Hellersdorf lies half way between the forests and lakes of Brandenburg to the east and the city centre and it has large areas of greenery and numerous parks and playgrounds.

Modern Hellersdorf was created as a new residential area for eastern Berlin in the 1980s, at a time when many families were moving from poor conditions in the centre to more modern blocks of flats in the suburbs.

However, the old villages and residential areas such as the "Lichtenberger Gartenheim remained intact as they were incorporated into the modern development.

One of the most attractive villages is Mahlsdorf, where Charlotte von Mahlsdorf opened a private collection of late 19th-century furniture and mechanical musical instruments in an old mansion house in 1960, now the "Grnderzeit" museum. The S5 overground and U5 underground lines connect Hellersdorf to the city centre, as do trams 6 and 18.