Neukölln

Neukölln is in the south-east of inner Berlin and reaches south to the Brandenburg border. Unlike most districts, it was not merged in 2001 and keeps its pre-2001 boundaries. It has five localities (Ortsteile): Neukölln (often called North Neukölln), Britz, Buckow, Rudow and Gropiusstadt.

On 30 June 2026, 331,744 people were registered in the district (Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg). Almost half of them lived in the Ortsteil Neukölln (about 162,900), with about 43,000 to 44,000 each in Britz, Rudow and Buckow and about 39,600 in Gropiusstadt. The district office describes a population drawn from more than 150 nations.

The northern Ortsteil, historically the town of Rixdorf, is one of the most densely built and populated areas of Berlin. The A100 city motorway roughly separates it from the more suburban south. Tempelhofer Feld lies on the western edge, and BER airport is close to the southern end of the district.

North Neukölln

North Neukölln has changed faster than almost any other part of Berlin in recent years. The district portal describes how it attracted students, creatives, families and international newcomers with low rents and spacious older flats. It also notes that the resulting gentrification has pushed many long-standing residents out. Today it is a diverse, international area where long-established communities and newer arrivals live side by side.

• Reuterkiez ("Kreuzkölln"), between Maybachufer and Sonnenallee, has dense Wilhelminian-era streets, many cafés, bars and galleries, and the canal-side Maybachufer.
• Schillerkiez, next to Tempelhofer Feld, is centred on the Schillerpromenade.
• Around Karl-Marx-Straße and Richardplatz: the main shopping street, the town hall, and the listed Bohemian village of Rixdorf around Kirchgasse. The district portal calls Richardplatz the cultural centre of Neukölln.
• Sonnenallee is a long, busy commercial street running south-east towards Treptow, with the Weiße Siedlung and High-Deck estates near its southern end.
• The Rollbergviertel, a traditional workers' area rebuilt with new housing in the 1960s, contrasts with the surrounding older buildings.

The south

• Britz: Schloss Britz with its manor, the Britzer Garten park and the Hufeisensiedlung (Horseshoe Estate), an early social housing project and UNESCO World Heritage Site. Neu-Britz is urban, and the area becomes more suburban further south.
• Buckow: split by Gropiusstadt into a rural village core near the Buckower Feldmark and a more urban part along Johannisthaler Chaussee, with several new estates of townhouses and urban villas.
• Gropiusstadt: a 1960s–1970s high-rise estate of about 18,500 flats planned by Walter Gropius, including one of Germany's tallest residential buildings. It has received sustained investment in green spaces, squares and neighbourhood management.
• Rudow: at the southern end of the U7 on the Brandenburg border, a quiet area of mainly single-family housing and allotment gardens.

• U-Bahn: the U7 runs the length of the district from Hermannplatz via Rathaus Neukölln, Karl-Marx-Straße, Neukölln, Grenzallee, Britz-Süd, Johannisthaler Chaussee and through Gropiusstadt to Rudow, and towards Kreuzberg, Schöneberg and Spandau. The U8 serves Hermannplatz, Boddinstraße, Leinestraße and Hermannstraße towards Kottbusser Tor and Alexanderplatz.
• S-Bahn: the Ring (S41, S42) stops at Hermannstraße, Neukölln and Sonnenallee. The S46 and S47 run from the Ring via Köllnische Heide towards Schöneweide. Since the S45 was discontinued in December 2025, these two lines together still provide a train every 10 minutes on this section.
• Bus: the south of the district, especially Buckow and parts of Britz and Rudow, relies heavily on buses. There are no trams.
• Airport: BER airport lies just beyond the district's south-eastern edge. Check the best route from your address in the BVG or VBB journey planner.

• Older apartment buildings (Altbau): dominate North Neukölln, often with spacious flats. Some are modestly equipped, others are fully renovated.
• Post-war estates: the Gropiusstadt high-rises and other estates across the district, originally built mostly as social housing.
• 1920s and 1930s estates: the Hufeisensiedlung and other garden-city-style estates in Britz and Buckow.
• Single-family homes, terraced houses and new townhouse estates: typical of southern Britz, Buckow and Rudow, many of them owner-occupied.

In the 2025 IBB housing market report, Neukölln's median asking rent was below the Berlin median, but the gap between new lets and older tenancies is large in the north, where the market has tightened considerably. Across Berlin, the seven state-owned housing companies manage almost one in four rental flats, and some of their subsidised flats require a WBS.

Families live throughout Neukölln. North Neukölln is dense, with smaller courtyards, so families there often use Tempelhofer Feld, Volkspark Hasenheide, Körnerpark and the canal banks. The south offers more space: the Britzer Garten (about 90 hectares, with a lake, themed gardens, playgrounds and a miniature railway), the grounds of Schloss Britz, the Buckower Feldmark and the green spaces of Gropiusstadt, which also has a combined indoor and outdoor pool.

Use the city's Kita-Navigator to find daycare centres around an address and the Senate's school directory to look up schools by type. Our childcare and schools guides explain the process.