Jews have lived in Berlin from the Middle Ages, and their impact on culture, science and history was tremendous. In fact, in every facet of Berlin's history, Jews are present: from the most horrible persecutions to scientific and cultural innovations. Berlin's Jewish community is today one of th fastets growing communities in the world, and in our tours you can learn about different aspects of Jewish life in Berlin. We can also build a customised tour for you. Our tour guides are all active in Jewish life and intiviatives in Berlin. All tours can be customised to fit the needs of our audience (children, people with disabilities or difficulties to walk). We can also organise coached tours from Warnemünde (Rostock) Harbour

• The "Classical" Jewish Tour
  

  The "Classical" Jewish Tour, to the history of Berlin's Jewish Community, will take you to the places, where Jews have originally lived in Berlin, including the site of the first official synagogue in Berlin; You will also get the chance to hear about the different revolutions led by Berliner Jews - the Haskalah Movement, Feminist Rabbis, Socialist Jews and everyday heroes. In this tour, you will see the most important sites related to Jewish history in Berlin; as well as some sites based on original research, not written in guide books.
  Among the sites featured:
  

  • The Old Graveyard
  • The Jewish School
  • The New Synagogue
  • The Old Synagogue
  • Rosenstrasse

• Jewish Life in West Berlin
  

  Jewish life in Berlin flourished after the Enlightenment. Berlin became the most important Jewish center east of Warsaw. On the wake of the 20th century over 100,000 Jews lived in Berlin, with some of the most significant Jewish, Zionist and world figures in this century among them: physicist Albert Einstein, director Billy Wilder, Nobel Prize laureates Shmuel Yosef Agnon and Nelly Sachs, philosopher Martin Buber, Chabad leader Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, artists like Max Lieberman and many others, all lived in Berlin in the period between 1900-1933. They all choose to leave the "Old Jewish Quarter". The new community in western Berlin brought to the world not only remarkable thinkers and cultural giants but also introduced two of the most important theories today in the Jewish thought - Reform Judaism and Zionism. Both theories were centred in Berlin until 1933.

  Jewish life in Berlin emerged straight after the Second World War and the Holocaust. Friday Prayers took place just three days after Germany capitulated, in the new Jewish cemetery in Weissensee. Over 5,000 survived the war in Berlin and began building a new community (sometime under real danger – this time from the Soviets). The centre of the new community that emerged from the ashes was in West Berlin.

  We will visit the "New Jewish Quarter", one the only daily active synagogues, the centre of the Jewish community in Berlin (with the only kosher restaurant in Berlin), "Yeshiva" - Jewish higher education school, the Jewish books shop, memorials and famous Jewish Institutions, the houses of Billy Wilder and Albert Einstein and much more.

  Please do not forget to bring a valid I.D. (with a photo)

• Jews & Booze: Walking and Drinking in Prenzlauer Berg
  

  The district of Prenzlauer Berg is one of those "off the beaten track" areas, which are gradually discovered by tourists. Prenzlauer Berg (also called P-Berg or Prenzlberg by Berliners) is currently a trendy gentrified area, with restaurants and cafes, designer stores and pubs, at the doorstep of beautifully rennovated turn-of-the-century houses.

  It wasn't always like that, though. Prenzlauer Berg was a working class neighbourhood, with factories and workshops near those houses. The Industrial Revolution brought also Jewish migrants, who worked and lived in the district (some later became famous, like director Ernst Lubitsch).

  After the end of the Second World War, supporters of the counterculture and the opposition to the GDR communist regime lived in Prenzlauer Berg, in those working-class dwellings. Jews, too, continued to be part of the district's history in that period, as the only synagogue for the tiny Jewish Community of East Berlin was located there.

  All of these storylines connect before and after unification, and are best connected by beer: some of the old beer brewries in Prenzlauer Berg, architectural gems from the Industrial Revolutions, are now the hottest cultural centres in town.

  In our Prenzlauer Berg tour, we will visit the oldest beer garden in Berlin; see the largest synagogue in Berlin, now beautifully rennovated; and hear stories about the neighbourhood's past and present.

• The Architecture of Memory: How Berlin Remembers its Jewry
  Berlin's grand Jewry was viciously tarnished by the Nazis. How does contemporary Germany deal with this horrible memory? In our tour, we shall see different modes and memorials; understand the difference between the culture of memory in East Berlin, West Berlin and unified Germany. Among the memorial visited:
  
  • The Train Company Memorial for those Sent to the "East"
  • Peter Eisenman's Holocaust Memorial
  • The Memorial for the "Wives' Protest"
  • Micha Ullman's "Empty Library"
  
  
• Red, Hot and Jew: Jews and Communism in Berlin
  This tour will take you through the history of socialism in Berlin - and the important role played by Jews in it, from the early beginnings with Karl Marx; through World War I revolutionaries, like Rosa Luxemburg; and up until the Jews who have lived in Communist East Berlin

• The Jewish Museum
  We can guide you through the Jewish Museum, and help you understand the architectural masterpiece.
  
  Website: The Jewish Museum in Berlin
  

• The Holocaust Memorial
  The Museum under the Holocaust Memorial could be visited as part of our tours. However, this museum radiates a very personal experience, and guiding through it seems redundant to us, as there are explanations in English near each exhibit
  Notes: The "Information Centre" is closed on Mondays.
  Website: Holocaust Memorial
  

• The House of the Wannsee Conference
  The House of the Wannsee Conference is a historical museum in the Mansion, in which the Wannsee Conference took place. It also has an information centre/library, which - among other things - provides names of all those deported to the East.
  In general, we do not provide guided tours to the House only, out of respect for the educational facility's requests. The exhibition itself is also well understood in English. However, under special circumstances or as part of a tour to other sights (Jewish or otherwise), we will be happy to escort you and provide appropriate explanations.
  Website: House of the Wannsee Conference - Visitors' Information
  

• Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial
  Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, just north of Berlin, was one of the first Nazi concentration camps. The memorial commemorates the prisoners, many of them Jewish; although the camp was not used only for Jewish prisoners.
  Website: Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum


• Ravensbrück Concentration Camp Memorial
  Ravensbrück is located about two and a half hours drive north of Berlin, and served as the Nazi regime's camp for women and girls.

  A visit to Ravensbrück Concentration Camp concentrates on the oppression of women under the Nazis, and on the role of women in the resistance against the Nazis. Some of the prisoners were resistance fighters and women involved in espionage against the azi occupation in their homelands. It also discusses the incarceration of others, which represented the application of Nazi racial policies towards "non-Aryan" women; and the types of women deemed by the regime "a-social".

  A visit to Ravensbrück is also, on the other hand, a journey to the culture of memory in the post-War Germanies.

  Website: Ravensbrück Memorial and Museum




Other Tours in Berlin, Dresden and Potsdam
We also offer other tours in Berlin, Dresden, Potsdam and other areas in eastern Germany:


1. Berlin - General Tour - including the Brandenburg Gate, Kanzleramt, Victory Column, and other important sites
2. The Wall - The story of Berlin's division, including real spying stories
3. The Third Reich - including a real air-raid shelter, and the site of Hitler's bunker
4. Communist Berlin - Berlin's red past: a tour in East Berlin.
5. Kreuzberg - Berlin's immigrants' district. For more information about this tour click here
6. The Spirit of 1968: The Students’ Movement and its Heritage
7. Berlin is Like Music: Rock'n'Roll (and other types of music): Where did U2 record "Achtung Baby"? Where did Bowie live? What about the places he and Iggy Pop used to hang out at? Learn all about these and more!
8. Potsdam - the Prussian royal residence
9. Dresden - The beautiful Saxon capital
10. Other theme-oriented tours could be organised in advance – we can customise our tours to your specific request and interests!