Jewish Berlin History Tour

This 3-hour Jewish Berlin tour led by a local historian explores the triumphs and sorrows of Jewish thinkers, artists, public figures, and common people who have long called this Berlin home. It includes visits to the New Synagogue and Berlin's Jewish Quarter and traces the 800-year history of Berlin’s Jewish population.

Jews first arrived in medieval Berlin in the 13th century, when the city was still a provincial town along the swampy lands of the river Spree. Our walk begins in the ruined foundations of the Old Synagogue at Heidereutergasse, which becomes our stage for constructing an image of Jewish history during the Medieval and Renaissance periods.

From here we will make our way to the neighborhood once known as the Scheunenviertel (“Barn Quarter”), the center of Berlin Jewish life from the 18th century onwards. Passing numerous significant sites—including synagogues, schools, and the old Jewish cemetery—we will stroll the streets that were buzzing with activity during West Berlin's golden age when Max Reinhardt staged his plays, Arnold Schoenberg and Kurt Weill composed their music, Max Liebermann and Lesser Ury painted their great works, and Jews in diverse industries became part of the vital fabric of Berlin.

As we trace this history, however, we will also discuss the growth of anti-Semitism during the same period, which burst to the surface after the ascendance of the Nazis in 1933 (for more on this, see our Berlin Nazi tour). We'll seek out several memorial installations to the Holocaust, including the Missing House graphic, the Abandoned Room at Koppenplatz, and some of the city’s 1,400 Stolpersteine (“stumbling blocks”). Woven into the city, these memorials commemorate the residents of Berlin—members of the city’s society who had their dignity, rights, and very lives taken from them.

Please note: the Neue Synagoge is closed on Saturdays and Jewish holidays. If you wish to do this tour on one of these days, we will visit the Synagoge from the exterior.