Babylon Berlin

Babylon Berlin is a German neo-noir television series. It is created, written and directed by Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries and Hendrik Handloegten, based on novels by German author Volker Kutscher. The series takes place in Berlin during the Weimar Republic, starting in 1929. It follows Gereon Rath, a police inspector on assignment from Cologne who is on a secret mission to dismantle an extortion ring, and Charlotte Ritter, police clerk by day, flapper by night, who is aspiring to become a police inspector.

Not to be confused with Berlin Babylon.

Babylon Berlin
GenreNeo-noir
Thriller
Period drama
Created byTom Tykwer
Achim von Borries
Henk Handloegten
Written byHenk Handloegten
Achim von Borries
Tom Tykwer
Directed byHenk Handloegten
Achim von Borries
Tom Tykwer
StarringVolker Bruch
Liv Lisa Fries
Theme music composerTom Tykwer
Johnny Klimek
Reinhold Heil
Kristjan Järvi
Gene Pritsker
Country of originGermany
Original language(s)German, Russian
No. of seasons3
No. of episodes28
Production
Producer(s)Stefan Arndt
Uwe Schott
Michael Polle
Running time45 minutes
Production company(s)X Filme Creative Pool
Release
Original networkSky 1, Das Erste
Original release13 October 2017 (2017-10-13) –
present
External links
Website

The series premiered on 13 October 2017 on Sky 1, a German-language entertainment channel broadcast by Sky Deutschland. The first release consisted of a continuous run of sixteen episodes, with the first eight officially known as Season 1, and the second eight known as Season 2. Netflix released the first two seasons in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. The second run of twelve episodes, officially known as Season 3, premiered on 24 January 2020 on Sky 1.[1]

Cast

Main
  • Volker Bruch as Inspector Gereon Rath, a combat veteran of the Imperial German Army during World War I and a policeman newly transferred from his home town of Cologne to Berlin; he struggles with PTSD linked to his war experiences and survivor's guilt over the loss of his brother and secretly self-medicates (seasons 1–3)
  • Liv Lisa Fries as Charlotte Ritter, a flapper from the slums of Neukölln and an occasional prostitute at the Moka Efti cabaret, who works as a police clerk and dreams of becoming the first female homicide detective in the history of the Berlin Police (seasons 1–3)
  • Peter Kurth as Detective Chief Inspector Bruno Wolter, a Berlin Police investigator whose affability masks unseemly tendencies; he becomes the primary antagonist in season 2 (seasons 1–2)
  • Matthias Brandt as Councillor August Benda, a Jewish Social Democrat and the head of the Berlin Political Police. A tenacious investigator and true believer in the Weimar Republic, Benda is equally loathed by Monarchists, Communists, and National Socialists; for years, he has been investigating the Black Reichswehr (seasons 1–2)
  • Leonie Benesch as Greta Overbeck, a down-on-her-luck childhood friend of Charlotte Ritter who eventually finds a job as domestic servant to Councillor Benda and his family and reluctantly gets entwined in an assassination scheme (season 1–3)
  • Severija Janušauskaitė as Countess Svetlana Sorokina / Nikoros, a White Russian émigré, crossdressing singer at the Moka Efti cabaret, and spy for the Soviet secret police (season 1; recurring season 2)
  • Ivan Shvedoff as Alexei Kardakov, an anti-Stalinist Russian refugee and the leader of a Trotskyist cell in Berlin (season 1; guest season 2)
  • Hannah Herzsprung as Helga Rath, Inspector Gereon Rath's secret lover of more than ten years and the wife of his brother, who has been missing since the First World War (season 2–3; guest season 1)
  • Lars Eidinger as Alfred Nyssen, a steel manufacturer with links to Reichswehr and Freikorps officers plotting to overthrow the Republic and restore Kaiser Wilhelm II to the German throne and who detests the ruling Social Democratic Party of Germany (seasons 2–3; recurring season 1)
  • Benno Fürmann as Oberst Wendt, an ambitious and untrustworthy political police counsellor who is a power player with the NSDAP (season 3; recurring seasons 1–2)
  • Mišel Matičević as Edgar Kasabian, "The Armenian", the impeccably dressed owner of the Moka Efti cabaret and the leader of organised crime in Berlin; a ruthless but deeply principled gangster, he acts as a secret protector to Inspector Gereon Rath for personal reasons (season 3; recurring seasons 1–2)
  • Ronald Zehrfeld as Walter Weintraub, the mysterious and ruthless partner of The Armenian who returns from time in prison (season 3)
  • Meret Becker as Esther Kasabian, a former actress married to The Armenian who dreams of returning to acting as well as reconciling the men she loves (season 3)

Recurring
  • Anton von Lucke as Stephan Jänicke, a young detective in the Berlin Police who has been assigned by Councillor Benda to investigate Wolter for ties to the Black Reichswehr (seasons 1; guest season 2)
  • Henning Peker as Franz Krajewski, a drug addict who works as a police informant (season 1)
  • Fritzi Haberlandt as Elisabeth Behnke, a kind friend of Bruno Wolter who maintains a boarding house where Inspector Rath stays (seasons 1–3)
  • Karl Markovics as Samuel Katelbach, an eccentric writer and sometimes journalist who befriends Rath at the boarding house (seasons 1–3)
  • Jens Harzer as Dr. Anno Schmidt, a mysterious doctor whose atypical practices are considered fringe by the Berlin medical community but heralded by others, including The Armenian (seasons 1–3)
  • Ernst Stötzner as Major General Kurt Seegers, a member of the Reichswehr's General Staff and DCI Bruno Wolter's commanding officer during the Great War; he opposes the Republic and is up to many secret activities (seasons 1–2; guest season 3)
  • Jördis Triebel as Dr. Völcker, a communist doctor who disagrees with the practices of the Berlin police department (season 1; guest season 3)
  • Christian Friedel as Gräf, a photographer for the Berlin police department who works closely with Rath (seasons 1–3)
  • Denis Burgazliev as Col. Trochin, a Soviet diplomat and official of Stalin's secret police who targets anti-Stalinists (seasons 1–2)
  • Thomas Thieme as Karl Zörgiebel, the stern police chief of Berlin and former chief of Cologne (seasons 1–3)
  • Ivo Pietzcker as Moritz Rath, Gereon Rath's nephew and Helga's son whose curiosity gets him into trouble (season 2–3)
  • Udo Samel as Ernst "Buddah" Gennat, the stern but kind head of Berlin's Homicide Department, based on a real director of the Berlin criminal police (season 3; guest season 2)
  • Luc Feit as Leopold Ullrich, detail-oriented police analyst (season 3; guest season 2)
  • Trystan Pütter as Hans Litten, a pro bono attorney interested in Greta's case, based on a real lawyer (season 3)
  • Thorsten Merten as Henning, a homicide investigator working under Rath with Czerwinski (season 3; guest seasons 1–2)
  • Rüdiger Klink as Czerwinski, a homicide investigator working under Rath with Henning (season 3; guest seasons 1–2)
  • Godehard Giese as Wilhelm Böhm, a high-ranking homicide detective who often clashes with Rath and Ritter (season 3; guest seasons 1–2)
  • Saskia Rosendahl as Malu Seegers, a communist law student who disagrees with her father General Seegers (season 3)
  • Sabin Tambrea as Tristan Rot, aka Herbert Plumpe, a melodramatic actor with an interest in the occult (season 3)
  • Julius Feldmeier as Otto Wollenberg/Horst Kessler, a friend of Fritz with villainous intentions (season 3; guest seasons 1–2)
  • Jacob Matschenz as Fritz Hockert/Richard Pechtmann, a friend of Otto with villainous intentions (season 3; guest seasons 1–2)
  • Alexander Hörbe as Bela Grosztony, an organised crime figure (season 3)

Production

Development

The series was co-directed by Tom Tykwer, Hendrik Handloegten, and Achim von Borries, who also wrote the scripts. The first two seasons of the show 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. 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.[2]

The series is described as the most expensive television drama series in Germany, with a budget of €40 million that increased to €55 million due to reshoots.[3]

Later seasons

After a year-long production hiatus, the show resumed production in late 2018 with an extended six-month shoot for the third season of Babylon Berlin; filming was completed in May 2019.[4][5][6] 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 is planned.[7]

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 Weimar Republic is often overlooked by both media and historical sources.[8] 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.

In a January 2020 interview with Berliner Zeitung, actress Liv Lisa Fries said that production will likely begin on the fourth season in late 2020 or early 2021.[9]

Era

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." 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."[10]

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,[11] and extra-legal paramilitary formations promoted by the German army, known as the Black Reichswehr.[12] Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, on the other hand, is only mentioned in passing during the first two seasons of Babylon Berlin.[13]

Locations

The Babelsberg Studio created an addition to its Metropolitan Backlot for the filming of the series and for future productions,[14] in form of a large permanent standing set, lauded by the company as one of the largest in Europe.[15] The set includes representations of various neighbourhoods of Berlin, including the prevailing economic classes, and also includes the large exterior of the night club Moka Efti.[16] In addition, the series was filmed throughout Berlin and at other locations in Germany. Numerous scenes were filmed on Alexanderplatz in front of the historic Alexanderhaus. 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[17] in multiple scenes. Interior scenes in the Moka Efti were filmed at the Delphi Cinema[18] in Berlin-Weissensee. 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. Other scenes were filmed on Museum Island and in the Hermannplatz U-Bahn station in Berlin, and the Church of the Redeemer on the Havel river in Potsdam. The scenes set on the estate of the Nyssen family were filmed at Schloss Drachenburg, a castle in the Rhineland. Scenes involving a steam train were filmed at the Bavarian Railway Museum near Nördlingen.

Music

In 2018, the show formed an in-house band to perform the original music of the show, The Moka Efti Orchestra. 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 fourteen-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 under the pseudonym "Severija" and charted on the German singles chart.[19]

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).[19]

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.

Broadcast

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).[20] The series debuted in Australia, Canada, and the United States on 30 January 2018 (Netflix).[21] Broadcasting on the German TV channel Das Erste started Sunday 30 September 2018.[22] The Swedish broadcast began on 19 June 2019 on SVT.[23]

After early indications of a late 2019 premiere,[2] it was finally announced that the third season would premiere in Germany on Sky 1 on 24 January 2020;[24] the season will be broadcast on German public television station ARD in late 2020.[25] 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 Viasat in early 2019.[2][25]

In territories where the show is distributed by Netflix, the third season was released in its entirety on 1 March 2020.[26][27][28]

Episodes

The first and second seasons, of eight episodes each, were written as one complete story (covering the first novel of the Kutscher book series) and filmed as one continuous production.[29] They premiered as one unbroken block, numbered 1-16,[30] and have been broadcast throughout the world as one block. In addition, all 16 episodes of both seasons were made available simultaneously on Netflix.[31] However, in many territories the show was broadcast as a single season comprising eight double-length episodes.

The second block of 12 episodes are officially known as Season 3[32] but will be broadcast as Season 2 in those territories where the previous episodes premiered as a single unbroken block.[33]

Season 1 (2017)

All episodes were written and directed by Henk Handloegten, Achim von Borries, and Tom Tykwer.

No.TitleOriginal release date
1"Episode 1"13 October 2017 (2017-10-13)
In April 1929, a train bound for Berlin has to stop near Novorzhev due to a burning tree lying on the rails. The engine driver and a train worker are ambushed by several armed, Russian-speaking men. The men couple an additional car to the train, and two Russian men replace the Germans who are killed by shots to the head. Meanwhile, Gereon Rath, a morphine addict and World War I veteran who worked as a police inspector in Cologne is transferred to Berlin. He and his new partner, Bruno Wolter, visit a photographic studio which is actually a pornographic film set and production studio. As they arrest Johann König, the owner, another man flees, and shoots at Gereon, but is subdued by Bruno. Bruno lets him go since the man is Franz Krajewski, one of his informants. He fought in World War I and was fired from his job as a policeman because he overreacted in a shoot-out, due to his PTSD. Franz goes to a therapist (Dr Schmidt), revealing that the police arrested König and are looking for "the film". The therapist later meets with a mysterious man, referred to only as "The Armenian". The Armenian says he will take care of the film. At the police station, Gereon bumps into Charlotte Ritter after stepping out of a paternoster lift. She works as an archivist at the homicide division in order to provide for her family who live under pitiable conditions. She and Gereon part ways after gathering up their respective files they had dropped. Two Trotskyists named Kardakow and Svetlana receive a telegram at a printing shop, alerting them that the train will arrive soon.
2"Episode 2"13 October 2017 (2017-10-13)
Gereon interrogates Johann König, who had been tortured by a mysterious man before the interrogation. König seizes the inspector's handgun and wants to shoot Gereon, but after Gereon convinces him that his situation is hopeless, Johann commits suicide instead. This triggers Gereon's PTSD, so he rushes to nearby toilets to take some morphine, but is unable to do so because of his heavy trembling. Charlotte, in the neighbouring stall, finds him and helps him take his drugs. After this incident, Gereon phones with his father, who is disappointed that the film has not been found, and urges his son to destroy it, should it reappear. Gereon and Bruno are summoned into the office of August Benda, head of the police, to explain why König was injured after Bruno's interrogation, but neither of them tells the truth. Benda has a private conversation with Gereon and asks him why he had been transferred. Gereon admits that his friend Konrad Adenauer, the mayor of Cologne, was blackmailed with a film that is said to be in Berlin. Adenauer asked Gereon to find it before the upcoming elections. Gereon finds Krajewski, who cannot tell him anything about the film. At night, Charlotte visits the Moka Efti, a popular variety theatre. She listens to a singer called Nikoros, who is actually Svetlana in disguise. Charlotte follows one of the patrons to the club's basement, which houses a brothel where she works as a prostitute to supplement her family's income. Svetlana's fellow Trotskyists at the printery are killed by the same men who ambushed the train, but miss Kardakow, hiding in the latrine.
3"Episode 3"20 October 2017 (2017-10-20)
The Russian train arrives in Berlin. Svetlana appears at the railway and tells the driver that the last car will be redirected to Paris instead of Istanbul as originally planned. When the driver gets suspicious, Svetlana threatens him with a gun, but gets stopped by German rail workers and is arrested. The driver goes to Kardakow's pension, which happens to now be Gereon's. The next day, Benda says during a speech that communist associations have planned to demonstrate on 1 May even though such rallies have been banned in Berlin. When Gereon refuses to tell Bruno anything about his conversation with Benda, Bruno gets angry and arranges that the two of them will oversee the demonstrations together. Gereon returns to his rooming house, where he finds the landlady, Elisabeth Behnke, gagged. He and the Russian engine driver get into a fistfight, and Gereon is able to throw him over a balcony. When the driver then gets kidnapped on the street, Gereon tries to intervene, but fails to save him. The driver gets taken to a warehouse where he is questioned by Trochin, the Soviet ambassador. The driver admits that the train is loaded with a large number of gold bars belonging to Sorokin.
4"Episode 4"20 October 2017 (2017-10-20)
Gereon and Bruno search the apartments of alleged communists during demonstrations, but find no incriminating evidence. As they leave, a large convoy of policemen begins randomly firing at the crowds which horrifies Gereon. He and Bruno flee into a nearby house where two civilian women standing on a balcony are hit by bullets and seriously wounded. Gereon is able to find Dr. Volcker, a female doctor who treats poor people and is a member of the KPD. Later, Gereon and Charlotte, who now compiles reports, go to the morgue to examine the body of the Russian engine driver. Charlotte points out how the victim's bruises are even and that he therefore probably did not die from natural circumstances. Gereon recognises the corpse as that of the man who had broken into his apartment. Charlotte meets Greta, an old friend, and takes her to the Moka Efti. Bruno meets Charlotte at the Moka Efti and asks her to spy on Gereon.
5"Episode 5"27 October 2017 (2017-10-27)
Kardakow is shot by Svetlana after she calls the Soviets to her apartment. Dr. Volcker leads a mass rally in front of the police station protesting the killings during the riot, and the police hold a press conference claiming self-defence but decorate a police officer accidentally shot by his toddler. Gereon continues to investigate the picture. Following Gereon's tip, Charlotte breaks into Svetlana's apartment to investigate and finds a book dropped by Kardakow. Kardakow tells the Armenian about the Sorokin gold. Gereon and Charlotte interview Trechkov, who gives them the address for the Red Fortress printing house.
6"Episode 6"27 October 2017 (2017-10-27)
Kardakow goes to the Armenian for help. Ketelbach asks Gereon for help to investigate the wounded police officer. Stefan invites Charlotte and Greta to the rowing club where Greta meets Fritz, a KPD member. Gereon struggles writing a favourable police report of the riot shooting, despite pressure from Zorgiebel. Major General Seegers discusses Operation Prangertag on Nyssen's family estate. Bruno helps Gereon find Krajewski, who take him into custody for questioning. Kardakow goes with the Armenian and his men to the trainyard to find the gold, but accidentally releases poison gas from the mislabelled railcar.
7"Episode 7"3 November 2017 (2017-11-03)
Greta is employed by Benda despite her inexperience. Dr Schmidt conducts a lecture on PTSD, which is denounced by the audience. A mysterious priest provides a barbituate to the pharmacist to give to Gereon. Charlotte investigates the Anhalter freight yard as the railcars are being inspected by the Soviets. Benda takes over the inspection with police officers, who informs Gereon that he is investigating illegal weapons imports by the Black Reichswehr. Charlotte goes with Stefan to investigate the Red Fortress printer. Bruno invites Gereon to a Black Reichswehr gathering which show stab-in-the-back myth beliefs. Gereon recounts being captured on the front line after carrying his brother from no man's land.
8"Episode 8"3 November 2017 (2017-11-03)
Nyssen is interrogated by Benda about the chemical weapons. Benda's family goes on a vacation, so Benda has dinner alone with Greta. Krajewski divulges the location of the film to Gereon and Bruno. Gereon breaks into the safe in the Armenian's private room at the Moka Efti, and escapes with the films after a shootout with the Armenian's men. Gereon and Bruno destroy the films after watching several known politicians on the films, including Gereon's father. Gereon and Bruno celebrate the success of the investigation, but the Armenian's contacts drug Gereon. Gereon is pursued by the priest before losing consciousness.

Season 2 (2017)

The second-season episodes were written and directed by Henk Handloegten, Achim von Borries, and Tom Tykwer.

No.TitleOriginal release date
1"Episode 9"10 November 2017 (2017-11-10)
A mass grave of fifteen bodies from the Red Fortress print shop is discovered and Gereon is assigned to Homicide to investigate the execution-style murders. Charlotte provides Gereon with the waybill showing the original railcar number of the Sorokin gold. The Homicide investigation team identifies the mysterious priest as Saint Joseph Wilczek, who was found killed. Nyssen is released from prison in time to attend a Nyssen AG Board meeting, only to discover he has been removed from the Board by his mother. Helga and Moritz surprise Gereon by arriving in Berlin after his brother Anno is officially declared killed in action.
2"Episode 10"10 November 2017 (2017-11-10)
Gereon and Helga re-kindle their relationship, but Moritz does not approve. At the Moka Efti, Charlotte eavesdrops on a meeting between Trochin, Wendt and Zorgiebel regarding the seized train. Greta talks to Fritz who is walking in the funeral procession for the women shot during the riot. Gereon arrests Soviet embassy attaches Selenski and Fallin after finding ballistic evidence tying the Soviets to the massacre. Stefan spies on a meeting where Wendt divulges the location of the train. Benda and Gereon confront Trochin with the massacre evidence, where Benda offers Trochin a deal to cover up the incident in exchange for information on the Black Reichswehr personnel responsible for the illegal arms shipments. Böhm investigates the Saint Josef murder. Stefan is killed by unknown attackers.
3"Episode 11"17 November 2017 (2017-11-17)
In exchange for releasing Selenski and Fallin, Trochin provides Gereon evidence that Beck and Seegers have been developing a secret German Air Force in Lipetsk. Following a tip off from the Armenian Gereon listens to a radio broadcast by Dr Schmidt, discussing psychiatric treatment. Gereon and Graf fly to Lipetsk to get photographic evidence of the secret airbase. Gereon recalls memories of himself killing Saint Josef. Benda informs Minister Stresemann of the Black Reichswehr investigation, who is aware and sympathetic to the cause.
4"Episode 12"17 November 2017 (2017-11-17)
Moritz finds Stefan's body. Homicide detectives question Gereon and Bruno after ballistics evidence shows the same gun killed Saint Josef and Stefan, while Gereon and Bruno suspect each other. Gereon moves Helga and Moritz out of Bruno's home to a hotel. Fritz visits Greta in Benda's house. Gereon asks Charlotte to help translate Stefan's shorthand diary after finding it in Bruno's house. Charlotte is kidnapped by unknown assailants.
5"Episode 13"24 November 2017 (2017-11-24)
Charlotte is brought to the Armenian and locked in the Moka Efti fridge when she cannot answer questions about the Sorokin gold. Behnke discovers the diary dropped underneath Gereon's bed at the rooming house. Benda convinces the Prussian Court to authorise an arrest of Seegers, Beck and other members of the Black Reichswehr. Bruno shows Moritz how to shoot a rifle after he finds an arms cache in the Wolters' apartment block basement. Benda and Gereon interrogate the Black Reichswehr. Bruno and the Black Reichswehr set Operation Prangertag in motion, a government coup to install Erich Ludendorff as Chancellor and restore the monarchy. Greta sees Fritz get shot by police outside the KPD office. Gereon questions Svetlana about the Sorokin gold. After reading a detailed article by Katelbach on the Black Reichswehr, Gereon goes with Katelbach to meet his informant.
6"Episode 14"24 November 2017 (2017-11-24)
Katelbach's informant is murdered before the meeting with Gereon. Gereon and Benda interrogate General Seegers before all the arrested officers are released. Otto tells Greta that Benda's men killed Fritz and she says she will do anything to get revenge. As part of Operation Prangertag, Bruno and Sheer attempt the assassination of the German and French foreign ministers, but are unsuccessful. Charlotte translates Stefan's diary and informs the Armenian of the train robbery. President Hindenburg arrives at the press conference and removes General Seegers and orders the train to be returned to the Soviet Union.
7"Episode 15"1 December 2017 (2017-12-01)
Gereon and Charlotte inform Benda of the train robbery and attempt to intercept the robbery against Benda's orders. Greta lets Otto plant a bomb in Benda's home office. Charlotte is shown to drown as the car that she is riding in with Gereon gets run off the road by Bruno into a lake. Greta arms the bomb and tries to flee Berlin, but changes her mind as she runs into Fritz at the train station, now dressed in a SA uniform. Greta runs back to the Benda house but is too late to stop the bomb from detonating.
8"Episode 16"1 December 2017 (2017-12-01)
It is revealed that Gereon managed to revive Charlotte after her apparent drowning. Henning and Czerwinski pick up Gereon and board the train. Bruno and the Black Reichswehr halt the train, but they are ambushed by the Armenian's gang. Gereon confronts Bruno on the train and discovers that the gold is actually fake. Henning and Czerwinski incapacitate the Armenian gang with anaesthetic while Bruno starts the train. After fighting with Gereon on top of the train, Bruno is killed after causing a gas explosion. Wendt becomes the new Head of the Political Police and wants Gereon to unofficially lead a new covert Internal Review department that investigates internal political crimes and corruption. Charlotte becomes a deputy homicide detective. Observing the Sorokin painting in Svetlana's apartment, Gereon and Charlotte deduce that the train was made of gold. In Paris, Kardakow watches Svetalana sing in a cabaret. Gereon is attacked by a KPD group led by Dr. Volcker but is rescued by the Armenian and taken to Dr. Schmidt. Under hypnosis, Gereon realises the truth: that he did not attempt to rescue his brother Anno, who was injured in no-man's-land, but that he in fact ran away. The badly scarred Dr Schmidt is actually Gereon's brother, Anno.

Season 3 (2020)
No.TitleOriginal release date
1"Episode 17"24 January 2020 (2020-01-24)
Season 3 begins with Rath moving dreamlike through the Berlin stock exchange building where men are killing themselves at the first financial collapse of the great depression. Nyssen looks on with satisfaction, Helga Rath at his side. Flashback to five weeks earlier. Rath has recovered from his PTSD and sets aside his medication. Ritter goes to a women's prison where she pleads unsuccessfully for the release of Greta Overbeck, who refuses all visits from her. Walter Weintraub is fingerprinted and released from prison. A car is waiting for him with a woman named Vera: he blindfolds her, has violent sex with her, and takes her earrings as a present for the Armenian's daughter. During the filming of a movie, a hooded figure boobytraps a spotlight, which kills the star Betty Winter (wife of homosexual Tristian Rot). Bellman, a producer, informs the Armenian of the incident. Ritter aces her crime-scene reenactment exam, but she later stumbles over a technical detail and is unfairly failed by the detail-obsessed Ullrich. At the film studio, the producer Bellman gives Rath an electrician's file and urgently tries to get him to declare the death an accident for insurance reasons. At the Armenian's house, Weintraub is greeted affectionately and he takes a satchel. Weintraub and Esther exchange glances. The two men visit Moka Efti, which has been damaged in an explosion. Alfred Nyssen and his mother are reassured that the stock market is booming. She indicates she wants to invest $45 million in Ahrensen's consortium. Later, Alfred admits his bipolar condition to Wegener and his suspicions about a coming stock market crash, which he blames on Jewish financial manipulation. He orders Wegener to illegally obtain the client lists of the major banks. Helga gives a specimen for a pregnancy test. Meanwhile, Rath reviews the footage of Betty's death and notices that one actress, Tilly Brooks (an alias for Mathilde Spielman), is acting strangely. As they examine the wreckage of the Moka Efti, the Armenian tells Weintraub that he believes it to be no accident. The Armenian states that Betty's death was also no accident and that he has been suspicious of other production accidents and that he thinks he knows who is behind the "accidents". He also explains how he covered things up at the murder scene as a million-dollar investment is at stake. Ritter and her sister, Toni, come home and clean up after their messy co-tenant. Instead of going home, where Helga is waiting, Rath enters a secret room where Dr. Schmidt gets him to chant, "To the truth. To the light", which is echoed in what appears to be a large hospital ward for wounded soldiers.
2"Episode 18"24 January 2020 (2020-01-24)
Helga seduces Rath on the way out the door for work. He is rough with her and she accuses him of letting Dr. Schmidt come between them again. Esther complains that Edgar will not let her have her music and Weintraub seduces her. Greta goes on trial. The widow Benda gives passionate testimony against her. Rath wants to review her files, but they are sealed by order of Wendt who promises Mrs. Benda to find the Nazis who put Greta up to it. Wendt tries to get Commissioner Zorgiebel to resign by threatening another trial about police shootings of communists. Rath sympathises with him against Wendt, but is refused permission to interrogate Greta again. Rath questions the electrician who was identified as being in charge of the spotlight that killed Betty, but it is revealed that Felix Krempin had impersonated him. Bellman is told that the death will not be deemed an accident, and therefore insurance will not cover the losses. Ritter is told by Toni that her mother left something with a neighbour that only Charlotte can collect. Rath runs into Tilly. She knows him from the Pepita Bar and tells him that she saw a ghostlike man in a cloak when the spotlight fell. Ritter has her work with a sketch artist while Toni waits in a restaurant. Tilly confides that Betty and Rot argued about going to America. Rath confronts Wendt about the sealed Overbeck files. Wendt states there is no Nazi connection, and blames the Communists. He tells Rath to focus instead on Hans Litten, a Communist Party lawyer, who he says is demanding that Zorgiebel be put on trial. Edgar and his banker (who is Esther's brother-in-law) argue over each losing $1 million on the movie. Edgar makes a veiled threat. Helga is given a key to an expensive hotel room under her maiden name where she waits. Meanwhile her son is recruited by the Hitler Youth. Rath shares his suspicions with Ritter that Wendt is covering up for Nazis and they agree to try to help Greta. Nyssen meets with Wendt at his estate and tells him he must handle Greta's interfering testimony and distance her from the Nazi party or there will be no more assistance. Weintraub and the Armenian violently pressure Bellman to complete the film despite the loss of the female lead. Esther smokes opium and looks at a picture. Ritter and Toni dream of a better future. Rath arrests Krempin who admits trying to sabotage the production, not kill Betty. Krempin is shot by the man in the cloak.
3"Episode 19"31 January 2020 (2020-01-31)
Rath spends the night in another session with Dr. Schmidt. Next morning Helga, packed, leaves with Moritz. They go to the elegant hotel room. Heymann, the editor of TEMPO magazine, nixes Katelbach's piece on how Lufthansa is helping the Reichswehr in favour of the more sensational Betty Winter/Krempin story. Heymann returns a call to Hans Litten's office. Rath receives the preliminary ballistics report on Krempin's murder weapon. Sebald locates Greta's child in an orphanage and takes custody in Wendt's name. Esther informs Bellman that the Armenian's own money is on the line. He begs for her help and they strategise. Rath brings Gennat up to speed on the case. Gennat gives an irrelevant lecture to reporters on his crime statistics. They only want to hear about Betty & Rot. Wegener, posing as a securities auditor, gathers investment information from various middle-class people. He reports to Alfred Nyssen that they all borrowed and invested bank money way beyond their means. Nyssen realises a collapse is inevitable. Menacingly, Wendt shows Greta her baby through a prison window. Ullrich tries to tell Gennat about a ballistics match on the Krempin gun but is shut down for violating chain of command. He sees a beetle on its back and decides not to tell anyone about his discovery. Katelbach receives a confidential document in a clandestine exchange. On the way to the studio, Rath admits he knows Tilly from somewhere besides the movies. Bellman and the banker are trying to convince Tristan Rot to do something he does not want to do regarding Betty's replacement. Rath interrogates Rot who recognises the picture of the cloaked figure and admits to an occult connection to Krempin. Ritter runs into Vera, a fellow working girl from the past, there to audition. Weintraub gets rough with the insurance adjustor who has denied Edgar's claim. Bellman calls to warn Edgar about police at the studio. Weintraub and Edgar argue. Edgar punches Weintraub, who inauthentically capitulates. Ritter thinks she sees the cloaked figure, but it turns out to be Rot's stand-in with a wooden leg, Aiden. A second copy of the cloak is missing. The seamstress admits Krempin got her to steal it, but is sure he is innocent because he left hours before the spotlight fell after receiving a phone call. Tilly auditions in a duet with Rot while Weintraub pulls Rath aside. Against Bellman's wishes, Weintraub calls a halt to casting and Tilly gets the part. Vera angrily confronts him. Rath and the Armenian find they have common interests in finding the killer as well as both being ex-addicts and patients of Schmidt. Edgar warns that the cure has a price and gives him a slip of paper. Tilly apologises to Vera for getting the role, but Vera locks her in the dressing room and assumes her place on set, as Weintraub looks on smiling. Tilly is killed by the cloaked figure who Ritter sees escaping from the window.
4"Episode 20"31 January 2020 (2020-01-31)
Greta recants her testimony, now stating that Fritz and Otto are actually Communists after all (not Nazis) and they incited her to plant the bomb. The courtroom erupts. Wendt exits satisfied. Ritter briefs her superiors about the Tilly investigation. They heckle her. She reports that Rot disappeared soon after the crime; that she saw Weintraub and the Armenian there; and that Vera admitted to locking Tilly in her dressing room before the murder. Gennat lectures her about protocol. Annoyed, Rath finds out he must work with Böhm, who is now lead on the case. Böhm reports that a butcher, a pyrotechnician, and a beverage supplier all had access to the crime scene. Gennat reassigns Ritter to work with Bohm as trainee. Unhappy, Böhm later sends her on a wild goose chase. Graf brings in underexposed crime scene photos and gets chewed out. Rath tells Ritter that Greta recanted and Greta gets attacked by Dr. Volcker in prison who demands to know why. Greta refuses to say. Böhm looks up stock quotes for Dresden Bank and later insinuates to his family that he may be coming into some money. Rath walks in on Ullrich who is injecting insulin for diabetes. Czerwinski and Henning get drunk while interviewing the beverage supplier who tells them he gave Rot the key to the courtyard just before the murder. Believing they outsmarted the supplier, they leave, watched by a mysterious man. Amongst Krempin's belongings, Rath finds a box of occult items, including the same pendant as was found around Tilly's neck and a secret invitation to a ceremony at Rot's house involving the Fraterna Saturni. Gennat assigns Böhm, Rath, and Ritter to attend. Ritter makes a date to go dancing with Vera. Ilse finds out she needs an expensive eye surgery. Ritter is given a bundle of her mother's letters by the neighbour Cziczewicz and finds a postcard from "E", who may be her real father. Ritter sees Helga enter the hotel where she meets a friendly Alfred Nyssen. Nyssen offers Helga to use the room, which belongs to Nyssen's family, for as long as she wants. Rath asks Henning to find Helga. At Rath's bidding, Graf accesses the archives to photograph Greta's interrogation. The archive attendant remembers him from the red-light district and violently forces him to give oral sex. Later, Graf and Rath look at the photos and notice Katelbach's name on a list. Rath tries to call him but he will not speak to him. Rath plans to meet him at breakfast the next day. Over drinks, Graf tells Rath about how Gennat pulled him off the street and got him a job as police photographer. They dance together drunkenly. At a gay bar, Vera encourages Ritter to go find "E” and comes on to her.
5"Episode 21"7 February 2020 (2020-02-07)
Rath and Böhm follow Ritter to Rot's house, declaring their mutual distrust. Ritter uses Tilly's pendant and the password to gain entrance. Masked and cloaked, they watch as Dr. Schmidt summons Betty Winter's soul into a surrogate who joins with Rot on an altar. Böhm breaks it up with a gunshot. Schmidt scurries off, seen by Rath (who calls him "Anno") and gives Rath a hypnotic command to forget he saw him. Next day at breakfast Rath admits to Katelbach that he was toeing the company line when he gave his testimony in the Zorgiebel case. Rath warns him that his name is on a political police list along with Litten's. Katelbach tells him about a manuscript in his desk drawer proving Lufthansa's illegal financing of the Reichswehr and warns him not to trust anybody. Böhm gives Ritter a menial assignment. Instead, Rath asks her to get addresses and phone numbers for the names on the list and then asks her out to lunch. Rath listens in on Rot's interrogation by Böhm in which Rot admits to waiting for Betty's spirit in the yard when Tilly was killed. The Armenian meets with a rival gang and accuses them of trying to sabotage his operation, which they deny. The mysterious man from the beverage supplier is there. Meaningfully, Weintraub suggests that the traitor will kill himself. Esther watches an old film of her and Rot. Helga asks Nyssen why he is helping her. His enigmatic response suggests they were fated to meet. Two names on the list, Kessler and Pechtmann, are aliases for Otto and Fritz. Kessler hires Erna for the day (a down-on-her-luck prostitute) with plans to rescue her from her pimp. In court, Greta is sentenced to death and refuses appeal. Rath sees Wendt whisper to Benda's widow. Ritter is upset by the sentence and disappointed by Rath's tepid reaction. She tells him that she saw Helga enter the hotel. Rath finds her registered under her maiden name, but only her son is there. Katelbach takes Elisabeth, the landlady where Rath also stayed, into his confidence. She rebuffs his sexual advances. Rath remembers good times with Helga. Dr. Volcker is assigned to Greta's cell.
6"Episode 22"7 February 2020 (2020-02-07)
Stennes, a henchman for Wendt, leads a raid on the offices of TEMPO and beats up Heymann, looking for Katelbach, who flees with the documents. Marie-Luise (MaLu) Seegers, a law student who volunteers in Litten's office, argues with her father the General about attending a function honouring him at Madame Nyssen's party. Helga refuses to let Moritz attend a Nazi youth outing, so he later asks to move in with Rath and gives him a letter from Helga asking him to let her go. Rath discovers that all the names on the secret list are either dead, in prison, or under surveillance. Zorgiebel thinks it's a page from a blacklist made by reactionaries. He asks what the letters "OW" and "FH" mean. Later, Rath figures out they stand for Fritz Hockert (Greta's lover) and Otto Wollenberg, which are aliases for Horst Kessler and Richard Pechtmann. Litten agrees to take Greta's case pro bono. Ritter offers to help in the office in return. Elisabeth hides Katelbach while Kessler and Pechtmann search. Katelbach asks her to take the documents to Heymann. Helga finds out she's pregnant. Pretending to be a Nazi, Rath breaks into Kessler's rooms and finds Erna who tells him Kessler is camping with "his scouts". Elisabeth cleverly eludes her pursuer and gets the documents to Heymann who says the story will be front page. The Seeger girls play music at the Nyssen soiree. Wendt and the General have words over the attack on TEMPO. Alfred talks privately with the General. Wendt talks with Bruning, tapped to be the next Chancellor by the conservative leaders of industry. MaLu switches place-cards to sit next to Wendt at dinner and banters with him about politics. She calls him a Nazi, which he denies. He makes a toast to the conservative revolution, but she's not buying it. Weintraub counts and stashes away large amounts of cash. Esther tells him she wants to be in the film and has an idea how to save it. He refuses to allow her to put herself at risk. The general's friends listen to Wendt propose allowing the Nazis to create civil unrest to further the group's plans. The General disagrees. Minister Stresemann suddenly walks in and asserts that the monarchists and the military should work together. Ritter notices in the transcripts from Greta's trial that Vera denied knowing Weintraub. Vera tells Ritter when confronted at home, that Weintraub is making her say that she was with him when Betty was murdered. But, in fact, he left her for 30 minutes at the exact time of the death.
7"Episode 23"14 February 2020 (2020-02-14)
Trembling with emotion, Nyssen admits to Dr. Schmidt in therapy that revenge is the reason for his obsession with Jewish financiers. Unable to find Rath, Ritter asks Czerwinski and Henning to put surveillance on Weintraub without telling Böhm. Litten enters an appeal for Greta and the judge calls Wendt. Meanwhile Rath arrests Pechtmann at Nyssen's stables and brings him in. Rath gets Zorgiebel to order a warrant to have Greta brought from prison, but she denies recognising "Fritz". Angrily, Rath does not believe it. Ullrich goes over Tilly's possessions and finds a hair in a locket that belongs to Weintraub. He opines to an assistant, Weishaupt, that insulin injection would be the perfect murder. Toni wants to buy budgies from a street vendor but does not have the money. Nyssen describes to the General's group how the manipulation of over-extended small investors is about to cause the economy to collapse and suggests that, by short-selling massive amounts of stock, they will make billions, which will create an opportunity to change society radically. Wendt is interested. The others scoff. Later, at a poker game, they display their mutual distrust when Wendt says the general is losing his nerve, Katelbach is proving a nuisance, and the Nazis should not be given too much rein. Czerwinski and Henning observe Weintraub ordering his men to protect "his main girl" at the studio. The cloaked figure appears, kills her guard, and attempts to kill Vera. She fights him off, but is injured. He chases her and Rath follows, firing at him. They fight and Rath's cheek is impaled. The cloaked figure walks away. Bleeding, Vera appears on a catwalk above the studio. Ritter rushes to comfort her. The cloaked figure appears. Ritter attacks the cloaked figure and is thrown off the catwalk, grabbing a hanging chain to save herself. The cloaked figure carries Vera away. They plummet from the top of a building. The mask comes off revealing Weintraub.
8"Episode 24"14 February 2020 (2020-02-14)
Pechtmann meets Wendt in the woods to blackmail him. Wendt shoots him and dumps him in a lake. Weintraub survives and is unconscious in the hospital, identity undisclosed. Newspapers call him "the Phantom". Gennat announces the murders solved and the movie studio is shut down. Esther tells Edgar that Weintraub could not have betrayed him, producing evidence—which reveals their affair—that he took the rap for him by going to prison. Edgar calls him "a Judas". Ritter visits Rath in the hospital and tells him Weintraub survived but Vera died. Helga walks in on them and Ritter leaves. Helga tells him she is pregnant and Rath confronts her about "A". Angry, she insists that the baby is Rath's. Moritz cannot bring himself to kill a deer while hunting with the Hitler Youth and beats one of the boys up when he teases him about it. Kessler lectures them about unity and has them swear allegiance to Hitler. The warden notifies Litten that Greta's execution has been scheduled even though the appeal has not been processed. She is confused when Greta denies Litten is her lawyer. Greta confides in her cellmate that she lied because of threats to her baby. The story breaks about the Reichswehr/Lufthansa illegal arms deal. Katelbach freaks out when he gets summoned for treason and Elisabeth suggests they marry. MaLu runs into Wendt at a restaurant and they banter about the economic climate. Ritter rejects an unscrupulous doctor for Ilse's surgery and his nurse gives her the name of a cheaper doctor. Toni passes destitute children in the street and accepts an offer from Peter to get something to drink. He tells her about a rich "uncle" who wants to be read to. Toni says she would do it if she were paid. Wendt calls Nyssen and says he will persuade the General's group if Nyssen asks his mother for 100 million to invest in the short-buy scheme. The Armenian visits Rath in hospital seeking confirmation that Weintraub was the murderer. Weintraub is taken from his bed to Dr. Schmidt who revives him with electroshock. He tells Edgar that the real Phantom pushed Vera and him off the roof. He admits to loving Esther. Helga enters an alley of prostitutes to meet with Cziczewicz, who is an abortionist. Ritter prostitutes herself in a sex show to earn money for Ilse's surgery. Edgar confronts Esther about loving Weintraub as the police arrive with a search warrant.
9"Episode 25"21 February 2020 (2020-02-21)
Esther is brought in to finish the production, while helping Weintraub hide and recover at the production studio . Police interrogate Edgar while conducting a city-wide search for Weintraub. Charlotte takes Ilse to meet the eye doctor for surgery. Otto pays Ali to release Erna, but Stennes tells Otto to get rid of her. Wendt questions Rath about Katelbach and gets a warrant to search Behnke's place. Nyssen forges a document to obtain power of attorney from his mother, and enters into a three-month short futures contract with the bank. Rath talks to Helga about Moritz and gets into a fight with Nyssen. Litten takes on Katelbach's treason charge and without Litten's knowledge, Malu offers to provide secret Reichswehr plans to Benhke for Katelbach's case.
10"Episode 26"21 February 2020 (2020-02-21)
The homicide department brings in Schmidt to conduct a psychic reading to find Weintraub. On a follow up inspection on the roof of the movie production site, Rath finds an identical bloody knife. Rath searches for the missing Pechtmann, and discovers his wife and child. Charlotte convinces Greta to accept Litten's representation. Nyssen's mother is furious when Alfred tells her of the current 11 million Reichsmarks loss on the 106 million Reichsmarks futures position. Instead of reading to her patron, Toni is asked to take a bath with the door open. Ali shoots Otto during a Hitler Youth meeting which Moritz attended. Charlotte asks her old neighbour, Cziczewicz, about Toni, and stumbles on Helga's illegal abortion. Charlotte confronts Toni about her new birds and how they were purchased. Ullrich plants a fingerprint on the newly discovered knife.
11"Episode 27"28 February 2020 (2020-02-28)
Ullrich approaches Gosztony with evidence that ties Gosztony to the Krempin murder. Ullrich shows Rath that Weintraub's fingerprints are on the discovered knife, but Charlotte notes that the attacker wore gloves. Benda's wife gives Wendt a diary which recorded that Zörgiebel ordered the police to start shooting during the 1 May riots. Helga discovers a suicide note from Nyssen in time to save him. Wendt pushes Zörgiebel to resign after presenting the diary. Ilse's surgery was unsuccessful as she is becoming blind. Malu gives photographic evidence to Behnke. Charlotte inspects Weintraub's fingerprints and points out the suspected forgery to Ullrich, who then attacks her. Benhke gives the Reichswehr film to Rath. Ullrich kills his assistant when he spots Charlotte's body and Ullrich gives Charlotte a lethal insulin injection. Rath stumbles upon Ullrich hiding the bodies but is stabbed by Ullrich with insulin. Ullrich takes Gennat hostage and pretends to conduct a lecture in the auditorium. Ullrich reveals that the Gosztony brothers wanted to bankrupt the film production as revenge against Edgar for cutting out Sandor's tongue and feeding it to his brother, and Ullrich conspired to falsify the police evidence and frame Weintraub. Rath and Graf rescue Gennat and doctors help Charlotte recover.
12"Episode 28"28 February 2020 (2020-02-28)
Stresemann has a heart attack while talking with Wendt. Rath goes to arrest the Gosztony brothers but Bela escapes. Edgar and Weintraub kill Sandor while he is in police custody. Weintraub prepares to leave the Kasabian house, but Esther convinces otherwise. Litten obtains a stay of execution for Greta after finding a special decree from Kaiser Wilhelm, but Charlotte is unable to stop the execution in time. Rath gets Wendt to admit to orchestrating the Benda murder and expediting Greta's execution as a cover up, while Graf records the conversation. Charlotte visits the inn referenced in the postcards to her mother, where the guestbook mentions an "Erwin Trollmann". Charlotte discovers she may be related to a boxer named Rukeli Trollmann. Zörgiebel resigns and Greszinski becomes Chief of Police. Toni objects to Charlotte's control and prefers to live on the street. The film is finished and has a successful premiere. Wall Street collapses and throws the Berlin Stock Exchange into chaos. Böhm is talked out of suicide by Rath as Böhm borrowed heavily in the stock market.

Critical reception

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."[34] As of April 2019, Babylon Berlin was the highest rated non-English language show on Sky TV.[8]

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."[35] 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."[20]

German historian Thomas Weber commented in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on 28 January 2018, "From an historical perspective, the series is very acute in showing how Weimar Democracy was under attack both from the Communist Left, as well as by traditional Conservatives, in a kind of unholy alliance."[10] In the same interview, Babylon Berlin co-writer Henk Handloegten commented, "One of the main reasons to make Babylon Berlin was to show how all these Nazis did not just fall from the sky. They were human beings who reacted to German society's changes and made their decisions accordingly."[10]

Accolades

The series itself received several awards in 2018. These included a Bambi in the category Beste Serie des Jahres (Best series of the year),[36] 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),[37] a special Bavarian TV Award[38] and a Romy for TV event of the year.[39] 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.[40] Bruch also won a Goldene Kamera in the category Best German actor for his portrayal of Gereon Rath.[41]

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.[42]

In December 2019, the European Film Academy awarded the series with the inaugural Achievement in Fiction Series Award at the European Film Awards.[7]

Awards
Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
2017 Camerimage Best Pilot Babylon Berlin Nominated
2018 Adolf Grimme Awards Outstanding Pilot Babylon Berlin Won
Bambi Awards Best Television Show – National Babylon Berlin Won
Best Actress – National Liv Lisa Fries Nominated
Best Actor – National Peter Kurth Nominated
Bavarian TV Awards Special Award Babylon Berlin Won
German Screen Actors Awards Best Supporting Actress Leonie Benesch Won
Best Leading Actor Peter Kurth Nominated
German Television Academy Awards Best Costume Design Pierre-Yves Gayraud Won
Best Make Up Kerstin Gaecklein, Roman Braunhofer Won
Best Score Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek Won
Best Visual Effects Robert Pinnow Won
Best Stunts Dana Stein Won
Best Editor Dana Stein Nominated
German Television Awards Best Series Babylon Berlin Won
Best Cinematography Frank Griebe, Bernd Fischer, Philipp Haberlandt Won
Best Music Johnny Klimek, Tom Tykwer Won
Best Production and Costume Desige Pierre-Yves Gayraud (costume designer), Uli Hanisch (production designer) Won
Best Directing for a Movie Made for Television or Miniseries Tom Tykwer, Henk Handloegten, Achim von Borries Nominated
Best Actress Liv Lisa Fries Nominated
Best Actor Peter Kurth Nominated
Best Editing Alexander Berner, Claus Wehlisch, Antje Zynga Nominated
Golden Camera Awards Best German Actor Volker Bruch Won
Golden Umbrella Television Awards Best Cinematography Bernd Fischer, Philipp Haberlandt, Frank Griebe Won [43]
Best Director Achim von Borries, Tom Tykwer, Henk Handloegten Won
Best Casting Simone Bär Won
Ondas Awards Best IntenationalTelevision Series Babylon Berlin Won
Romy Gala Awards Television Event of the Year Babylon Berlin Won
Seoul International Drama Awards Grand Prize Babylon Berlin Won
Magnolia Awards Best International Television Show Babylon Berlin Won
2019 SXSW Film Design Award Excellence in Title Design Saskia Marka Nominated
European Film Awards European Achievement in Fiction Series Award Babylon Berlin Won [7]

See also

References
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  2. Meza, Ed; Meza, Ed (9 April 2019). "'Babylon Berlin 3' Sells to More Than 35 Countries, Including Netflix for U.S. (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
  3. Berghausen, Nadine (February 2019). "A fascination with the past". goethe.de. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
  5. Wiseman, Andreas; Wiseman, Andreas (24 July 2018). "'Babylon Berlin' Confirmed For Third Season, Plot & Shoot Details Revealed". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  6. "Volker Bruch on Instagram: "That's a wrap! Thank you for the last 6 month! 🙏🍾🥂🤗😓🕺🏻#champagneinthemembrane #season3 #keepdancing"". Instagram. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  7. Scott, Sheena. "'Babylon Berlin': The Brilliant And Captivating German Series Celebrated at the European Film Awards 2019". Forbes. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  8. Granada, Emiliano; Granada, Emiliano (20 December 2019). "'Babylon Berlin' Season 3: New Murder Mystery, Same Dark Fascinations". Variety. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
  9. Zeitung, Berliner. "Liv Lisa Fries über "Babylon Berlin": "Selbst ich denke beim Zuschauen: cool!"". Berliner Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  10. Grey, Tobias (28 January 2018). "A Hit Drama in Germany, Babylon Berlin Crosses the Atlantic". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 8 February 2018.
  11. "Wladek Flakin: "Babylon Berlin" gets real". Exberliner. 1 November 2017.
  12. "Babylon Berlin: Germany on the Brink". The Weekly Standard. 25 May 2018.
  13. "A Hit Drama in Germany, 'Babylon Berlin' Crosses the Atlantic". The Wall Street Journal. 28 January 2018.
  14. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 24 June 2018. Retrieved 24 June 2018.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. "Metropolitan Backlot - Studio Babelsberg AG". studiobabelsberg.com. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
  16. "Moka Efti: does it exist?". Retrieved 22 April 2019.
  17. "Hungry? Have a quick bite at Aschinger's!". Retrieved 22 April 2019.
  18. c:Category:Kino Delphi (Berlin-Weißensee)
  19. Welle (www.dw.com), Deutsche. "Back to the 1920s with Babylon Berlin's Moka Efti Orchestra | DW | 14 February 2020". DW.COM. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  20. Connolly, Kate (29 October 2017). "Babylon Berlin: lavish German crime drama tipped to be global hit". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  21. Antrim, Taylor (30 January 2018). "Your New Winter TV Binge Is Here: Babylon Berlin". Vogue. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
  22. Sagatz, Kurt (17 November 2017). "ARD verteidigt Kooperation mit Sky bei Babylon Berlin". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Retrieved 6 February 2018.
  23. "Tv-recension: Dekadens och våld i Babylon Berlin". SVT Nyheter. 20 June 2019.
  25. Connolly, Kate (29 December 2019). "Drugs, dancing, cabaret: Babylon Berlin returns for season three". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
  26. "Everything Coming To Netflix Australia This February 2020". GQ. 22 January 2020. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  27. Fleenor, Rebecca. "Every new movie and show on Netflix: February 2020". CNET. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  28. "What's Coming to Netflix This Week (February 24th - March 1st)". What's on Netflix. 23 February 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  29. Goodfellow2017-04-03T08:58:00+01:00, Melanie. "Tom Tykwer: 'Babylon Berlin' could run for another decade". Screen. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
  30. "Die Folgen zur Sendung - Babylon Berlin - ARD - Das Erste". daserste.de. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
  31. Hawkins, Kayla. "The Creators Of Your New Netflix Crime Obsession Already Have SO Much More Planned". Bustle. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
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