About Me
Hi, I’m Mark and in short, I’m a bit of a history nerd. Have been ever since I can remember. It probably has something to watching lots of war films when I was a kid, and arguably too young to be really watching them… Anyway, since then history, especially military history, has become my passion. I decided to pursue my interests at university, gaining a BA in History and Politics from UEA in Norwich, England. During my bachelors I specialized in Stalin, Stalinism and the Soviet experience in the Second World War. For my masters at Aberystwyth in Wales, I studied Strategic Studies - which was basically learning all about military strategy. In this area, I focused on military media relations and nuclear weapon strategy.
Following university, I ended up in Berlin writing for an entertainment news website. It was fun and interesting, but didn’t really utilize the deep understanding of armored warfare or nuclear annihilation I had acquired. So, around 2018 I wanted to find a way I could put my passion and knowledge for history to good use. It just so happened I lived in the former capital of the Third Reich and the location of perhaps the most climatic and dramatic battle of recent history - Berlin.
So, I got to work creating a tour through AirBnb experiences - which had just started at that time. I thought I might get a few similarly minded war-geeks interested and maybe do a few tours a month - as a hobby more than anything else. To my surprise it took off and pretty soon I had quit the 9 to 5 to spend more time doing my tours. Since then, it is now one of the highest rated tours on Airbnb in Berlin. I’ve lost count of how many I have done, but I have certainly had hundreds of guests in those 3 years.
Basically, I am very proud of it.
When I’m not talking about war, I’m writing about it, and recently have been contributing as a researcher to The Great War Youtube channel. They’re a great bunch of guys with a fine approach to presenting history. Incidentally, they also have a documentary about the Battle of Berlin…
Other than that, I also like to geek out about comedy, especially from my native Britain, and taking insanely long walks in Berlin - usually with a beer in hand (it’s totally legal here). So if you’re interested in any of that, let me know!