From the 1960s onward, Prenzlauer Berg was associated with proponents of East Germany's diverse counterculture including Christian activists, bohemians, state-independent artists, and the gay community.

This hill consists of the rubble from buildings that were destroyed in World War II during allied air raids and by Soviet artillery in the Battle of Berlin.

In the 21st century the many empty lots that were sites for the street culture integral to the bohemian character of the borough were filled by high-class condominiums.

Over 300 buildings remain protected as historic monuments, like the municipal swimming pool at Oderberger Straße and the breweries on Milastraße and Knaackstraße.

[citation needed] Although places that provide a truly traditional Berlin staple are few and far between, there is a vast array of restaurants offering Arab, Turkish, Vietnamese, Tex-Mex, and Italian cuisine, especially around Kastanienallee, Kollwitzplatz, and Helmholtzplatz.

In the west, bordering the borough of Wedding and adjacent to Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark, is a stretch of public green area called Mauerpark (Wall park).

Prenzlauer Berg was developed during the second half of the 19th century based on 1862 urban planning designs by James Hobrecht, the so-called Hobrecht-Plan for Berlin.

From the 1960s onward, the borough's tenement houses (in German: Mietskasernen) were home to intellectuals, artists, students, and East Germany's gay community.

In the interim between the peaceful revolution that brought down the wall in 1989 and the consolidation of a united Germany that began a year later, as many as 39 Wilhelmine apartment houses were occupied by squatters in Prenzlauer Berg alone.

[3] Focal points were the areas around Kastanienallee, Teutoburger Platz, and Helmholtzplatz (locally known as "LSD-Borough" for the initials of its three main thoroughfares Lychener- Schliemann- and Dunckerstraße).

[citation needed] The first ones to move in were young grassroots activists from Prenzlauer Berg in search of radical democratic alternatives to the state-socialism of the GDR.

They were soon joined by young anarchists from West-Berlin and other parts of Germany who set up collective projects ranging from bicycle workshops to community soup kitchens.

[5] Edith Udhardt (1929–2024) established places for senior citizens and created centres for homeless people, and devoted herself to the concerns of women in the district.

In 2007, German journalist Henning Sußebach coined the term Bionade-Biedermeier, a neologism combining the name of a popular organic softdrink with the Biedermeier era (1815–1848) to describe the sociocultural situation of Prenzlauer Berg.

The borough has adapted to the trend by offering an abundance of playgrounds, daycare centers, as well as (second-hand) shops and cafes catering to the needs of young children and their parents.

Over the years, many artists chose Prenzlauer Berg as their residence: painter and sculptor Käthe Kollwitz, early film maker Max Skladanowsky, poets Adolf Endler, Annemarie Bostroem, and Heinz Kahlau, theater director Christoph Schlingensief, writers Jurek Becker, Bruno Apitz, Peter Hacks, Herbert Nachbar, Dieter Noll, Klaus Schlesinger, Klaus Kordon, Uwe Kolbe, Paul Alfred Kleinert, Florian Illies, Wladimir Kaminer, and Detlef Opitz, sculptor Olaf Nicolai, painters Cornelia Schleime, Elke Pollack, and Konrad Knebel, photographers Thomas Florschuetz, Helga Paris, and Nicolaus Schmidt, film director Tom Tykwer, keyboardist Jörn-Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, playwright René Pollesch, musicians Gerhard Schöne, Christian Lillinger, Nina Hagen, Dirk von Lowtzow (Tocotronic), and Till Lindemann, (Rammstein), actors Fredy Sieg, Eva-Maria Hagen, Heike Makatsch, Katharina Wackernagel, David Bennent, Daniel Brühl, August Diehl, Kurt Krömer, and Matthias Schweighöfer, comic-strip artist Flix, as well as TV and radio presenters Hans Rosenthal, Alfred Biolek, Sarah Kuttner, Sandra Maischberger, and Benjamin Tewaag.