Berlin By Shai

Name: Berlin By Shai
Address: Berlin, DE
Telephone: +4915114173768
Rating: 5

Startseite
Deutschland
Berlin
Berlin By Shai

Tourist guide in Berlin since 2018. Storyteller , Admires Frederick the Great, in love with Berlin
(6)

06/05/2023

The tours I like to guide the most are tours with dear friends from the past who choose me to show them Berlin through my eyes.

Thank you for choosing me and what fun it was to meet again ❤️🙏

19/04/2023

Every year, as soon as spring strikes, I go back and visit it. Immediately upon exiting the train station, you will discover the beautiful park next to the lake. Whether you feel like lying on the grass, renting a boat and sail, eating from the variety of food stalls or restaurants , the park will give you exactly what you are looking for.

A new recommendation on my blog for The best place to celebrate the coming of spring 🌸🌸🌸, you will find a link to this recommendation and many others in the first comment.

13/04/2023

Today everyone is talking about artificial intelligence (AI) and what the machine can do for us and in our place, if you are also intrigued this exhibition is especially for you

In one of my favorite places in the city, a special exhibition is on display these days, and this is an excellent reason to return and visit. A new recommendation awaits you on my blog, link you'll find in the first comment

14/02/2023

Happy Valentine's Day Berlin!

This Valentine's Day I dedicate to one of the biggest and cruelest love stories of the city. The love story of Hans Hermann von Katte and the Crown Prince 🤴 known to everyone as Frederick the Great.

The prince's affection for men was well known and his father, the soldier king did not like it to say the least. When he was 17, the prince had a relationship with the king's apprentice Peter Karl Christoph von Keith. When his father discovered this, he sent Keith to serve away from the prince's eyes and hurriedly attempted to marry the prince.

Shortly after ending his relationship with Keith, Frederick becomes close to Hans Hermann von Katte, a Prussian officer who has become one of his best friends and lover. In order to escape his fate as king and his duty to marry a woman, Frederick plotted to flee to England with Katte and other junior army officers. During the escape, the king discovered the plans and Frederick and Katte were accused of treason and imprisoned. Then in a movie-like scene, the king forced Frederick to watch his lover beheaded, leading the crown prince to faint just before the fatal blow 💔.

The prince's grief was great, as well as the realization that he had no choice but to fulfill his father's commandments. He takes a wife, whom he will hardly see in his life and becomes one of the most important, well-known and beloved kings in German and Berlin history.

You can hear about the story of his life, the loves, the betrayals, the wars, the fight with his little brother for a man's heart and more on my royal tour.

07/02/2023

El Bocho (Little Donkey) is the Mexican nickname of a street artist from Spain who works in Berlin, which is one of my favorites in town.

He is very famous for his signature symbol, the Little Lucy doll, but I like in particular his portraits of women he calls “Citizens.” El Bocho paints portraits, usually of women, which are saying romantic things. These women are in love with their City, Berlin. Just like me.

Don't forget to look up when you walk the streets of my beloved city. You wouldn't want to miss one of his amazing artworks.

31/01/2023

Visit the old factory in Prenzlauer Berg that become a center for dance and art 💃, outdoors and indoors.

If you like dance, you can sign up for a workshop, class or dance show, and if you like graffiti and special places, like me, you must go in and see the place. Its walls are full of stories.

A link to a new recommendation on my blog is waiting for you in the first comment

29/01/2023

The Walls of Berlin are trying to tell us something about the future

27/01/2023

Today the world marks holocaust international day of remembrance. As a Berliner, the memory of the Holocaust is found on almost every street corner, every house and wall has a story that we must tell in order to make sure that such atrocities will never return.

As a member of a family of Holocaust survivors, it is my duty and calling to tell the story of the people who were murdered , those who tried to save them and everything that happened here at that time on every tour I do. In the graffiti tours I always tell the story of Otto Weidt and the Berlin Jews that he worked to save. This is his story:

In 1936 Otto Weidt established a workshop to manufacture brooms and brushes in the cellar apartment of Großbeerenstraße 92 in Berlin-Kreuzberg, which was in close proximity to his apartment at Hallesches Ufer 58. In 1940 he moved to the backyard of 39 Rosenthaler Straße in Berlin-Mitte. As one of his customers was the Wehrmacht, Weidt managed to have his business classified as vital to the war effort. Up to 30 blind and deaf Jews were employed at his shop between the years of 1941 and 1943. When the Gestapo began to arrest and deport his Jewish employees, he fought to secure their safety by falsifying documents, bribing officers and hiding them in the back of his shop with the help of others such as Hedwig Porschütz.

Though Weidt, forewarned, kept his shop closed on the day of the Fabrikaktion in February 1943, many of his employees were deported. Among those he was able to save were Inge Deutschkron and Alice Licht, both non-blind young women in their twenties, and Hans Israelowicz. Nevertheless, Alice Licht travelled to Theresienstadt to join her deported parents, where Weidt could support them with food parcels. All of 150 parcels arrived. Eventually Alice was deported to KZ Birkenau herself. She managed to send a postcard to Weidt who promptly traveled to Auschwitz in attempt to help her. Weidt found out that as Auschwitz was emptied, Alice was moved to the labor camp/ammunition plant Christianstadt. He hid clothes and money for her in a nearby pension to aid her return, and traveled back to Berlin. Alice eventually managed to return to Berlin in January 1945, and lived in hiding with the Weidts until the end of the war. She left when she received a visa to enter the USA.

After the war, Otto Weidt established an orphanage for survivors of the concentration camps. He died of heart failure only 2 years later, in 1947, at 64 years of age. On September 7, 1971, Yad Vashem recognized Weidt as a Righteous Man of the World's Nations.
His story reminds me every time that even in terrible times we still have the ability to be brave, do good and fight the darkness in our own way and save souls. I will continue to tell his story and the story of my family and many others, so that they will never be forgotten.

23/01/2023

I passed along this street many times and did not notice them, until one morning at the entrance to Späti I noticed a rabbit 🐰on the floor, then another 🐰 and another 🐰. Of course I had to find out their story.

You are invited to discover the story of the city's rabbits during the Cold War when a wall divided Berlin into East and West. A new recommendation on my blog awaits you in the first comment.

16/01/2023

5 minutes away from Alexa shopping center 🛍️ and Alexanderplatz, the remains of one of the most historic buildings in the city and Berlin's first city wall are waiting for you.

The remains of The Berlin Stadtmauer and the old church, which was the first brick 🧱 building in the city, and today serves as an exhibition gallery, are the evidence of what the city looked like in the days when it was still small and next to it was its sister city Cölln.

I invite you just before you shop 🛒to take a few steps to the place and try to imagine what Berlin looked like back then. You will find a link to a new recommendation on my blog in the first comment

30/12/2022

Last tour for 2022 and what's better than a tour that's also a reunion with a dear old friend you haven't seen in years. We toured the streets of the city, tasted, saw and experienced the city together, in all the places I like the most in my city.

Thank you and everyone who chose to tour with me this year,
I wish you all a happy new year 🥳 and look forward to showing you my city in 2023 as well!

21/12/2022

Telling the story of Berlin to children is a special experience. I especially like their interpretation of what the walls of the city tell us.

Today I got to tour with this amazing family , show them Berlin through my eyes and hear what their eyes see. I even got a score of 7 and 10 out of 10 from the kids so I was very satisfied 😍.

Thank you for choosing to see Berlin by Shai

18/12/2022

The streets of Berlin tell a slightly different story in the winter and this weekend I had the pleasure of touring the streets of the city with brave tourists 😜who didn't let the cold scare them 🥶👣.

We got to tour the city during one of the most beautiful times of the year and of course drink hot wine on the way.

Thank you for choosing to see the city through my eyes

07/12/2022

HO HO HO 🎁🎅🏻🎄

This period before Christmas is definitely one of the most beautiful periods to visit my city, especially if it is also painted white from the snow. Visiting the Christmas markets and drinking Glühwein are my favorite things to do and Berlin is full of them. Although most of them look almost the same, you can find many markets with their own uniqueness and character hidden in it.

Here is a list of some of my particular favorites:

🎄Christmas Market in Spandau 🎄 - The old town of Spandau, the oldest area in Berlin, hosts a nostalgic Christmas market every year and one of the largest. Dozens of stalls, facilities for children and more. And if you are already in the area, visit the nearby Spandau Citadel (you will find a recommendation about it on my blog)

🎄Lucia Christmas Market at Kulturbrauerei 🎄 - Named after the Nordic goddess of light, the Lucia Christmas market located in one of the most beautiful places in East Berlin focuses on goods and food from Scandinavia. There you will also find food stalls and holiday products and a very special atmosphere.

🎄Christmas Market at Charlottenburg Palace🎄 - The palace in Charlottenburg is one of the most beautiful places in the city and a must visit. During this period, a large Christmas market is held in front of the palace, rich in various stalls and not far from Ku'damm Boulevard.

🎄Medieval Christmas Market at the RAW🎄 - At the end of the RAW complex, which is rich in night life and street art works on the walls, a special Christmas market awaits you, going back in time to Medieval times. Actors in Medieval costumes, games for the whole family, stuntmen, food stalls and more will be waiting for you in this market.

Merry Christmas!

29/11/2022

For those of you who prefer to stay indoors in the winter ❄️☃️🥶, this building will tell you the whole story of Berlin from its beginnings to the present day. The building that used to house the municipal insane asylum, today houses one of the museums I like to return to the most.

Don't miss my favorite part, a model of the city as it looked 300 years ago, in the days when it was still surrounded by the old city wall, and what today we know mainly as the U train stations were the entrance gates to the city.

You will find a new recommendation on my blog (especially for those interested in history📚 and lovers of the sun 🌞) in the first comment

23/11/2022

The most famous hands in Berlin

If you have already visited Berlin this mural will look familiar to you, it is not on most tour routes but many Berliners and tourists see it again and again thanks to its location. This mural is located in front of the entrance to the kitkat club so anyone who has ever waited in line for the club has seen it. Have you ever wondered what's the story behind it ?

The mural (Unter der Hand (Under the Hand) is a work of the German street artist Andres Von Chrzanowski (a.k.a. CASE or CASE Maclaim) who specializes in works that combine photorealism with a strong note of surrealism. And are mostly done in spray.

About this piece he says that "Power" and "movement" played key roles in the backbone of his German roots, inspiring him to convey his powerful messages of unity and power through overlapping hands. The overlaying "movement" is not just the physical body movement, but the political movement, generally left without a specific context for the viewer to visualize the remaining story and/or emotion in relation to their current situations.

I invite you the next time you are in line for the club to lift your head and look at the amazing piece and see what it tells you and how it makes you feel.

17/11/2022

I had the honor yesterday evening to tour the streets of Berlin with the youth parliament of the city of Karmiel (Israel).

A group of inspiring, opinionated teenagers, who know history and also that you shouldn't miss an excellent cheesecake 🍰 during a tour 😜

Thank you for choosing to see Berlin through my eyes

15/11/2022

Neukölln and Schöneberg are not particularly touristic districts, but they also hide a lot of special stories, history and some particularly successful restaurants and cafes.

Almost every time I visit one of them, I stop at this Café and have to taste (again) one of their excellent pastries. Luckily you can find this one in both of them.

A new recommendation for a place you must visit is waiting for you on my blog. You will find a link in the first comment.

Photo by Savannah van der Niet and myself

08/11/2022

Those of you who have already experienced 👣walking the streets of the city with me know that the walls of my city fascinate me. Whether they have works of art that tell a story or layers of history, one on top of the other, and dozens of stories that the walls have collected over the years.

This is one of the reasons that drew me to this building and its story is particularly special. The works of art on the walls will tell you amazing stories and the walls themselves will reveal their special story to you. This is the whole story of Berlin in one building.

A new recommendation on my blog, inviting you to visit the Bunker of Bananas 🍌, s*x parties and contemporary art. You will find a link to the recommendation and many others in the first comment.

31/10/2022

Every time I walk the streets of my city, I look for the hidden cafes, especially the small and special ones. Finding good coffee in Berlin is not an easy task and when I found Oslo I had to share it with you.

Oslo ☕The place where excellent coffee, a record store and an art gallery meet.

You can read more about it in a new recommendation on my blog. A link to it and dozens of other recommendations for planning your next visit to Berlin is waiting for you in the first comment.

24/10/2022

During the tour with me you could only imagine what the Gendarmenmarkt square looked like after the war or what the GDR government building looked like where the city palace stands today again, now you can see them with your own eyes.

I invite to go on a tourist bus 🚌 in the 80s and cross the border from West Berlin to the East, an excellent way to better understand life in East Berlin before the fall of the wall.

You will find the new recommendation on my blog, Berlin (Best kept secrets) by Shai, in the first comment

18/10/2022

A few steps away from the U-Bahnhof Samariterstraße and the boxi square, a backhouse has recently opened that will take you to Paris 🇫🇷 in seconds.

The place specializes in different types of brioche pastries and each one is tastier than the other. Next to the French pastries you can find a special dish inspired by the owner's Israeli roots, ShakshuQuiche and believe me you must try it!

A new recommendation on my blog, you will find a link in the first comment

16/10/2022

When you'll cross the road on Potsdamer Strasse 151 and notice it, at first glance it will appear to you as a peeling wall, but another look will reveal its genius.

This is a creation of Vhils , a Portuguese street art artist who carved portraits on the walls of urban complexes. Choosing this technique has a deep meaning. Vhils believes that we are all composed of layers upon layers of social and historical fabric. Our social system is the product of similar layers and by eliminating some of the top layers; we may be able to accomplish a more pure form.

The piece is part of a series of 4 pieces scattered around the city and features inspiring local characters. On this wall is carved Photographer Sven Marquardt, who also controls the door at Berghain.

You are invited to hear his story and others on my tour, Walls of Berlin, which will expose you to the walls with the most interesting stories in Mitte, Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg and Schönberg.

12/10/2022

Look for the ❤️ on the walls of Berlin.

Love this street art, you can find it in West and East Berlin in different versions. Look up when your walking 🚶‍♀️ and the walls will tell you a great story.

10/10/2022

Oderberger Strasse in Prenzlauer Berg is one of the nicest corners of the city, especially the part of the street between Kastanienallee Avenue and Mauerpark ( the Wall Park).

I invite you to discover one of the most beautiful streets on the way to the wall with a new recommendation on my blog, link in the first comment

03/10/2022

Mazal Tov Germany 🇩🇪

The beginning of the German Reunification Day celebrated today is the moment the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989. The best way to learn about the period and that moment is from the stories of people and the art they created in their wake. One of my favorite narrators is Kani Alavi, an Iranian-Berliner artist who initiated the preservation of the Berlin Wall at the East Side Gallery from then until today. His work which in my eyes represented the departure from East to West Berlin as the tearing of the Yam Suph (Red Sea) is one of the strongest and most important works on the wall and is a mandatory stop point on every tour I do in the area where I tell her story and his.

In an interview conducted with him in 2019 on the kreiszeitung.de website (the full interview in the first comment), Alavi shared his experiences at that time:

“I came to Berlin in 1980. Above all, there was a wall in people's heads. There were many who did not accept other religions and people at all. When I got a place at university, I tried to get an apartment right next to the wall. After all, I lived at Checkpoint Charlie, just four meters from the wall. This was a central interface between East and West. At that time I was busy in my studio with art, cameras and new technology. In addition, I kept going from west to east. Foreigners were allowed to pass through Checkpoint Charlie without any problems. I did that from time to time to visit friends, exhibitions or museums. This is how contacts developed there.

When I heard on the radio at 12 noon on November 9th that the Wall had fallen, I initially thought it was a joke. Nevertheless, I went to the window because I was curious. Then I heard that people actually all shouted: The Wall is gone! Everyone was happy and within an hour the crowds were coming from east to west.

During this time I started sketching everything and talking to people. The euphoria was great, but many people were still unsure. They didn't know where to go and whether the gates might be closed again in an hour and they wouldn't be able to go back. There were so many feelings – fears, despair. One came over and really wanted to see his grandparents, but didn't know where they lived. Another just wanted to walk the streets and then come back. There were so many feelings and I documented it all.

Two months later I brought my sketches to what is now the East Side Gallery. The evening from November 9th to 10th was a great evening full of euphoria for me. As a neutral person and especially as an artist, I noticed a lot back then. It will certainly be many years before I have sketched all my memories.”

Thanks to Kani Alavi and people like him, we have a living testimony of what happened here and a reminder that we must do everything to prevent the building of walls between us and to remove the walls that still exist.

27/09/2022

October brings with it one of my favorite events in the city, the Festival of Lights which will take place between October 07-16. Every night the central tourist sites of Berlin, led by the Berliner Dom, Bebelplatz and the Brandenburg Gate, will display on their walls special works of art by artists from around the world.

The festival will start at 8 PM on October 07 throughout the city and most of the illuminations will be on display from 7 PM until midnight each day. The motto for this year is “Vision of our future. What will our future look like?” and futuristic images around various themes such as sustainability, scientific discovery, mindfulness, humanity and diversity will be shown.

In light of the energy crisis, 75% less electricity will be used compared to the previous festival year and the festival program has been slightly changed and adapted to the situation but you will still be able to witness breathtaking art throughout the city.

Whether you live in my city or plan to visit during this time, you must see the light in the darkness.

26/08/2022

Follow the Mauer brick road 🧱🧱🧱

You already know that the Walls of Berlin and I like each other so naturally I always gravitate to the East Side Gallery when I visit the Berlin Wall. But in order to understand what happened here, a little more than 30 years ago, I come to this street and travel through time in it.

A few steps away, is the Mauer park, where every Sunday there is a flea and food market and dozens of Berliners enjoy themselves with a bottle of beer and musical bands that make the time pleasant. On your next visit to the park, I recommend that you continue a few more steps forward, follow the bricks and listen to the story they tell.

You will find a link to the new recommendation on the blog in the first comment

23/08/2022

A mid-week tour in the streets of Berlin with three generations of this beautiful family, it was fun to share the stories of my city with them and I was especially happy that I got a new little assistant guide.

Thank you for choosing to see the city through my eyes

20/08/2022

I had great fun starting the morning with this amazing mother and daughter. We visited my favorite places in the city, laughed a lot and of course we also had apple strudel for dessert :-).

Thank you for choosing to see berlin by me :-)

Adresse

Berlin

Telefon

+4915114173768

Webseite

http://www.berlinbyshai.com/

Benachrichtigungen

Lassen Sie sich von uns eine E-Mail senden und seien Sie der erste der Neuigkeiten und Aktionen von Berlin By Shai erfährt. Ihre E-Mail-Adresse wird nicht für andere Zwecke verwendet und Sie können sich jederzeit abmelden.

Service Kontaktieren

Nachricht an Berlin By Shai senden:

Videos

Today everyone is talking about artificial intelligence (AI) and what the machine can do for us and in our place, if you are also intrigued this exhibition is especially for you In one of my favorite places in the city, a special exhibition is on display these days, and this is an excellent reason to return and visit. A new recommendation awaits you on my blog, link you'll find in the first comment

When I heard that the New York Times chose it as one of the twelve most beautiful streets in Europe, I had to visit it and understand what the fuss was about. The street in the Wilmersdorf district is particularly quiet with a beautiful square in the center. Around the square you will not find special shops, chef restaurants or special attractions and that is its charm. You will find a link to the new recommendation on the blog in the first comment

As the sun 🌞 comes out of the clouds, the city streets come to life and Berliners like Berliners, do not give up a ray of sunshine and go out to enjoy all that the city has to offer. I especially like the street corners when each one gets a different hue with a variety of street artists performing 🎤 in them and signaling to you that spring is already here. Go out and explore them!