The Neukölln district of Berlin

Would same apply to Hermannstr.? or Hermannplatz =/= Hermannstr.

I believe the flat I found is located very close to the latter, not Hermanplatz..

Hermannplatz is also close to Hermannstr

i live in between hermannplatz and hermannstraße...don't believe all the hype, it's fine. it's a neighborhood where people live. people of diverse expereinces and backgrounds. if you want to feel like you never left manhattan, move to pramlauer berg with the rest of the hipsters and yuppies. if you want to live someplace affordable, where folk bands march around on weekends, and the best turkish markets sport the best veggies and baklava flows like the spree, neukölln is the place to be. you will see however, how people react in berlin when you tell them you live here. like it's south central LA or something. far far far from it. 44! all day baby!

and in terms of broadening your german, um, that comment was just foolish. hard to believe that the turks (and arabs, syrians, russians, poles, greeks, americans, etc etc) who live in neukölln, actually speak, um, well, german. if you want to expand your german it helps to speak it in places where the english saftey net is removed...

and "bit of atmostphere"=brown people. plain and simple, right kazalphaville? if not, please clarify

ps I would also like to note that neukölln is the neighborhood that boasts the most number of nationalities in any neighborhood in berlin...if you want to brush up on yr german, check out the neukölln website and learn about the history and present of this cool place

pps I would also like to say that there is crime here. My neighbor left his bike on the sidewalk chained to itself overnight and someone stole it. I would also like to point out that my neighbor is kind of a moron for thinking it wouldn't be stolen.

Excuse me but I will not be referred to as a hipster OR a yuppie

neukölln has a bad reputation, but people here seem to say it's generally ok. when people try to ask about "unsafe berlin" i find my thoughts drifting off as I tend to prefer my own nonsense. i'm sure the probability of getting pickpocketed / mugged is still higher on Oxford Street in london. i still haven't seen the seediness of London's east end, or Edinburgh's Leith Walk. There you can really get your c*nt kicked in, as the locals like to put it.

I'd say in Berlin it's more noisy and obnoxious, degenerate behaviour that makes it feel scary. Whether there is a real threat remains to be seen. Having lived here a while now (1.5 years) I've grown accustomed to expecting everyone to behave themselves (die deutsche Ordentlichkeit!!!). but when I compare to what I've seen in other cities (like the harassment from junkies in Vancouver, or the sketch-bags on the streets of Amsterdam) I find Berlin to be fairly docile. Of course, growing up in a western country, it could be a bit daunting for the femmes in Kreuzberg, as the Turkish population has grown from their very rural, uneducated roots in Turkey, and even Turks from Turkey don't understand how these people behave as they do. (That is an entirely different post!)

actually, i speak no german. so my intention won't be to 'brush up' on it, as i am a true beginner. i'm going to be sitting in morning language class for 3-4 months starting may, and the school is located on kastanienallee. so if i were to take this flat in neukolln, i'd be commuting from hermannstr to rosenthanler platz. i asked someone on the other thread how long it takes to get to alex from hermannstr, and they said around 20 mins, so i reckon to get to rosenthaler platz it'd be about 25, 30 mins.. which doesnt sound bad at all.

i am thinking maybe i will spend my days in prenzl'berg since i'll have to be there every day for my class, and in the afternoon i'll hang out at some cafe around that neighborhood, and come home in the evening (not too late though). maybe it would be a nice change in "atmosphere". that sounds like how i will most likely spend my days in berlin..

but.. i'm sure there must be some non-tawdry cafes around hermannstr. area? others have also mentioned the closest "exciting" area (with cafes/restaurants, etc) to neukolln will be kreuzberg, but whereabouts in kreuzberg would this lively area be (i.e. near which u-bahn stop)?

thanks everyone for your suggestions/recommendations,

E.

there are actually three nice cafés in neukölln not that far away from hermannstraße.
cafe xenzi (u-bhf boddinstraße), cafe rix (karl-marx-straße) and, the nearest one, Cafe/Galerie im Körnerpark (which is actually the nicest place near Hermannstraße, a really nice park!)

as said, the next hotspot in kreuzberg is gräfestraße. it's about 20 to 30 minutes walk or go with metro to hermannplatz and walk or continue with the other underground line to südstern.

Can't agree with Verwirrt. Friedrichshain is a great place. It has no pretentions like Prenzlauer Berg or other areas and the Neo-Nazis well i think they live in places like Marzahn, not Friedrichshain.

Zitty Berlin magazine has an issue on sale now (march 13 to 26) dedicated to Neukölln.
The article is titled " Neukölln Rockt!" and labels it as Berlin's most exciting neighborhood.
Cafes, shops, art, galleries, bars .. they are all listed along with photos so even if you can't read German you'll get some good tips out of it.

@Jamesm: The Neonazis in Friedrichshain are a problem which can't be denied. They may not live here - but in Lichtenberg, so at the border to Lichtenberg there are sometimes more or less big problems with them.

Nicer areas of Kreuzberg are near U7 stops around Gneisenausstrasse, Mehringdamm and Südstern.

I saw that advertised on my long wallk to Sonnenallee S-Bahn today...think i'll pick it up tomorrow!

I'm currently living in Neukoelln, near the town hall. I'm enjoying living here - everything I need is nearby and it's lovely to have a walk through Kreuzberg on a sunny day. I think a lot of the comments about there 'being a bit of an atmosphere' and the area being unsafe are unfounded. Yes, on occasion I've witnessed a couple of turkish guys having a fight. Yes, it can be unnerving walking about at night - but that is true with everywhere, even my hometown. I'm subletting here until July, the girl who rents the flat has lived here for 4 years and had no problems. There are a lot of families here and I've had some really lovely walks around the area of a sunday afternoon.

i've been to neukölln a few times along karl-marx-straße and it reminded me a bit of the green lanes in london for the surplus of shops that sell anything you want to buy.. i was there the last time with a friend to go see an exhibition and he was surprised at how nice it could be.
we were walking in the neighbourhood of karl-marx-platz and herzbergstraße which seemed both very pleasant tree lined streets with some cafes.

although i am not sure i would choose to live there i don't think i have a problem going there.

Here's a link to the article:

http://magazin.zitty.de/4135/titel.html

Neukölln is again making headlines this week but this time its not for good reasons.

Double murder of a retired couple in Rudow (locality of Neukölln). From the Berliner Morgenpost:

http://www.morgenpost.de/desk/1804182.html

I'm not posting this to prove a point - just thought it relevant to the thread.