Hi:
I just returned from our trip to Berlin and I highly recommend our tour guide, Jeremy Minsberg, theberlinexpert.com,
[email protected] I got his name from Rick Steve's 2023 Berlin book. He is very knowledgeable about all things Berlin, from the history, culture, arts, food etc... His energy and enthusiasm is contagious. Even though we used his services for only one full day, he kept in touch with us during our stay. I highly recommend him for travelers of all ages.
Posted by
Southeast US
4046 posts
Hate to be a stickler, but it's hard to say best tour guide if you haven't tried them all. Many people really enjoy their tours with Jeremy, and I'm glad you did, too. But I will offer readers one more guide who to me is certainly a strong option and may actually be a better option for those with an intense interest in East German history, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and/or the Holocaust.
I think Robert Sommer is pretty great (http://thetrueberliner.com/). He grew up in East Germany. He was the 15-year-old son of a high-ranking East German bureaucrat and was sinking into the East German punk rock subculture when the Berlin Wall fell. He was part of the first exchange of East German high school students with the US after the wall fell. He squatted in the former East Germany. He and his punk rocker buddies engaged in street fights with neo Nazis as young adults. He got a PhD in history, writing a thesis on forced prostitution in concentration camps. He contributed to the permanent exhibit at Ravensbrück. His wife was a member of German parliament.
Tours I've done with him include a general Berlin tour, a tour comparing post WWII architecture in East and West Berlin, a tour of the Spandau area, a day trip to the Pompeii-like remains of the WWII fortress city Küstrin (along with a visit to the nearby Soviet memorial and Russian General Georgy Zhukov's field headquarters + a visit to the former East German air base at Neuhardenberg that still has some old East German Mig fighters), and a day trip to a decommissioned Soviet-era military base with bunkers that housed nuclear warheads (yup... went down into the bunkers).
Robert is a super interesting fellow who is more than happy to talk about his life experiences.