Prenzlauer Berg: Hipsters and Gentrification in Indie Berlin
Prenzlauer Berg is a fairly new part of the Berlin but has come through some of the most significant events in German history. Created as a suburb from the spoils of the Franco-Prussian War it soon became a densely inhabited working class district. Squalid conditions and widening gaps between rich and poor led to an increase in social unrest and a rise in support for communism during the revolutions following the First World War. Prenzlauer Berg gives us a unique insight into the life of Old Berlin as it survived the war relatively intact, with only about 15% of its buildings destroyed.
Stuck up in a forgotten corner of communist East Berlin Prenz’l Berg became a center for artists, musicians, reformers and dissidents and, of course, all the Stasi agents watching them. It was an alternative part of the city, at a time when being different didn’t jive with the communist establishment. Today ever-changing Prenzlauer Berg is still an artistic, creative district with countless bars, cafés and galleries.
We’ll even help you discover the renaissance of Prenzlauer Berg’s Jewish community, with Germany’s largest synagogue the oldest intact Jewish cemetery.
On this 3 hour tour we'll see and discuss:
- Jewish Cemetery
- Kollwitz Platz
- Jewish Lane
- Water Tower
- Ryke Strasse Synagogue
- Husemannstraße
- Kulturbrauerei
- Ecke-Schönhauser
- Knopfes Imbiß
- Oderberger Straße
- Kastanienallee
- Prater Beer-Garden
- Church of Zion and the Environmental Library
- Eberswalder Straße