[10][note 21] 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.

The mainstream theory on the etymology of Richardsdorf, and therefore of Rixdorf, assumes an eponymous individual called Richard,[note 24] allegedly a Knight Templar, bailiff or commander of the Tempelhof commandery, or even the original administrator of *Richardshof in the early 13th century.

[note 26] 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.

[note 43] 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.

[note 54] 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.

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.

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.

The working-class tenements, even in the front buildings, were small and overcrowded,[note 95] 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 turned Neukölln into a Socialist heartland, fueling the class struggles of the 1920s and '30s, and later also the quarter's potent resistance movement against the Nazis (1933–45).

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 quarter of ill repute.

Rixdorf had become notorious for its taverns, amusement sites and red-light districts, which dampened investments, economic development and the immigration of wealthier citizens, so in 1912 the local authorities took up former mayor Boddin's original plan, which until then had been consistently rejected, to get rid of this reputation by assuming a new name.

[note 106] 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.

[note 109] 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.

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.

[note 120] 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.

Gentrification eventually stalled in the early 2020s,[note 125] but since then, rent inflation has mainly 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 128] Nevertheless, the vibrant immigrant culture and recent cosmopolitan evolution, especially in the northern Reuterkiez neighborhood, have turned the centuries-old melting pot Neukölln into one of the trendiest districts of Berlin and the epitome of socioeconomic change in the city,[38] and the quarter has often ranked as one of the world's most desirable places to visit and live.

[51] Especially in these neighborhoods, Neukölln is also characterized by social and religious conflicts, manifesting in educational challenges,[52] violent felonies,[note 136] organized crime by Islamic clans with recurring gang and drug violence,[53] occasional rioting and arson, transphobia and homophobia.

[note 137] 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.

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).

[55] 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.

[note 140] 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.

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).

[note 149] 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 at least three additional stations inbetween, Rudow-Süd (Neuhofer Straße), Lieselotte-Berger-Platz and Schönefeld for an S-Bahn interchange.

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.

[note 155] 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 156] 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.

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.

Therefore, it is necessary to make them steady, and to cement them, in deeds and tangible form.In Rixdorf and Neukölln, aspirations, fears and hopes temporarily concentrated, to escape the "old" homelands and their provincial constrictions, their mental and social hardships.