First mentioned in 1598 as Schöne Weyde, it became an autonomous municipality in 1850, growing as an industrial town at the end of 19th century.

From 1938, the local battery factory used Jews as forced labourers, and later also French prisoners of war and Soviet civilians, and in 1944–1945 it housed a subcamp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp for 500 mostly Polish and Belgian women.

[3] In 1994, after German reunification, it started a plan for a redevelopment of many contaminated grounds on many areas, inheritance of the heavy industrial era.

[4] Located in the south-eastern side of the city and crossed by the river Spree, Niederschöneweide borders with the localities of Oberschöneweide, Plänterwald, Baumschulenweg, Johannisthal, Adlershof and Köpenick.

A bit of the urban parks Köllnische Heide, situated in Adlershof, belongs to the quarter.