Nick: Graduating in history from Cambridge University, my first career involved swimming in the shark-infested waters of commercial real estate in London, Frankfurt and Berlin. Two years after moving to this remarkable city, Serena and I launched Original Berlin Walks in 1993. As well as leading tours myself and managing our business, I have also recently written a book for the Thunder Bay publishing house called "Berlin Then and Now", which compares archival pictures of Berlin with shots of the same places today » Books).

Serena: I help run Berlin Walks and also work part-time for Deutsche Welle Television. After a childhood in London listening to stories of how my father had survived at Dunkirk or my mother lived through the Blitz, it's a privilege (and perhaps an irony?) to be involved in an enterprise which sheds light on the past, in what is today a wonderfully tolerant and dynamic city.

Sabine: My studies in tourism management gave me a vast background on incoming as well as outgoing tourism and leisure activities. When I'm not exploring the city on foot, I enjoy taking my bike to one of Berlin's great parks, along the city's many waterways or to the beautiful lakes surrounding the city.

Call or email me with your questions or comments about our tours. I look forward to hearing from you! (» Contact)

Fabian - our cold war expert.
"Although I am based in Berlin, I have a Masters from Stanford in Modern European History and spent three years living in California. I am currently working on my PhD at Stanford and writing my dissertation on the history leading to the creation of the Berlin Wall. I have been very much a lover of this city since I saw the wall come down in 1989"

Julie – simply calls Berlin ``home´´.
"As a child in Berlin I watched the Wall come down in 1989. I then emigrated to the States but returned later to Berlin for thesis-related research on national identity and immigration and then again after a couple of years for a Fulbright Fellowship. Now, I simply call Berlin “home”. Currently, I´m focusing on urban planning through a Master´s in Public Policy and find that there couldn´t be a better place in the world to study this than Berlin."

Gabriel - an authority on the history of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.
"I became wrapped in German and German history as a teenager as soon as it became clear that this would annoy my devotedly Francophile parents. Since then I have been taking a very long and scenic route to becoming a history professor. My research specialisations are the history of the concentration camps, the Second World War and Eastern Europe in the 20th century."

Mort - novelist, script writer, sculptor and Third Reich history expert.
"I have lived in Berlin since 2000, working as an author and screenplay writer. As a life-long history buff, I take great pride in recreating for visitors to "my city" the drama, the horror, and the tragedy of the Nazi years. Blending historical fact, vivid anecdotes, and personal perspective, I aim to make the history of the Third Reich come alive as a multi-dimensional experience."

Jessica – loves giving tours for Berlin Walks.
"I have literally grown up around the world; my parents are from the US and Estonia and my husband is from Colombia. It´s difficult to say where I am from exactly, but home is definitely Berlin! I love this city with its amazingly rich history, politics, art and culture. As an ethnographer with a background in international studies, Berlin is particularly fascinating for me – it is a pleasure to work for Berlin Walks and share this with all our visitors."

Chiara – From Florence and loves ``la vita calma´´ of Berlin.
"I was born in Italy and grew up near Florence where I studied art and philosophy. But Berlin is now home for me and my German husband – in fact, it would be very hard to leave this place now because it grows on you as time goes by. Berlin is a strange and yet wonderful city, not at all as charming and beautiful as Florence, but much more alive and, for this reason, much more interesting. Berlin is the best of both worlds: it offers everything you can expect from a big city, but it has the rhythm and the peace of a small town."

Sarah - "married" to German language and literature AND life in Berlin!
"I studied German language and literature in New York - and after that there was no doubt what my next step would be! Sure it was difficult leaving New York City, but I now call Berlin home and have since February 2002. Since then I have found myself a German husband; become an expert at lighting the wood-burning oven for heat and hot-water; learned to appreciate the luxury of having a private bathroom, after living several months without; and have realized that a refrigerator truly is an unnecessary amenity. Vintage Berlin is still to be had. My favorite thing about living here? Riding my bicycle through those big-sky streets everyday from neighborhood to neighborhood and through history along the way."

Jakob – a born Berliner, a born historian and a born actor!
"I am a Berliner – born here in the late 1970s. I have a MA in history from Berlin´s Humboldt-University so you could say that I am a genuine Berlin historian! Studying history runs in the family; both my parents and my aunt and uncle did it before me, and now I wonder if my baby son born in late 2007 will also follow in our footsteps! Giving tours came as a stroke of luck for me because it gives me the chance to combine two things I like: history and acting. I just hope that my enthusiasm for history and my home town of Berlin rubs off on the people who join my tours."

Elmar – lifelong interest in WW2 and 3rd Reich History.
"Shortly after I arrived here in 2002, I discovered that there could be no better place to pursue my lifelong interests; World War II and Third Reich history. I grew up in a small village in the German countryside but was compelled to move to Berlin to where the history of the 20th century had unfolded. Currently I am finishing my studies and preparing to write my Master´s thesis in modern history. In the meantime, my friends are very happy I have found an outlet for my need to talk incessantly about Nazi history!"

Heather – inspired to move permanently to Berlin.
"For someone who studies 20th century European history, Berlin is the epicenter of it all. The scars of the city´s tumultuous past can be seen everywhere; perhaps the most interesting thing for me is how those scars are remembered and memorialized. I´ve lived in Berlin for three long stretches and now I´m here to stay. The city is so dynamic and ever-changing it´s nearly impossible to leave. While Pennsylvania may be my birthplace, Berlin is where I really feel at home. Maybe I can inspire you to move here as well!"

Tom - art historian and expert on Prussian royalty.
"… moved to Berlin before the Wall fell in November 1989. Why? Sheer insanity! But I have yet to regret the move from my hometown of Saint Paul, Minnesota in the USA. I need Berlin to indulge my passion for history, art and music. I have witnessed the glamor days of an isolated West Berlin; I have crossed over into East Berlin for visits to the museums and Opera Houses, and I have lived through the exhilarating days of the Wall's demise, to re-unification, to the rebuilding of the 1990's, to today's new contemporary Berlin, capital of Germany!"

Edo - finishing his history and philosophy studies
"Although I am a Dutchman, I have made my home in Berlin since 2003. This was an obvious choice for me - no other city in Europe has such an interesting and at the same time tragic history. In my studies, I am specializing not only in the history of National Socialism and the Third Reich, but also in the ways in which post-war Germany coped (and copes!) with this past, with all the fascinating differences between how this was treated in East and West Germany."

Torben - a genuine American German
"Being bilingual and having been raised by a German mother and an American father, I am often asked which country - Germany or the United States - I call home. The short answer is both, although friends accuse me of picking one or the other on an ad hoc basis ("We Germans are very punctual," "You Germans have no sense of humor"). If it were only so easy! Using the duration of my university studies as a yardstick, I am really very German. But then, living in a fascinating city like Berlin is hardly conducive to speeding through college - not even (or should I say especially not?) for someone who grew up on Long Island, New York. Berlin, let it be said, is wonderful. Now if only baseball would take off here… Don't those Germans know what's good for them?"