Series set in Weimar Republic is most expensive made in Germany and has been praised for its political significance

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A lavish 16-part TV series set between the two world wars is being tipped as the first big-budget German production that could become a global TV blockbuster.



Babylon Berlin, a period drama set in the Weimar Republic replete with crime, corruption, sex and decadence, cost €38m (£33m) to make and is the most expensive TV series filmed in Germany.

Critics are predicting it will compete with the likes of Breaking Bad, House of Cards and Downton Abbey.

The series began airing in Germany this month to critical acclaim and attracted the sort of attention usually reserved for Scandinavian crime dramas or US productions. It has been sold to 60 countries, including the UK, where it will be broadcast on Sky Atlantic from next Sunday.

Die Zeit called it “extremely dynamic ... combining sex, crime and history in a pleasantly undemanding way”, but added that its artistic success was topped by its ability to mirror some aspects of the current political mood.

The series charts the fragile democracy in the Weimar Republic shortly before the Nazi rise to power, and comes at a time when fears are growing over the successes of the populist right across Europe, including the entry into the German parliament of the rightwing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The trailer for Babylon Berlin.

“The plot points at almost uncanny parallels to the present day, which gives it another relevance altogether,” Die Zeit’s critic wrote.

Filmed over 180 days, the series was shot at 300 different locations in Berlin and the nearby Babelsberg Studios, employing 5,000 extras.

Made with a foreign audience in mind, critics say it could be a game changer for German television.

“At last, a big television series from Germany – one which has the potential to match up internationally – the start of a new era,” said Manager Magazine recently. “The expectations are so high that a flop would be a heavy setback for Germany’s reputation in the TV world.”

Nazis, noir and Weimar decadence: Babylon Berlin recreates an era for TV detective drama Read more

Based on the bestselling crime novels of Volker Kutscher, whose plots span from 1929 to 1934, Babylon Berlin tells the tale of Gereon Rath (played by Volker Bruch), a police inspector and traumatised veteran of the first world war, who takes morphine to control his post-traumatic stress disorder. His forays into the sinister depths of Berlin’s criminal underworld drive the story and give an insight into the heady days of Berlin in the late 1920s, when it was dubbed “the most modern city in the world”.

The production opulently reproduces the wild nightclubs full of risque revelry, juxtaposed with massacres of political activists and depictions of poverty amid rising inflation. Ever present is the building tension that will ultimately lead to the Nazis coming to power.

Berlin Babylon’s makers hope to cash in on the growing international interest in depictions of German history in popular culture, as seen by the recent success of Deutschland ‘83, which followed the exploits of a young Stasi officer.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The opulent atmosphere of the Weimar Republic is recreated in Babylon Berlin. Photograph: Frédéric Batier/X Filme

Popular novels such as Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada and the history book 1913: The Year Before the Storm by Florian Illies, an international bestseller, have also fuelled interest.

But Babylon Berlin is by far the riskiest project yet from a commercial standpoint. Cultural observers say it coincides with Germany’s increased prominence on the international stage, as well as recognition of its efforts to deal with its dark history.

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,” wrote Spiegel’s cultural critic, Christian Buss. “Let’s not be shy to say it: we [Germans] are big again – as the world champions of angst.”

Not everyone is full of praise, however. Kurt Scheel, a veteran cultural observer, has called it “abhorrent” for depicting cliches about “evil Germans”.

“This was about making a German hit series that is replete with enough cliches (‘can we have a bit more Nazi’?) so that it can be well-marketed and sold to the enemy ... it is cowardly and risks nothing,” he wrote.

Babylon Berlin’s three directors have insisted the series is relevant for modern audiences. “Even while we were making it, we were effectively confronted with contemporary events as they happened,” Tom Tykwer, one of the trio said, citing the Brexit vote, the rise of Donald Trump and the success of the populist right in Europe.

“As an idea, democracy is up for negotiation again, as much a topic in the series as it is now,” he said. “That was striking to us and while not quite unexpected, certainly on this scale, rather creepy.”



Babylon Berlin is on Sky Atlantic from 5 November. The novel of the same name by Volker Kutscher is published in English by Sandstone Press.