Asaf Leshem
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My name is Asaf. Originally from a small village in the Galilee, I became a resident of Berlin in 2007 and a professional tour guide in the city in 2010. In my early twenties I spent a few years travelling, and working in Poland and China. After a year of studies in a tourism college in New Zealand I ended up completing a BSc in Ecotourism in England, for which I conducted research in Ethiopia. In the spring of 2007 I decided to move to Berlin to continue my studies and develop further my career in tourism.
In 2010 I completed a master degree in Ecological Economics at Berlin’s Humboldt University. In 2014 I got back to academic studies, this time as a part-time PhD candidate at the University of Central Lancashire, researching the role tour guides play in interpretation of the dark chapters of Berlin’s history. In addition to my work as a guide, and when time allows, I work as a fellow in Potsdam’s Social Science Works.
As a guide I am very much influenced by the many historical layers of this fascinating city, as well as by childhood stories I heard from my German grandparents. Guiding in Berlin feels to me like using a wonderful time machine; by going through the sites it takes me and my guests through difficult historical times but also through romantic times, and times of amazing social and cultural changes.
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Berlin Highlights
Third Reich Berlin
Cold War Berlin
Jewish Berlin
Potsdam
Sachsenhausen
Cycling Tours
