Life in Pankow area of Berlin

Hi there,

I am moving to Berlin at the end of the month and have looked at some apartments in the Pankow area (over the Internet). They seem to be quite reasonably priced. I was wondering if some of you might want to share your experience about living there and whether you would recommend Pankow as a good region to live in.

pankow is huge... where?

i lived near the rathouse for a few months. it was okay, but on the dull side... depends what you're interested in. the value you can get for a nice pad is definitely good, if you don't mind the lack of interesting places around. at least, that's my take on it. it's a family-oriented neighborhood, and a lot nicer in some regards than many other parts of berlin, yet also without the overrated exclusivity of a lot of places in the western part of the city. i'd move to pankow if i were to write dissertation.

Thanks for the reply. I am guessing it would be a bit of a dull neighborhood.

I might still move there considering that the prices are quite affordable. I guess it would not be a bad place for 6 months or so, at least till my Probezeit is over.

I live down the south end and really like it. It is 10 min walk to Prenzlauerberg and I have s and u bahn and trams so even to get to Kreuzberg only takes 20min. Yeah it's quiet and there aint many cafes around but there are some cool corner bars if your german is ok. But any further north than the s bahn Pankow and all bets are off, plus it is noisey, you are under the flight path to Tegel.

Pankow is huge and some areas do not have good public transportation. Try to find something close to an ubahn or sbahn station.


Well, P.berg is in Pankow.

One of the places I saw was on this Gustav Adolf Strasse. I will take some time to look around and see what it is lik. My main concern was whether the area was safe or not. I do not mind if it is a bit on the quieter and sedate side. I might actually prefer that after living with constant noise in London!

P-Berg is only in Pankow if you're a bureaucrat, the rest of us known our neighborhoods from our Grossbezirke. Dont confuse the issue by being a know-it-all.

Most of pankow is pretty safe. There are some neonazis running around especially in the northern and eastern part (aka Weißensee which includes Gustav-Adolf-Straße), but in general it's one of the safest districts in Berlin.

OK. Then "Walking from Pankow to P.berg" makes sense.

What about "Walking from Berlin to Potsdamer Platz" ?

Dear Krieg (always wanted to say this), Pankow and Prenzlauer Berg are in fact sub-districts (Ortsteile) of the district (Bezirk) Pankow (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin-Pankow). So, walking from Pankow to Prenzlauer Berg makes indeed sense.

Der Ortsteil Pankow [ˈpaÅ‹koË?] ist der namensgebende Ortsteil des Berliner Bezirks Pankow.

I get it

It really depends on what you are looking for! I have been living in Pankow since 2001 and have a flat on Breite Str. opposite the Rathaus. It has some advantages: public transport is great, one can choose between four s-Bahn lines, there is the underground, two tram lines and four bus lines, night busses not included. Prenzlauer Berg is only two stops away on the U-Bahn and it is easy to get to Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg and Schöneberg. There are three parks, it is not too expensive ... BUT: if you prefer to live right in the middle of IT, it might not really be your thing. I'd call it pleasant but not dull.

Hi Charlotte,

Nah, as I mentioned, I prefer some peace and quiet once I am home and as you mentioned, the excitement is not too far. I think I will move there at least for the first few months and take it from there.

Anyway, thanks a lot everyone for your suggestions.

I don't knwo too much about Pankow, but when I moved into Charlottenburg, everyone said 'oh... it's dead out there...' and I've not regretted it once.

Sometimes it's nice to not step over drunks and dogshit in the am on your way to work.

And sometimes it is?