Berlin tour guide?

Check out Finn Ballard Tours. Irish expat. Very informative and engaging.

Berlin has a number of excellent tour guides. I was going to recommmend Minsberg. Heidi Leyton also has an excellent reputation.

I recommend doing a search in this forum because there are dozens of recommendations already existing.

Thanks, SusanM and RJ, for your recommendations!

Thanks, Mark, for your suggestion! I have spent some time combing through the forum, which is how I originally found the recommendations for Jeremy Minsberg, who is unfortunately unavailable. Not all, but most of the recommendations from the last several years are for him, and I wanted to see who else folks might recommend.

I can highly recommend Robert Sommer- he grew up in the city's East side and has numerous stories about those experiences that would resonate with your young teens. My focus was also Jewish history and he incorporated that.
I also recommend the Trabi tour once they have some historical context- it looks tacky, but was a highlight for me last fall and they will like the photo opps. It's not far from Checkpoint Charlie.
What a wonderful trip you have planned!

Check with either Insider tours or Gablinger Tours. They both have guides that can do high-guality private tours.

https://insidertour.com/private-tours/
https://gablingertours.com/

Thank you, Bon Voyage and Ms. Jo, for your suggestions!

If he is available, Robert Sommer (mentioned above) would be a great choice. He grew up in East Berlin, knows the city well, and can give you a very competent half-day Jewish history tour. Tell him y

But maybe think about doing a half-day Intro to Berlin tour or DDR (East Germany) tour, too. Here, he would be a great choice because of his experiences and because of your children's age. On Nov 9, 1989 (the night the Berlin Wall opened), he was the 15-year-old son of a high-ranking East German bureaucrat. He would be happy to tell you his and his family's experience of that night and the subsequent days as he showed you sites pertinent to whatever tour you picked. It's interesting to hear what western item he bought first and what capitalist product he held out on the longest. You and your children would hear the history of Berlin from someone who actually experienced it. And the intellectually curious person gets more than the victor's history of East Germany (i.e., more than the West German history of East Germany). Robert's website: http://thetrueberliner.com/

Also... you probably know about Gleiß 17 at Grunewald Station. Since Jewish history is important to you, it's a worthwhile sight to see but too far away from Mitte (central district of Berlin) to do as part of a half-day Jewish tour.

Thanks for your thoughts and the information, Dave! Robert Sommer does sound like a really good option. I've gone ahead and contacted him. Fingers crossed he's available!