Rix­dorf used to be the name of todays north of Neuk­ölln (prob­ably the only Neuk­ölln you’ve ever been to). Its very cen­ter was the Richard­platz. Today, it’s most fam­ous for its won­der­ful Christ­mas Mar­ket. The area is now the only left rep­res­ent­ing what Rix­dorf used to look like, with its former build­ings still intact. The people of the Kiez are gen­er­ally very care­ful, and so in winter and autumn both, you sort of get this nos­tal­gic feel­ing from being there.

When I went for a calm walk two weeks ago, the leaves had freshly fallen from the trees and everything was tin­ted in those orange col­or­ways. The whole square is quiet and calm in the day­time. I’d only ever been to Richard­platz when there was at least five cen­ti­meters of snow on the ground — a very dif­fer­ent feel from the autumn view, but just as beau­ti­ful. In gen­eral, this has been one of the most beau­ti­ful fall sea­sons I’ve ever wit­nessed in Ber­lin, and I’m secretly hop­ing it will never be colder than those mild 10° we’ve been having…