Prenzlauer Berg’s Hidden Jewish Heritage: A Berlin Walking Tour

Long before Prenzlauer Berg became one of Berlin’s most vibrant and trendy neighborhoods, it was home to the city’s third-largest Jewish community. On this walking tour led by a historian who has called this area home for over a decade, you’ll hear stories about the well-integrated German Jews who lived harmoniously alongside their neighbors until dark forces tore them apart.

Beginning at Senefelder Platz U-Bahn station and ending at the corner of Kollwitzstraße and Metzerstraße, this tour goes beyond famous landmarks to reveal the personal histories that shaped Prenzlauer Berg’s Jewish past. In the 1930s, before the unprecedented persecution of the Nazi era, this was home to a thriving Jewish community. Through memorials, preserved buildings, and testimonies, you’ll learn how systematic discrimination gradually reshaped everyday life in these very streets.

As you walk through this fashionable district, with its cafés, boutiques, and family-friendly atmosphere, you’ll gain insights on how it has recovered, especially since Israeli-Jewish immigrants began returning in recent years.

Along the way, you’ll have a chance to:

• Visit the former Jewish Children’s Home on Fehrbellinerstraße, where photographs by Abraham Pisarek document children’s daily lives before their tragic deportation
• Explore the historic Jewish Cemetery on Schönhauser Allee, where notable figures like publisher Leopold Ullstein and painter Max Liebermann are buried
• Discover the “Judengang“ (Jews’ Path), a historic walkway with its own mysterious origins, marked by two Stars of David
• Reflect at the memorial for Baruch Auerbach’s Orphanage, where engraved names honor the memory of 140 children and caretakers deported to concentration camps
• Learn the moving story of the Frankenberg family and their teenage daughter Vera, who was killed during an air raid while banned from entering the shelter
• Visit the Rykestraße Synagogue, Europe’s second-largest synagogue, which miraculously survived both the Night of Broken Glass and WWII bombings
• Stand at the Water Tower Memorial, where an unofficial “wild“ concentration camp was established in 1933, transforming a community landmark into a site of terror
• Take in panoramic views of Berlin from the top of the water tower park, offering a perfect vantage point to reflect on the neighborhood’s transformation

On this thought-provoking 90-minute tour through Prenzlauer Berg, you’ll take in the remarkable story of Berlin’s Jewish community, their vibrant lives, tragic persecution, and enduring legacy.