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Babylon Berlin is a German neo-noir television series. Created, written, and directed by Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries, and Hendrik Handloegten, it is loosely based on novels by Volker Kutscher.
The series premiered on 13 October 2017 on Sky 1. The first release consisted of a continuous run of 16 episodes, with the first eight officially known as Season 1, and the second eight known as Season 2. Season 3 premiered in January 2020,[3] followed by Season 4 in October 2022.[4] In June 2023, the show was renewed for a fifth and final season,[5] which was filmed in the autumn and winter of 2024.[6]
Netflix exclusively streamed seasons 1 through 3 in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States until they were removed in February 2024. In April 2024, the first three seasons of the show began streaming on MHz Choice in the United States, with the fourth season added in June.[7][8][9]
The series is set in Berlin during the latter years of the Weimar Republic, beginning in 1929. It follows Gereon Rath (Volker Bruch), a police inspector on assignment from Cologne who is on a secret mission to dismantle an extortion ring, and police clerk Charlotte Ritter (Liv Lisa Fries), who aspires to become a police inspector.
The series was co-directed by Tom Tykwer, Hendrik Handloegten [de], and Achim von Borries, who also wrote the scripts. The 16 episodes of the first two seasons were adapted by Tykwer, von Borries and Handloegten from the novel Der nasse Fisch (The Wet Fish) (2008) by Volker Kutscher[11] and were filmed over eight months beginning in May 2016.
German public broadcaster ARD and pay TV channel Sky co-produced the series, a first time collaboration in German television.[citation needed] As part of the arrangement, Sky broadcast the series first, and ARD started broadcasts by free-to-air television on 30 September 2018. Netflix purchased rights for the United States, Canada, and Australia, where the series became available in 2018 with English dubbing and subtitles.[12]
With a budget of €40 million that increased to €55 million due to reshoots, the series is described as the most expensive television drama series in Germany,[13] as well as the most expensive non-English language television drama series ever produced.[14]
The third season of Babylon Berlin was filmed over six months from late 2018 to May 2019.[15][16] At the 32nd European Film Awards in December 2019, showrunners Achim von Borries, Henk Handloegten and Tom Tykwer stated that the third season was in post-production and that a fourth season was planned.[17]
The third season was developed loosely around the second novel in Volker Kutscher's trilogy The Silent Death. The showrunners chose to diverge from the source material to better address the social and political unrest during the time period as they felt that the Weimar Republic is often overlooked by both media and historical sources.[18] The third season is set in late 1929 around the Black Tuesday stock market crash and navigates the rise of the subversive Black Reichswehr and communist political groups as well as the advent of talkies.[citation needed]
In a January 2020 interview with Berliner Zeitung, actress Liv Lisa Fries said that production would likely begin on the fourth season in late 2020 or early 2021.[19] Planning and writing for the fourth season, based on the novel Goldstein, began in October 2020. Filming began in early 2021[20][21] and was completed in September 2021, with the production having shot for 129 days at Studio Babelsberg and at locations around Berlin. Season 4 is set in late 1930 and early 1931.[22] It premiered on 8 October 2022.[4]
The creators of Babylon Berlin have stated in numerous interviews that they intend to end the series at the year 1933, with the assumption of power by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. While the novels are set one per year, and have currently reached 1937, the seasons of the series have not followed that model, with Seasons 1, 2, and 3 all set in 1929 and Season 4 set in 1930–1931.[citation needed]
Handloegten has stated that: "We decided to go on until 1933... if you call the show Babylon Berlin, it is about this special city in a very special time. And this special time, the Babylon times, the free and liberated times, just ended in 1933."[23] Von Borries has spoken along similar lines, saying:
We always said it was over in 1933. If there is a final season, it would be the first months after the so-called seizure of power before the Reichstag fire. The National Socialists had turned the country upside down so fundamentally that the Babylonian in Berlin was over. After that we don't want to go on.[24]
After Sky Deutschland decided to stop ordering scripted originals in June 2023, the producers of the show ARD Degeto, X Filme Creative Pool and Beta Film committed to developing a fifth season.[2] In a February 2024 interview, star Liv Lisa Fries said the fifth and final season is tentatively scheduled to film in late 2024.[25]
In June 2024, it was announced that the fifth and final season would be filmed in late 2024. It consists of eight episodes and is based on the fifth novel in the series, The March Fallen. [26][27] The season follows Charlotte investigating a series of murders of soldiers, while Gereon goes missing. It begins on 30 January 1933, when Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, and continues through a five week period of violence by the Nazis against their political opponents, culminating with the March 1933 German federal election on 5 March 1933, when Hitler gained total control of the government.[28] Handloegten, von Borries and Tykwer said in a press release:
In the final season of Babylon Berlin, we put February 1933 under the magnifying glass: Rarely has a society been torn apart more radically in such a short period of time than Germany in this chaotic month. Not only Gereon Rath and Charlotte Ritter, but all our protagonists also must realize that they only have a few options left: Subordinate themselves, risk their lives in open opposition, retreat into inner emigration or flee into exile. However, this decisive month also opens the possibility of changing the course of history at the last second.[27]
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, one of the show's co-creators, Tom Tykwer, spoke about the era:
At the time people did not realize how absolutely unstable this new construction of society which the Weimar Republic represented was. It interested us because the fragility of democracy has been put to the test quite profoundly in recent years... By 1929, new opportunities were arising. Women had more possibilities to take part in society, especially in the labour market as Berlin became crowded with new thinking, new art, theatre, music and journalistic writing.[29]
Nonetheless, Tykwer insisted that he and his co-directors were determined not to idealize the Weimar Republic: "People tend to forget that it was also a very rough era in German history. There was a lot of poverty, and people who had survived the war were suffering from a great deal of trauma."[29]
In the first season, communists, Soviets and especially Trotskyists play a prominent role (the Soviet ambassador to Germany from 1923 to 1930 was former Trotsky ally Nikolay Krestinsky). The show depicts what became known as Blutmai, violence between communist demonstrators and members of the Berlin Police in early May 1929,[30] and extra-legal paramilitary formations promoted by the German Army, known as the Black Reichswehr.[31] In the first season, the Soviet ambassador in Berlin, who appears to be a loyal Stalinist, is involved in the massacre of Trotskyists in the printing shop, who were buried in a mass grave outside the city. According to Nathaniel Flakin, this event never happened.[32] Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, on the other hand, is only mentioned in passing during the first two seasons of Babylon Berlin.[33]
Babelsberg Studio constructed a massive addition to its Metropolitan Backlot for the filming of the series and for future productions.[34] This permanent standing set is billed as one of the largest in Europe.[35] The set includes recreations of various Berlin neighbourhoods, from a range of economic classes. It also includes the large exterior of the night club Moka Efti.[36]
In addition, the series was filmed throughout Berlin and at other locations in the surrounding state of Brandenburg. Numerous scenes were filmed on Alexanderplatz in front of the historic Alexanderhaus [de]. The police headquarters, once located directly behind it, and other surrounding buildings, were destroyed in WWII, but were recreated with computer simulations. The Rotes Rathaus (Berlin City Hall) was used for most closeup scenes involving the exterior of the police headquarters, because their red brick appearance and architectural style are very similar. Interiors of the police headquarters lobby were filmed at the Rathaus Schöneberg, including scenes with its paternoster elevator, while the elegant Ratskeller restaurant in the same building was used as the nearby café Aschinger [de][37] in multiple scenes. Other interior scenes in the police headquarters were filmed in the historic Robert-Koch-Forum [de].
Interior scenes in the Moka Efti were filmed at the 'Delphi Cinema' in Berlin-Weissensee. Bar Tausend, in Berlin served as the show's Holländer Bar. A lengthy suspense sequence set during a performance of The Threepenny Opera, was filmed at the historic Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, where the play actually ran at the time. The Immanuelkirche [de] in Prenzlauer Berg was used for scenes of Anno and Helga's wedding. The headquarters of the Katholischer Studentenverein Askania-Burgundia Berlin, located in a villa in Dahlem, were used for the residence of Councillor Benda and his family.[38] The atrium of the Behrensbau [de] was used as Dr. Schmidt's psychiatric clinic. The interiors and exteriors of the historic former Deutsche Bank headquarters complex [de] were used as numerous locations in the series, including as the exterior of the Soviet Embassy. Because the complex was empty at the time of filming, it was also used as the production headquarters, and to house the show's thousands of costumes.[39] Other scenes were filmed on Museum Island, in the Hermannplatz U-Bahn station, at the Hoppegarten Racecourse [de], and the Church of the Redeemer on the Havel river in Potsdam.[citation needed]
Portions of the series were also filmed in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Scenes set at Schloss Liebenberg, the estate of the Nyssen family, were filmed at Schloss Drachenburg, a castle in the Rhineland. The Rheinisches Industriebahn-Museum [de] in Cologne was used as the Anhalter Güterbahnhof. The Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, a disused steel plant near Duisburg, was used as the factory adjacent to Bruno Wolter's apartment, in which numerous sequences take place.[citation needed]
Scenes involving a steam train were filmed in the state of Bavaria at the Bavarian Railway Museum near Nördlingen.[citation needed]
A number of new locations were introduced in Season 3. Berlin's Old City Hall served as the interior and exterior of the Berlin Stock Exchange. The Ullsteinhaus was used as the editorial offices of the Tempo newspaper, which were actually located there at the time. The Kammergericht in Berlin served as the Ministry of the Reichswehr. The Cafe Grosz doubled for the historic Romanisches Café, destroyed in WWII. The District Council Hall of the Rathaus Treptow [de] was used for the court room for both Greta's trial in Season 3 and Katelbach's trial in Season 4. The Gästehaus am Lehnitzsee, a hotel housed in the historic Landhaus Adlon [de], the pre-WWII mansion of Louis Adlon, manager of the famed Hotel Adlon, was used as the villa of Edgar and Esther Kasabian.[40]
New locations introduced in Season 4 include the Karl-Marx-Allee, used in multiple episodes as the Kurfürstendamm; the Amtsgericht Wedding, the exterior and interior of which appear in multiple episodes as the Landgericht Berlin-Mitte; and the GASAG Building on Littenstraße, used as the Berlin headquarters of the Nazi Party.[citation needed]
In 2018, the show formed an in-house band, The Moka Efti Orchestra, to perform the original music from the show. The group plays period-era music in a variety of styles ranging from ragtime to klezmer. Named after the nightclub featured in Babylon Berlin, The Moka Efti Orchestra is a 14-member group and is fronted by the Lithuanian actress Severija Janušauskaitė as Svetlana Sorokina. In the first double episode of the first season, Janušauskaitė's character, crossdressing as the male singer Nikoros, performs the main theme of the series, "Zu Asche, zu Staub" in the Moka Efti cabaret. This song was later released and charted on the German singles chart.[41]
The group performed in concert in May 2018 and, due to popular demand, toured the country later that year. With the release of the third season of the show, the musical group released their debut album Erstausgabe (English: First Edition).[41]
In addition to period music, "Dance Away", from the 1979 album Manifesto by Roxy Music, plays occasionally in the background (adapted to the style of the period) and also included is an adaptation of "These Foolish Things" and, in the Season Two finale, a Russian version of "Gloomy Sunday". Singer Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music appears toward the end of the first season as a cabaret singer performing "Bitter-Sweet", half in English, half in German, from the 1974 album Country Life.[42]
A major action sequence in season two takes place during a performance of The Threepenny Opera. The song "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer" ("The Ballad of Mack the Knife") is featured in that scene, and also as a plot device. Two different characters hum the tune, giving detective Rath clues to the unfolding plot.[citation needed]
Babylon Berlin premiered in Germany on 13 October 2017 (Sky 1) and in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland on Sunday, 5 November 2017 (Sky Atlantic).[43] The series debuted in Australia, Canada, and the United States on 30 January 2018 (Netflix).[44] Broadcasting on the German TV channel Das Erste started Sunday 30 September 2018.[45] The Swedish broadcast began on 19 June 2019 on SVT.[46]
The third season premiered[12] in Germany on Sky 1 in January 2020;[12] and subsequently on German public television station ARD in October 2020.[47] The international distribution rights for the third season were sold to more than one hundred countries and many different networks including Netflix, HBO Europe, and Viaplay in early 2019.[12][47]
In territories where the show was distributed by Netflix, the third season was released in its entirety on 1 March 2020.[48][49][50] The series was removed from Netflix on 29 February 2024.[51] The first three seasons of the series began streaming again in the United States on MHz Choice on April 16, 2024,[52][53] the fourth season made its US premiere on the service on 25 June 2024.[54]
The first and second seasons, of eight episodes each, were written as one story (covering the first novel of the Kutscher book series) and filmed as one production.[55] They premiered as one block, numbered 1–16 and have been broadcast throughout the world en bloc.[56] In addition, all 16 episodes of both seasons were made available simultaneously on Netflix.[57] In many territories the show was broadcast as a season comprising eight double-length episodes.
The second block of 12 episodes are officially known as Season 3 but were broadcast as Season 2 in some territories where the previous episodes premiered as one block.[58][59]
All episodes were written and directed by Henk Handloegten, Achim von Borries, and Tom Tykwer.
The second-season episodes were written and directed by Henk Handloegten, Achim von Borries, and Tom Tykwer.
Gereon frees the unconscious Charlotte from inside the sunken car and then manages to revive her. Soon they encounter their colleagues; Gräf takes Charlotte for medical care, while Gereon continues on with Henning and Czerwinski to intercept the train. The three manage to board the train shortly before Bruno and the Black Reichswehr commandeer it, but during the hijacking the Black Reichswehr themselves are ambushed by the Armenian's gang. As Gereon confronts Bruno on the train, they discover that the gold bars they find are actually worthless fakes. Henning and Czerwinski incapacitate the Armenian gang with anaesthetic gas, but Bruno manages to escape and gets the train restarted. After fighting with Gereon atop the moving train, Bruno is killed when he accidentally triggers a gas explosion.
With Benda's death from the bomb blast, Wendt becomes the new head of the Political Police and asks Gereon to lead, unofficially, a new covert unit investigating internal political crimes and corruption. Charlotte is promoted to deputy homicide detective. Observing a Sorokin family painting in Svetlana's apartment, Gereon and Charlotte deduce that Svetlana is an imposter, and that the gold she spoke of may well be in the tank railcar they searched earlier — but as the material of the cylindrical tank itself, with the fake gold bars a mere diversion. Meanwhile in Paris, Kardakov watches Svetlana sing in a cabaret.
The series opens with Rath at the stock exchange, where share prices have plummeted and employees are committing suicide. We then go back to five weeks earlier — 20 September 1929.
Charlotte tries to visit Greta in prison but Greta refuses to see her. Later, Charlotte takes her crime-scene permit exam, but is failed by Ulrich on a technicality, against Gennat's wishes. Upon completing his sentence for tax evasion, Walter Weintraub is fingerprinted and a sample of his hair placed on file — before he is released from prison. On the set of a new sound film, a hooded figure boobytraps a spotlight which later falls, killing the film's star, Betty Winter. The film's producer, Bellman, informs the Armenian, his financier, of the incident.
The murderer of Betty Winter is now dubbed "the Phantom" by the press. Sebald locates Greta's child in an orphanage and takes custody of her under Wendt's authority. Wegener, conducting a survey posing as a securities auditor, gathers investment information from various people covering a range of classes, including from Böhm. He finds that nearly all have bought stocks using borrowed money, and Nyssen concludes that a stock market collapse is inevitable. Ulrich finds a ballistics match on the gun belonging to Krempin (the owner's name displayed, "Sandor Gosztony", is momentarily legible in a freeze-frame image). But as he tries to report this to Gereon, he accidentally interrupts Gennat, who angrily rebukes him for violating protocol and the chain of command. Humiliated, Ulrich decides to keep the information to himself out of spite. Weintraub gets rough with the insurance adjuster who has denied Edgar's claim, but to no avail.
Rath, Böhm and Charlotte attend the secret gathering at Tristan Rot's house. Masked and cloaked, they watch as Dr. Schmidt summons Betty Winter's spirit in a seance — before Böhm breaks up the ceremony with a gunshot and arrests Rot. Dr. Schmidt scurries off, and when he sees Rath (who calls him "Anno"), gives him a hypnotic command to forget he saw him at the house. Rath meets with Katelbach and admits he was toeing the company line when he testified in the Zörgiebel case. Rath shows Katelbach the secret list, pointing out his name on it and warning him that he may be at risk. In turn, Katelbach mentions that Litten's name is on the list, too. He also tells Rath about an article he's recently completed, proving that Lufthansa is illegally working with the Reichswehr, and warns Rath not to trust anybody.
In a police interrogation, Rot claims the reason he went to the courtyard was to reconnect with Winter's soul. Edgar and Weintraub meet with rival gangs and accuse them of trying to sabotage their operation, which they deny.
Wendt's henchmen, including Kessler, raid the offices of Tempo and beat up Heymann, its editor; Katelbach flees the building with his documents. General Seegers' daughter, Marie-Luise (MaLu), who is a law student and volunteers in Litten's office, reluctantly agrees to her father's request that she attend Frau Nyssen's party with him and her sister. Helga refuses to let Moritz attend a Nazi Youth outing.
Two names on the secret list, NSDAP members Richard Pechtmann and Horst Kessler, stand out by the initials written next to them. Rath discovers that they are actual names of Fritz Höckert and Otto Wollenberg. At Charlotte's request, Litten agrees to take Greta's case pro bono and Charlotte, in return, offers to help out at his office. Kessler and Pechtmann enter Elisabeth's boarding house looking for Katelbach, but she helps him hide. Later, she delivers his documents to Heymann, after losing Pechtmann when he tries to follow her. Helga finds out that she's pregnant. Rath, pretending to be a Nazi, breaks into Kessler's boarding rooms and finds Erna, who tells him Kessler is at a Hitler Youth camp.
Unable to find Rath, Charlotte goes to Czerwinski and Henning, asking them to put surveillance on Weintraub, but not to tell Böhm. Litten enters an appeal for Greta, after which the judge involved telephones Wendt. Rath tracks down Pechtmann and brings him in for Greta to identify formally, but she denies knowing him, so Rath has to let him go. Ullrich, going over Tilly's possessions, finds within a locket a hair belonging to Weintraub, thus pointing to him as the murderer. Nyssen describes to General Seeger's group how the manipulation of over-extended small investors is about to cause the economy to collapse. He suggests that by short-selling massive amounts of stock, they could earn billions, creating an opportunity to change society radically. Wendt seems intrigued, but the others only scoff.
Pechtmann meets with Wendt to blackmail him, but is killed by him instead. A seriously injured Weintraub lies in the Charité hospital; Rath is also being treated there. Gennat publicly announces that the murderer has been caught, although his identity is not revealed. Esther tries to convince Edgar that Weintraub cannot be the murderer, and shows him how Weintraub went to prison for him. Helga visits Rath in hospital to tell him about the pregnancy and he confronts her about the identity of "A." and also questions whether he is the father. Moritz goes on a hunting trip with the Hitler Youth and swears allegiance to Hitler. The prison warden notifies Litten that Greta's execution is set for five days' time, even though the appeal has not been processed. She is confused when Greta denies Litten is her lawyer. Greta confides in Dr. Völcker that she lied because of threats to her child.
Esther has the idea of the film's plot changing so that the main character is a 'man-machine', so that she can play her, thereby completing the film's shoot; she also helps Weintraub hide and recover at the studio. Police interrogate Edgar while conducting a city-wide search for Weintraub. Charlotte takes Ilse to meet the eye doctor; the surgery appears to be successful and Ilse is told to remove the bandages in three days. Horst pays Ali to release Erna but Stennes tells Horst to get rid of her and move address. Wendt questions Rath about Katelbach and gets a warrant to search Elisabeth's place, but comes up empty; Rath has ensured that he appears to be genuinely trying to find Katelbach to avoid Wendt's suspicions, but in fact he is hiding him in his own flat.
The homicide department brings in Dr. Schmidt to conduct a psychic reading to find Weintraub. At her suggestion, a follow-up inspection on the roof of the film studios is carried out and Rath finds a bloody knife, identical to the one already found where Weintraub and Vera fell. Edgar is released from jail and makes peace with Esther, and accepts that she will complete the film. He discover's Weintraub's hiding place and tells him that, once he has recovered, he must leave his house and never have anything to do with Esther and himself again.
In a flashback to two weeks earlier, Ullrich approaches Gosztony at his beverage store with evidence that ties him to the Krempin murder. He blackmails Bela and Sandor Gosztony, who have previous convictions, to continue killing those associated with the film in the manner of the Betty Winter murder he knows Sandor committed when Krempin refused, using the Phantom costume which he knows will attract press attention. Back in the present, Ulrich shows Rath that Weintraub's fingerprints are on the knife that was discovered, but Charlotte is not convinced as the attacker wore gloves. Wendt is given Benda's diary by his widow; it proves that Zörgiebel ordered the police to start shooting during the Blutmai riots, and Wendt confronts Zörgiebel with the diary to try to get him to resign. Nyssen attempts suicide, but is saved by Helga who having found a suicide note in her room rushes to Alfred's home. Ilse's husband confronts Charlotte at work over Ilse's surgery which has made her almost blind, believing she made an appointment with an incompetent physician. Gereon and Zörgiebel suspect Wendt arranged Benda's murder and then covered up all the evidence, ensuring all those involved are killed, but lack enough evidence to act. Malu gives photographic evidence of plans by the Reichswehr to illegally rearm to Elisabeth, who forwards it to Katelbach and Rath.
Whilst having a meeting with Wendt, Stresemann has a heart attack, and Wendt ignores Stresemann's pleas for help until he is sure he is dead. Edgar and Weintraub kill Sandor while he is in police custody, after bribing some officers. Litten obtains a stay of execution for Greta on the day of Stresemann's funeral, and the judge informs Wendt, who proceeds to the prison to prevent the warden finding out about the stay. Charlotte tries to prevent Greta's execution but is prevented from delivering the stay by prison guards following Wendt's orders and Greta is beheaded. Toni, blaming Charlotte for their sister's blindness, leaves home and leaves a note for Charlotte telling her not to try to find her.
On Rotten Tomatoes the first season holds approval rating of 100% based on 30 reviews, with the critics consensus reading: "Babylon Berlin's humor and humanity pair nicely with its hypnotic visuals, resulting in a show that dazzles within its oversaturated genre."[60] As of April 2019, Babylon Berlin was the highest rated non-English language show on Sky TV.[18]
Carolin Ströbele of Die Zeit praised the pilot, saying that it "is highly dynamic and unites sex, crime and history in a pleasantly unobtrusive manner."[61] Christian Buss, cultural critic from Der Spiegel, praised the series for staying true to the tradition of "typically German angst cinema", in the vein of 1920s silent movies such as Fritz Lang's Metropolis or Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. "It could be that Babylon Berlin is the first big German TV production since Das Boot which enjoys really relevant success abroad. Let's not be shy to say it: we [Germans] are big again – as the world champions of angst."[43]
The series itself received several awards in 2018. These included a Bambi in the category Beste Serie des Jahres (Best series of the year),[62] four awards at the Deutscher Fernsehpreis (best dramatical series; best cinematography for Frank Griebe, Bernd Fischer and Philip Haberlandt; best musical score for Johnny Klimek and Tom Tykwer; and best production design for Pierre-Yves Gayraud and Uli Hanisch),[63] a special Bavarian TV Award[64] and a Romy for TV event of the year.[65] In the same year, everyone majorly involved with the production of the series won a Grimme-Preis, including Volker Bruch, Liv Lisa Fries, Peter Kurth, the three directors and several members of the technical team.[66] Bruch also won a Goldene Kamera in the category Best German actor for his portrayal of Gereon Rath.[67]
The series' opening title sequence, created by German designer Saskia Marka and featuring a theme composed by Johnny Klimek and Tom Tykwer, was named the best title sequence of 2018 by industry website Art of the Title.[68]
In December 2019, the European Film Academy awarded the series with the inaugural Achievement in Fiction Series Award at the European Film Awards.[17]
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Die Handlung ist hoch dynamisch erzählt und vereint sex, crime and history auf angenehm unaufdringliche Weise.
