The district of Prenzlauer Berg is one of those "off the beaten track" areas, which are gradually discovered by tourists. Prenzlauer Berg (also called P-Berg or Prenzlberg by Berliners) is currently a trendy gentrified area, with restaurants and cafes, designer stores and pubs, at the doorstep of beautifully rennovated turn-of-the-century houses.
It wasn't always like that, though. Prenzlauer Berg was a working class neighbourhood, with factories and workshops near those houses. The Industrial Revolution brought also Jewish migrants, who worked and lived in the district (some later became famous, like director Ernst Lubitsch).
After the end of the Second World War, supporters of the counterculture and the opposition to the GDR communist regime lived in Prenzlauer Berg, in those working-class dwellings. Jews, too, continued to be part of the district's history in that period, as the only synagogue for the tiny Jewish Community of East Berlin was located there.
All of these storylines connect before and after unification, and are best connected by beer: some of the old beer brewries in Prenzlauer Berg, architectural gems from the Industrial Revolutions, are now the hottest cultural centres in town.
In our Prenzlauer Berg tour, we will visit the oldest beer garden in Berlin; see the largest synagogue in Berlin, now beautifully rennovated; and hear stories about the neighbourhood's past and present.
Return to Tours in English in Berlin
Return to Gablinger.com Tours and Research Services, or
get one of our other Jewish tours:
.If you are interested in Berlin's Jewish history, you might want to support the Stolpersteine Project
