No street in the infamous Berlin district of Neukölln is as notorious as Sonnenallee – yet the reality is far more nuanced.

Until the fall of the Berlin Wall, Neukölln was above all a secluded neighborhood, more quiet than exciting – a quarter of dropouts and the left-behind, unsanitary, the air saturated with the smoke of coal heating. The area around what is now the notorious Sonnenallee was anything but hip or lively. That changed after 1989, much to the friendly astonishment of long-time residents: Sonnenallee became a stage of both renewal and decline. There’s no big money here, no fancy consumer culture – life is lived with effort and struggle. Sonnenallee became famous, even infamous, particularly after October 7, 2023, the day the terrorist organization Hamas massacred people in Israel – and in Neukölln baklava was handed out in celebration. Pro-Palestinian demonstrations then made this traffic-clogged street a subject in national media.

But what really defines Sonnenallee? Who lives here, who barely scrapes by, who strives for more than day labor, who speaks out about the conditions of life that are more than everyday trifles?

Jan Feddersen has lived on Sonnenallee for 27 years, experiencing its upheavals and transformations firsthand. He knows how the street and its surroundings tick. “My Sonnenallee” is a book of walks and conversations in a neighborhood of both roughness and tenderness – and one that raises the questions we should truly be asking about living together