Berlin: Jewish History Walking Tour & Platform 17 Memorial

Berlin's Jewish past, told by scholars who live there

You spend five hours walking through Berlin's Jewish neighborhoods with an academic guide, visiting seven key sites from the New Synagogue to Platform 17 Memorial. Entry fees and local transport between stops are included, and the tour is wheelchair accessible, so the logistics are handled and you can focus on what the guide is explaining.

Step-by-step itinerary

Stops and time spent at each

1. Museum of Otto Weidt's Workshop for the Blind20m
2. Missing House5m
3. New Synagogue15m
4. Platform 17 Memorial45m

Explore Jewish history sites in Berlin

• See remains of oldest synagogue
• Visit Monument to Women's protest
• See historic site and learn history
• Visit Otto Weidt's Workshop museum
• See oldest Jewish Cemetery remains
• Visit and discuss Missing House monument
• See New Synagogue and learn history
• Visit Platform 17 Memorial and discuss deportations

The experience

The New Synagogue still stands on Oranienburger Straße, its golden dome visible from blocks away, and that's where most people's knowledge of Berlin's Jewish history stops. But the real story runs deeper and wider than one building. Over five hours, a private walking tour through Berlin takes you to seven sites that together tell how the city's Jewish community grew from small beginnings into one of Europe's most vibrant, and how it was nearly erased. Your guide is an academic living in Berlin, not a script reader, so the history lands differently. You're not being told what to think about these places. You're being shown what happened in them.

The walk moves through neighborhoods and across decades. You start at Haus Schwarzenberg, where the oldest synagogue in Berlin once stood, then move to the Monument to the Women's Protest, a quieter memorial that marks an act of resistance most people have never heard of: gentile women who stood outside the Gestapo building demanding their Jewish husbands be released from the transports. From there you reach Otto Weidt's Workshop for the Blind, a small museum that documents one man's decision to hide his Jewish employees in plain sight by claiming they were essential workers. The guide walks you through the logic of survival, the paperwork, the risk. Then Platform 17 at Grunewald station, where the four monuments sit on the actual platform where trains departed carrying Berlin's Jews to the camps. The Missing House is there too: an art installation that marks where a building was destroyed, leaving only the outline of windows and doorways on the neighboring wall. It's a different kind of memorial, one that makes absence visible.

What makes this tour different from reading about these sites online is the pacing and the guide's ability to connect them. An academic who lives in Berlin knows how the city has chosen to remember, and what it took to build that culture of memory. You're not rushing between photo stops. You're standing in front of something real, hearing the story of who was there, what they did, and what we know about them now. The tour includes all entry fees and transportation between sites, so you're not stopping to buy tickets or figure out the U-Bahn. Five hours is long enough to absorb the weight of the history without it becoming abstract.

What’s included

Your five hours include a private academic guide, entry to all seven sites (Haus Schwarzenberg, the Monument to the Women's Protest, Otto Weidt's Workshop for the Blind, the oldest Jewish cemetery remains, the Missing House, the New Synagogue, and Platform 17 Memorial), and transportation between stops. The tour is wheelchair accessible and suitable for all fitness levels.

Before you book

Days and timesEvery day

GroupPrivate

Live guideEnglish and German

Meeting point and pickupHotel pickup is optional; you can also go straight to the meeting point. Ends at a different place from where it starts.

Cancellation and refundsFree cancellation up to 24 h before the start. After that, no refund.

Prices and times updated 8 days ago

Good to know

Low physical effortWheelchair accessibleAccessible transportStroller-friendlyPets welcomePublic transport nearby

Operated by Nadav Tours - Gablinger Berlin Tours

Is this one for you?Book this if you want to understand Berlin's Jewish history beyond the main landmarks and don't want to piece together the story from separate visits: the guide connects the sites and the timeline so the history makes sense as a whole.

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Top questions

What languages is the tour guided in?

Live guide in English and German.

How long is the tour?

Five hours, including walking between sites and time at each location.

What's included in the price?

The private guide, entry fees to all sites, and transportation between stops.

Is it wheelchair accessible?

Yes, the tour is wheelchair accessible and suitable for all fitness levels. Public transportation options are available nearby.

Can I bring children?

Yes. Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller. The tour covers difficult historical content, so older children should be prepared for that.

What's the group size?

It's a private tour, so the group is whoever books it, typically one to four people.

Do I need to book tickets in advance?

No, entry fees are included and handled by the guide.

What's Platform 17?

Grunewald station's Platform 17 is where trains departed carrying Berlin's Jewish community to the camps. Four monuments now mark the site.