Discover Berlin's Jewish Heritage: Private Half-Day Walking Tour
Explore the fascinating, harrowing, and inspirational history of the Jewish Community in Germany from the medieval period to the Holocaust on this private three-hour walking tour.
On your private tour you will:
- Enjoy the personal attention of your private guide, who can tailor the tour route to your specific interests;
- Explore St Mary’s Church near Alexanderplatz – wherein in 1243 a number of Jews were accused of stealing the Holy wafers and burned at the stake;
- See the nearby Block of Women, a sculpture by Ingeborg Hunzinger and a monument to the courage of the non-Jewish women who protested against the Gestapo for the release of their Jewish husbands in 1943;
- Discover the Museum Blindenwerkstatt – a 1940s factory where Otto Weidt, a broom maker hid his deaf and blind Jewish employees. He is known as the ‘unsung Schindler’ who protected his Jewish workforce from Nazi persecution;
- Pass by the fascinating and moving Anne Frank Centre;
- Explore the hauntingly beautiful Old Jewish Cemetery, Jüdischer Friedhof Große and learn about its terrible desecration and renewal after the war;
- See Willi Lammert’s sculpture “Jewish Victims of Fascism” which was placed next to a memorial stone, between the cemetery and the Jewish old people’s home that was commandeered by the Nazis in the 1940s, used as a prison for 55,000 Jews;
- Stop at The Missing House memorial: a huge gap between two sets of apartments, with plaques showing the names of those who lived at the house which was destroyed by a ferocious bombardment during World War II;
- Walk by the Jewish high school, Jüdisches Gymnasium, named for Moses Mendelssohn whose burial can be seen in the Old Cemetery;
- End with a guided tour of the magnificent New Synagogue of Berlin – built in the 19th Century and one of Berlin’s most beautiful architectural monuments. It was very nearly destroyed by Nazi arsonists during the November 9th pogrom - known as Kristallnacht.
Follow in the footsteps of the Jewish Community of Berlin on this private tour of highly significant monuments and memorials – some famous, some less well known - to the Jewish people’s struggles and triumphs in Germany over 800 years.
You’ll learn how the Jewish people overcame persecution through the centuries, from the middle ages through to the pogroms, and especially the unimaginable horrors of the Holocaust. Many of the stories are harrowing, yet also you’ll hear about the many acts of heroism and inspiring courage on this in-depth tour of a less well-known Berlin.
Through the monuments to the courage and valour of the Jews, you’ll come away from this tour moved and inspired about both Jewish history in Berlin, and the wider role this inspirational community has had on the 20th and 21st centuries in Europe and the wider world.
Please note: the permanent exhibition of the Museum Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt has to remain closed to individual visitors from January 1, 2023, to May 1, 2023, due to its fundamental renovation. A temporary exhibition is available for individual visitors.
