The Neukölln Opera was founded in 1977 by the composer and church musician Winfried Radeke. Until 1981, Radeke rehearsed and performed with his independent music theater group in various churches, then from 1981 onwards in a factory floor and alternately on various theater stages. Both the fact that it was founded by an artist and not by a state body and the itinerant rehearsal and performance practice are still in the genes of this free-spirited, flexible and open house.
In 1988, the Neukölln Opera was given its own theater in the Passage Neukölln ballroom with 200 seats in the auditorium and up to 50 in the studio. In 1996, Winfried Radeke appointed director and author Peter Lund as artistic director. With works such as Das Wunder von Neukölln, Babytalk, Elternabend and Stella, he made the theater internationally renowned as a trendsetter in the field of new German musicals.
Peter Lund was succeeded in 2004 by the dramaturge and author Bernhard Glocksin, who advocated opening up to other styles of performance, a radical questioning of the opera repertoire, collaboration with independent ensembles such as the STEGREI Orchestra, the VKKO and the Trickster Orchestra as well as an international orientation of the house.
Rainer Simon took over as artistic director at the start of the 2025/26 season. Programmatically, he is building on the sensual, accessible and low-threshold tradition of the Neukölln Opera by focusing on contemporary pop culture and its various forms. At the same time, he tries to intensify the artistic exchange with the various communities in the Nordneukölln neighborhood.
Rainer Simon directs the Neuköllner Oper together with Andreas Altenhof and Marta Hewelt.
