Fiona was born and raised in the beautiful city of Venice where she attended school and graduated with a degree in Foreign Languages and Literature from Ca’ Foscari university. She started working as a professional guide in Spring 2000 after obtaining her licence from the Regione Veneto. Since then, she has worked with clients from around the world leading tours in art and Venetian palaces, by foot and on boats, and to both classical sights and hidden gems around the city.
Guide Tag: Night Life
Jeremy Minsberg
Jeremy Minsberg – The Berlin Expert
If you’re looking for a private tour in English, Jeremy Minsberg, aka Mr. Berlin, might just be your guy. Jeremy is an American Jew who has been enjoying the exciting Berlin life for over 17 years. TripAdvisor has given him the Certificate of Excellence 2017 and he’s received a score of 99% from hundreds of happy tourists. So what makes Mr. Berlin’s tours so great?
If you want to hear more about Jewish history or learn about architecture, he’ll make sure your topics of choice are covered. Jeremy’s tours are all in English but he does things like the locals do – you’ll explore the city using public transportation from the Underground and the S-Bahn to biking and walking, you’ll see Berlin from many angles and perspectives. Jeremy does his tours out of passion and his love of Berlin and all its amazing history, so he doesn’t offer set fees and instead encourages his guests to name their price. Tours usually last between half a day and a full day, depending on weather, interest, time, and sights on the agenda.
Some of Jeremy’s amazing tour options include:
- Berlin Overview Tour: see all the top sites in one grand afternoon
- Jewish Berlin Tour: explore the ups-and-downs of Jewish life in this city
- Cold War Berlin Tour: learn how a city rebuilds itself after division
- Destruction and Construction Tour: the must-take tour for architecture fanatics
- Times of Terror Tour: visit the sites of the darkest period of Berlin, the Nazi era
- Gay Berlin Tour: enjoy the tolerant, open-minded history of Berlin
- Bike Tour of Berlin: explore the city on two wheels and from a whole new perspective
Minsberg also offers a few tours that head out of Berlin proper. His Potsdam tour takes you to the neighboring state of Brandenburg, known for hosting the Prussian kings and Germain Kaiser. He also offers a tour of Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp about 45 minutes north of Berlin. If you don’t want to walk, there’s also an option to rent a limousine or private car for the tour – driver included. Lastly, Jeremy offers a Daytime Companion option where you can simply ‘hang out’ for the day exploring the city from Jeremy’s perspective.
One of the nicest features of Jeremy’s tours is that he donates a portion of his fees to a local charity. Minsberg supports cultural organizations, a Berlin Jewish educational center, and a Berlin school that helps HIV positive children integrate into mainstream society. So by going on a tour with The Berlin Expert, you are not only experiencing a unique and exciting side of Berlin, but contributing to the local community.
Yoav and Natalie Sapir
If you’re looking for an in-depth tour of Jewish Berlin, Yoav and Natalie Sapir’s Jewish Heritage Tours are informative and captivating. What’s more, they shed a whole new perspective on both the history of Jews in Berlin and the modern revival of Jewish life.
Yoav was born in Haifa, Israel to a father Holocaust survivor and a mother whose family escaped Poland before the war. The Holocaust was a real presence in his home as a child and as he grew, history became his passion. He came to Berlin in 2006 to complete his studies in German-Jewish history, and since then has been giving tours, translating academic literature, and working as a journalist for Israeli and German newspapers and magazines.
Natalie was born in West-Germany and came to Berlin in 2009 to study history and political science. In Berlin, she met Yoav and discovered Judaism and she also continued on to study Jewish studies and philosophy. She believes that Berlin is “the most beautiful city in Germany and maybe even in the whole world,” and brings her passion into her guiding.
The Berlin Jewish Heritage Tour is the Sapir’s most popular tour. It delves into the history of Jews in Berlin, addressing the question, Who were the Jews of Berlin that made this community so successful before the Holocaust? The Sapirs relay stories of rescue and survival during the Holocaust while standing at the actual spots they occurred. Yoav and Natalie also discuss the revival of Jewish life in Berlin and contemporary Jewish life.
The tour takes place in Berlin’s Jewish Quarter and includes stops at the following locations, among others:
- The Central Council of Jews in Germany
- Two neighboring rabbinical seminaries — reform and orthodox — that made Berlin important in religious terms
- The “hackesche” courtyards, where the founder of Reform Judaism lived
- Jewish elementary schools and the contemporary Jewish high school
- Old and new synagogues
- The oldest Jewish cemetery in Berlin’s historical center, where Moses Mendelssohn is buried
- Memorials including the Stumbling Stones, the Deserted Room, the Missing House, and the Block of Women
In addition to the popular Jewish Heritage Tour, the Sapirs offer the following tours:
- Advanced Jewish Berlin Tour, during which Yoav and Natalie explore off-the-beaten-track locations in West Berlin.
- Cold War Tour, a unique tour that takes tourists to “odd locations” and discusses the role of Germany in the cold war, specifically addressing the division of Berlin.
