | teacher, Young Socialists (Jusos) co-founder, legislator, Reinickendorf borough councilor (1949–65), Arbeiterwohlfahrt district chairwoman, Berlin city elder (1972); daughter of Gertrud Scholz and Neukölln's third mayor and first borough mayor Arno Scholz; sister of Arno Scholz; born Hertha Scholz
Arendt, Erich | artist  | resident  | 1903-04-15  | 1984-09-24  | teacher, poet, translator
Ulbricht, Lotte | other  | native  | 1903-04-19  | 2002-03-27  | socialist party official; wife of Walter; born Charlotte Kühn
Krause, Klaus Willi | artist  | resident  | 1903-05-02  | 1976-03-25  | actor, voice actor; born Willy Hermann Krause
Larsen, Maximilian | artist  | native  | 1904-02-13  | 1975-01-13  | actor, voice actor; born Max Fritz Bruno Schwenkner
Scholz, Arno | journalist  | native  | 1904-02-22  | 1971-07-30  | journalist, publicist, publisher; son of Gertrud Scholz and Neukölln's third mayor and first borough mayor Arno Scholz; brother of Hertha Beese
Wolke, Bruno | athlete  | native  | 1904-05-04  | 1973-12-23  | road bicycle racer
Wichmann, Hans | athlete  | native  | 1905-01-28  | 1981-09-23  | middle-distance runner
Wöhrn, Fritz Oskar Karl | other  | native  | 1905-03-12  | 1979-12-18  | police officer, SS Hauptsturmführer, Eichmannreferat administrator
Rall, Adolf Anselm | other  | native  | 1905-06-07  | 1933-11-02  | trucker, SA member, murdered Reichstag fire whistleblower
Stasiewski, Bernhard | scientist  | native  | 1905-11-14  | 1995-07-01  | historian, Catholic priest
Muchow, Reinhold | politician  | resident  | 1905-12-21  | 1933-09-12  | National Socialist grassroots organizer, Alter Kämpfer, Berlin organizational party leader; founded the Neukölln Model of independently operating cells, applied Berlin-wide in 1932
Riefenstahl, Heinz | scientist  | native  | 1906-03-05  | 1944-07-20  | engineer; brother of Leni
Schmidt, Charles | politician  | native  | 1906-06-03  | 1971-12-02  | tobacco merchant, Berlin state representative
Wolke, Rudolf Paul | athlete  | native  | 1906-06-09  | 1979-03-12  | racing cyclist
Schmidt, Paul Otto Bruno | other  | native  | 1906-08-16  | 1942-10-19  | criminal, central figure of the Blomberg–Fritsch affair
Hübner, Walter | other  | native  | 1906-08-24  | 1969  | precision engineer, major of the Neukölln SA
Winkler, Gerhard | artist  | native  | 1906-09-12  | 1977-09-25  | composer, film composer, songwriter
Bardtke, Hans Walter Kurt | scientist  | native  | 1906-09-22  | 1975-03-08  | Protestant theologian, classical historian
Taylor, John Wilkinson | other  | resident  | 1906-09-26  | 2001-12-11  | educator, director general of UNESCO (1952–53)
Heltzel, Rudolf | artist  | resident  | 1907-01-14  | 2005-06-10  | painter, sculptor
Ardenne, Manfred Baron von | scientist  | resident  | 1907-01-20  | 1997-05-26  | researcher, applied physicist, nuclear physicist, inventor, politician
Borchert, Ernst Wilhelm | artist  | native  | 1907-03-13  | 1990-06-01  | actor, voice actor
Haegert, Wilhelm | jurist  | native  | 1907-03-14  | 1994-04-24  | lawyer, NS ministry official
Schmidt, Karl Oswald Willi | other  | resident  | 1907-05-02  | 1972-03-08  | SA leader, member of the Neukölln chapter; a.k.a. as Schweinebacke
Bluhm, Walter | artist  | native  | 1907-08-05  | 1976-12-02  | actor, voice actor
Lehmann, Hans Heinz | scientist  | native  | 1907-08-13  | 1985-06-06  | historian, anglicist
Mießner, Rudolf | journalist  | native  | 1907-11-07  | 1973-01-16  | Communist functionary, politician, editor-in-chief of i.a. Junge Welt (1947–49), East German radio and TV line producer
Seibt, Kurt | politician  | native  | 1908-02-13  | 2002-06-21  | Communist functionary, East German Minister for Direction and Control of Regional and District Councils (1964–65), chairman of the SED Central Revision Commission (1967–89)
Persson, Rosl  | other  | native  | 1908-02-29  | 2010-01-03  | women's sports pioneer, alpinist, gymnastics coach, clerk, traveling acrobat, singer and musician; born Rosl Pauli
Pannek, Bruno Willy | artist  | resident  | 1908-12-08  | 1984-04-23  | precision engineer, amateur actor, member of the Loriot ensemble
Rossow, Walter | architect  | native  | 1910-01-28  | 1992-01-02  | landscape architect, university professor, author; central figure in Berlin's post-war reconstruction
Thiemann, Elsa | artist  | resident  | 1910-02-07  | 1981-11-15  | photographer, designer; born Elsa Franke
Lehnert, Martin | scientist  | native  | 1910-05-20  | 1992-03-04  | anglicist, professor
Meysel, Inge | artist  | native  | 1910-05-30  | 2004-07-10  | actor, voice actor
Leuschner, Bruno Max | politician  | native  | 1910-08-12  | 1965-02-10  | industrial clerk, East German Communist politician and functionary
Weckerling, Rudolf | other  | resident  | 1911-05-03  | 2014-01-31  | Protestant priest, peace activist
Ludwig, Hermann | artist  | native  | 1911-07-27  | 1982-02-22  | film editor, film production manager
Nicklitz, Walter | politician  | native  | 1911-11-28  | 1989-10-04  | mason, architect, magistrate, building official, state representative, deputy mayor of Berlin (SPD, 1959–65)
Meudtner, Ilse | athlete  | resident  | 1912-11-01  | 1990-07-18  | diver, dancer, choreographer, journalist
Ziegler, Walter | jurist  | native  | 1912-11-05  | 1977-02-20  | East German Supreme Court chief justice (First Senate, 1950–62)
Voelker, Alexander | politician  | native  | 1913-08-01  | 2001-02-24  | industrial business manager, Berlin state representative, city elder of Berlin (1980)
Bergmann, Erika | other  | native  | 1915-01-03  | 1996  | concentration camp guard, murderer; born Erika Belling
Rahl, Mady | artist  | native  | 1915-01-03  | 2009-08-29  | actor, voice actor, singer
Szelinski-Singer, Katharina | artist  | resident  | 1918-05-24  | 2010-12-20  | sculptor; born Katharina Singer
Ihle, Hans Joachim | artist  | native  | 1919-12-21  | 1997-12-15  | sculptor
Ebener, Dietrich | scientist  | native  | 1920-02-14  | 2011-07-13  | classical philologian, author, translator
Lipinski, Rudi | scientist  | native  | 1920-03-26  | 2002-07-13  | historian, annalist
Weizsäcker, Richard Karl Freiherr von | politician  | associated  | 1920-04-15  | 2015-01-31  | Neukölln representative (CDU, 1979–84), Governing Mayor of West Berlin (1981–84), President of Germany (1984–94)
Edel, Peter | artist  | native  | 1921-07-12  | 1983-05-07  | graphic artist, author; born Hans Peter Hirschweh
Wolff, Friedrich | jurist  | native  | 1922-07-30  | 2024-06-10  | lawyer, East German official
Fischer-Fabian, S. | journalist  | resident  | 1922-09-22  | 2011-11-16  | novelist, non-fiction author, journalist; born Siegfried Fischer
Schäfer, Gerd E. | artist  | native  | 1923-07-14  | 2001-09-20  | actor, Kabarett satirist; born Gerhard Kurt Egilhard Schäfer
Kieling, Wolfgang | artist  | native  | 1924-03-16  | 1985-10-07  | actor, voice actor
Schulz, Paul | other  | resident  | 1925-07-08  | 2013-02-25  | Posadist political theorist, Socialist activist, ufologist, metallurgist
Bröker, Fredi | other  | associated  | 1925-11-12  | 1955-07-05  | chimney sweep, Anti-Communist, possible German intelligence agent; died in Neukölln as a casualty of the Berlin Wall border regime; a.k.a. Wolfgang Pankow
Möller, Gunnar | artist  | native  | 1928-07-01  | 2017-05-16  | actor
Rüster, Lothar | jurist  | native  | 1930-01-22  | 2010-01-08  | jurist, author, professor, East German official
Nieswandt, Erich | journalist  | native  | 1930-12-30  | 2008-11-18  | radio host, reporter, voice actor
Fiebach, Helmut | athlete  | native  | 1933-08-08  | 2016-07-28  | footballer, baker, chauffeur, storeowner
Gruner, Joachim | artist  | native  | 1933-08-18  | 2011-09-23  | composer, musician
Buchholz, Horst | artist  | native  | 1933-12-04  | 2003-03-03  | actor, voice actor
Peters, Gerd | artist  | native  | 1934-01-09  | 2023-02-23  | actor, author, journalist, naval officer
Limbach, Jutta | jurist  | native  | 1934-03-27  | 2016-09-10  | jurist, professor, Berlin Senator of Justice, president of the Federal Constitutional Court and Goethe-Institut
Jercha, Heinz | other  | resident  | 1934-07-01  | 1962-03-27  | butcher, Berlin Wall escape agent
Oefelein, Rainer | architect  | associated  | 1935-08-23  | 2011-01-19  | built Neukölln's High-Deck-Siedlung with Bernhard Freund
Abraham, Peter | artist  | native  | 1936-01-19  | 2015-02-06  | author, screenwriter, line producer, theater critic; a.k.a. Karl Georg von Löffelholz
Müller, Klaus | athlete  | native  | 1938-01-26  |  | team handball player and coach
Bosetzky, Horst | artist  | resident  | 1938-02-01  | 2018-09-16  | author, novelist, sociologist
Brehmer, KP | artist  | native  | 1938-09-12  | 1997-12-16  | painter, graphic artist, filmmaker; born Klaus Peter Brehmer
Fuchs, Wolfgang | other  | resident  | 1939-01-08  | 2001-06-07  | drugstore owner, Berlin Wall escape agent
Giesen, Traugott | other  | resident  | 1940-05-06  |  | theologian, priest, Christian author
Radeke, Winfried | artist  | resident  | 1940-11-30  |  | composer, cantor, conductor, director; founder and art director of the Neukölln Opera
Zander, Frank | artist  | native  | 1942-02-04  |  | singer, presenter, actor
Landowsky, Klaus-Rüdiger | politician  | native  | 1942-07-21  |  | Berlin state representative (CDU, 1975–2001), Berlin Hyp chairman (1993–2001, resigned amidst the Berlin Banking Scandal)
Sgonina, Alexander | artist  | native  | 1943  |  | sculptor, physicist, radio engineer; born Willi Alexander Godenrath
Rennert, Jürgen | artist  | native  | 1943-03-12  |  | author, poet, essayist, translator
Schmitt, Walfriede | artist  | native  | 1943-03-26  |  | actor, voice actor, author
Roski, Ulrich | artist  | resident  | 1944-03-04  | 2003-02-20  | musician, singer-songwriter
Ettlich, Wolfgang | artist  | native  | 1947-05-26  |  | film director
Vogel, Peter | scientist  | native  | 1947-08-31  |  | pedagogue, professor
Kolland, Dorothea | scientist  | associated  | 1947-10-31  |  | musicologist, director of Neukölln's Kulturamt (Culture Office, 1983–2012); born Dorothea Keupp
Buchholz, Werner | scientist  | native  | 1948-01-25  |  | historian, professor
Moessinger, Irene | other  | resident  | 1949-10-14  |  | nurse, cultural manager, equine-assisted therapist; founder and former director of the Tempodrom
Kalkowski, Kalle | artist  | native  | 1950-01-20  |  | singer, musician, painter; born Gottfried Kalkowski
Funke, Arno Martin Franz | artist  | resident  | 1950-03-14  |  | graphic artist, author, former extortionist; a.k.a. Dagobert
Strätz, Harald | artist  | native  | 1951-07-17  | 2013-06-19  | author, broadcast writer
Kapielski, Thomas Alfred Franz | artist  | resident  | 1951-09-16  |  | author, visual artist, musician
Weckman, Joachim | industrialist  | resident  | 1953-10-04  |  | entrepreneur, organic food pioneer
Sazak, Selçuk | artist  | resident  | 1954-03-16  |  | actor, Turkish film festival director
Haule, Eva Sybille | other  | resident  | 1954-07-16  |  | photographer, former Red Army Faction terrorist; a.k.a. Eva Sybille Haule-Frimpong
Hasucha, Christian | artist  | native  | 1955  |  | street and installation artist
Walz, Brigitte Annemarie | scientist  | associated  | 1955-02-16  |  | ethnologist; co-founded the Karneval der Kulturen with Anett Szabó at Neukölln's Werkstatt der Kulturen
Neiman, Susan | scientist  | resident  | 1955-03-27  |  | author, moral philosopher, essayist, cultural commentator
Wendt, Michael | politician  | resident  | 1955-12-01  | 2011-12-22  | mechanical engineer, foundational member of the Berlin Alternative Liste
Krawczyk, Stephan | artist  | resident  | 1955-12-31  |  | author, songwriter, East-German dissident
Steinmeier, Frank-Walter | politician  | associated  | 1956-01-05  |  | jurist, Minister of Foreign Affairs (SPD, 2013-17), President of Germany (since 2017), active member of the Reformed Evangelical Bethlehem parish in Böhmisch-Rixdorf
Kinsky, Esther | artist  | resident  | 1956-09-12  |  | author, translator
Barkow, Frank | architect  | associated  | 1957  |  | built the Estrel Tower with Regine Leibinger
Şenalp, Hilmi |  architect  | associated  | 1957  |  | built Neukölln's Şehitlik Mosque
Feddersen, Jan | journalist  | resident  | 1957-07-14  |  | social economist, reporter, editor of Die Tageszeitung
Eryilmaz, Abdullah | artist  | resident  | 1958  |  | author, songwriter, bookseller
Farin, Klaus | artist  | resident  | 1958-04-20  |  | author, publisher, anti-discrimination activist, co-founder of PEN Berlin
Lilienthal, Matthias | artist  | native  | 1959-12-21  |  | director, theater manager, dramaturge, journalist
Bolien, Michael | other  | native  | 1960-09-18  |  | radio host, programmer, engineer, teacher
Knie, Andreas | scientist  | resident  | 1960-12-12  |  | sociologist, professor, traffic researcher
Braun, Lena | artist  | resident  | 1961-04-04  |  | performance and visual artist, curator, author
Verschuer, Leopold von | artist  | resident  | 1961-04-09  |  | actor, voice actor, author, theater and radio drama director, translator
Heisig, Kirsten | jurist  | associated  | 1961-08-24  | 2010-06-28  | Neukölln judge, author; propagated the procedural Neukölln Model
Garweg, Burkhard Maria Heimfried | other  | resident  | 1961-09-01  |  | fugitive, criminal suspect, radical left-wing activist, former member of the Red Army Faction terrorist group
Demirbüken-Wegner, Emine | politician  | resident  | 1961-09-07  |  | journalist, integration commissioner (Tempelhof-Schöneberg), borough mayor of Reinickendorf (since 2023, CDU); born Emine Demirbüken
Tuckermann, Anja | artist  | resident  | 1961-11-24  |  | author, novelist, journalist
Weisse, Simon | artist  |  associated  | 1962  |  | filmmaker, model maker, property master, set designer
Traub, Franziska | artist  | resident  | 1962-08-03  |  | actor, Kabarett satirist
Juwelia | artist  | resident  | 1963-01-14  |  | drag queen, singer, painter, gallery owner; a.k.a. Juwelia Soraya; born Stefan Stricker
Benedict, Peter | artist  | resident  | 1963-07-13  |  | actor, director; born Christian Riss
Lieschied, Uwe  | other  | associated  | 1963-09-21  | 2006-03-21  | murdered police chief superintendent
Darabi Kazeruni, Kazem | other  | resident  | 1964  |  | Iranian intelligence agent, Hezbollah representative; convicted for the Mykonos restaurant assassinations (1992)
Kay, Manuela | journalist  | native  | 1964-04-02  |  | author, publisher, journalist, filmmaker, radio host, Siegessäule editor-in-chief (1996–2005)
Betz, Martin | artist  | resident  | 1964-06-17  |  | political satirist, musician, author
Herrndorf, Wolfgang | artist  | resident  | 1965-06-12  | 2013-08-26  | author, painter, illustrator, caricaturist
Hannemann, Uli | artist  | resident  | 1965-08-25  |  | author, columnist
Hacke, Alexander | artist  | native  | 1965-10-11  |  | musician, singer, music producer, filmmaker
Krüger, Roland  | other  | associated  | 1966-04-06  | 2006-04-27  | murdered police superintendent; a.k.a. Boulette
Meißner, Tobias Oliver | artist  | resident  | 1967-08-04  |  | novelist, cartoonist
Reding, Benjamin | artist  | resident  | 1969-01-03  |  | director, author, screenwriter
Schreifels, Walter Arthur | artist  | resident  | 1969-03-10  |  | musician, singer
Hermann, Judith | artist  | resident  | 1970-05-15  |  | author
Sterblich, Ulrike | artist  | native  | 1970-09-01  |  | author, columnist, radio host
Röggla, Kathrin | artist  | resident  | 1971-06-14  |  | author, radio drama and theater writer
Wagner, Jan | artist  | resident  | 1971-10-18  |  | poet, essayist, translator
Wedhorn, Tanja | artist  | resident  | 1971-12-14  |  | actor
Ziege, Christian | athlete  | native  | 1972-02-01  |  | footballer, football manager
Blomberg, Sebastian | artist  | resident  | 1972-05-24  |  | actor
Dege, Timo  | artist  | resident  | 1973  |  | street poet, author
Metschurat, Barnaby | artist  | native  | 1974-09-22  |  | actor
Lucic, Nenad | artist  | resident  | 1974-09-24  |  | actor
Burns, Barry | artist  | resident  | 1974-11-14  |  | musician
Krömer, Kurt | artist  | native  | 1974-11-20  |  | comedian, actor, presenter, author; born Alexander Bojcan
Topal, Murat | artist  | native  | 1975  |  | comedian, Kabarett satirist, former police officer
Balcı, Güner Yasemin | journalist  | native  | 1975-02-09  |  | journalist, author, documentary film director; Neukölln's integration commissioner (since 2020)
Winson | artist  | resident  | 1975-03-04  |  | musician, radio host; born Marcus Winson
Alexander, Robin | journalist  | resident  | 1975-05-13  |  | reporter, journalist, author
Buß, Martin | athlete  | resident  | 1976-04-07  |  | high jumper
MOK | artist  | native  | 1976-09-21  |  | rapper, musician; born Tarkan Karaalioğlu
Khani, Behzad Karim | artist  | resident  | 1977  |  | author, journalist
Nathan, Sascha | artist  | resident  | 1977-05-04  |  | actor
Chérif, Karim | artist  | resident  | 1977-05-31  |  | actor
Pabst, Pamela | jurist  | resident  | 1978  |  | Germany's first blind attorney-at-law
Tarééc | artist  | native  | 1978-07-03  |  | R&B singer, musician; f.k.a. T-Soul; born Tarek Hussein
Redler, Lucy | politician  | resident  | 1979-08-17  |  | Trotskyist activist (ISA, Anti-capitalist Left), national party executive (Die Linke, 2016–21); a.k.a. rote Lucy ("red Lucy")
Soze, Keyza | artist  | resident  | 1980  |  | composer, music producer, DJ; a.k.a. Verbal Kint; born Konrad Karkos
Zillmann, Daniel | artist  | resident  | 1981-01-18  |  | actor, voice actor, singer
Jagla, Jan | athlete  | resident  | 1981-05-25  |  | basketball player
Herzberg, Martin | artist  | native  | 1981-05-28  |  | musician, composer, musicologist
Uddenberg, Anna | artist  | resident  | 1982  |  | sculpturist
Melendiz | artist  | native  | 1982-06-14  |  | musician, composer; born Volkan Melendiz
Berrached, Anne Zohra | artist  | resident  | 1982-07-31  |  | film director, screenwriter
Akboga, Kazim | artist  | resident  | 1982-08-20  | 2017-02-09  | musician, rapper, singer, DJ, commercial video writer & producer; born Kazım Akboğa
Hızarcı, Derviş | other  | native  | 1983  |  | teacher, author, Berlin integration commissioner (2019–20)
Schazad, Graziella | artist  | resident  | 1983-07-02  |  | musician, singer-songwriter
Sukini | artist  | resident  | 1983-12-29  |  | musician, columnist, rapper; f.k.a. Sookee and Quing of Berlin; born Nora Hantzsch
Stoehrfaktor, Lena | artist  | resident  | 1984  |  | musician, rapper, social worker, educator; born Lena Stoehr
Bumaye, Ali | artist  | resident  | 1985-01-11  |  | musician, rapper; born Ali Alulu Abdul-razzak
Senesie, Sahr | athlete  | resident  | 1985-06-20  |  | footballer; half-brother of Antonio Rüdiger
Schuch, Albrecht | artist  | resident  | 1985-08-21  |  | actor
Stokowski, Margarete | artist  | resident  | 1986-04-14  |  | author, essayist
Özdemir, Oktay | artist  | resident  | 1986-10-06  |  | actor, theater author; born İnanç Oktay Özdemir
Then, Felicitas | journalist  | resident  | 1986-11-29  |  | journalist, editor, TV cook
Mondtag, Ersan | artist  | resident  | 1987  |  | theater and opera director; born Ersan Aygün
Amjahid, Mohamed | journalist  | resident  | 1988  |  | non-fiction author, journalist, reporter
Gringo | artist  | native  | 1988  |  | musician, rapper; born Ilfan Kalender
Aikins, Jonathan Kwesi | artist  | resident  | 1989-01-22  |  | actor, voice actor
Herman, Rony | artist  | resident  | 1990  |  | actor
Janta, Oumi | other  | resident  | 1991  |  | jam skater, model, influencer
Kobosil | artist  | native  | 1991-04-05  |  | DJ, music producer, musician; born Max Kobosil
Zeuge, Tyron | athlete  | native  | 1992-05-12  |  | professional boxer
Hmeidan, Kenda | artist  | resident  | 1992-09-13  |  | actor, voice actor
Juju | artist  | resident  | 1992-11-20  |  | musician, rapper; born Judith Wessendorf
Rüdiger, Antonio | athlete  | native  | 1993-03-03  |  | footballer; half-brother of Sahr Senesie; a.k.a. El Loco, Don Antonio and Toni Rüdiger
Lou, Alice Phoebe | artist  | resident  | 1993-07-19  |  | musician, singer-songwriter; born Alice Matthew
Juno, Madeline | artist  | resident  | 1995-08-11  |  | musician, singer-songwriter; born Madeline Obrigewitsch
Ngee | artist  | native  | 1996  |  | musician, rapper; born Nikolas Schüssler

### Resistance against National Socialism

[edit]

* Ursula Goetze

* Klaus Gysi

* Heinz Kapelle

* Fritz Lange

* Werner Seelenbinder

* John Sieg

* Frieda Unger

* Martin Weise

Many of Germany's resistance fighters and activists against National Socialist rule operated from Neukölln, for example Heinz Kapelle and Ursula Goetze, who coordinated with the Red Orchestra in the quarter. Some activists also moved to socialist East Germany after World War II and became prominent state officials and politicians, for example Klaus Gysi and Frieda Unger.

List of notable resistance activists and fighters against National Socialism in Berlin-Neukölln  Name  | Status  | Born  | Died  | Profession and notes

|
|
|
|

Hermann, Albert Reinhold Richard | resident  | 1885-11-10  | 1945-04-29  | pressman, unionist
Künstler, Franz | resident  | 1888-05-13  | 1942-09-10  | mechanic, unionist, politician
Unger, Frieda | resident  | 1888-07-09  | 1975-04-12  | politician, East German functionary; born Frieda Eckert
Sahlberg, Clara | native  | 1890-07-03  | 1977-04-13  | tailor, unionist
Boock, Georg | resident  | 1891-09-06  | 1961-06-23  | Neukölln administrator, mayor of i.a. Erfurt (1946–61)
Lange, Emil Alfred Fritz | resident  | 1898-11-23  | 1981-09-16  | teacher, Communist borough and city representative
Bischoff, Fritz | native  | 1900-07-01  | 1945-05-03  | salesman, Communist functionary; husband of Charlotte
Kühn, Bruno | native  | 1901-12-17  | 1944 (approx.)  | Communist functionary; brother of Lotte Ulbricht
Glatzer, Helene | native  | 1902-02-08  | 1935-01-31  | clerk
Sieg, John | resident  | 1903-02-03  | 1942-10-15  | Communist railroad worker, journalist; leading member of the Red Orchestra; pseudonymously a.k.a. Siegfried Nebel
Weise, Martin | resident  | 1903-05-12  | 1943-11-15  | journalist, borough representative (1929–33)
Kapteina, Hugo | resident  | 1903-06-23  | 1945-04-20  | journalist
Seelenbinder, Werner | associated  | 1904-08-02  | 1944-10-24  | wrestler; trained and is buried in Neukölln
Schröder, Georg | native  | 1904-10-10  | 1944-09-11  | blacksmith, welder
Jahnke, Willi | native  | 1906-08-29  | 1992-01-01  | merchant, unionist, Communist functionary, borough mayor of Lichtenberg (1955–59, SED) and Prenzlauer Berg (1964–69)
Loll, Ferdinand | native  | 1910-03-08  | 1986-08-05  | shipping agent, Communist activist, GDR police officer; convicted for the Richardsburg attack (1931)
Crüger, Tommy | native  | 1911-05-17  | 2003-01-17  | Communist functionary, politician; born Herbert Crüger
Hesse, Eberhard | native  | 1911-06-28  | 1986-03-28  | printer, chairman of Neukölln's SAJ, unionist, Berlin state representative (1956–75, SPD)
Gysi, Klaus | native  | 1912-03-03  | 1999-03-06  | journalist, publisher, politician; father of Gregor
Hoffmann, Friedel | native  | 1912-12-14  | 1997-12-26  | Socialist functionary, East German political official; born Friedel Schmiedel; later a.k.a. Friedel Lange
Tschäpe, Herbert | native  | 1913-01-15  | 1944-11-27  | construction worker, carpenter, Communist functionary
Walter, Grete | native  | 1913-02-22  | 1935-10-21  | Communist youth worker
Kapelle, Heinz | resident  | 1913-09-17  | 1941-07-01  | pressman, Communist politician
Jadamowitz, Hildegard | native  | 1916-02-12  | 1942-08-18  | factory worker, salesclerk, medical assistant, Communist functionary
Goetze, Ursula | resident  | 1916-03-29  | 1943-08-05  | stenographer
Walter, Irene | native  | 1919-01-23  | 1942-08-18  | secretary
Rehmer, Friedrich | native  | 1921-06-02  | 1943-05-13  | locksmith, adjuster, teacher

### Mayors and other local politicians

[edit]

* Hermann Boddin

* Heinz Buschkowsky

* Dankward Buwitt

* Franziska Giffey

* Marie Juchacz

* Curt Kaiser

* Ferat Koçak

* Alfred Scholz

Rixdorf became an independent city in 1899 and was incorporated as a borough of Berlin in the 1920 Greater Berlin Act, so the city of Rixdorf (later Neukölln) has only had three mayors and lord mayors respectively.[note 200] Both the Hermannstraße and the Boddinstraße, together with the corresponding plazas, were named after Rixdorf's first mayor, Hermann Boddin.[note 201] None of Rixdorf's and Neukölln's three city mayors were natives, while only Alfred Scholz' political party affiliation is known from historical sources. As part of the borough Neukölln, the quarter of Neukölln has been administered by the borough mayor since 1920. As of 2025, the incumbent is Martin Hikel (SPD).[note 202]

Name  | Title  | City  | Term  | Party  | Born  | Died  | Notes

|
|
|
|
|
|
|

Boddin, Karl Wilhelm Hermann | Mayor, First Mayor, Lord Mayor  | Rixdorf  | 1899–1907  |  | –  | 1844-05-16  | 1907-07-23  | in office until his death[note 203]
Kaiser, Curt | Mayor, Lord Mayor  | Rixdorf, Neukölln  | 1907–1919  |  | –  | 1865-01-26  | 1940-04-25  | often spelled Kurt Kaiser[note 204]
Scholz, Alfred Heinrich Paul | Mayor  | Neukölln  | 1919–1920  |  | SPD | 1876-05-15  | 1944-11-02  | transitioned to Neukölln's first borough mayor[note 205]
List of other notable local politicians of Rixdorf, Neukölln and Berlin-Neukölln  Name  | Status  | Born  | Died  | Notes

|
|
|
|

Manitius, Adolph Gebhard  | resident  | 1682  | 1754-12-27  | Rixdorf hofmeister, proprietor of the schultheiß fief court (1704–37)
Pflüger, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm  | native  | 1784-12-12  | 1833-06-27  | schultheiß of Deutsch-Rixdorf (1814–30)
Wanzlick, Daniel Friedrich | native  | 1819-02-15  | 1877-06-19  | last Bohemian schultheiß of Böhmisch-Rixdorf (5 May 1869 – 11 June 1873)
Schinke, Johann Friedrich  | native  | 1826-11-20  | 1875-08-03  | last schultheiß of Deutsch-Rixdorf (27 January 1863 – 1 January 1874)
Maresch, Daniel  | resident  | 1833-09-11  | 1923-12-23  | alderman, municipal magistrate, city administrator
Barta, Carl Friedrich  | resident  | 1833-12-10  | 1914-09-25  | innkeeper, Böhmisch-Rixdorf's principal municipal magistrate (1871–73), municipal magistrate under Hermann Boddin (1874–88)
Jansa, Wilhelm  | native  | 1834-12-20  | 1909-04-20  | farmer, alderman, municipal magistrate (1878–99)
Mier, Friedrich Wilhelm  | resident  | 1836-02-18  | 1912-12-19  | Rixdorf/Neukölln city councilor
Schudoma, Johann  | native  | 1840-02-19  | 1903-10-04  | only Bohemian municipal magistrate of the unified Rixdorf authorities (1874–99), city councilor (1899–1903)
Sander, Hermann | resident  | 1845-07-14  | 1939-03-12  | industrialist, Rixdorf municipal councilor (1887–96), municipal administrator (1896–98), Rixdorf/Neukölln city administrator and honorary council president (1899–1919)
Bürkner, August  | native  | 1847-01-06  | 1914-12-27  | Rixdorf municipal representative (1889–99), Rixdorf/Neukölln city councilor (1899–1914)
Thiemann, August  | native  | 1849-09-10  | 1923-05-17  | Rixdorf/Neukölln city magistrate and councilor (1899–1919)
Leyke, Gustav Adolf | resident  | 1851-09-10  | 1910-07-28  | merchant, Rixdorf municipal administrator (1892–98), city councilor (1899–1910)
Niemetz, Daniel Benjamin  | resident  | 1853-06-25  | 1910-05-09  | gardener, Rixdorf municipal magistrate (1886–99), city councilor (1899–1909), city elder (1909)
Voigt, Georg Philipp Wilhelm | resident  | 1866-09-16  | 1927-04-13  | Second Mayor of Rixdorf under Boddin (1899–1906), city councilor of Gdańsk, Lord Mayor of i.a. Frankfurt
Wutzky, Emil | resident  | 1871-10-04  | 1963-12-30  | unionist, cooperativist, Rixdorf/Neukölln city councilor (1899–1917)
Schönborn, Richard | resident  | 1878-02-13  | 1957-03-03  | merchant, borough representative (1924–25, Centre Party), member of the Reichstag (1925–30)
Juchacz, Marie | resident  | 1879-03-15  | 1956-01-26  | housemaid, industry worker, social reformer, women's rights activist, executive and women's representative (1908–13, Rixdorf SPD), secretary for women's affairs in Cologne (1913–17), official at the Center for Home Working and the Food Commission, Berlin secretary for women's affairs (1917–19), Member of the Reichstag (1920-33), first female representative to address a German parliament, founder of the Arbeiterwohlfahrt; born Marie Gohlke
Scholz, Hedwig Emma Gertrud | resident  | 1881-04-26  | 1950-04-18  | patternmaker, executive and women's representative (Rixdorf SPD), only female member of Neukölln's Workers' and Soldiers' Council (1918/19), Neukölln city and borough representative (1919–21), Berlin city representative (1921–33), Reinickendorf borough representative (1946–50); wife of Neukölln's third mayor and first borough mayor Alfred Scholz; later Hedwig Emma Gertrud Hass; born Hedwig Emma Gertrud Uster
Schlecht, Paul | native  | 1882-09-28  | 1947-04-29  | toolmaker, member of the Revolutionary Stewards, Communist functionary (KPD), district administrator, member of the Reichstag (1924–28), party leader
Löwenstein, Kurt | resident  | 1885-05-18  | 1939-05-08  | socialist reform pedagogue, borough councilor (1921–33)
Raddatz, Erich | resident  | 1886-11-28  | 1964-02-16  | locksmith, borough representative (1926–30)
Fechner, Max | native  | 1892-07-27  | 1973-09-13  | toolmaker, borough representative (1921–25)
Fischer, Hermann Richard Gustav | native  | 1900-02-24  | 1983-02-28  | manager, administrator, Neukölln borough representative (1929–33, DVP), Berlin city and state representative (1948–58, FDP), Tempelhof borough mayor (1951–53), Berlin Senator of the Interior (1953–54), Mayor of Berlin (1954)
Samson, Kurt | resident  | 1900-05-08  | 1947-03-09  | jurist, National Socialist borough mayor (1933–45)
Exner, Kurt | native  | 1901-05-15  | 1996-11-12  | unionist, borough mayor (1949–59, Berlin SPD), Berlin senator for Labor and Social Welfare under Willy Brandt (1959–67)
Buwitt, Dankward | native  | 1939-07-06  |  | merchant, Neukölln district chairman (CDU), Berlin state representative (1975–91), member of the German Bundestag (MdB, 1990–2002)
Hackel, Wolfgang | resident  | 1942-11-27  |  | political scientist, CDU Neukölln executive member, borough councilor, MdB (1980–85), member of the European Parliament (1985–89)
Bielka, Frank | native  | 1947-10-22  |  | business economist, borough mayor (1989–91), Degewo board chairman (until 2002)
Buschkowsky, Heinz | native  | 1948-07-31  |  | public manager, author, borough mayor (2001–15)
Giffey, Franziska | resident  | 1978-05-03  |  | public manager, borough mayor (2015–18, SPD), governing mayor of Berlin (2021–23)
Koçak, Ferat Ali | resident  | 1979-05-26  |  | economist, manager, marketing director, Berlin state representative (Die Linke), MdB (since 2025); first politician of Die Linke to win a direct mandate in a formerly West German electoral district
Audretsch, Andreas | resident  | 1984-06-25  |  | journalist, author, Neukölln Alliance 90/The Greens board member and speaker, MdB (since 2021), vice chairman of the parliamentary group
Demir, Hakan | resident  | 1984-11-16  |  | political scientist, Migazin co-editor-in-chief, chairman of Rixdorf's local SPD office, SPD Berlin board member, MdB (since 2021), member of the Parliamentary Left
Hikel, Martin | resident  | 1986-04-30  |  | teacher, borough mayor (since 2018), Berlin SPD chairman (since 2024)
Helm, Anne | resident  | 1986-06-07  |  | actor, borough representative (Pirate Party), Berlin state representative (Die Linke), chairwoman of the parliamentary group (since 2022)

### Local building officials

[edit]

* Karl Bonatz

* Franz Hoffmann

* Reinhold Kiehl

* John Martens

* Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

* Hans Heinrich Müller

* Bruno Taut

* Josef Zizler

During the tenure of Reinhold Kiehl and his colleagues, for example fellow architect Heinrich Best, Rixdorf's Hochbauamt (office of public works service) and building authority received a stellar reputation across the German Empire, which attracted many young architects, who all earned their stripes in Rixdorf and Neukölln before becoming often renowned independent architects, for example Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Franz Hoffmann and Bruno Taut.

List of notable building officials and local architects of Rixdorf, Neukölln and Berlin-Neukölln  Name  | Born  | Died  | Notes

|
|
|

Weigand, Hermann | 1854-02-02  | 1926-10-16  | Rixdorf/Neukölln building officer (1904–21), Neukölln city elder (1924)
Kiehl, Reinhold | 1874-04-22  | 1913-03-10  | director of Rixdorf's Hochbauamt (1905–12)
Martens, John | 1875-05-04  | 1936-06-04  | director of the Hochbauamt's design office (until 1908)
Müller, Hans Heinrich | 1879-04-20  | 1951-12-07  | building official (1920–24)
Zollinger, Friedrich Reinhard Balthasar | 1880-03-31  | 1945-04-19  | building official (1912–18)
Taut, Bruno | 1880-05-04  | 1938-12-24  | building official (1908–09)
Goetze, Robert Friedrich | 1881  | 1940[tpq] | assistant director of the design office (1906–24)
Zizler, Josef | 1881-03-19  | 1955-10-24  | building official (1917–21)
Bonatz, Karl Nikolaus | 1882-07-06  | 1951-09-24  | construction administrator (1927–40)
Taut, Max | 1884-05-15  | 1967-02-26  | building official (until 1912)
Hoffmann, Franz | 1884-06-13  | 1951-07-15  | building official (1908–09)
Borgwardt, Johannes Karl Stephan | 1885-09-28  | 1943-10-04  | design official (1907–24), design office assistant director (1924–42)
Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig | 1886-03-27  | 1969-08-17  | building official (1904–05); born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies

## Awards and international relations

[edit]

### Neukölln as part of the borough Neukölln

[edit]

* has been a Municipality of Europe since joining the Council of European Municipalities and Regions as a cooperative member on 1 April 1967;
* was awarded the Council of Europe's Europe Prize in 1987 for outstanding commitment to European integration before the fall of the Berlin Wall;[87]
* was awarded as an Ort der Vielfalt ("place of diversity") by the federal government on 23 September 2008;[88]
* is a Pilot City of the Intercultural Cities Programme,[89] also known as the International ICC Programme,[90] organized by the Council of Europe together with the European Commission;[note 206]

Neukölln as part of the borough Neukölln maintains relationships with several German and international twin or partner cities, municipalities or communes:[91]

* Anderlecht, Belgium (1955)
* Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv, Israel (1978)
* Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris, France (1955)
* Çiğli, İzmir, Turkey (2005)
* Cologne, Germany (1967)
* Hammersmith and Fulham, London, United Kingdom (1955)
* Leonberg, Germany (1970)
* Marino, near Rome, Lazio, Italy (1980)
* Pavlovsk-Pushkin, Saint Petersburg, Russia (1991)
* Prague 5 (Smíchov), Prague, Czech Republic (2005)
* Ústí nad Orlicí, Czech Republic (1989)
* Wetzlar, Germany (1959)
* Zaanstad, near Amsterdam, Netherlands (1955)

### Neukölln as part of Berlin

[edit]

Neukölln as part of Berlin maintains relationships with several international twin or partner cities:[note 207]

* Beijing, China
* Brussels, Belgium
* Budapest, Hungary
* Buenos Aires, Argentina
* Istanbul, Turkey
* Jakarta, Indonesia
* Kyiv, Ukraine
* London, United Kingdom
* Los Angeles, United States
* Madrid, Spain
* Mexico City, Mexico
* Moscow, Russia
* Paris, France
* Prague, Czech Republic
* Tashkent, Uzbekistan
* Tokyo, Japan
* Warsaw, Poland
* Windhoek, Namibia

## Rixdorf and Neukölln in media and popular culture

[edit]

### Literature

[edit]

As an urban hotspot and important quarter of Berlin, Neukölln has always been the focus of many nonfiction books and academic works in the fields of history, education, social and political sciences. A few prominent natives and residents of Neukölln received biographies, such as architect Reinhold Kiehl and actor Horst Buchholz, or have written memoirs, for example actor Inge Meysel or Neukölln's integration commissioner Güner Balcı with Heimatland (2025). Many consumer nonfiction books about Neukölln exist as well. Notable examples are In den Gangs von Neukölln – Das Leben des Yehya E. (2014) by Christian Stahl, and the satirical Gebrauchsanweisung für Neukölln (1988) by Johannes Groschupf, which he wrote as a student under the pseudonym Olga O'Groschen, while the most popular book to this date has been the critical Neukölln ist überall (2012) by former borough mayor Heinz Buschkowsky.

In fiction, several authors have written about or set their stories in Neukölln, for example Käsebier takes Berlin (Käsebier erobert den Kurfürstendamm, 1932) by Gabriele Tergit, Katharina oder Die Existenzverpflichtung (1992) by Iris Hanika, Hinterhofhelden (2009) by Johannes Groschupf, Hund, Wolf, Schakal (2022) by Behzad Karim Khani, Allegro Pastel (Allegro Pastell, 2020) by Leif Randt, the semi-autobiographical Die halbe Stadt, die es nicht mehr gibt (2012) by Ulrike Sterblich, Jesus von Neukölln (2022) by Wolfgang Priewe, or the children's book Nelly und die Berlinchen – Die Schatzsuche (2019) by Neukölln author Karin Beese. Over the decades, urban lyricists have written many poems about Rixdorf or Neukölln, for example Ede Petermann aus Rixdorf singt in der Verbannung by Otto Julius Bierbaum, published in Ausgewählte Gedichte (1921). The alternative literary artist collective around Uwe Bremer chose the name Werkstatt Rixdorfer Drucke, but in fact operated from a squat on Oranienstraße in Kreuzberg.

### Theater and stage

[edit]

Ades Zabel as Edith Schröder

Horst Pillau wrote the comedy play Der Kaiser von Neukölln, which premiered in 1987 at the Hansa Theater. Since 1980, Ades Zabel has created several musicals, plays and stage performances around the long-term unemployed Neukölln character Edith Schröder, for example Tatort Neukölln and Einfach Edith! 25 Jahre Edith Schröder.[92] Kurt Krömer, himself a Neukölln native, has regularly emphasized the quarter in his stand-up comedy and other works, for example Pimp my Ghetto (2010) in support of the Körnerkiez. Neukölln author Abdullah Eryilmaz has written monodramatic works like Der Pfarrer von Neukölln (The Priest of Neukölln). Commissioned by theater manager and Neukölln resident Matthias Lilienthal for the inauguration of the new Hebbel am Ufer theater company, choreographer Constanza Macras and her dance ensemble Dorky Park produced the dance theater play Scratch Neukölln, which premiered in 2003 at the Hebbel-Theater.

### Film and television

[edit]

Neukölln Unlimited (2010) External videos

Bilderbuch 30 – Berlin-Neukölln (documentary, Eva Demmler & Axel Friedrich, RBB, 2024, 44m)
Neukölln wie es einmal war (documentary, Svenja Weber, RBB, 2024, 89m)

Neukölln has been a favored location for national and international film and television productions, from German blockbusters like Fack ju Göhte (2013) by Bora Dağtekin to American reality TV shows,[note 208] as well as special effects work for many Babelsberg productions, most notably by Simon Weisse's Prop & Model Maker Berlin, which have worked on films by the Wachowskis or Wes Anderson, and on TV series like Homeland. Some film works, however, have focused primarily on Neukölln, either as a cultural setting or as an integral part of the narrative, often treating the quarter or borough as a perceived hotspot for the precariat, criminal gangs and alternative concepts of living.[note 209]

Neukölln feature films include the 1983 children's fantasy drama Conrad: The Factory-Made Boy (Konrad oder Das Kind aus der Konservenbüchse) by Claudia Schröder and Christine Nöstlinger,[note 210] the 2006 crime drama Tough Enough (Knallhart) by Detlev Buck, Zoran Drvenkar and Gregor Tessnow, the 2007 romance and crime drama Straight by Nicolas Flessa, the 2009 young adult crime melodrama Gangs by Rainer Matsutani, Peer Klehmet and Sebastian Wehlings, the 2011 science-fiction melodrama Dr. Ketel (Dr. Ketel – Der Schatten von Neukölln) by Linus and Anna de Paoli, the 2013 comedy drama Ummah – Among Friends (Ummah – Unter Freunden) by Cüneyt Kaya, the 2014 television legal drama The Limits of Patience (Das Ende der Geduld) by Christian Wagner and Stefan Dähnert, and the 2025 Shakespearean criminal tragedy No Beast. So Fierce. (Kein Tier. So Wild.) by Burhan Qurbani and Enis Maci.

Several television or streaming series have focused on Neukölln as well, for example the 2015 miniseries Ecke Weserstraße by Johannes Hertwig and Hayung von Oepen, the 2017 gang melodrama 4 Blocks by Richard Kropf, Hanno Hackfort and Bob Konrad, and the 2025 medical melodrama Berlin ER (Krank: Berlin) by Samuel Jefferson and Viktor Jakovleski. The 2018 legal melodrama Die Heiland – Wir sind Anwalt by Viola Jäger and Nina Philipp is heavily inspired by the life of Neukölln's former resident and Germany's first blind attorney Pamela Pabst.

Many documentary works have been produced on Neukölln, for example the TV documentary miniseries Kiez knallhart: Berlin-Neukölln (2021) by Story House Productions, and mainly feature-length films, for example Neukölln Unlimited (2010) by Agostino Imondi and Dietmar Ratsch, Berlin: Hasenheide (2010) by Nana Rebhahn, Gangsterläufer (2011) by Christian Stahl, a precursor to his 2014 book (see above), or Survival in Neukölln (2017, Überleben in Neukölln) by Rosa von Praunheim. As part of its local and regional mandate, Berlin's public broadcaster RBB has co-produced several documentary films and series about Neukölln over the years, including history formats, for example Mein Neukölln – Wo gehste hin? Wo kommste her? (2015) by Neukölln native Wolfgang Ettlich or Neukölln wie es einmal war (2024) by Svenja Weber.

### Music

[edit]

External audio

David Bowie & Brian Eno, "Neuköln" (from Heroes, Parlophone, 1977/2017, 4:34)
Madeline Juno, "Neukölln" (from Besser kann ich es nicht erklären, Universal, 2021, 3:52)
Lena Stoehrfaktor with KVSTR, "Sonnenallee" (from Essenz, EP, 2022, 3:33)

Songs referencing Neukölln or its residents are mostly from German artists, for example the 2017 hip hop song Sonnenallee by AOB (Army of Brothers) and Said, the 2004 indie rock song Wovon lebt eigentlich Peter? by Winson, the 2008 rock song Neukölln (also known as Neukölln, Du alte Hure) by Kalle Kalkowski from the album Liebesgrüße aus Neukölln ("From Neukölln with Love"), the 2021 pop song Sonnenallee by Tina Naderer, the 2022 farewell elegy Neukölln by Madeline Juno, the 2013 hip hop song Das ist Neukölln by Exxar and Kiddkey, the 2008 hip hop song Neukölln 44 feat. Kreuzberg 361 by DJ AK in cooperation with several local German and Turkish rappers, the 2011 satirical folk song Neukölln ist auf Scheiße gebaut by Otto Kuhnle, the 2022 alternative hip hop song Sonnenallee by Lena Stoehrfaktor, or the proletarian love letter Dit is Neukölln ("This is Neukölln") by Kurt Krömer and Gabi Decker, originally from a television skit and sung to the tune of I Got You Babe, while tangential references are usually found in Deutschrap songs, for example the 2019 U7 Freestyle by Luvre47. Italian progressive rock band Barock Project published their concept album Coffee in Neukölln in 2012.

Several instrumental works also reference Neukölln, most notably the 1977 David Bowie and Brian Eno track Neuköln [sic!],[note 211] which was later reworked for orchestra by Philip Glass as the fifth movement of his Symphony No. 4 – Heroes (1996), and also inspired the fusion jazz diptych Neuköln (Day) and Neuköln (Night) by Dylan Howe (2007/14). Other instrumental works include the 1953 march Die Rixdorfer Blasmusik ("The Rixdorfian Brass Music") by Otto "der zackige Otto" Kermbach, the 1983 electronic composition Hasenheide by Dieter Moebius, the 2004 track Neukölln 2 by Kittin, the 2012 deep house track Neukölln Burning by resident producer Deepchild, the 2011 Mogwai release Hasenheide, or the 2012 tech house track Neukoelln Mon Amour [sic!] by Swayzak.

#### Der Rixdorfer

[edit]

"Rixdorfer" redirects here. For the dance, see Slow dance.

* Benjamin Bilse, 1870

* Bilse'sche Kapelle, 1871

* Heinrich Littke-Carlsen, caricature, ca. 1890

* Gruß vom Rixdorfer, postcard, ca. 1900[note 212]

* Berlin nightlife and the schieber, caricature, 1912

* Gustav Schönwald, ca. 1905

"Rixdorfer Bauern-Polka"

Gustav Schönwald (1905; Homokord, 1914)

* * *

"Rixdorfer Bauernhochzeit"

Gustav Schönwald (1905; Favorite, 1914)

* * *

Problems playing these files? See media help.

Der Rixdorfer

Tanzorchester Otto Kermbach, instrumental (Polydor, 1937, 2:50)
Orchester Georg Grohrock-Ferrari (Gloria, 1938, 2:38)
Erwin Hartung, Orchester Otto Kermbach, alternate lyrics by Josef Freundenthal (Amiga, 1949, 2:56)
Musikkorps der Schutzpolizei Berlin, Heinz Winkel (cond.), instrumental (Telefunken, 1954, 3:20)
Willi Rose, Orchester und Blasorchester Otto Kermbach (from Wir versaufen unser' Oma ihr klein' Häuschen, Ariola, 1959, 2:26)
Manfred Korth, Spreeathener Blasmusik (from Hochzeit bei Zickenschulze, Amiga, 1981, 2:13)
Hermann Prey, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Heinz Geese (cond.) (from Ich sing mein schönstes Lied, Capriccio, 2009, 3:00)

The song that cemented Rixdorf's infamy as a city of vice across Germany, which eventually prompted the renaming to Neukölln, is the 1889 satirical couplet Der Rixdorfer ("The Rixdorfian"), also known under the title In Rixdorf ist Musike,[note 213] with music in the style of a polka march by Eugen Philippi (1856–1920)[note 214] and lyrics by Oskar Klein (ca. 1852–1923).[note 215] The couplet ranks among the first widely popular songs (gassenhauer) of the early schlager genre, which came under fire from conservative music commentators for its artistic inferiority and socially corrosive potential after the turn of the century.[93]

The polka's original instrumental version was already performed in 1871 as a carnival song by Benjamin Bilse and his ensemble Bilse'sche Kapelle ("Bilse's Band"), the precursor to the Berlin Philharmonic, at Berlin's Concerthaus on Leipziger Straße, where the ensemble had a regular engagement from 1867 to 1885. It had been adapted from a traditional polka melody, which had been imported from the Bohemian Forest by two of the ensemble's woodwind musicians, who had served in Bohemia as part of the Kaiser Franz regiment during the 1866 Austro-Prussian War.[note 216]

After the polka had fallen into oblivion for many years, it suddenly exploded in popularity when the music was appropriated by Philippi and adapted to Klein's pre-existing lyrics in 1889.[note 217] The new song was at first performed live by satirist Heinrich Littke-Carlsen in the late 19th century at Rixdorf's concert hall Neue Welt and Berlin's variety theater Wintergarten. It soon became "probably the most widespread local dance",[note 218] fostered the adoption of new dancing styles like the indecent schieber,[note 219] spawned several imitations around Berlin like the Minna-Polka by Paul Lincke (1902),[note 220] and eventually spread throughout the empire's dance halls.

Several recordings of the song were published over the decades, the first being the Rixdorfer Bauern-Polka ("Rixdorfian peasants' polka"), a semi-instrumental version arranged by Max Büchner (1862–1906) with an accompanying comedic skit written by Martin Bendix, recorded 1905 in Berlin onto an Edison cylinder, performed by the Büchner-Kapelle with actor and media pioneer Gustav Schönwald, and widely released for the first time in 1914 by Homokord.[note 221] A recording in the style of the popular all-male close harmony groups followed in 1938, performed by Georg Grohrock-Ferrari and his ensemble. An early East German recording of the song in an arrangement by Reiny Roland used alternate toned-down lyrics, originally written by Josef Freudenthal, and was recorded in 1949 by actor Erwin Hartung, while the most prominent version with the original lyrics was recorded in 1959 by actor Willi Rose, both versions with Otto Kermbach's orchestra.[note 222] The Rixdorfer remained popular through modern times, recorded in 1976 by James Last or in 1981 by Manfred Korth and the brass ensemble Spreeathener Blasmusik. A symphonic version, recorded by baritone Hermann Prey with the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, was published in 2009.

Instrumental versions of the Rixdorfer have been released since the first recordings by Schönwald in 1905, for example a 1928 foxtrot couplet by Georges Boulanger and arranged by Hermann "Ben Berlin" Biek for Vox Records,[note 223] a 1937 recording by Otto Kermbach's orchestra, or a 1981 version for barrel organ by Georg Kuwest. The most well-known instrumental version of Neukölln's unofficial anthem is the 1954 recording by conductor Heinz Winkel with the music corps of Berlin's Schutzpolizei.

The song's original adulterated lyrics are usually recited with a strong Berlin dialect in the first person by a protagonist called Franz. They describe his free and easy Sunday partying and dancing spree in Rixdorf, and his meeting his long-time companion, an older woman called Rieke, who insinuates to also be a prostitute.[note 224]

## Quotes

[edit]

> All things which occur through time, vanish with time. Therefore, it is necessary to make them steady, and to cement them, in deeds and tangible form.

— Richardsdorf foundational charter, 1360[note 225]

> In Rixdorf and Neukölln, aspirations, fears and hopes temporarily concentrated, to escape the "old" homelands and their provincial constrictions, their mental and social hardships. Neukölln as utopia, thus as a non-place, where suffering and happiness fatefully coalesced, and where the desire for escape seems to have a timeless presence.

— Udo Gösswald, "Immer wieder Heimat", 1997[note 226]

> If we continue to only observe, we in Neukölln-Nord won't be far from Whitechapel in 10 to 15 years.

— Borough mayor Heinz Buschkowsky, interview, 2008[note 227]

> Depending on how you look at it, you can say: here [in Neukölln] people manage to get along with each other pretty well in a confined space; or: it is more of a side by side, at times also a head-to-head.

— Berlin integration commissioner Derviş Hızarcı, interview, 2024[note 228]

> It is always a boon and bane at the same time, when a district [like Neukölln] is far ahead of its time.

— Neukölln integration commissioner Güner Balcı, interview, 2025[note 229]

## Gallery

[edit]

* Hermannplatz, Donaukiez

* County Court

* County Court and City Hall

* Public bath house

* Buddy Bear Rixi at City Hall

* Volkspark Hasenheide in winter, 2013

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Lit. rollende Berge, i.e. sanft geschwungene Berge ("rolling hills") in the figurative meaning of rollen as fließen ("to flow") or wogen ("to wave"); one of Neukölln's neighborhoods was named after the Rollberge range (see below). See also the Kreuzberg, Berlin's most prominent glacial (and highest natural inner-city) hill which, together with the Rollberge and the slopes near the former Mühlenberg in Schöneberg, forms the larger northern Teltow range called Tempelhofer Berge.
2. ^ Neukölln's highest point is on the Teltow in the central Schillerkiez approximately at Schillerpromenade 27/28; the quarter's lowest point is in the glacial valley near the eastern border to Plänterwald along the Heidekampgraben near Kiefholzstraße (Köllnische Heide); cf. i.a. "Geoportal Berlin" s.v. "Karten → Fachkarten → INSPIRE-transformiert → II 01 Höhe → Höhenlage im INSPIRE-Datenmodell (Digitales Geländemodell)", Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung, Bauen und Wohnen, Berlin.
3. ^ The Rixdorfer Höhe has the highest elevation in the southern part of Berlin's inner city within the Ringbahn, surpassed only by a few schuttberg deposits in the north near the Barnim like the 86.5 m (284 ft) Humboldthöhe in the Volkspark Humboldthain (Gesundbrunnen); see also Liste von Erhebungen in Berlin. Neukölln's tallest building structure, on the other hand, is the Estrel Tower at 176 m (577 ft), which is Berlin's tallest skyscraper and Germany's tallest hotel tower; see also List of tallest buildings in Berlin.
4. ^ The use of the shortened term Bezirk has legal reasons, because Berlin's boroughs are only partially administrative districts: Berlin is a single municipality (Einheitsgemeinde), so its boroughs have limited power, acting only as agencies of Berlin's state and city governments, as laid out in the 1920 Greater Berlin Act; the boroughs are financially dependent on state donations, as they neither possess any taxation power nor own any property. (This is in contrast to municipalities and counties in other German states, which are territorial corporations, so-called Gebietskörperschaften, with autonomous functions and property.) Furthermore, a borough's district office, while in charge of most administrative matters affecting its borough's residents, can be overruled by the Berlin Senate, which is the agent of Berlin's Hauptverwaltung (central administration); see also Boroughs and quarters of Berlin § Administration and politics.
5. ^ Over the years there have been several petitions to reestablish the historical name Rixdorf; Kai Ritzmann, "Aus (Nord-)Neukölln soll wieder Rixdorf werden", 1 July 2019, B.Z..
6. ^ Other alternative toponyms for the quarter are Neukölln-Nord, Nordneukölln and Neukölln 44. The number 44 had been part of the quarter's old postal code (1000 Berlin 44, Neukölln 1) and is still in informal cultural use after the introduction of the new postal codes in Germany on 1 July 1993. (Neukölln's modern postal codes, which range from 12043 to 12059, therefore still include the local number 44; however, only the codes with odd terminating numbers are currently in use.) Aside from its use to distinguish the quarter from the borough, the old postal code 44 has i.a. become part of local youth and music culture, adopted e.g. by native hip hop musicians such as Nashi44, Doni44, 44Grad and Kalazh44.
7. ^ The continuing growth of Neukölln's urbanized and gentrified sphere, however, is slowly expanding the northern demographics southward, for example into Britz' neighborhood Hufeisensiedlung, or into the Buschkrugkiez, e.g. some city blocks north of Blaschkoallee like the Ideal-Siedlung.
8. ^ Also known as Richardkiez; the original Richarsdorp, later Ricksdorf, Rixdorf and Deutsch-Rixdorf; named after an unknown historical Richard, probably in the 13th century, and possibly after a local knight or administrator, or after a prominent historical person like Richard of Chichester, Richard of Cornwall or Richard de Bures (see below); in Berlin's LOR framework (see below), Richardplatz-Süd is part of both the planning areas Alt-Rixdorf and Braunschweiger Straße.
9. ^ Also known as Böhmisches Dorf (Bohemian Village); among the Bohemian settlers, it was called Český Rixdorf (Czech Rixdorf) until the early 20th century; in Berlin's LOR framework, Böhmisch-Rixdorf is part of the planning area Alt-Rixdorf.
10. ^ In Berlin's LOR framework, the Rixdorf region is much larger and comprises many additional planning areas to the north, east and south of the historical village center Alt-Rixdorf.
11. ^ Also known as Reuterquartier; named after the central localities Reuterstraße and Reuterplatz, themselves named after novelist Fritz Reuter; in Berlin's LOR framework, the Reuterkiez is part of a larger region called Reuterstraße, which also includes the secondary neighborhoods Donaukiez and Harzer Straße.
12. ^ Often called Flughafenstraße, seldomly Flughafenstraßenkiez; the name derives from the central street Flughafenstraße, which refers to the former Tempelhof airport nearby.
13. ^ Also called Schillerpromenade; named after the neighborhood's main street, the Schillerpromenade, itself named after Friedrich Schiller; in Berlin's LOR framework, Schillerpromenade is the name of a much larger region that also includes three additional secondary neighborhoods to the north and south of the actual Schillerkiez.
14. ^ Also called Rollbergkiez, Rollbergviertel or Rollbergsiedlung; named after the Rollberge, a range of glacial hills (see above); not to be confused with the Rollberge estates, which is the alternative name for the Schwarzwaldsiedlung in Berlin Reinickendorf.
15. ^ Lit. "white estates"; named after the white faces of most of the neighborhood's high-rise buildings; not to be confused with the World Heritage Site Weiße Stadt in Berlin Reinickendorf; the Weiße Siedlung is often lumped together with (and even called) the Dammwegsiedlung, even though the latter is a distinct 1920s settlement further south (see below); in Berlin's LOR framework, the two neighborhoods are combined as the planning area Weiße Siedlung, which additionally comprises the eastern Neukölln docklands, the Treptow freight yards, which, despite their name, are part of Neukölln (see below), and major recreational spaces at the eastern outskirts, mostly a large area of privately leased garden allotments at the site of the former Cölln Heath.
16. ^ Sometimes referred to as Körnerkiez; named after the Körnerpark, itself named after Franz Körner, the former owner of the gravel quarry, in which the park was created; Körner gifted the quarry to the city of Rixdorf under the condition that the planned park would bear his name.
17. ^ Named after the architectural concept of using a close network of pedestrian skyways between the estate buildings; also called Sängerviertel ("Singers' Quarter") due to several street names, e.g. the Michael Bohnen beltway.
18. ^ South of the Reuterkiez and part of the LOR region Reuterstraße; named after the river Donau, the German name for the Danube.
19. ^ Also called Siedlung am Dammweg; named after an old Dammweg (path on a dam) across the historical Cöllnische Heide (Cölln Heath) to the former landing stages at the river Spree; administratively part of the planning area Weiße Siedlung, itself part of the LOR region Köllnische Heide.
20. ^ Part of both Reuterkiez and Rixdorf, with the Wildenbruchstraße forming the official border; named after the river Weser.
21. ^ Examples are:
* Ganghoferstraße around the border between Donaukiez and Böhmisch-Rixdorf south of Sonnenallee; named after German author Ludwig Ganghofer; in Berlin's LOR framework, the Ganghoferstraße neighborhood belongs solely to the Rixdorf region and is a fairly large area stretching all the way to Thiemannstraße;
* Warthekiez around Wartheplatz; part of Schillerpromenade, and including the cemetery park Neuer St. Jacobi Friedhof; named after the river Warthe, the German name for the Warta;
* Harzer Straße, a residential area north of the Neukölln Ship Canal, also called Harzer Kiez, Bouchéstraße or Bouchékiez; nominally part of both Reuterkiez and Rixdorf, with the Wildenbruchstraße forming the official border, but also closely connected with the Kungerkiez in Alt-Treptow nearby; named after the local streets Harzer Straße and Bouchéstraße respectively, themselves named after the Harz region and German politician Johann Bouché (1759–1846); in Berlin's LOR framework, the Harzer Kiez is split into two areas, the small residential area Bouchéstraße in the west and Treptower Straße Nord, a larger partially industrial area in the east;
* areas south of the Berlin Hermannstraße and Berlin Neukölln stations like Glasower Straße, also called Glasower Kiez (south of Körnerpark and named after the Glasow neighborhood in the town of Mahlow), and Silbersteinstraße, also called Silbersteinkiez (part of Schillerpromenade, and named after German politician Raphael Silberstein); the Glasower Kiez also includes the westernmost parts of Neukölln's industrial park Lahnstraße;
* Hasenheide, a western secondary neighborhood north of the Schillerkiez with fewer residential infrastructure, but large recreational spaces and parks; it evolved from the old Hasenheide forest of Rixdorf, now a park, literally "hares' heath"; in Berlin's LOR framework, Hasenheide is part of the larger region Schillerpromenade;
* Schulenburgpark south of Dammwegsiedlung, a small neighborship close to High-Deck-Siedlung; named after the Schulenburg dynasty; in Berlin's LOR framework, Schulenburgpark is the name of a large planning area, which is part of Köllnische Heide, Neukölln's largest region, and comprises the actual Schulenburgpark neighborship, the High-Deck-Siedlung, and many of the industrial sites southeast of the Berlin Ringbahn.
22. ^ Portmanteau of "Kreuzberg" and "Neukölln"; the short hands X-Kölln and especially Xkölln are also in use; compare Xhain, short for Kreuzhain, a similar local portmanteau for the borough Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg.
23. ^ Approximate extent of Kreuzkölln (red: minimum, red dotted: maximum, purple: Reuterkiez wedge) The toponym originally stood for the western part of the Reuterkiez, excluding the neighborhoods Donaukiez and Harzer Straße, and comprising the LOR areas Maybachufer, Reuterplatz and Weichselplatz, which are geographically wedged between the adjacent city blocks of the quarter Kreuzberg, whose neighborhoods SO 36 and Kreuzberg 61 border to the north and west respectively. After many years of gentrification, the toponym Kreuzkölln today describes the western part of the Reuterkiez together with the adjacent city blocks of Kreuzberg, more precisely the Graefekiez and the Reichenberger Kiez, also known as Wiener Kiez, which together have now formed an almost fully integrated, albeit gentrified, social and urban sphere (Johannes Schneider, "Sagt endlich Kreuzkölln!", Tagesspiegel, 12 April 2016).
24. ^ "Zu viel Grau, zu wenig Grün: Viele deutsche Städte fallen durch im ersten Hitze-Check der Deutschen Umwelthilfe", Deutsche Umwelthilfe, 30 July 2024 (with download); the remaining 4.9% are (partially vegetated) mixed-use areas or uncategorized land types.
25. ^ Still, due to their old age, many of Neukölln's cemeteries, which are counted as mixed-use areas, now double as recreational parks or tourist locations during opening hours; the most famous and oldest ones are the 1751 Moravian cemetery, the small Böhmischer Gottesacker in Rixdorf, and the 1813 Friedhof hinter der Hasenheide, later renamed Garnisonfriedhof (garrison cemetery), today called Friedhof Columbiadamm, while the largest one, situated between the neighborhoods Rollberg and Körnerpark, is a cemeterial ensemble consisting of St. Thomas, Neue Luisenstadt and St. Michael, of which the former is one of Neukölln's historical garden monuments, originally built in 1872. Four additional active or former cemeteries are now historical monuments, namely the 1888 Emmauskirchhof in the far south, St. Jacobi on Karl-Marx-Straße (1852), the 1866 Turkish cemetery on Columbiadamm (see below), and the western part of St. Thomas (1872), present-day Anita-Berber-Park.
26. ^ "So grün sind die Berliner Bezirke", B.Z., 9 June 2016. Neukölln also has one of Berlin's 76 remaining natural boglands spanning 740 ha (7.400 km2) or 1,828.6 acres (2.86 sq mi), primarily the Erlenbruch, which, together with two smaller bogs, has persisted at the brook Rudower Fließ in the borough's far south; Hildburg Bruns, "Moor-Krimi in Köpenick! Versunkener See freigelegt", B.Z., 29 May 2025. Recultivated boglands and a herd of water buffalo are found further east in Neukölln's landscape park Rudow-Altglienicke.
27. ^ Examples are monuments like the Reuterpark on Reuterplatz or the Richardpark on Richardplatz, smaller parks like Trusepark, green plazas like Hertzbergplatz, dedicated plaza parks like Weichselpark on Weichselplatz and Wildenbruchpark on Wildenbruchplatz, as well as special places like the atrium of Neukölln's Stadtbad (public bath house), or the neighborhood garden Silent Rixdorf in Böhmisch-Rixdorf.
28. ^ "Schriftliche Anfrage der Abgeordneten Danny Freymark (CDU) und Stephan Schmidt (CDU) vom 01. März 2018 zum Thema 'Wildschweinplage in Berliner Bezirken' und Antwort vom 14. März 2018", Abgeordnetenhaus Berlin, 14 March 2018. However, an average of 50–100 kills of wild boar are usually registered every year in the borough of Neukölln. Generally, boars only seldomly migrate into Berlin's inner-city quarters, which would need to be directly interconnected with the large forests in Berlin's periphery, for example like the western parts of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf; for sightnings of wild boar on the Kurfürstendamm, see e.g. Cay Dobberke, "Wildschweinplage: Schweine am Ku'damm", Tagesspiegel, 25 March 2011.
29. ^ Heike Schroll, Das Landesarchiv Berlin und seine Bestände: Übersicht der Bestände aus der Zeit bis 1945 (Tektonik-Gruppe A), Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin, 2003, p. 134; in Low German the toponym would have been Richarshove; compare Tempelhof as Tempelhove. A potential date for the emergence of this hypothetical toponym is the rededication of the military stronghold as an access yard (ca. 1245); however, the Templar yard could as well have been called Richarsdorp from the beginning, as that was already its toponym at the time of the village's official foundation in 1360.
30. ^ Compare e.g. engl. Richard or Rickard → Rick.
31. ^ Main contemporary spellings were e.g. Richart and Rikard or latinized variants Ricardus and Richardus. Generally, the name Richard means "strong ruler" and stems from the Proto-Germanic roots *rīk- ("ruler", "leader") and *hardu- ("hardy", "strong"), originally from PIE *reg- ("to move in a straight line", "to lead", "to rule") and *kar- ("hard"). The syllable -dorp (Dorf, Old English thorp, "village") stems from the Proto-Germanic root *thurpa- ("pen", "compound", "fenced area"), and possily from PIE *treb- ("dwelling"). Taking into account the proposed older toponym *Richardshof, the word Hof (hove) is a cognate of Hufe ("oxgang") from Proto-Germanic *hōfaz and the root *hōfa- ("hoof"), possibly originating from PIE *kop- ("to beat", "to strike").
32. ^ A prominent contemporary Richard with at least indirect connections to the Templar Order was Richard of Cornwall (died 1272), who in 1241 during the Barons' Crusade negotiated a proper burial for the Templars killed at the Battle at Gaza, and who also transferred sovereignty over Ascalon castle to the German king Frederick II, who had already laid the groundwork for the German colonization of the Teltow region after the Northern Crusades (see below); Richard became King of the Romans (and therefore of Germany) in 1257, however against the vote by Brandenburg's Margrave John I. The only prominent contemporary Knight Templar called Richard was Richart (Richardus) de Bures (Richard de Bures), who, at the time when Rixdorf's original Templar stronghold was rededicated as an access yard (ca. 1245, see below), served as Templar grand master after the death or capture of his predecessor Armand de Périgord in 1244, and who himself died a Templar martyr on 9 May 1247 during the battle at Lake Tiberias, which was followed by the destruction of Tiberias. However, only the former of these two Richards has ever been proposed in Richardsdorf etymologies.
33. ^ Among them were nobleman and Christian saint Richard the Pilgrim (died 720), famous crusader king Richard the Lionheart (died 1199), and primarily bishop Richard of Chichester (died 1253), who was canonized in 1262 and eventually became a popular saint in Europe, but possibly too late to have influenced the toponym Richarsdorp.
34. ^ The latter hypothesis was propagated by Friedrich Nicolai in his work Beschreibung der königlichen Residenzstädte Berlin und Potsdam (1779), alleging an origin from the Ryke (Reiche) family, one of Cölln's and Berlin's old patrician dynasties; see also Rykestraße. In 1344, Johannes Ryke, a patrician citizen of Cölln, had been given the schultheiß court of Marienfelde south of Tempelhof by Herrenmeister (Lord of the Knights) Hermann von Werberg, bailiff and Statthalter (Governor) of Brandenburg, who in turn would play an important role in the foundation of Richardsdorf (see below), which is why it was theorized that the family name Reiche (Ryke) is the origin of Reichsdorp and other variants of Rixdorf, similar to the etymology of Schleswig-Holstein's Rixdorf Manor (Gut Rixdorf), which probably originated from a documented local knight called Hinrich von Ryckestorp. However, for the theories on Neukölln's Rixdorf, no primary sources exist that would refute the Richard etymology and corroborate a clear distinction between the later contracted form Rixdorf and its sufficiently documented toponymic origin as Richarsdorp.
35. ^ See also Theodiscus; Deutsche, unlike the English or French terms Germans or Allemands seem to suggest, was never an ethnic term, and instead denoted the (common) people who spoke theodiscus (deutsch), the language "of the people"; to this day, the individual term for a German is therefore Deutscher ("common person", "person who speaks the [common] deutsche language"), derived from the original adjective deutsch (O.H.G. diutisc), not from the later noun and toponym Deutschland as Deutschländer ("citizen of Deutschland"), which is only (and only occasionally) used as a neologistical term for Turks in Germany or as a sometimes pejorative pars pro toto for all German citizens or residents with a migration background.
36. ^ See also the city's female personification as Berolina.
37. ^ The Old-Polabian toponym Berlin or Birlin ("swamp area") was also used with a definite article as der Berlin ("the Berlin"), which strongly suggests a Slavic plot name, e.g. "the swamp", instead of a preceding Slavic settlement; cf. Arnt Cobbers, Kleine Berlin-Geschichte – Vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart, Berlin 2008, p. 14; see also etymology of Berlin.
38. ^ The "water" referenced both Neu-Cölln's southern military moat, which was later filled, and the historical Cöllnischer Stadtgraben ("Cölln Moat") between Cölln and Neu-Cölln, which later became the Spree Canal west and south of Spree Island; see also Fischerinsel, the southern neighborhood on Spree Island.
39. ^ This means that from 1912 to 1920, the region had two localities that bore virtually the same name, Berlin's small district Neu-Kölln and vis-à-vis the city Neukölln. Today, the area of the historical Neu-Cölln is part of the Luisenstadt neighborhood (named after the historical Luisenstadt), and it is almost never called by its historical name, but places like the Köllnischer Park, originally a military bastion in Neu-Cölln (Bastion VII), still point to the origin of the toponym Neukölln.
40. ^ From Latin colonus (i.a. "settler in a foreign land") and colere (i.a. "to cultivate", "to inhabit"), originally from the PIE root *kwel- (i.a. "to dwell").
41. ^ In a reference to a priest as Symeon plebanus de Colonia (28 October 1237).
42. ^ Manfred Niemeyer (ed.), Deutsches Ortsnamenbuch, Berlin/Boston 2012, p. 60 s.v. "Berlin: II, III"; id., p. 323 s.v. "Köln: III, IV"; cf. Winfried Schich, "Das mittelalterliche Berlin (1237–1411)", in: Wolfgang Ribbe, Geschichte Berlins 1, München 1988, p. 146–206. A direct adoption of Cologne's Latin name (Joachim Herrmann [1937] in: id. et al., Berlin. Ergebnisse der heimatkundlichen Bestandsaufnahme, Reihe "Werte unserer Heimat" 49/50, Berlin 1987, p. 143 sq.) is therefore less likely than a new Holy Roman colony next to (the) Berlin receiving its toponym Colonia independently, which was then gradually germanized like its counterpart on the Rhine. An even older hypothesis, which mirrored Berlin's etymology and tried to postulate a Slavic origin of the new colony's name, surmised an obscure base form *Kol'no from *kol ("stake, spigot"); cf. Emil Stutzer, Die Deutschen Großstädte – Einst und Jetzt, Berlin/Braunschweig/Hamburg 1917; this is an unlikely etymology, especially given the fact that no remnants of a Slavic settlement preceding the new colonia were ever found, but still cannot be completely ruled out; cf. Manfred Niemeyer (ed.), Deutsches Ortsnamenbuch, Berlin/Boston 2012, p. 60 s.v. "Berlin: II, III". Older treatises had disregarded a potential Slavic in favor of a Latin origin as a sui generis name for a colonia nova (new colony), but left open the possibility that the colonists had been inspired by Cologne's Latin name; cf. i.a. Jan Hendrik Regenbogen, Commentatio de Bello Sacro, Leiden 1819, p. 245 sq.: "Coloniam ad Spream quoque ea aetate conditam fuisse, ita nominatum vel a Colonia nova, vel ab advenis, e Colonia Agrippina oriundis, admodum est verisimile […]." It was a common, but never verified belief among the people until the early 18th century that many colonists had migrated to Brandenburg's Colonia directly from Cologne on the Rhine, which spawned the secondary hypothesis that at least the later Germanized spelling Cölln was inspired by Rhenish Cölln (Cologne); Ernst Fidicin (ed.), Historisch-diplomatische Beiträge zur Geschichte der Stadt Berlin, Vol. 3, Berlin 1837, p. 3 sq., n. 3.
43. ^ Similar to Berolina, the name of Berlin's historical personification, the ahistorical toponym Nova Colonia is used occasionally by associations and companies in the Neukölln quarter and borough, for example the chamber choir Capella Nova Colonia, while the variant Colonia Nova is the name of an event venue and congress center in northern Rixdorf, situated very close to the area of the historical Neucölln Estates.
44. ^ Proposed toponym; Heike Schroll, Das Landesarchiv Berlin und seine Bestände: Übersicht der Bestände aus der Zeit bis 1945 (Tektonik-Gruppe A), Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin, 2003, p. 134. However, the first historical source for the toponym is the 1360 foundational charter, which only contains Richarsdorp (Richardsdorf; see above).
45. ^ Including [40] Tempelhof, [23] Mariendorf, [24] Marienfelde, [29] Rixdorf, [53] Rixdorf's first folwark, here labeled as namenlose Wüstung ("nameless abandoned site"); Rixdorf's second Templar folwark, which was later known as the Burgwall, is not numbered, but is situated east-northeast of Rixdorf at the end of the road from Tempelhof to the river Spree.
46. ^ With marked locations [1] Schafgraben (modern-day Landwehrkanal), [2] Cöllnische Wiesen (Reuterkiez, Maybachufer), [3] Ricksdorfscher Damm (Kottbusser Damm), [4] Cöllnische Heide (Reuterkiez), [5] road to Hallesches Tor (Urbanstraße) and [6] Hasenheide.
47. ^ With marked modern-day locations [1] Landwehrkanal, [2] Maybachufer, [3] Schinkestraße/Bürknerstraße (approximate), [4] Friedelstraße, [5] Kottbusser Damm, [6] Urbanstraße, [7] Hermannplatz with Rollkrug and [8] Hasenheide.
48. ^ With marked modern-day locations [1] Richardstraße, [2] Richardplatz, [3] Karl-Marx-Straße and [4] the corner of Niemetzstraße and Braunschweiger Straße, the approximate location of Rixdorf's unnamed (abandoned) folwark.
49. ^ Prehistorical overview and historical chronology, settlement history and monuments i.a. in Berlin-Neukölln, seine Geschichte und Denkmale: Rixdorf, Bezirksamt Neukölln, Berlin 1999 (online copy); for more detailed annals of Rixdorf and Neukölln from its inception to 1999, cf. Manfred Motel, Chronik von Rixdorf, Berlin 1999 (online copy).
50. ^ Originally minted in Singidunum, it was either a coeval monetary import or reused in more recent times as a pendant.
51. ^ I.a. Albert Kiekebusch, "Ein germanisches Reitergrab aus der späten Völkerwanderungszeit von Neukölln (Rixdorf) bei Berlin", Praehistorische Zeitschrift IV 3/4, 1912. Today, the Reitergrab is on display at the Märkisches Museum.
52. ^ Starting in the third century CE, almost all of the Semnonic tribes migrated from Germania Magna across the limes to the Upper Rhine region and became part of the wider and partially Romanized Alemannic culture; see also Swabia and Alamannia. In a twist of historical irony, a significant number of Swabians, the modern-day descendants of the ancient Suevi, have been return-migrating to Berlin since the late 1980s, leading to pronounced anti-Swabian sentiments, especially in the alternative culture of former central East Berlin, with the term Schwabe (Swabian) eventually having morphed into a pars pro toto koinonym for all modern Western immigrants perceived as the drivers of gentrification.
53. ^ The same is true for the historical centers of Berlin and Cölln; the Slavic tribes had mostly settled on the plateaus surrounding Berlin's glacial valley, i.e. the Sprevane on the Teltow and Barnim, and on the rivers Spree and Dahme, e.g. in Trebow and Copnic, and the Hevelli in the Havelland and the Zauche, and on the rivers Havel and Nuthe, e.g. in Spandow and Poztupimi; cf. Horst Ulrich, Uwe Prell, Ernst Luuk, "Besiedlung des Berliner Raums", in: Berlin Handbuch, Berlin 1992, p. 127 sq.
54. ^ In the wake of the Northern Crusades, Albert was appointed margrave of the Northern March, including the Teltow, in 1134 by Lothair III after a testamentary contract between Albert and Hevellian prince Pribislav-Henry (1129). When Pribislav-Henry died in 1150, Albert became his successor and proclaimed the new margraviate in 1157.
55. ^ In a short war of succession against Albert, Jaxa laid claim to Brandenburg and occupied the region in 1157, but retreated without a fight in the same year after transfer negotiations. Pomerania became part of Brandenburg only decades later (see below).
56. ^ Archeological finds pertaining to the construction of a trading place at the river Spree were dated to the 1170s, and the oldest discovered burials in Cölln to the 1160s (Gisela Graichen & Matthias Wemhoff, Gründerzeit 1200: Wie das Mittelalter unsere Städte erfand, Berlin 2024); however, both the parochial establishment and the foundation of Berlin's and Cölln's royal court fall into the reign of the so-called Stadtgründer (founders of cities) John I and Otto III.
57. ^ Proposed toponym; cf. Heike Schroll, Das Landesarchiv Berlin und seine Bestände: Übersicht der Bestände aus der Zeit bis 1945 (Tektonik-Gruppe A), Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin, 2003, p. 134.
58. ^ Tempelhof and other (sometimes Slavic) villages were founded or conquered around 1190, and the surrounding Teltow region was incorporated in two planned-out phases between 1190 and 1230; cf. Winfried Schich, "Das mittelalterliche Berlin (1237–1411)", in: Wolfgang Ribbe (ed.), Veröffentlichung der Historischen Kommission zu Berlin: Geschichte Berlins. 1. Band, München, 1987, p. 157. *Richardshof was probably part of the second colonization wave, beginning with the year 1200. While Ascanian rule over the Teltow is well attested for that time, there is still debate over who had actually initiated the foundation of the Teltow villages, whether the House of Ascania, or their direct rivals, the bishops of Magdeburg, e.g. Ludolf von Kroppenstedt, or the dukes of Silesia, e.g. Bolesław I the Tall, or the House of Wettin, which would imply a later conquest by the Ascanians and Knights Templar; cf. Ulrich Waack, "Die frühen Herrschaftsverhältnisse im Berliner Raum. Eine neue Zwischenbilanz der Diskussion um die 'Magdeburg-Hypothese'", in: Jahrbuch für brandenburgische Landesgeschichte 54, 2005, pp. 7–38.
59. ^ The closest folwark was probably situated approximately 500 m (550 yd) southeast of the hamlet near the corner of modern-day Niemetzstraße and Braunschweiger Straße north of the Ringbahn (see 1857 map); the second and more important folwark was established 2.6 km (1.6 mi) east-northeast at the border of the Tempelhof dominion on the eastern shore of the river Spree across from Stralow in Slavic Trebow, known until the 19th century as the Burgwall ("hill fort"), in modern-day Berlin situated in the Treptower Park on the grounds of the Gasthaus Zenner; cf. Heinz-Dieter Heimann, Klaus Neitmann, Winfried Schich (eds.), Brandenburgisches Klosterbuch – Handbuch der Klöster, Stifte und Kommenden bis zur Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts, Berlin 2007, Vol. 2, p. 1276.
60. ^ In later centuries renamed Berlinische Wiesen (Berlin Meadows); these grasslands were the north-western part of the Mirica, a forest region later known as Cöllnische Heide (Cölln Heath).
61. ^ After the era of Jaxa, one of the remaining adversaries of the Ascanian margraviate in the eastern Teltow periphery was the House of Wettin, which had ruled over Copenic since (depending on the source) 1178 or 1210, which required a military presence in *Richardshof. Therefore, the Templar stronghold was established somewhere between 1190 and 1210. During this time, the Order was under the sovereignty of four consecutive grand masters, Robert IV of Sablé (1191–93), Gilbert Horal (1193–1200), Philippe du Plessis (1201–08) and William of Chartres (1208–19).
62. ^ A reference to a Templar commander called Hermann (magister Hermannus de Templo, "master [commander] Hermann of the [Knights] Templar") dated 29 April 1247 underlines the order's command over Tempelhof and the Teltow region; cf. i.a. Hans Eberhard Mayerm, "Zum Itinerarium peregrinorum – Eine Erwiderung", in: id. (ed.): Kreuzzüge und lateinischer Osten 3, London 1983, p. 210 sq. However, no records exist of the Knights' direct involvement in the foundation of any of the Teltow settlements, including Merghenvelde and Mergendorp, but the 1247 record and later transfer of ownership implies at least their lasting sovereignty.
63. ^ The imperial road Via Imperii was mainly a trade route and an extension of the ancient Roman Via Raetia through Cölln and Alt-Berlin to Stettin on the Baltic Sea, but it also functioned as one of the Medieval European St. James pilgrims' ways: within the southern parts of modern-day Berlin, it ran from the old central town of Cölln, now Fischerinsel in Mitte, either through Friedrichswerder, Friedrichstadt, and south along the Lindenstraße, or through Neu-Cölln am Wasser and Luisenstadt, passing the Sebastian Church, and south-west roughly along Alte Jakobstraße; both potential routes then followed the Lindenstraße to Hallesches Tor, and further south through Tempelhof, Mariendorf, Marienfelde, Teltow and Stahnsdorf in the direction of Beelitz and Wittenberg.
64. ^ Following the victory over the Danes at the second battle of Bornhöved (1227), Brandenburg secured their claim on Pomerania, which Frederick II gave as a suzerainty to the (at this time still dependent) Ascanian margraves, followed by a 1231 treaty between Barnim I of Pomerania-Stettin, due to his young age represented by his regent Samboride mother Miroslava of Pomerelia, and the margraves John I and Otto III, which legally confirmed the Ascanians' dominion i.a. over the Barnim and Teltow, and therefore *Richardshof, with the region's transfer following in 1237 after the Treaty of Kremmen; at the time the Templar Order was under the sovereignty of grand master Armand de Périgord (1232–44). The subsequent Ascanian-Pomeranian conflicts had no recorded effect on the Tempelhof commandery and the village's political status.
65. ^ At this time, the Templar Order was under the sovereignty of Richard de Bures, who served as grand master after the capture or death of Armand de Périgord from 1244/45 until his own death on 9 May 1247 during the battle at Lake Tiberias; Marie Luise Bulst-Thiele, Sacrae domus militiae Templi Hierosolymitani magistri – Untersuchung zur Geschichte des Templerordens 1118/19–1314, Göttingen 1974, pp. 211–16 s.v. "17. Richardus (Richart) de Bures. 1144/45 – 9. Mai 1247"; Christian Vogel, Das Recht der Templer, Berlin 2007, pp. 101, 109–11, 118, 124, 353.
66. ^ The Johannite Hospitaller history of the commandery was expressly documented for the first time in 1344; after the Reformation, the Catholic Brandenburg Hospitallers evolved into the Protestant Order of Saint John (Johanniterorden), which still exists today.
67. ^ Due to the fire of 1578 (see below), the exact locations of the village's original buildings could never be archeologically determined.
68. ^ In the charter, the ultimate (earthly) authorities are only named indirectly as mit Vollmacht unserer Oberen ("authorized by our superiors"); beside Hermann von Werberg ("Werberge"), the charter also names other representatives of the regional Hospitaller authorities, namely co-founder Dietrich von Sasar, Komtur (Commander) of Tempelhof, Jacob von Detz, the incumbent priest at Tempelhof, as advisor and attestor, as well as other witnesses, e.g. Hans Schuler, the Küster (Sexton) at Tempelhof. The charter already mentions a schultheiß, a municipal magistrate, to be inaugurated. The size of the new village's allocated area was 25 Hufe, i.e. 425.5 ha (4.255 km2) or 1,501.5 acres (2.35 sq mi), and it offered a home to 14 families of mostly farmers with (depending on the source) 50 to 100 residents; e.g. "Chronik und Geschichte Neuköllns", Bezirksamt Neukölln.
69. ^ Cf. e.g. this translation. One striking sentence in the charter foreshadows Rixdorf's and Neukölln's diverse, ephemeral and changeful history; nds.: Alle ding, dy geschyen jn der tydt, dy vorgan mit der tydt. Hirumme ist id not, dat man sy stetige vnd veste met briuen vnd hantuestigen; ger.: Alle Dinge, die in der Zeit geschehen, vergehen mit der Zeit. Darum ist es notwendig, sie stetig zu machen und zu festigen mit Urkunden und Handfestigen; eng.: "All things which occur through time, vanish with time. Therefore, it is necessary to make them steady, and to cement them, in deeds and tangible form".
70. ^ Cf. e.g. the 650-years anniversary edition "Rixdorf – 650 – Neukölln" of Mitteilungen des Vereins für die Geschichte Berlins (Vol. 3, 2010). Other important (and officially recognized) historical festivals are the foundation of Rixdorf's Bohemian village on 31 May 1737, and Rixdorf's independence on 1 April 1899 (see below).
71. ^ The number of farmers is not referenced directly, but was calculated from the appended tribute register.
72. ^ Richardsdorf's chapel is first mentioned in the 1435 contract between the Hospitallers and the cities of Cölln and Alt-Berlin (see below). The original 1360 charter and later documents attest that the Richardsdorf farmers still belonged to the Tempelhof parish, and the Landbuch does not mention a chapel for the year 1375 either; furthermore, before 1400 the village had to pay tributes to the priest at Tempelhof, which also rules out a separate parish in Richardsdorf during these early times. This would refute a vague secondary source that the chapel already stood long before and even received its church bell as early as 1322; cf. Rixdorf – Britz zur Zeit des Ministers Graf Ewald Friedrich von Hertzberg 1753–1795, Berlin 1949, s.v. "4: Die alte deutsche, jetzt böhm. Kirche auf dem Richardplatz (archived). On the other hand, the foundational charter explicitly orders Richardsdorf's farmers to adhere to the Tempelhof parish; this suggests that the farmers had already constructed their church as a Flurkapelle ("field chapel"), which had never been officially recognized by the parochial authorities.
73. ^ The new leadership over the Teltow by the Johannite Knights Hospitaller perpetuated the Templar rule of force, which i.a. led to continuous strife along the northern border at the Schafgraben, later known as Müllen-Graben, modern-day Landwehr Canal; in 1435 the Hospitaller were accused of having secretly moved boundary stones in the area around the Johannistisch, in modern-day Kreuzberg near the road Am Johannistisch, which prompted the so-called Tempelhofer Fehde (Feud of Tempelhof), as the Hospitaller under the command of Nickel von Colditz launched a military attack against Cölln and Berlin at the Köpenicker Tor near the Roßstraßenbrücke south of Cölln, but their battalion was quickly repelled at the city gates under heavy bombardment, so the Hospitaller decided to retreat toward Richardsdorf, pursued by Cölln's forces, but were ambushed from behind by Cölln's and Berlin's cavalry in the area of modern-day Lausitzer Platz, so they fled across the Schafgraben or the Schlangengraben into their own domain, possibly into the western part of the Richardsdorf lot, where they were defeated before dusk; cf. Frank Eberhardt, "Verziert mit Ross und Meerjungfrauen: Die Roßstraßenbrücke im Bezirk Mitte", Berlinische Monatsschrift 4, p. 11 sq., Berlin 2001; Werner von Westhafen, "Die Tempelhofer Fehde", Kreuzberger Chronik 174, November 2015.
74. ^ With 2,440 schock Prague groschen (approx. $500,000 in 2024), the selling price was rather high, but it calmed regional relations and enabled the Hospitaller to purchase the lands around the village of Schwiebus.
75. ^ Already in 1521, the councils, guilds and schools of Berlin had absented themselves from Roman processions like Corpus Christi.
76. ^ Cölln and Berlin had formed an administrative unity in 1432, but the despotism of Margrave Frederick Irontooth in the 1440s with the ensuing Berliner Unwille (lit. "the reluctance of Berlin") had resulted i.a. in the annulment of the shared administration, which soured relations over many generations, and complicated their joint fiefdom over Richardsdorf (Ricksdorf).
77. ^ The contract was signed on 4 January 1543; Herbert Schwenk, 2001, "Alle ding… vorgan mit der tydt – Die Verwandlungen von Rixdorf und Neukölln", Berlinische Monatsschrift 4, pp. 43–50, Berlin 2001.
78. ^ The village's tax register lists 12 farmers, 8 cotters (Kossäten), a herdsman and his serf, a blacksmith, and two pairs of domestic serfs.
79. ^ See also Swedish Pomerania.
80. ^ The chapel's roof and spire were destroyed in 1639, but rebuilt the same year; in 1912 the chapel was renamed Bethlehem Church. Many parts of today's church building have preserved the original late Gothic architecture of 15th century Margraviate churches.
81. ^ The tavern was located at Richardplatz 16, later known as Zum Goldenen Adler (1840) and Winkelmanns Salon (1872), and also functioned as a venue for the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Städtisches Theater, until the original building was torn down in 1889; a newer Gründerzeit building was constructed in its place, which now houses the bar Herr Lindemann (2024).
82. ^ The school building was situated on Richardplatz, next to the village pond Die alte Kufe.
83. ^ It joined the preexisting windmill, which had been gifted to the village by the Crown (see above), with another royal gift to the Bohemian village following in 1765 (see below). All in all, Rixdorf would have 16 windmills, two royal gifts, the 1729 windmill, and 13 additional windmills constructed between 1737 and 1865, two of them in today's Reuterkiez, and the rest on the Rollberge.
84. ^ Bohemia became primarily catholic again after the Battle of White Mountain, which led to persecutions of the Protestant minorities, many of whom subsequently left the country. Most of Rixdorf's Hussite settlers were part of a group of 700 refugees, 500 of whom had originally fled to Saxon Gerlachsheim near Marklissa, modern-day Gmina Leśna, from the regions around the villages of Landskron, Leitomischl, Rothwasser and Hermanitz in Roman northern Moravia and north-eastern Bohemia; when Joseph Wenzel I, the Regent of Liechtenstein, guardian of Prince Johann Nepomuk Karl and manorial lord of Rothwasser as part of the Gundakarian Majorat, demanded the repatriation of his serfs, to which the Saxon government consented, 300 Bohemians fled again to Prussian Cottbus in the winter of 1736/37 under the guidance of their priest Augustin Schulz; when the landlord of Gerlachsheim confiscated the possessions of the 200 Bohemians, who had stayed behind, as compensation for the loss of much of his workforce, the remaining Bohemians migrated to Cottbus in February 1737, where they eventually met up with 200 more Bohemian refugees; their settlement in the Berlin region including Rixdorf was granted shortly afterwards at the behest of Bohemian priest Johann Liberda, who in the same year had managed to flee to Berlin from Waldheim Prison, where he had been incarcerated for sedition since late 1732. Liberda had already been a central figure of the first Bohemian immigration wave; as leader of a Bohemian delegation in the fall of 1732, he had managed to persuade the (initially reluctant) King to grant asylum to the first 500 refugees, who had originally fled to Großhennersdorf near Herrnhut in Upper Lusatia, ruled by lady of the manor Baroness Catharina von Gersdroff, who was an early patroness of the Moravian Church of Herrnhut, but were suffering from harsh serfdom and diminishing income due to subsequent immigration; after experiencing the Bohemians' proficiency, the King's mistrust changed into consistent support, which paved the way for Rixdorf's Bohemian settlement. Cf. Otmar Liegl, "250 Jahre Böhmen in Berlin", Mitteilungen des Vereins für die Geschichte Berlins 79 (1), Berlin 1983, pp. 2–15 (5 sq.).
85. ^ The Königliche Domänenverwaltung (Royal Domain Administration) bought five Hufe of farmland including Rixdorf's fiefdom court of the schultheiß and the yard belonging to Adolph Manitius, the court's proprietor (1704–37); the plots were then assigned as emphyteutic leases and transferred to the new settlers for later services to Berlin's industrialists; the Crown also provided construction materials and the necessary industrial and agricultural equipment free of charge, and helped in the construction of nine duplex houses with barns for the families, whereas each two families received between 12 and 14 morgen of land for gardening and agriculture; many of the barns received chambers for later subtenant worker families. The Bohemian settlers were exempt from military service, received immunity from taxes for five years, and the Crown carried their rents for two years; they were granted free citizenship and the right to master craftsmanship. The court of the schultheiß remained under Bohemian administration until 1874.
86. ^ Overall, the Bohemian immigrants formed three distinct parishes, a traditional Moravian, a Bohemian-Lutheran, and a Reformed Bohemian Protestant, whose relations were at times strained by religious controversies, especially in the early 19th century. Construction of a Moravian oratory on the Kirchgasse began in 1750 and was finished in 1761 (Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine), but the building was destroyed in World War II and reopened as a late-modernist oratory and parish hall, inaugurated by bishop Otto Dibelius on 13 May 1962; church services in the oratory were held in the Czech language until shortly before World War I. The Reformed Protestant parish settled on Richardstraße with the inauguration of their first priest Johann Theophil Elsner on 23 October 1747. The original chapel in Deutsch-Rixdorf east of Richardplatz remained the main church of both Rixdorf villages; it was at first used by both the original German Catholics and newly immigrated Bohemian Protestants, and only later became an exclusively Protestant church.
87. ^ The Kirchgasse was originally called Mala ulicka, Czech for "narrow alley", a name in use until 1909. The old school is one of the few buildings that survived the fire of 1849. A representation of the Hussite Protestants' common chalice can be found in the building's pediment. Today, the building houses a museum of local history.
88. ^ The Czech-speaking Moravian refugees and their descendants called it Český Rixdorf; the Czech lingual culture in Böhmisch-Rixdorf remained prominent until the beginning of the 19th century.
89. ^ Almost all of Rixdorf's buildings suffered damage, but the worst destruction was to the Bohemian part; the fire started, when a worker named Karl Kuschke unsuccessfully tried to shoot a pair of storks nesting on the rooftop of a farmer's barn, which ignited the thatched roof, and the fire spread through the village in a matter of hours; Kuschke was acquitted only because the town, already burdened by the costs of reconstruction, would have had to support the perpetrator's family; "Knapp daneben: Was im Böhmischen Dorf als Inferno endete", Facetten-Magazin Neukölln, 28 April 2016; cf. Manfred Motel, "Das Böhmische Dorf in Berlin", Studia Comeniana et historica 38 (79), 2008, pp. 635–656 (645 sq.).
90. ^ Two other large fires had already occurred in 1803 (on Richardplatz) and 1827, all of which accelerated the Gründerzeit development phase; conversely, many older places were forever lost to history, especially most of the older Bohemian settlement; see below for the Reuterkiez firestorm of 1886.
91. ^ It was constructed together with a pedestrian overpass, which the people called Der Galgen ("the gallows"); the overpass was eventually torn down in November 1895 as part of the station's reconstruction.
92. ^ The decree was first published on 31 July 1873; cf. Amtsblatt der Königlichen Regierung zu Potsdam und der Stadt Berlin, Potsdam 1873, p. 230, s.v. No. 130. For many decades Böhmisch-Rixdorf had resisted plans for unification; the Gesetz über die Landgemeinde-Verfassungen (Law on the Constitution of rural Communes) of 14 April 1856 created the legal basis for the 1871 establishment of the two Rixdorf municipal councils, which paved the way for more cooperation and eventually unification. The principal municipal magistrate in charge of Böhmisch-Rixdorf, who had conducted the unification affairs on the Bohemian side, was Carl Friedrich Barta, who had been in office since the formation of the councils in 1871, and he remained a municipal magistrate under Boddin from 1874 to 1882; the Bartas had been one of Neukölln's most prominent families, among the very first Bohemian settlers of 1737.
93. ^ Beside Carl Barta, the Bohemian aldermen Wilhelm Jansa and Daniel Maresch, both municipal administrators, functioned as Boddin's deputies.
94. ^ Voted on by the Brandenburg Provincial Assembly on 30 January 1899; the sum of acquittance to the Kreis Teltow was 1 million gold mark (approx. $27.8 million in 2024). Today, Rixdorf's independence day is still regarded as an important date in Neukölln's history.
95. ^ It is unknown, whether the club was a continuation of the Berliner FC Tasmania 1890, an earlier Rixdorf football club, which had been founded in 1890; Tasmania 1900 was rebranded several times, to Rixdorfer FC Tasmania 1900 in 1907, Neuköllner SC Tasmania (1912), SG Neukölln-Mitte (1946), and finally to SC Tasmania 1900 Berlin in 1949 until its dissolution in 1973 (see below).
96. ^ The original Amtshaus was eventually destroyed in World War II; Susanne Schilp, "Das Rathaus hatte einen Vorläufer, der von einer Bombe getroffen wurde", Berliner Woche, 17 March 2018.
97. ^ Wolfgang Krawczynski, Architekt Reinhold Kiehl, Stadtbaurat in Rixdorf bei Berlin – Biographie, Werkverzeichnis, Beiträge, Berlin 1987. Internationally, however, Rixdorf's architecture was of little importance at the time; cf. Hugh Chisholm (ed.), The Encyclopædia Britannica, ed. 11, vol. 23, Cambridge 1911, p. 388, col. 1, s.v. "Rixdorf": "It contains no public buildings of any interest […]."
98. ^ The new hospital was built to relieve Teltow's preexisting hospital in Britz, and the two eventually merged in the 1990s.
99. ^ Hugh Chisholm (ed.), The Encyclopædia Britannica, ed. 11, vol. 23, Cambridge 1911, p. 388, col. 1, s.v. "Rixdorf": "[Rixdorf] is almost entirely occupied by a large industrial and artisan population, engaged in the manufacture of linoleum, furniture, cloth, pianos, beer, soap, [etc.]."
100. ^ Before the first windmills were constructed, it was known as Schafgraben (Sheep's Trench) at least since the early 15th century, later also as Floßgraben (Timber Raft Trench) and Landwehr-Graben (Land defense Trench); the new Landwehr Canal roughly also followed the western stretch of Rixdorf's old Wiesengraben (Meadow Trench), formerly known as Schlangengraben (Snake Trench), before turning north toward the river Spree.
101. ^ On some historical maps, this part of the Berlinische Wiesen, originally called Cöllnische Wiesen, is named Niederländer Wiesen (lowland meadows).
102. ^ Named after the city of Cottbus; it was built sometime between 1850 (terminus post quem) and 1874 (terminus ante quem) as a replacement for the old elevated road through the Cöllnische Wiesen into Cölln and Alt-Berlin via present-day Kottbusser Tor, originally called Ricksdorfscher Damm and Ricksdorfsche Straße, which had existed there since the 16th century. It was part of the old road from Cölln via present-day Hermannplatz and through Rixdorf along present-day Karl-Marx-Straße to Mittenwalde (Brandenburg), later extended to Cottbus; in 1712, a second southern extension of the Ricksdorfscher Damm to Dresden along present-day Hermannstraße had been built as a postal, trade and military road, the Dresdener Heerstraße, which was often used as a pars pro toto name for the Ricksdorfscher Damm before its renaming in the 19th century.
103. ^ Named after Ernst Friedel (1837–1918), a Berlin politician, jurist and historian. It was originally a forest and meadow trail, next to a small creek later redeveloped as a drainage channel, that had existed since at least the mid-17th century and connected the Rollkrug tavern and southern Ricksdorfscher Damm with a bathing place on the canal and a windmill nearby. Before its development, the Friedelstraße was designated Straße 12 c ("12th Street c"), based on the original Hobrecht-Plan; parts of the southern section were named Friedelstraße already in 1895, while the northern section was originally called Wiebestraße before 1900, named after Hermann Wiebe, engineer, millwright and president of the Berlin Bauakademie (building academy).
104. ^ See Tramway of the city of Berlin (Straßenbahnen der Stadt Berlin, SSB); until then, Rixdorf's own tram lines had been horse-drawn (Pferde-Eisenbahn), and the electric tram network development had been managed by the Südliche Berliner Vorortbahn (SBV).
105. ^ Today, the Friedelkiez, the area around the Friedelstraße, which is mainly part of the LORs Maybachufer and Reuterplatz, is of central significance with regard to gentrification in the north of Neukölln's Reuterquartier, and forms an urban cultural hub between the Weserkiez and Kreuzberg's SO 36 neighborhood, which is accessible via the Hobrechtbrücke across the Landwehr Canal.
106. ^ Due to Berlin's unusually high ground water level, much of the older industry had to settle to the north and south of the glacial valley on the Barnim and Teltow plateaus to be able to construct deep basements for manufacturing and storage, especially attracting breweries like Rixdorf's Vereinsbrauerei (association brewery) of the Berliner Gastwirte Aktiengesellschaft (Berlin Innkeepers joint-stock company), the predecessor of the Kindl-Brauerei, which needed large underground fermentation vaults.
107. ^ Due to redevelopment in the late 20th century, most of these early structures were eventually torn down (see below).
108. ^ Rixdorf's first windmill from 1650 had already been torn down on 12 April 1848, while the Bohemian windmill was dismantled in 1886 and reconstructed in Jüterbog.
109. ^ The rents were comparatively high, so most of the regular tenants had to sublet to additional Schlafgänger (part-time lodgers).
110. ^ Cf. Mark Twain, "The Chicago of Europe", Chicago Daily Tribune, 3 April 1892, with relevant parts emphasized: "Berlin […] is newer to the eye than is any other city, and also blonder of complexion and tidier; no other city has such an air of roominess, freedom from crowding; no other city has so many straight streets; and with Chicago it contests the chromo for flatness of surface and for phenomenal swiftness of growth. Berlin is the European Chicago. The two cities have about the same population—say a million and a half. […] But now the parallels fail. Only parts of Chicago are stately and beautiful, whereas all of Berlin is stately and substantial, and it is not merely in parts but uniformly beautiful."
111. ^ Apart from the infamy and economic disadvantages, some representatives had different and more ordinary reservations regarding the city's name, arguing that the last syllable -dorf ("village") had become unbefitting of Prussia's largest town, while some had even taken offense at the unaesthetic sound of the first syllable Rix-. The alternative name, originally proposed by first mayor Boddin in an act of self-approval, had been Hermannstadt (Herbert Schwenk, "Alle ding… vorgan mit der tydt – Die Verwandlungen von Rixdorf und Neukölln", Berlinische Monatsschrift 8, p. 43, Berlin 2001; Fabian Friedmann, "Der Patriarch", Neukoellner, 19 September 2012).
112. ^ Construction of these estates had begun in 1875 in the Berlinische Wiesen (Berlin Meadows), formerly known as Cöllnische Wiesen (Cölln Meadows), after Hermann Boddin's 1874 ordinance to revoke the herding warrant (see above).
113. ^ Across Germany, the renaming scheme was mostly viewed as a farce, and the ensuing satirical ridicule spread as far as the United Kingdom; Gunda Bartels, "Wie aus Rixdorf Neukölln wurde: Der Ruf war ruiniert", Tagesspiegel, 26 January 2012.
114. ^ Emil Heinicke had bought the unappropriated island, then called Rohr-Insel ("Canebrake Island"), Treppbruch and Treptower Bruch ("Treptow Swamp"), from the town of Deutsch-Rixdorf in 1860; the Treptow mainland (including the Rohr-Insel) had historically been part of the Richardsdorf lot within the Tempelhof dominion, and also the location of the Burgwall, a former Templar folwark (see above); ownership of the island, which was later also known as Neu-Spreeland ("New Spreeland"), changed hands many times until Neukölln's purchase in 1913.
115. ^ The price for Neukölln's new island was 500,000 mark, approximately $2.5 million (2024); after the formation of Greater Berlin in 1920, the island became part of Alt-Treptow.
116. ^ The banner reads Proletarier aller Länder vereinigt euch ("Proletarians of all countries unite"), quoting one of the famous rallying cries from the Communist Manifesto; the street at Neukölln's City Hall was eventually renamed to Karl-Marx-Straße.
117. ^ Census of 8 October 1919.
118. ^ The 1920 local election followed the 6 June 1920 German federal election; in Berlin it was a dual election, both in the Greater Berlin boroughs and of the state deputies who would serve in the Berlin Abgeordnetenhaus (State House of Representatives). However, the constituents of the new boroughs were not yet allowed to vote in the Berlin state election, but that election was eventually declared void due to partial electoral fraud and repeated on 16 October 1921. Neukölln's BVV election was also repeated, and the SPD (27.9%) became the winner before the socialist USPD (23.8%) and the communist KPD (13.8%); "Wahlen zu den Bezirksverordnetenversammlungen in Berlin am 16. Oktober 1921 nach Bezirken und Parteien – Stimmen in Prozent", Der Landeswahlleiter für Berlin, Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg. The first Berlin state election, in which Neukölln's constituents were finally allowed to vote, was held on 25 October 1925.
119. ^ Friedrich Leyden, Gross-Berlin. Geographie der Weltstadt, Breslau 1933; the largest pre-war population in the borough of Neukölln was 313,790 in 1932.
120. ^ Alternate proposals from the 1900s and 1910s for connecting Rixdorf and Berlin were a north-to-south suspension railway line from Gesundbrunnen station through the inner city, or a subway line by AEG from southern Reinickendorf and following a similar route, or the diagonal northwest-to-southeast Moabit–Rixdorf line from Huttenstraße at the western end of Turmstraße, all of them eventually via Kottbusser Damm, Hermannplatz and Karl-Marx-Straße to Rixdorf Station at the Ringbahn or to Grenzallee; cf. e.g. Max Rudeloff (ed.), "Entwurf einer Schwebebahn für Berlin", Dinglers Polytechnisches Journal 86, no. 320, issue 45, 11 November 1905, p. 705 sqq.; these plans were scrapped in favor of the GN-Bahn and an eastern branch for the Nord-Süd-Bahn. The first line opened to the public on 11 April 1926; the Nord-Süd-Bahn, since 1928 Line C, today the U6, originally had a junction to a secondary eastbound branch into Neukölln at the historical Belle-Alliance-Straße station, and this Neukölln branch later became part of today's U7; in the second stage, the Neukölln branch, since 1928 called Line CI, was extended from the old terminus Bergstraße to Grenzallee, and after its opening on 21 December 1930 it remained the terminus until the third stage opened in 1963 with an extension into the rest of the Neukölln borough. The GN-Bahn (Gesundbrunnen–Neukölln line), since 1928 Line D, which eventually became the U8, opened on 17 July 1927, in Neukölln at first as a stump line between Boddinstraße and Schönleinstraße via Hermannplatz, before being joined with the northern stump in two stages (12 February and 6 April 1928); a southern extension to Leinestraße opened in August 1929; the final extension to the S-Bahn interchange Hermanstraße had already been planned in 1910, but wasn't implemented until the year 1996.
121. ^ 4 December 1930; in his speech to mainly students, Hitler also touched on his aesthetic visions for the future, and further persuaded the assistant professor Albert Speer, who was also in attendance, on his national socialist path; Albert Speer, Erinnerungen, Frankfurt am Main 1969, 32 sq.; cf. also Constantin Goschler (ed.), Hitler: Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen 4 (1), Munich 1994, s.v. "Dok. 37", p. 145 with n. 2. One other speech by Hitler from the Nazis' so-called Berliner Kampfzeit ("Berlin time of struggle") was allegedly given in 1931 across the street on the Kreuzberg side of Hasenheide in Kliems Festsäle, but no sources exist; his speech on 10 September 1930 in the Orpheum, also on Hasenheide, was canceled at the last minute; cf. id. 3 (3), s.v. "Dok. 110", p. 408, n. 2.
122. ^ Scholz was succeeded as borough mayor by Nazi politician Kurt Samson, who remained in office until the end of the war and died in the Soviet POW camp Buchenwald in 1947.
123. ^ Some activists also moved to socialist East Germany after the war and became prominent state officials and politicians, for example Klaus Gysi and Friedel Hoffmann.
124. ^ In addition, the first stolperstein in Neukölln to honor the victims of Nazism was laid in 2006 in front of Hermannstraße 46; as of 2024, Neukölln has 242 of these commemorative pavement stones.
125. ^ Between Weigandufer 39–45 at the Neukölln Ship Canal and Sonnenallee 181–89, at the time renamed to Braunauer Straße.
126. ^ Neukölln's and Berlin's Jewish survivors at first sheltered i.a. in Berlin's UNRRA camps for Jewish displaced persons, e.g. in nearby Mariendorf, before emigrating to Israel or the United States; these camps were mainly constructed between 1945 and 1946 for Jewish refugees from Poland, who were fleeing post-war anti-semitic pogroms; cf. Sigrid Kneist, "Eine eigene Stadt mitten in Berlin", Tagesspiegel, 25 July 2021 (archived).
127. ^ Parts of the building were saved and used as a theater, a smaller movie theater and a music venue until the 1960s.
128. ^ Featured prominently in the 1999 comedy film Sonnenallee.
129. ^ Today, the library is part of the Neukölln Arcaden mall; it was renamed Helene-Nathan-Bibliothek in 1989 in honor of Helene Nathan, the old borough library's Jewish director, who had been driven into suicide under Nazi oppression.
130. ^ Line 47 between Buschkrugallee and the so-called Rudow Spider had been in operation since 30 September 1913.
131. ^ Cold War politics had reserved a Bundesliga spot for a Berlin team, but since Westend's Tennis Borussia Berlin, the actual winner of the Berlin's second league, failed in the play-offs, and Spandauer SV declined the promotion, Tasmania 1900 was next in line and accepted the promotion two weeks before the start of the new season.
132. ^ Tasmania 1900 was relegated back to the second league and managed to reach the Bundesliga play-offs three times, but was eventually dissolved in July 1973 due to bankruptcy. To be able to absorb the failing club's young players, an unofficial successor club, SV Tasmania 73 Neukölln, had already been founded on 3 February 1973 and made its debut in the seventh division. For sponsorship reasons, the club was renamed SV Tasmania Gropiusstadt 73 in 2000, and since 2011 it performs under the name SV Tasmania Berlin, as of 2024–25 in the northern series of Germany's fifth division; like its historical predecessor, the club plays its home matches at Neukölln's Werner-Seelenbinder-Sportpark.
133. ^ It was founded in 1981 and first occupied an area on Potsdamer Platz, before relocating to its lease on the Oderstraße in 1995; however, its lease was terminated at the end of 2023; Madlen Harbach, "Kündigung für Berlins ältestes Wagendorf: Wie geht es weiter mit den Neuköllner Rollheimern?", Tagesspiegel, 25 November 2023 (archived). One additional Wagenburg is the radical alternative queer trailer park Kanal, which has occupied a compound on the Neukölln side of Kiefholzstraße at the border to Plänterwald since 2010, though their domain had to be downsized by half for the new modular refugee center; the Wagenburg was formerly known as Schwarzer Kanal, and has existed in various inner-city locations since 1989.
134. ^ Compared to Kreuzberg and the Eastern inner-city quarters of Berlin after German reunification, Neukölln has had far fewer squats. As of 2024, of the 21 squatted apartment houses and occupied undeveloped areas, only two houses remain, both of which have been occupied since 1981, a rear building on Karl-Marx-Straße and a building on Richardplatz, whose residents supported the Comenius Garden and cooperate in the historical forge on Richardplatz. Neukölln is furthermore home to several partially squatted houses, used e.g. for radical left stores, organizational offices or cultural venues, with notable examples from recent times being the Friedel54 on Friedelstraße (Reuterkiez), which was evicted under heavy protests in 2017, while the alternative pub Syndikat, which had been forcibly evicted in 2020 by a shell company of British William Pears Group from their home on Weisestraße (Schillerkiez), reopened in 2023 on Emser Straße (Rixdorf); cf. i.a. Ingo Salmen, Hasan Gökkaya & André Görke, "Friedel 54 in Berlin-Neukölln: Kiezladen nach Protesten an Gerichtsvollzieher übergeben", Tagesspiegel, 29 June 2017; Erik Peter, "Denen, die drin saufen", taz, 19 January 2023. For the history and an overview of Berlin's and Neukölln's squatting scene, see e.g. Toni Grabowsky (ed.), "berlin besetzt", Assoziation A, Berlin 2024.
135. ^ From a modern standpoint now derided as Kahlschlagsanierung (clear-cut redevelopment).
136. ^ Berlin's first urban restructuring program of 1963 already included Rollberg as a redevelopment target, and the formal regulation was passed in 1972.
137. ^ E.g. the non-residential project DOXS NKLN; Dominik Bardow, "'Docks Neukölln': Das entsteht in Berlins neuem Hafenviertel", Berliner Zeitung, 13 June 2023 (archived).
138. ^ The infrastructure is currently used by i.a. film industry laboratories and studios; cf. "Hier plant der Berliner Senat plant elf neue Wohngebiete", Berliner Zeitung, 29 May 2018, s.v. "Neukölln, Harzer Straße". However, other new developments are (as of 2025) only under way in the southern quarters of the Neukölln borough, namely in Alt-Britz, the old village center of Britz, and especially the housing estate Buckower Felder in the far south of Buckow I with 900 new apartments; cf. Teresa Roelcke, "Tausende Wohnungen neu gebaut: In diesen Quartieren können Berliner bald ein neues Zuhause finden", Tagesspiegel, 10 May 2025 (archived).
139. ^ Gropiusstadt, originally just a large suburban housing estate in Britz, Rudow and mainly Buckow, was declared an official quarter and joined the borough a year later, which split the Buckow quarter in half.
140. ^ It was at first called Tempelhofer Freiheit (Tempelhof Liberty), and officially designated Tempelhofer Feld on 14 June 2014; many Berliners simply call it das Feld ("the field").
141. ^ The mortality rate was approximately 0.5%, with more than 40% of the population infected; "Aktuelle Corona Inzidenz von Berlin Neukölln", Corona-Zahlen heute, 23 September 2024; this was mainly a consequence of the quarter's larger share of immigrants and people in poverty, and the associated lower educational level; Benjamin Hirsch, "Corona und der Migrationshintergrund: In Neukölln zeigt sich wahre Dimension des Problems", Focus, 16 April 2021.
142. ^ Karl Grünberg, "Das Geisterhaus vom Hermannplatz", Tip, January 2014; "Das Geisterhaus vom Hermannplatz", Berliner Kurier, 14 March 2016. The so-called Geisterhaus ("haunted house") at Hasenheide 119, which had been abandoned since 2012, was originally owned by Rixdorf's Bohemian Barta family (see above), but was eventually sold and completely renovated in 2020.
143. ^ At the time, former borough mayor Heinz Buschkowsky had named Neukölln as an example for the "failed multicultural society" (Tijs van den Boomen, "Die unsichtbare Mauer", Der Spiegel, 21 August 2011), and judge Kirsten Heisig et al. initiated the so-called Neukölln Model for swift criminal prosecution of juvenile delinquents (Jutta Schütz, "Neuköllner Modell – schnelle Strafen für junge Täter", Die Welt, 6 April 2010).
144. ^ For a report on the early trends in the Reuterkiez, cf. Nicholas Brautlecht, "Nachts in Neukölln-Nord", Berliner Zeitung, 23 August 2007.
145. ^ Neukölln's initial mid-2000s gentrifying wave eventually attracted an ever increasing number of young new residents, and enticed Berliners to favorably compare the up-and-coming new north of Neukölln with the culturally more established Kreuzberg (Christine Eichelmann, "Ein Berliner Kiez erwacht zu neuem Leben", Welt, 15 June 2007). The new toponym Kreuzkölln was at first dismissed by many long-term residents on both sides of the border (Johanna Lühr, "Stadtleben: Auf lässige Nachbarschaft", Tagesspiegel, 25 October 2008), mainly due to the different history and urban characteristics of the two quarters, which at the time were still very much unequal, with Kreuzberg either more middle-class (Kreuzberg 61) or still strongly influenced by the traditional alternative counterculture of Cold War West Berlin (SO 36), who viewed the toponym as a signifier of the ensuing gentrification, vis-à-vis the Reuterquartier's emerging alternative hipster subculture, whose comparison to the heydey of the Lower East Side was both approved and derided by culturally progressive commentators and radical left-wing traditionalists respectively (Jacek Slaski, "Nord Neukölln: Spielplatz Avantgarde", tip, 18 May 2010 archived; Ingo Arend, "Kultur-Karawane in Neu-Arabien", Deutschlandfunk, 11 August 2010). Today, after many years of cross-border gentrification, Kreuzkölln describes the Reuterkiez and the adjacent city blocks of Kreuzberg 61 and SO 36, which together have now formed an almost fully integrated, albeit gentrified, urban cultural sphere (Johannes Schneider, "Sagt endlich Kreuzkölln!", Tagesspiegel, 12 April 2016).
146. ^ As of 2017, in Berlin-Neukölln "the [gentrification] boom [was] in full swing or, in some places, complete (no more big hikes in rent here)"; cf. Meier J, RealXData. 2019. "Zeitraum Mietentwicklungen 2013–2017". In: Bruns H. 2019. "At A Glance: Which Berlin Districts are Going to Get More Expensive". B.Z. – Berliner Zeitung. 19 November 2019.
147. ^ Unlike the so-called Mietpreisbremse (lit. "brake on rent prices"), there is no federal law in Germany that moderates and slows the increase of commercial leases, and this has begun to affect Neukölln; Madlen Haarbach, "Steigende Preise, leerstehende Räume", 13 June 2024 (archived).
148. ^ Due to the recent cultural changes induced by modern Muslim immigration, the Sonnenallee is also called شارع العرب (Schara al Arab, Arabische Straße, Arab Street), similar to the Bohemian migrants calling Böhmisch-Rixdorf Český Rixdorf (Czech Rixdorf) three centuries earlier. Before 2015, Berliners called the area around Sonnenallee Little Beirut; Al-Habbal, 2007, in: Nazeeha Saeed, "The Arabs of Berlin face generations laden with guilt and trauma", in: Hanan Badr, Nahed Samour (eds.), Arab Berlin – Dynamics of Transformation, Bielefeld 2023, p. 63–82 (69); Miriam Stock, "The tastes of Arab Berlin – Manifestations of Arab snack culture in the changing urban migration regime of Berlin", in: ibid., p. 169–187 (passim).
149. ^ For some modern authors, mirroring the criticism from almost two decades prior, Neukölln today still serves as a prime example of a society burdened by immigration and dwindling fiscal resources; cf. Falko Liecke, Brennpunkt Deutschland: Armut, Gewalt, Verwahrlosung – Neukölln ist erst der Anfang, Berlin/Cologne 2022.
150. ^ Party members perceived the win as a vote against the increasing right-wing trend and anti-immigration sentiment in Germany (Pascal Beucker, David Muschenich, Franziska Schindler, Lotte Laloire, Stefan Reinecke, "Wenn die Linke 139.000-mal klingelt", taz, 24 February 2025), while conservative commentators wrote that Koçak's and his party's anti-police, Pro-Palestinian, anti-zionist and sometimes antisemitic views managed to secure the victory with votes from Neukölln's Muslim population (Gunnar Schupelius, "So will die Linkspartei in Berlin an die Macht", B.Z., 13 May 2025; Janne Hoppe, "Erdrutschsieg in Neukölln – Polizei- und Israelkritiker zieht für die Linke in den Bundestag", Welt, 26 February 2025). Koçak himself stated that he was annoyed by this categorization, referring to Neukölln's large expat and often disenfranchised Palestinian population, and to his duty to make politics for all residents, while striving for reconciliation and cooperation; Ferat Koçak in: Alice von Lenthe, Wiebke Hollersen, "Linker Wahlsieger in Neukölln: Ferat Koçak über Antisemitismusvorwürfe", Berliner Zeitung, 3 March 2025 (archived).
151. ^ This specific coat of arms belonged to Friedrichswerder, Cölln's oldest district outside of the colony's historical boundary; Brandenburg and many other historical localities of Berlin also used Cölln's variant of the single-headed Holy Roman eagle in their coat of arms.
152. ^ At first, Rixdorf existed in a shared fiefdom of Cölln and Alt-Berlin, and became the sole fief of Cölln on 24 August 1543 (see above).
153. ^ An architectural representation of Rixdorf's historical Hussite chalice can be found in the pediment of the 1753 Bohemian school building on Kirchgasse.
154. ^ As of July 2024, the whole borough of Neukölln houses only 1,703 of Berlin's refugees (4.68%); "Überblick über die Flüchtlingsunterkünfte in Berlin", Landesamt für Flüchtlingsangelegenheiten, 7 July 2024. As of January 2024, of the borough's seven refugee centers, only two were in the quarter Neukölln, a larger one on Karl-Marx-Straße in Neukölln's southern dockland area just north of Grenzallee, and a smaller one at the Kiefholzstraße near the eastern border to Plänterwald. However, the Berlin Senate plans to open a large new refugee center on the street Hasenheide right on the border between Kreuzberg and Neukölln, including a center for unaccompanied minors, and its close proximity to Hermannplatz and other neighborhoods with an already existing high share of migrant crime like the Donaukiez has been harshly criticized by politicians of both affected boroughs; Susanne Rost, "Flüchtlingsunterkunft an der Hasenheide ab 2026: Pläne sorgen für Unruhe in Kreuzberg und Neukölln", Berliner Zeitung, 7 January 2025 (archived).
155. ^ As of June 2024, approximately 800–900 refugees have been reaching Berlin every month, with the majority arriving from Turkey, Syria, Afghanistan, Vietnam and Moldova; "Hauptherkunftsländer im Juni 2024 – Berlin", Landesamt für Flüchtlingsangelegenheiten, 7 July 2024.
156. ^ According to Güner Balcı, Neukölln's Integrationsbeauftragte (integration commissioner), this is a historically intrinsic part of the Islamic religion and an "almost self-evident part of [immigrant and especially Muslim] cultural identity"; cf. Güner Balcı, "'Zu viele meist muslimische Einwandererkinder wachsen mit den Geboten der Unfreiheit auf'", Sueddeutsche Zeitung, 8 February 2024 (archived); see also Güner Balcı in: Katrin Elger, "Muslim Anti-Semitism in Berlin: 'Wide Swaths of Arab-Speaking Population Harbor Sympathies for Terrorists'", Der Spiegel, 11 October 2023; for an example, cf. e.g. Madlen Haarbach, "'Wir sehen das als Mordversuch': Mutmaßlich pro-palästinensischer Brandanschlag auf Neuköllner Kneipe 'Bajszel', Tagesspiegel, 29 September 2024. For Berlin's former integration commissioner Derviş Hızarcı, this modern antisemitism is also rooted in experiences with islamophobia and religious prejudice, and in the internalization of the negative stereotypes associated with Neukölln's Muslims and the quarter's generally false stigma as a failed district; Derviş Hızarcı in: Madlen Harbach, "Warum immer Neukölln?", Tagesspiegel, 28 October 2024 (archived).
157. ^ Culminating during the Gaza war; Katrin Elger, "I Actually Don't Like Hamas, But…" , Der Spiegel, 23 October 2023; see also Migrantifa.
158. ^ The U8 directly connects Neukölln's and two other important kbOs, Kottbusser Tor in Kreuzberg and Alexanderplatz in Mitte, with two other kbOs close-by, the Görlitzer Park with Wrangelkiez in Kreuzberg and (via the U-Bahn line U1) Warschauer Brücke in Friedrichshain; Jörn Hasselmann, "Dreck, Drogen, Obdachlosigkeit: Wie die BVG Berliner U-Bahnhöfe sauberer machen will", Der Tagesspiegel, 14 February 2024. Before Berlin's 2025 general weapons ban in the city's public transport system (see below), Neukölln's stations of the U8, especially Hermannplatz, were among Berlin's U-Bahn stations with the highest crime rate due to their role as locations for drug trafficking and drug-related (violent) crime; Dominik Mai, "Besonders viele Gewalttaten: Das ist Berlins gefährlichste U-Bahnlinie", Tagesspiegel, 4 November 2024 (archived).
159. ^ Crime statistics only exist for the borough of Neukölln, and in 2023, crime overall rose slightly to 13,794 registered cases, but still remains below the previous decade's maximum of 14,406 in 2015. Generally, Neukölln, in relation to its population size, has fewer registered criminal cases than, for example, the boroughs Mitte and Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain. However, as in all of Berlin, violent felonies in Neukölln have been steadily rising for the last decade to a new high of 1,393 in 2023, especially aggravated assaults, which, compared to the pre-pandemic high, rose by more than 10% from 383 in 2020 to 423 cases; for the full statistics, see e.g. "Kriminalitätsatlas Berlin", Polizei Berlin.
160. ^ Carolina Schwarz, "Wie bunt ist Neukölln wirklich?", die tageszeitung, 12 February 2024; see also LGBT people and Islam; according to official 2024 numbers for the whole of Berlin, queerphobic felonies have risen eightfold since 2014, with more than 71% committed against male victims, while 80% were committed for indeterminate reasons, 12% due to right-wing and 6% due to foreign or religious ideologies, with the latter having increased significantly over the past decade, especially with regard to insults, harassment and property damage; within the quarter Neukölln, only a few streets and neighborhoods are potentially queerphobic hotspots, but those have still raised the whole borough to the fifth rank compared to other boroughs of Berlin; Alexander Fröhlich, "Mehr queerfeindliche Taten: Berliner Polizei meldet Höchststand", Der Tagesspiegel, 27 July 2024.
161. ^ Rixdorf and Neukölln are therefore in accordance with the overall German religious distribution of a primarily Roman Catholic citizenry on the historically Roman side of the limes, and a primarily Protestant citizenry in the former regions of the unconquered Germanic barbarian tribes.
162. ^ See also Religion in Berlin.
163. ^ This would conform to the number of (mainly Muslim) Arabs in the borough (7.9%) and the quarter (ca. 10%); see also Arabs in Berlin.
164. ^ Early population statistics do not exist; these numbers are approximations, taken from various historical sources.
165. ^ Proposed toponym; Heike Schroll, Das Landesarchiv Berlin und seine Bestände: Übersicht der Bestände aus der Zeit bis 1945 (Tektonik-Gruppe A), Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin, 2003, p. 134.
166. ^ Exceptions are privately operated tramways like the Wuhlheide park railway or the Britzer Garten tramway; the VBB integration of the aerial tramway in the Gärten der Welt has often been proposed, but was declined until 2026; Stefan Ziller in: "Marzahn: Seilbahn in den Gärten der Welt bleibt von BVG getrennt – das ist der Grund", Berliner Zeitung, 24 September 2024.
167. ^ For an overview including their history of construction, cf. e.g. Alexander Seefeldt, Robert Schwandl, Berliner U-Bahn-Linien: U7 – Quer durch den Westen, Berlin, 2013; Axel Mauruszat, Alexander Seefeldt, Berliner U-Bahn-Linien: U8 – Von Gesundbrunnen nach Neukölln, Berlin, 2015.
168. ^ Another smaller airport northeast of Berlin, which is mainly used by charter planes, is Eberswalde–Finow Airport; it has always been a candidate for an expansion into a second international airport in the Berlin periphery; "Flugplatz Eberswalde-Finow: Ex-Militärlandeplatz mischt Tegel-Diskussion auf", Berliner Morgenpost, 11 August 2017.
169. ^ Long-distance trains like the Regional-Express also connect the airport and Berlin, but do not cross Neukölln itself. For Neukölln residents, Berlin's airport express line FEX is currently reachable via Alexanderplatz and (from the end of 2025) via Südkreuz.
170. ^ The minimum frequency in off-hours is every 10 minutes (X7 and X71 combined), while the X7 itself runs every 5 minutes in peak time.
171. ^ Since the closing of the old Terminal 5 near Schönefeld, the daytime bus line 171 between Hermannplatz and BER has not been extended to reach the operational terminals 1–4: using this line, passengers need to interchange either at Rudow (X7/71) or at the terminus Schönefeld (S-Bahn). Furthermore, line 171 is eventually set to terminate at Rudow; cf. "Nahverkehrsplan Berlin 2019–2023", Senatsverwaltung für Umwelt, Verkehr und Klimaschutz, p. 282.
172. ^ Depending on the source, the Rixdorf was built in 1962 or 1963. After its launch at the Ruhrort shipyard, it was first used on Lake Baldeney under the name Gruga. It was sold to Berlin in 1984 and rechristened Spreekieker. In 1987, it was resold to the Riedel shipping company and rechristened Rixdorf. It is 30.07 m (98.65 ft) long and 5.24 m (17.19 ft) wide, with a gauge of 1.23 m (4.04 ft) and a machine capacity of 180 PS (130 kW).
173. ^ On the Berlin side, a maximum of two additional stations are planned: Rudow-Süd (near Neuhofer Straße) and Lieselotte-Berger-Platz; on the Schönefeld side of the border, a maximum of six additional stations are planned: Schönefeld-Nord, Schönefeld (S-Bahn interchange), Schönefelder Seen (east of the autobahn A113 near the Segra Airport Park), followed by three stations on airport grounds, namely Air Town (alternatively named Airgate), Midfield Gardens and the final station at BER main terminals; cf. i.a. Thorsten Metzner, "Pläne für Verlängerung nehmen nächste Hürde: Jetzt wird die Wirtschaftlichkeit der U7 zum BER untersucht", Tagesspiegel, 25 June 2023. Further stations in Selchow and at the Berlin ExpoCenter Airport, including preparatory work beneath the BER terminal expansion area, are not part of the current extension plans.
174. ^ There have also been demands for a new Ringbahn station at Kniprodestraße in eastern Prenzlauer Berg; cf. Julia Schmitz, "'Geringes Fahrgastpotential': Vorerst kein neuer Ringbahnhalt in Alt-Treptow", Tagesspiegel, 18 September 2023. However, the political majority favors a dedicated S-Bahn station between Hermannstraße and Tempelhof to offer the public direct access to the Tempelhofer Feld, e.g. Tempelhofer Freiheit station just west of the NME junction (Teresa Roelke, "Zukunft des Tempelhofer Feldes in Berlin: Jury kürt sechs internationale Entwürfe – mit und ohne Randbebauung", Tagesspiegel, 23 June 2025, s.v. "Entwurf 3"), so the proposed Oderstraße station would compete for the spot at the Tempelhofer Feld against either this or an second alternate station directly at the field's border north of the A100 autobahn.
175. ^ "Straßenbahnneubaustrecke Warschauer Straße – Hermannplatz (M10-Verlängerung)", Senatsverwaltung für Mobilität, Verkehr, Klimaschutz und Umwelt, Berlin 2025; construction is not set to begin before 2028; Oliver Noffke, "Bau der M10-Verlängerung zum Hermannplatz soll nicht vor 2028 beginnen", RBB24, 13 June 2024.
176. ^ Due to the part-time function of the Hermannplatz as a marketplace (see below), its relatively small space and the large motorized traffic volume, the M10 will terminate just north of the plaza on Kreuzberg's Urbanstraße; "Weiterbau der Tramlinie M10: Neue Endhaltestelle an der Urbanstraße", Entwicklungsstadt Berlin, 17 November 2022.
177. ^ "Straßenbahnneubaustrecke Schöneweide – Potsdamer Platz", mein Berlin, Berlin 2024; different from the current bus M41, the new tram line would not terminate at Berlin Hauptbahnhof, and the routing via Urbanstraße could interfere with operations at the planned M10 terminus; therefore, an alternate route south of Hermannplatz via Hasenheide was also part of the proposal; the new tram line will not open before 2035; Peter Neumann, "Von Schöneweide zum Potsdamer Platz: Berlins unbeliebteste Buslinie soll Straßenbahn werden", Berliner Zeitung, 7 November 2024.
178. ^ For example, these measures were introduced in the northern Reuterkiez in 2024 and have significantly reduced through traffic and the number of accidents; Madlen Haarbach, "Poller und Einbahnstraßen in Berlin-Neukölln: So haben sich die Unfallzahlen im Reuterkiez entwickelt", Tagesspiegel, 11 April 2025 (archived).
179. ^ In 2025, the first bicycle boulevard opened in the Körnerkiez ("Umbau der Ilsestraße zur Fahrradstraße ist abgeschlossen", Bezirksamt Neukölln, 10 April 2025); for an overview of Neukölln's current and planned bicycle boulevards, including the Weserkiez extension into Rixdorf, cf. Michael Fugel (ed.), "infraVelo: Karte" s.v. "Neukölln § Fahrradstraße, GB infraVelo GmbH.
180. ^ The initial joint section of the route will pass from Adlershof along the Teltow Canal through Johannisthal and Baumschulenweg, and will then split near the Britz quarter, with branches leading through (a) Britz and western Neukölln to the Tempelhofer Feld and Südstern (Kreuzberg 61), and (b) through eastern Neukölln and Alt-Treptow to Görlitzer Park and Wiener Straße (Kreuzberg SO 36) respectively; Michael Fugel (ed.), "Y-Trasse: Von Adlershof nach Neukölln und Kreuzberg", infraVelo, August 2024.
181. ^ Despite its name, the Treptow freight yards are part of the Neukölln quarter; the terminal depot is owned by Klösters Baustoffwerke (Potsdam) and operated by VEPAS bahnservice, and two of the five tracks were recommissioned and modernized in 2010.
182. ^ The freight yards at Berlin-Neukölln station function as the transfer facilities for trains to the NME.
183. ^ Berlin-Britz station was originally also the NME's primary maintenance depot, which has since moved to Berlin Teltowkanal station. Today, the remaining infrastructure is only used for turnarounds of trains to and from the BSR refuse facility, which is connected with auxiliary tracks north of the NME.
184. ^ Once a full-fledged station, it was originally called Berlin-Rudow West after its construction in 1937.
185. ^ The railroad's remaining tracks, which historically led south through Rudow proper into Brandenburg, were dismantled along with two additional stations, Berlin-Rudow at Rhodeländerweg and Berlin-Rudow Süd just north of the border to Brandenburg.
186. ^ The industrial track to the western harbor dock has been permanently closed, while the tracks on the eastern dock are currently not connected. The tracks east of the Neukölln Ship Canal to Dieselstraße, which had also serviced the Estrel Hotel north of Sonnenallee, were closed down and dismantled due to extensive development in the Neukölln Docklands; the remaining tracks now end at the site of the Estrel Tower and are currently not connected, but still reserved as a potential future supply route.
187. ^ For connections from the currently decommissioned tracks on the eastern harbor dock to the industrial main line through Baumschulenweg, six directional changes were once necessary. For the daily transports from the ports of Bremen to Neukölln's Jacobs Douwe Egberts production facilities on Nobelstraße, trains only need to change directions twice, first at the Treptow freight yards, then at Neukölln Harbor; however, due to the now shortened length of the northern Neukölln Harbor track, trains first need to be split into smaller groups at the Treptow freight yards.
188. ^ For a complete overview of Neukölln's places of worship, see Arnold Mengelkoch (ed.), "Religionen in Neukölln – Gemeinden, Adressen, Informationen", Bezirksamt Neukölln (Verwaltung des Bezirksbürgermeisters: Migrationsbeauftragter), Berlin, December 2024.
189. ^ The Romanian Orthodox parish, on the other hand, has found a home in the Protestant Martin Luther Church (see below).
190. ^ Dar Assalam is a member of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany and the Islamic Federation of Berlin, which currently represents 17 of Berlin's approximately 80 mosques.
191. ^ Translated "mosque of martyrdom", but euphemized as "mosque of the graveyard". It is operated by the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DİTİB), the religious-political Islamist arm of the Turkish state; see also Erdoğanism.
192. ^ Emperor William I had permanently ceded the area to the Ottoman-Turkish community in 1866; cf. Tessa Hofmann, "A Hundred Years Ago: The Assassination of Mehmet Talaat (15 March 1921) and the Berlin Criminal Proceedings against Soghomon Tehlirian (2/3 June 1921): Background, Context, Effect", International Journal of Armenian Genocide Studies 5 (1), p. 88 sq., n. 95.
193. ^ The modern graveyard contains the mortal remains of ambassador Giritli Ali Aziz Efendi and the exiled Grand Vizier Mehmed Talat, but also honorary graves for Cemal Azmi and Bahattin Şakir, who are shuhada of the jihad against the Armenian Christians between 1915 and 1917; see also Armenian genocide and Operation Nemesis.
194. ^ The Metro and (since 1953) Europa-Palast with the Roxy studio auditorium had been smaller successors of the Mercedes-Palast from 1945 until their final closing in 1969; see also Liste der Kinos im Berliner Bezirk Neukölln for an overview of Neukölln's current and former film theaters.
195. ^ The most prominent tourist destinations have always been the restored late Gothic Margraviate Bethlehem Church at Richardplatz, St. John's Basilica near Südstern, and the Şehitlik Mosque.
196. ^ Technically, the building is mostly on Kreuzberg grounds, while the Hermannplatz belongs to Neukölln; Saskia Patermann, "Wirtschaftssenatorin Pop bekennt sich zu Karstadt-Neubau", Berliner Morgenpost, 26 September 2019.
197. ^ For a list of Neukölln's old and newer cultural monuments, see also Liste der Kulturdenkmale in Berlin-Neukölln; for the current official list, see "Denkmalliste" with download], Landesdenkmalamt Berlin, Berlin 2023.
198. ^ The kiosk was originally called the Pilz ("mushroom") by Rixdorf's citizens, because it was painted in red and white like an Amanita muscaria.
199. ^ This was achieved in 2009 i.a. by exempting pubs and bars with patron space of less than 75 square meters, and by allowing separated enclosed lounges; "Nichtraucherschutz in der Berliner Gastronomie", Landessuchtbeauftragte Berlin.
200. ^ The term Lord Mayor is only a rough translation of the German Oberbürgermeister, literally "Chief Mayor".
201. ^ According to many modern secondary sources, the Hermannstraße is supposedly named after Arminius, who was later mythologized in Germany as Hermann der Cherusker and became a prominent ideological figurehead in Prussian politics of the 19th century, but contemporary documentation by Rixdorf's administration from the time of the street's rechristening in 1875, now archived by Neukölln's district office, attests that the street's name is derived from Hermann Boddin, who had been instrumental in the street's development and expansion; even though this provenance was widely known among the populace, Boddin's family always denied it (Jürgen Meyer-Kronthaler, Wolfgang Kramer, Berlins S-Bahnhöfe – Ein dreiviertel Jahrhundert, Berlin 1998, p. 120; cf. Fabian Friedmann, "Der Patriarch", Neukoellner, 19 September 2012). According to 1885 local civil engineering records, the same eponymous provenance applies to the name Hermannplatz; cf. "Hermannplatz", in: Roman Kaupert (ed.), Kauperts Straßenführer durch Berlin, Zepter und Krone: Edition Luisenstadt, Berlin 2019. Furthermore, for Rixdorf's proposed rechristening, Boddin had insisted the city be renamed Hermannstadt after himself (see above), which underscores his egomaniacal side that his family tried to remedy after his death.
202. ^ For a list of all historical mayors and borough mayors, see: "Ehemalige Bürgermeister des Bezirkes", Bezirksamt Neukölln.
203. ^ Before Rixdorf was chartered, Boddin had already been the town's principal municipal magistrate (Amts- und Gemeindevorsteher) since 4 February 1874, following the unification of Deutsch- and Böhmisch-Rixdorf (see above); Boddin transitioned to the role of mayor on 1 April 1899, received the official title Erster Bürgermeister auf Lebenszeit (First Mayor for Life) from district president Robert Earl Hue de Grais on 4 May 1899, and was awarded the title Oberbürgermeister (Lord Mayor) by Wilhelm II on his 30-year office anniversary on 4 February 1904.
204. ^ His nickname among the people was Kaiser von Rixdorf ("emperor of Rixdorf") as a pun on his surname; Kaiser became mayor under Lord Mayor (Oberbürgermeister) Boddin on 26 March 1907; a few months after Boddin's death (23 July 1907), he was awarded the title Lord Mayor by Wilhelm II on 3 December 1908 at the opening of Rixdorf's new City Hall; he remained in office through the city's renaming to Neukölln (1912) until the end of his term on 1 November 1919 during the November Revolution.
205. ^ Scholz was elected to the Rixdorf council of city representatives in 1906 and became its president (Stadtverordnetenvorsteher) in 1911, the first Social Democratic politician of Germany to serve in this capacity. He was elected Neukölln's mayor in April 1919, when mayoral contender and long-serving city councillor Hermann Sander (1899–1919) stepped away from his political duties after a reform of Neukölln's electoral law. Scholz first served as mayor under Lord Mayor Curt Kaiser until the end of Kaiser's term on 1 November 1919, then as Neukölln's sole mayor until 27 April 1920, when he transitioned to borough mayor after the Greater Berlin Act came into force. He remained Neukölln's borough mayor until 1 March 1933, including another three years as council president (1931–33), when he was forced to resign from his offices under pressure from the new ruling NSDAP (see also Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service); his unlawfully appointed successor during the Nazi era (1933–45) was Kurt Samson. In 2014, the plaza Platz der Stadt Hof at Rixdorf's Karl-Marx-Straße was renamed Alfred-Scholz-Platz in his honor. Scholz' wife was Neukölln's only female revolutionary council member Gertrud Scholz.
206. ^ "Berlin-Neukölln represents one of the few cases within the Intercultural cities programme, in which membership is not associated with a city as such, but with a part of it, i.e. with a neighbourhood, or rather in administrative terms, with a district. This has to do with the complex and eventful history of Berlin, as well as with the important political and administrative changes it has gone through as from the end of World War II, in 1945." in: "Berlin-Neukölln: Intercultural Profile", Council of Europe, 27 October 2011.
207. ^ "Städtepartnerschaften". Der Regierende Bürgermeister / Staatskanzlei. 2024. The latest partner city of Berlin is Kyiv, Ukraine ("Neue Städtepartnerschaft mit Kyiv: Vitali Klitschko in Berlin", berlin.de – Das offizielle Hauptstadtportal, Berlin, 11 September 2023); Kyiv and Paris are not twin cities of Berlin.
208. ^ Neukölln was the sixth leg's final pit stop in the 32nd season (2020) of the reality competition TV show The Amazing Race by Elise Doganieri and Bertram van Munster; Sammi Turano, "The Amazing Race Recap for 11/18/2020: Double Legs", TV Grapevine, 18 November 2020 (archived).
209. ^ An early and now world-famous motion picture dealing with Neukölln in such a way, is the 1981 biographical drama Christiane F. (Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo) by Uli Edel, Herman Weigel and Vera Christiane Felscherinow; here, however, the focus is not on the northern quarter of Neukölln, but i.a. on Gropiusstadt in the south of the Neukölln borough.
210. ^ In the same year, the film was remade for US television by Nell Cox and Malcolm Marmorstein under the title Konrad.
211. ^ Some distributors of Bowie's album Heroes have occasionally changed the original spelling Neuköln to Neukölln on some international releases.
212. ^ The postcard contains an excerpt of Oskar Klein's lyrics for the Rixdorfer; the fictional Franz and Rieke, mentioned in the lyrics, are shown dancing in the foreground at a fair on the grounds of the Neue Welt on the street Hasenheide in Rixdorf; in the background the Rollkrug tavern and the Pferde-Eisenbahn to Moabit.
213. ^ The German figure of speech da ist Musik [drin] (lit. "it contains music") has a more general meaning of something having verve and energy. At least one release also uses the alternate subtitle uff den Sonntag freu ick mir ("I'm looking forward to Sunday"), lifted directly from the song's original lyrics.
214. ^ Philippi was a pianist, kapellmeister and composer of popular music; Theo Stengel, Herbert Gerigk (eds.), Lexikon der Juden in der Musik, Berlin 1940, col. 213, s.v. "Philipp, Eugen". He was born Eugen Peile Philipp on 14 October 1856 in Lübeck to Julius Salomon Philipp and Rosalia (néé Silberstein). Philippi and his wife Gertrud (néé Arnfeld) had three children, and he died on 21 May 1920 in Berlin-Charlottenburg; Die Stimme 14 (8), p. 249. In his youth, he moved to Munich's Isarvorstadt, where he became a musical director already in his early twenties; Adreßbuch von München für das Jahr 1880, München 1880, p. 220; Münchener Anzeiger 31 (345), 11 December 1878, p. 2, col. 1, no. 5, s.v. "Bamberger Hof". He later mainly lived and worked in Berlin, i.a. in the Königsstadt district, where around 1892 he also ran a sample storage facility for cotillion items; W. & S. Loewenthal (eds.), Berliner Adreß Buch für das Jahr 1892, Berlin 1892. From 1910 to 1917, he also owned a manor in Saunstorf (Bobitz), which he registered as a farmer with an oath of fealty (Homagialeid), and which he expanded and redeveloped between 1914 and 1916; Juliane Kruse, "Gutshaus Saunstorf in Mecklenburg-Vorpormmern", Historische Häuser, 17 March 2024; Regierungs-Blatt für das Großherzogtum Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Amtliche Beilage Nr. 40, §13.4, Schwerin 1910 (11 August 1910). Like many composers of the time, Philippi was a supporter of the performance royalties movement, which led to the AFMA, founded in 1903 by Richard Strauss et al., argued for by Philippi with an article in a professional journal (Eugen Philippi, "Die Gründung einer Tantiemen-Anstalt in Deutschland", Deutsche Musikdirektoren-Zeitung 4 [36], Leipzig 1902), for which he was a regular contributor, i.a. with an article on John Philip Sousa.
215. ^ Oskar (also Oscar) Klein was a lyricist, dramatist, librettist for mostly operettas and burlesque music theater, and patron of Willy Prager. Until the 1910s, he also worked as president of the Berlin amusement society Tyll Eulenspiegel, which was part of the rather tame satirical kabarett nightlife scene of late imperial Berlin that eventually faded during the war years and was supplanted by a more refined and modernized culture during Berlin's Roaring Twenties (Hans Ostwald, Das galante Berlin, Berlin 1928, ch. 26, pp. 165–76). Klein's last work for theater mentioned in the German National Library archives is Am Nordseestrand (May 1910) with music by Hans Schlothen. From 1914 to 1922, Klein worked as editor of the satirical weekly magazine Der Brummer, originally created as a humorous war magazine, and published i.a. by the Verlag Lustige Gesellschaft. His biographical data is vague, but he was born on 7 June 1852 in Ratibor, where he became a merchant before choosing an artistic career; after moving to Berlin, he started out as director of the Literarisches Institut in 1881; Wilhelm Kosch (ed.), Deutsches Theater-Lexikon 3, Klagenfurt/Vienna 1960, p. 1013, s.v. "Klein, Oskar". Klein and his wife Wally (néé Ebstein) had one daughter; his date or year of death is unknown, but his final work as editor of Der Brummer was published in late 1922.
216. ^ This instrumental version of the music had also been used for a brief period as an accompaniment to a dance by the clown Herr Boganowsky (pseud.), who later also worked for the Circus Busch.
217. ^ The received lyrics were written by Klein in 1889, and the music was adapted soon after; the song was first published in 1895 (Philippi, op. 18); cf. Lukas Richter, Der Berliner Gassenhauer: Darstellung – Dokumente – Sammlung (Volksliedstudien 4), Münster 2004, p. 96 sq., 253 sq. The first piano sheet version was published by Harmonie in 1904, arranged by Victor Hollaender. It is unknown, whether Philippi or Klein initiated the creation of the Rixdorfer, but since Klein's Tyll Eulenspiegel was also a carnival society, the score of Bilse's original version was probably well-known in Berlin's small carnival circles.
218. ^ Anonymous commentary (ca. 1900): "wohl der verbreitetste Lokaltanz", in: ibid., p. 266.
219. ^ Littke-Carlsen himself had already coupled his performances of the song with the schieber, which formed the term Rixdorfer into a synonym for the new dance; in 1912, correlating with Rixdorf's renaming to Neukölln, the schieber was banned by law enforcement executive order; Gunda Bartels, "Wie aus Rixdorf Neukölln wurde: Der Ruf war ruiniert", Tagesspiegel, 26 January 2012.
220. ^ Furthermore, the term "Rixdorf" itself became a welcome artistic ingredient, either as part of song titles, e.g. Die Rixdorfer Blasmusik by Otto Kermbach (see above) or Neue Rixdorfer Polka by Philippi himself (1899, op. 29; Friedrich Hofmeister [ed.], Verzeichniss der im Jahre 1899 erschienenen Musikalien, Leipzig 1899/1900, p. 131, col. 1, s.v. "Philippi, Eugen"), or as a lyrical replacement for other localities to potentially boost a song's popularity, substituting e.g. "Pankow" (or "Seckbach") in the polka Komm, Karlineken, Komm, which was also composed by Eugen Philippi; Sabine Giesebrecht-Schutte, "Zum Stand der Unterhaltungsmusik um 1900", in: Kaspar Maase, Wolfgang Kaschuba (eds.), Schund und Schönheit – Populäre Kultur um 1900, Cologne/Weimar/Vienna 2001, p. 114–60, n. 58 (135).
221. ^ The original 1905 recording title was simply Der Rixdorfer – Polka (Edison Gold Walze 15 250); Schönwald, Büchner and Bendix also recorded an alternate version, which was widely released as Rixdorfer Bauernhochzeit ("Rixdorfian country wedding") by Favorite Record in 1914 as well.
222. ^ A later reissue of Hartung's version by Deutsche Heimat mislabeled the song as recorded by Walter Künzel and his orchestra.
223. ^ Vox 8570 E (master: 2137-1BB); Georges Boulanger Konzert-Jazz-Orchester, recorded November or December 1927, released January 1928; rereleased on Kristall 3008 ("Georges Boulanger und sein Orchester – Spezial-Arrangement: H. Bik").
224. ^ Signified by the common euphemistic use of dancing for intercourse and her words: Kost'n Groschen nur für die ganze Tour. Rieke lacht und sagt: "Na ja, dazu sind wir auch noch da!" ("It'll cost only a Groschen for the whole shebang. Rieke laughs and says: 'Well, that's what we're there for, too!'"). For the complete German lyrics, see e.g. "In Rixdorf ist Musike – Der Rixdorfer – Willi Rose", rixdorf.info. The character's name Rieke is also a pun on the Rix in Rixdorf, chosen to personify the city and its vice; see above for the toponym's alternate spelling as Rieksdorf.
225. ^ "Alle Dinge, die in der Zeit geschehen, vergehen mit der Zeit. Darum ist es notwendig, sie stetig zu machen und zu festigen mit Urkunden und Handfestigen" (nds.: "Alle ding, dy geschyen jn der tydt, dy vorgan mit der tydt. Hirumme ist id not, dat man sy stetige vnd veste met briuen vnd hantuestigen"). Richardsdorf foundational charter, 1360 (digital copy).
226. ^ "[In Rixdorf und Neukölln verdichteten] sich temporär Sehnsüchte, Ängste und Hoffnungen […], um der provinziellen Enge, dem mentalen und sozialen Elend in der 'alten' Heimat zu entfliehen. Neukölln als Utopia, also Nicht-Ort, an dem sich Leid und Freude schicksalhaft verbanden und der Wunsch nach Flucht eine überzeitliche Präsenz zu haben scheint." Udo Gösswald, "Immer wieder Heimat", in: id. (ed.), Immer wieder Heimat – 100 Jahre Heimatmuseum Neukölln, Wiesbaden 1997, p. 8–15 (8).
227. ^ "Wenn wir weiter nur zuschauen, werden wir in 10 bis 15 Jahren in Neukölln-Nord von Whitechapel nicht mehr weit entfernt sein." Heinz Buschkowsky in: "Interview: 'Wir müssen Erwerbstätigkeit auch mit Druck einfordern'", Tagesspiegel, 30 June 2008 (archived).
228. ^ "Je nachdem, wie man draufschaut, kann man sagen: Hier schaffen es Menschen, auf engen [sic!] Raum recht gut miteinander auszukommen. Oder: Es ist mehr ein Nebeneinander, hin und wieder auch ein Gegeneinander." Derviş Hızarcı in: Madlen Haarbach, "Warum immer Neukölln?", Tagesspiegel, 28 October 2024 (archived).
229. ^ "Es ist immer Fluch und Segen zugleich, wenn ein Bezirk seiner Zeit weit voraus ist." Güner Balcı in: Erik Heier, "Neukölln-Buch 'Heimatland' von Güner Balci: 'Wallah, die spinnt!'", tip, 1 August 2025 (archived).

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Einwohnerinnen und Einwohner im Land Berlin am 31. Dezember 2023". Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg. February 2024.
2. ^ Cf. i.a. "Neukölln", Berlin.de – Das offizielle Stadtportal, 5 September 2023.
3. ^ "Publikationen: Verzeichnisse s.v. "Berlin: Adressverzeichnis für die Lebensweltlich orientierten Räume", Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam, June 2025; download: "Adressverzeichnis für die lebensweltlich orientierten Räume: Berlin Neukölln".
4. ^ "Zweiter Hitze-Check der Deutschen Umwelthilfe: Mehr als 12 Millionen Menschen in deutschen Städten von extremer Hitze betroffen", Deutsche Umwelthife, 12 June 2025, s.v. "Hitze-Check 2.0 in Deutschlands Städten: Berlin".
5. ^ Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg (31 December 2018) in: "Flächenverteilung in Berlin: 15 Prozent sind Verkehrswege ", RBB Inforadio, 2019.
6. ^ For the complete list, cf. "Denkmalliste" with download, Landesdenkmalamt Berlin, Berlin 2023.
7. ^ Selmar Schülein, "Die Waschbär-Chroniken", fluter 88, 22 September 2023.
8. ^ Juliana Schlaberg, "Akte Tempelhof – Einmal Freiheit und zurück", Naturschutzbund Deutschland, 8 May 2014
9. ^ Victoria Atanasov, "Biber und Baum am Landwehrkanal müssen geschützt werden", Berliner Morgenpost, 29 November 2022.
10. ^ Astrid Kinateder in: "Wildtiere in Berlin: Artenvielfalt im Hinterhof", So wohnt Berlin (Gewobag), 11 August 2022.
11. ^ "Greifvögel in Berlin und Brandenburg: Da flattert einiges", Tip, 12 October 2021.
12. ^ For an overview, see e.g. "Invasive Arten", Stiftung Naturschutz Berlin, with "Invasive Arten in Berlin", April 2019.
13. ^ Jörn Hasselmann, "Aale sollen invasive Art in Berlin bändigen – US-Sumpfkrebse gibt's jetzt auch im Teltowkanal", Der Tagesspiegel, 19 March 2023.
14. ^ Johann Georg Theodor Graesse, Friedrich Benedict, Helmut Piechl (ed.), Sophie-Charlotte Piechl (ed.), Orbis Latinus – Lexikon lateinischer geographischer Namen des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit 1, Braunschweig 1972, p. 550 s.v. "Colonia Brandenburgica".
15. ^ Gundakkar Klaussen, "Rixdorf, Preußens jüngste Stadt", in: Adolf Kröner (ed.), Die Gartenlaube 8, Leipzig 1899, p. 246 sq.
16. ^ Heinz-Dieter Heimann, Klaus Neitmann, Winfried Schich (eds.), Brandenburgisches Klosterbuch. Handbuch der Klöster, Stifte und Kommenden bis zur Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts, 2.1276 sq., Berlin 2007.
17. ^ Schneider R. 1993. Neukölln – Ein Bezirk von Berlin. Berlin.
18. ^ Fabian Friedmann, "Der Patriarch", Neukoellner, 19 September 2012.
19. ^ Udo Gösswald, "Immer wieder Heimat", in: id. (ed.) Immer wieder Heimat – 100 Jahre Heimatmuseum Neukölln, Wiesbaden 1997, p. 8–15 (8 sq.).
20. ^ Fabian Friedmann, "Das Lokalblatt", Neuköllner, 21 March 2017.
21. ^ Friedrich Leyden, Gross-Berlin. Geographie der Weltstadt, Breslau 1933.
22. ^ "Spurensuche am Maybachufer", Karlson 9, 2022, p. 8.
23. ^ Christian Kölling, "Auf den Spuren der Novemberrevolution 1918 in Neukölln", Facetten-Magazin Neukölln, 13 September 2018.
24. ^ Donny Gluckstein, The Western Soviets: Workers' Councils versus Parliament, 1915–20, London 1985, p. 133 sq.; with: Frauke Heard-Bey, Hauptstadt und Staatsumwälzung – Berlin 1919: Problematik und Scheitern der Rätebewegung in der Berliner Kommunalverwaltung, Stuttgart 1969, p. 96; Vorwärts 358, 28 November 1918, p. 3 sq.; Christian Kölling, "Auf den Spuren der Novemberrevolution 1918 in Neukölln", Facetten-Magazin Neukölln, 13 September 2018.
25. ^ Bernhard Sauer, "Goebbels 'Rabauken': Zur Geschichte der SA in Berlin-Brandenburg", in: Landesarchiv Berlin, Berlin in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Jahrbuch des Landesarchivs Berlin 2006, Berlin 2006, 107–64 (114 with n. 77, 132, 141).
26. ^ "KZ-Außenlager Sonnenallee", Bezirksamt Neukölln
27. ^ Megargee, Geoffrey P. (2009). The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1933–1945. Volume I. Indiana University Press, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. p. 1279\. ISBN 978-0-253-35328-3.
28. ^ Daniel Bosch & Lisanne Tholeikis, "Das vergessene KZ Neuköllns", Neuköllner, 26 August 2017
29. ^ Fabian Friedmann, "Das Lokalblatt", Neuköllner, 21 March 2017.
30. ^ Shahd Wari: Palestinian Berlin: Perception and Use of Public Space. In: Habitat–International. Schriften zur Internationalen Stadtentwicklung, Band 22. Lit-Verlag 2017: p. 72-74.
31. ^ Elmar Schütze, "Eine Schwäbin bringt Farbe nach Berlin", Berliner Zeitung, 10 July 2000 (archived).
32. ^ "Die Rollbergsiedlung", Brandenburgische Stadterneuerungsgesellschaft, s.v. "Geschichte".
33. ^ José-Luis Amsler, "Bäume oder Bauen? Senat will Neuköllns größten Wald roden – Anwohner protestieren", Berliner Zeitung, 18 March 2024 (archived).
34. ^ Madlen Haarbach, "BVV lehnt überarbeitetes Friedhofskonzept ab – Nabu kritisiert geplante Bebauung ungenutzter Friedhofsflächen", Tagesspiegel, 30 June 2021; compare Janna Einöder, "Zur Entwicklung der Berliner Friedhöfe – Positionen der Naturschutzverbände", Naturschutzbund Deutschland, Berlin, 23 June 2021.
35. ^ Rainer Rutz, "Schwarz-rote Felderwirtschaft", taz, 19 April 2024; for an overview of the winning drafts from the most recent development competition, of which only two of six include any residential construction, see Teresa Roelke, "Zukunft des Tempelhofer Feldes in Berlin: Jury kürt sechs internationale Entwürfe – mit und ohne Randbebauung", Tagesspiegel, 23 June 2025.
36. ^ Katrin Elger, "Wo die Pandemie besonders hart zuschlägt", Der Spiegel, 6 April 2021 (archived); Pia Stendera, "Skandal im Sperrbezirk", taz, 22 October 2020.
37. ^ Werner Schiffauer (transcript) in: "Es geht nicht um einen Dialog. Integrationsgipfel, Islamkonferenz und Anti-Islamismus. Werner Schiffauer und Manuela Bojadzijev im Gespräch", in: Sabine Hess, Jana Binder & Johannes Moser (eds.), No integration?! Kulturwissenschaftliche Beiträge zur Integrationsdebatte in Europa, Bielefeld 2009, pp. 171–86 (182).
38. ^ "Karte zur Bundestagswahl 2025: Alle Wahlergebnisse in Berlin nach Kiezen", Der Tagesspiegel, 24 February 2025.
39. ^ Moises Mendoza, "Foreigners Feel Accused in Berlin Gentrification Row", 11 March 2011, Der Spiegel.
40. ^ E.g. Grace Beard (ed.), "The 40 coolest neighbourhoods in the world", Time Out, 17 October 2023 (archived); Paul Sullivan et al., "10 of the coolest neighbourhoods in Europe", The Guardian, 8 February 2020.
41. ^ Herbert Schwenk, 2001, "Alle ding… vorgan mit der tydt – Die Verwandlungen von Rixdorf und Neukölln", Berlinische Monatsschrift 4, pp. 43–50, Berlin 2001.
42. ^ Hans Rösner (1964) in: "Vom Rixdorfer Stadtwappen zum Neuköllner Bezirkswappen", Bezirksamt Neukölln.
43. ^ "Statistischer Bericht A 15 – bi 2/24: Einwohnerregisterstatistik, Berlin 31. Dezember 2024, Bestand – Grunddaten", Amt für Statistik Berlin–Brandenburg, Potsdam 2025 (4 March 2025).
44. ^ Madlen Haarbach, "Defizit von 10,2 Millionen Euro: Neukölln verhängt erneut Haushaltssperre", Tagesspiegel, 27 September 2024.
45. ^ Madlen Harbach, "Rund ein Drittel der jungen Neuköllner in Not", Tagesspiegel, 16 October 2024.
46. ^ Anja Martin, "Der Sichtbarmacher", fluter – Magazin der Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 22 September 2023.
47. ^ Bruns, Hildburg (19 July 2019). "Berlin wird immer bunter und internationaler". Berliner Zeitung.
48. ^ "Die Bevölkerungsstruktur Neuköllns", Bezirksamt Neukölln, 2021.
49. ^ "Hauptstadt 2021 um 5000 Einwohner gewachsen: Migrationsanteil in Berlin steigt auf 36,6 Prozent". Der Tagesspiegel. 4 February 2022.
50. ^ "Auswirkungen des Ukraine-Krieges" s.v. "Melderechtlich registrierte ukrainische Staatsangehörige", Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg, 2024.
51. ^ "Einwohnerbestand Berlin", s.v. Regionaldaten, Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg, 31 December 2024
52. ^ Alexander Fröhlich, "'Es wird mehr als einen Mord an Israelis brauchen': Im Epizentrum der Hamas-Versteher der Berliner Linken", Tagesspiegel, 17 October 2024 (archived).
53. ^ "Kriminalitätsbelastete Orte in Berlin", Polizei Berlin, 2021–25.
54. ^ E.g. Julia Schaaf, "Was eine Sozialarbeiterin in Neukölln erlebt", Frankfurter Allgemeine, 27 April 2024 (archived); Frederick Schindler, "Religiöses Mobbing an Schulen? Grüne und Linke halten Studie für antimuslimisch", Welt, 28 December 2021; "Das will Neukölln gegen Religions-Konflikte im Bezirk unternehmen", B.Z., 2 June 2021
55. ^ "Im Bergmannkiez und auf der Sonnenallee: Zwei Männer bei Schüssen in Kreuzberg und Neukölln verletzt", Tagesspiegel, 18 July 2025.
56. ^ E.g. Andreas Kopietz & Alexander Schmalz, "Escalation between Berlin's rival drug gangs", Berliner Morgenpost, 9 November 2020; see also Clan-Kriminalität.
57. ^ Paul Kirby, "German new year riots prompt calls for firework ban", BBC, 4 January 2023
58. ^ Christian Latz, "In einem Bezirk explodieren die Zahlen: Berliner melden online immer häufiger Müll", Tagesspiegel, 1 April 2025 (archived).
59. ^ "Waffen- und Messerverbotszonen (WMVZ) in Verkehrsmitteln des öffentlichen Personennahverkehrs (ÖPNV) und Einrichtungen des öffentlichen Personenverkehrs (ÖPV)", Polizei Berlin,
60. ^ Angela Ulrich, "Fußfessel, Überwachung, Rettungsschuss – Berliner Polizei soll mehr Rechte bekommen", RBB, 21 June 2025.
61. ^ John Keenan, "Where is the world's most 'godless' city?", The Guardian, 7 December 2016.
62. ^ Heinz Buschkowsky, Neukölln ist überall, Berlin 2012, p. 26.
63. ^ I.a. Richard Schneider, Neukölln – Ein Bezirk von Berlin, Berlin 1993.
64. ^ I.a. Friedrich Leyden, Gross-Berlin. Geographie der Weltstadt, Breslau 1933; with Prussian communal lexicons.
65. ^ Statistisches Jahrbuch von Berlin.
66. ^ Since 2007: Einwohnerbestand in Berlin – Grunddaten Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg.
67. ^ "U7 Rudow – BER: Netzerweiterung vom U-Bahnhof Rudow zum Flughafen BER", Senatsverwaltung für Mobilität, Verkehr, Klimaschutz und Umwelt, 2024.
68. ^ "Gemeinde Schönefeld: U7-Verlängerung zum BER würde sich wirtschaftlich lohnen", RBB, 15 April 2025.
69. ^ "Expressmetropole Berlin"; "BVG 2050+" in: "BVG-Konzept sieht Verlängerung aller Berliner U-Bahnlinien vor", RBB 24, 19 March 2023 (archived).
70. ^ "Nahverkehrsplan Berlin 2019–2023", Senatsverwaltung für Umwelt, Verkehr und Klimaschutz, p. 276 sq.
71. ^ "Nahverkehrsplan Berlin 2019–2023", Senatsverwaltung für Umwelt, Verkehr und Klimaschutz, p. 309.
72. ^ Per Gülzow, "Döner, Koffer und Erbrochenes – ein Abend in der Partytram M10", Berliner Morgenpost, 27 February 2024 (archived).
73. ^ Rainer Rutz, "Sie kam, sah und prüfte", taz, 16 October 2023.
74. ^ Joseph Pearson, "Berlin's Ghetto Bus: the M41", The Needle, 27 May 2013.
75. ^ "Parkraumbewirtschaftung in Neukölln startet am 1. Februar 2024", Verkehrsinformationszentrale (VIZ), 2024; see also Parkraumbewirtschaftung.
76. ^ I.a. Dominik Mai, "Diese Autobahn würde Berlin ruinieren", Tagesspiegel, 13 September 2024 (archived).
77. ^ "Grüne Hauptwege Berlin" with "Weg 18 – Innerer Parkring (52 km), Senatsverwaltung für Mobilität, Verkehr, Klimaschutz und Umwelt; cf. Stefan Jacobs, "Berlin bekommt beschilderte Wanderwege: 5000 neue Wegweiser für Fußgänger", Tagesspiegel, 16 October 2024.
78. ^ Berlin Guide – Neukölln City Getaway Guide – Berlin
79. ^ Henning Onken, "Siegerentwurf für Synagoge am Fraenkelufer: Ein neues Zuhause für jüdisches Leben in Berlin", Tagesspiegel, 17 January 2025.
80. ^ "Senat nimmt Verfassungsschutzbericht für 2020 zur Kenntnis", Der Regierende Bürgermeister – Senatskanzlei, 11 May 2020; Frank Jansen, "Wie sich die Berliner Salafistenszene zusammensetzt", Die Zeit, 17 January 2018
81. ^ Henning Onken, "'Entweder Taktik oder Dilettantismus': Berlin lässt Cannabisclubs auf ihre Plantagen warten", Tagesspiegel, 1 July 2024 (archived).
82. ^ Kate Connolly, "Berlin's urban gardeners reach for their pitchforks to fight off the developers", The Guardian, 5 August 2013.
83. ^ Corinna von Bodisco, "Moviemento ist gerettet: Das älteste Kino Deutschlands in Berlin-Kreuzberg bleibt", Der Tagesspiegel, 08 January 2024 (archived).
84. ^ Rainer Haubrich, "Der neue Klassizismus von Berlin", Die Welt, 8 April 2017 (archived); see also New Classical architecture.
85. ^ Yvan Goll, Ode an Berlin, 1918.
86. ^ "Ecke Bürkner-/Hobrechtstraße", Berliner Morgenpost, 12 January 2014.
87. ^ "Parliamentary Assembly: Europe Prize Exhibition", Council of Europe, s.v. "Towns awarded: Berlin-Neukölln".
88. ^ "Orte der Vielfalt: Neukölln in Berlin", Die Bundesregierung, Berlin, 23 September 2008 (archive).
89. ^ Council of Europe (2010). "Projekt Intercultural Cities – Berlin.de". berlin.de. Archived from the original on 30 May 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
90. ^ "Berlin Neukölln, Germany – Intercultural City", Council of Europe: Intercultural Cities Programme (archived).
91. ^ "Neuköllner Städtepartnerschaften". Bezirksamt Neukölln. 2024.
92. ^ Annette Kögel, "Die ewige Hausfrau", Tagesspiegel, 26 October 2015.
93. ^ Sabine Giesebrecht-Schutte, "Zum Stand der Unterhaltungsmusik um 1900", in: Kaspar Maase, Wolfgang Kaschuba (eds.), Schund und Schönheit – Populäre Kultur um 1900, Cologne/Weimar/Vienna 2001, p. 114–60 (134–36); Karl Storck, Musik-Politik – Beiträge zur Reform unseres Musiklebens, Stuttgart 1911, pp. 75, 82, 102 sq.

## External links

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* Bezirksamt Neukölln (district office website; Neukölln borough)
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