The historic village of Lichtenberg, today also called Alt-Lichtenberg, was founded about 1230, due to the German colonization of the territory of Barnim.

Alt-Lichtenberg suffered severely during the Thirty Years' War and remained a small village at the Berlin gates until in the late 18th century Prussian noblemen like general Wichard Joachim Heinrich von Möllendorf built their residences here.

It borders with Friedrichshain (in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg), Prenzlauer Berg (in Pankow), Fennpfuhl, Alt-Hohenschönhausen, Rummelsburg, Friedrichsfelde and Marzahn (in Marzahn-Hellersdorf).

Berlin's main arterial road to the east, the Frankfurter Allee, part of the Bundesstrasse 1 and 5, runs through Lichtenberg.

The Dong Xuan Center around Herzbergstrasse on former industrial grounds is a development quarter with many different Asian businesses, various shops, food producers and wholesalers/distributors, residential areas and cultural offers.