Glühwein & History: Berlin's Christmas Markets

Hi, I’m Mary, I'm a professional tour guide specialising in history of ideologies and XIX/XX century Europe and political science. I have lived in Berlin for 4 years now, gaining first tour guiding experience working for the commercial market leader. I grew up in Warsaw where my Jewish/Polish roots and family’s experience pointed me towards a keen interest in European history. I studied on Warsaw University's Collegium MISH, which allows students with broad academic interests to combine classes from all faculties into individual, interdisciplinary program. I was fortunate to learn from some of the best contemporary historians, sociologists and others - this gave me very high level of understanding of modern history and strong ability to analyse its outcomes. Later, working as a journalist fixer, I was able to exchange experience with journalists from all around the world and many cultural contexts, and practice explaining complex socio-historical subjects in a approachable but thorough way. In the world experiencing so much political tension, I decided to dedicate my life to passing on as much of this knowledge as possible. Now I offer my independent tours trying to counter the current trend of maximising profit by sacrificing historical accuracy. After deregulation of the profession it became the norm to advertise problematic or even misleading narratives as representing the highest academic quality. It is easy to exploit the fact that guests, who almost never are trained historians, simply "don't know what they don't know". My goal is to combine my education, professional and family backgrounds to deliver understandable explanation of even most complex processes and phenomena that shaped Germany and the world as it is today. I hope you will join me and haven not only entertaining, but truly valuable experience on my tour.