Prenzlauer Berg is popular with tourists for its picturesque streets, its nightlife and its central location. Unlike other parts of Berlin, it retains much of its prewar architecture and is still replete with cobble-stoned streets and ornate buildings from the beginning of the 20th century. Many areas of Prenzlauer Berg have become trendy shopping areas with streetstyle fashion designers selling their wares in its boutiques.

Prenzlauer Berg was developed during the second half of the 19th century based on an urban planning design from 1862 by James Hobrecht, the so-called Hobrecht-Plan for Berlin. Prenzlauer Berg was part of what became known as the Wilhelmine Ring with a primarily working-class population. In Nazi Germany (1933-1945) landmark buildings such as the water tower at Rykestraße and the office buildings at Froebelstraße were used as makeshift concentration camps and torture chambers.

During the World War II years the city population decreased as many inhabitants were evacuated to the countryside to escape aerial bombardment. When the city was divided by the allies, Prenzlauer Berg became part of the Soviet Sector and from 1947 onward part of the capital of the German Democratic Republic. From the 1960s onward, the borough's tenement houses (in German: Mietskasernen) were home to intellectuals, artists, students, and East Germany's gay community.

Historic buildings like Wasserturm (water tower), near Kollwitzplatz, or the Prater Beer Garden in Kastanienallee, as well as the former brewery in Schönhauser Allee/Sredzkystraße still give an impression of the days when Prenzlauer Berg was part of so-called Steinernes Berlin (Berlin of stone) as described by author Werner Hegemann in 1930. (source: wikipedia)