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 Gereon Rath 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, followed by Season 4 in October 2022. The fifth and final season premiered in Germany on 10 September 2026.
Historically the most expensive non-English language television drama series ever produced, it was a critical success, winning the Bambi Award for Best Television Show, four German Television Award (including one for Best Series), the Rose d'Or, and Achievement in Fiction Series Award at the European Film Awards. Netflix exclusively streamed seasons 1 to 3 in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States until they were removed in February 2024. All four seasons dropped on the Australian free-to-air streaming service SBS on Demand in March 2024. In April 2024, the first three seasons of the show began streaming on MHz Choice in the United States and Canada, with the fourth season added in June.
Synopsis The series is set in Berlin during the latter years of the Weimar Republic, beginning 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 police clerk Charlotte Ritter, who aspires to become a police inspector.
Season 1 and 2 depict a conservative conspiracy against the Republic; season 3 depicts the slow rise of the Nazi Party in 1929; season 4 depicts internal conflicts within the Nazi Party in 1931; and season 5 centres on their rise to power in 1933.
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 morphine dependence linked to his war experiences, particularly his survivor's guilt over the loss of his brother (seasons 1–5) Liv Lisa Fries as Charlotte Ritter ("Lotte"), a flapper from the slums of Neukölln and an occasional sex worker 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 1–5) Peter Kurth as Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) 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, the Jewish chief of the "Political Police" department of the Berlin Police. A tenacious investigator and true believer in the Weimar Republic, Benda is equally loathed by monarchists, communists, and Nazis; 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 (seasons 1–3) Severija Janušauskaitė as Countess Svetlana Sorokina ("Sveta")/Nikoros, a White Russian émigré, cross-dressing singer at the Moka Efti cabaret, and spy for the Soviet secret police (seasons 1–2) Ivan Shvedoff as Alexei Kardakov, an anti-Stalinist Russian refugee and the leader of a fictional Trotskyist cell in Berlin called the "Red Fortress" (season 1; guest season 2) 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 1–5) 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 (season 1; recurring season 2) Mišel Matičević as Edgar Kasabian, "the Armenian", the impeccably dressed owner of the Moka Efti cabaret and the leader of organized crime in Berlin; a ruthless but deeply principled gangster, he acts as a secret protector to Inspector Gereon Rath for personal reasons (season 1–3, 5; recurring season 4) Henning Peker as Franz Krajewski, a drug addict who works as a police informant (season 1; guest season 3; recurring season 5) Fritzi Haberlandt as Elisabeth Behnke, a kind friend of Bruno Wolter who maintains a boarding house where Inspector Rath stays (seasons 1–5) Karl Markovics as Samuel Katelbach, an eccentric writer and sometime journalist who befriends Rath at the boarding house (seasons 1–5) 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 1–5) Ernst Stötzner as Major General Wilhelm 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 seasons 3–4) Jördis Triebel as Dr. Völcker, a communist doctor who disagrees with the practices of the Berlin police department (seasons 1–5) Christian Friedel as Reinhold Gräf, a photographer for the Berlin police department who works closely with Rath (seasons 1–5) as Col. Trokhin, a Soviet diplomat and official of Joseph 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) 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 (seasons 2–5; recurring season 1) Ivo Pietzcker as Moritz Rath, Gereon Rath's nephew and Helga's son whose curiosity gets him into trouble (seasons 2, 4; recurring season 3) Benno Fürmann as Colonel Gottfried Wendt, an ambitious and untrustworthy political police counselor who is a power player with the NSDAP (seasons 2–5; guest season 1) Ronald Zehrfeld as Walter Weintraub, the mysterious and ruthless partner of the Armenian who returns from time in prison (seasons 3–4) 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 (seasons 3–4) Udo Samel as Ernst "Buddha" Gennat, the stern but kind head of Berlin's Homicide Department, based on a real director of the Berlin criminal police (seasons 3–5; recurring season 2) Luc Feit as Leopold Ullrich, detail-oriented police analyst (season 3; recurring season 2) Trystan Pütter as Hans Litten, a pro bono attorney interested in Greta's case, based on a real lawyer (seasons 3–5) Thorsten Merten as Alfons Henning, a homicide investigator working under Rath with Czerwinski (seasons 3–5; recurring seasons 1–2) Rüdiger Klink as Paul Czerwinski, a homicide investigator working under Rath with Henning (seasons 3–5; recurring seasons 1–2) Godehard Giese as Wilhelm Böhm, a high-ranking homicide detective who often clashes with Rath and Ritter (seasons 3–5; recurring seasons 1–2) Saskia Rosendahl as Marie-Luise Seegers, a communist law student who disagrees with her father, General Seegers (seasons 3–4) Sabin Tambrea as Tristan Rot, aka Herbert Plumpe, widower of Betty Winter, 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; recurring seasons 1–2) Jacob Matschenz as Fritz Höckert/Richard Pechtmann, a friend of Otto with villainous intentions (season 3; recurring seasons 1–2) Irene Böhm as Antonie Ritter ("Toni"), Charlotte's younger sister (season 4; recurring seasons 1–3) Hans-Martin Stier as Albert Grzesinski, Zörgiebel's successor (season 4; guest season 3) Hanno Koffler as Walter Stennes, a young Nazi lieutenant who collaborates covertly with Wendt (season 4; recurring season 3) Martin Wuttke as Gustav Heymann, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Tempo (season 4–5; recurring season 3) Sebastian Urzendowsky as Max Fuchs ("Reinstecke"), Kasabian's right-hand man (season 4; recurring seasons 1–3) Mark Ivanir as Abraham Goldstein, a Jewish American gangster (season 4) Moisej Bazijan as Jakob Grün, a jeweler and a relative of Goldstein (season 4) Marie-Anne Fliegel as Annemarie Nyssen, Alfred's mother (season 4; recurring seasons 1–3, 5) Holger Handtke as Georg Wegener, the Nyssen family lawyer and Alfred's confidant (season 4–5; recurring seasons 1–3) Peter Jordan as Fred Jacoby, a journalist and Gräf's romantic partner (season 4–5; recurring season 3) Jenny Schily as Rosa Helfers, the warden of Barnimstrasse women's prison (season 5; recurring seasons 3–4)
Recurring
Laura Kiehne as Ilse Ritter, Charlotte's older sister (seasons 1–3) Pit Bukowski as Erich Ritter, Ilse's husband (seasons 1–2; guest season 3) Anton Rattinger as Dr. Joseph Schwarz, a forensic pathologist at the University of Berlin (seasons 1–4) Lilli Fichtner as Doris, a friend of Charlotte (seasons 1–4) Johann Jürgens as Rudolf Malzig ("Rudi"), a medical student and friend of Charlotte and Stephan (seasons 1,4; guest seasons 2–3) Joachim Paul Assböck as Major Anton von Beck, General Seeger's adjutant (seasons 1–2) Waldemar Kobus as Joseph Döhmann, a pharmacist who regularly supplies Gereon with morphine in exchange for pornography (season 1) Marie Gruber as Emmi Wolter, Bruno's wife (seasons 1–2) Jeanette Hain as Irmgard Benda, August's wife (season 1–3) Emil von Schönfels as Arndt Scheer, a young member of the SA and a friend of Moritz who has sexual relations with Wendt (seasons 3–4; guest season 1) Caro Cult as Vera Lohmann, an actress who replaces Betty Winter in the film Demons of Passion after her murder (season 3) Bernhard Schütz as Jo Bellmann, a film director (season 3) Lola Witzmann as Renate Cziczewicz, a young girl and vagrant who befriends Toni (seasons 3–4) Ades Zabel as Hugo Wannmacher ("Red Hugo"), a mob boss who owns the Immertreu boxing ring (season 4) Lenn Kudrjawizki as Oskar Kulanin, a Soviet double agent and Marie-Luise's love interest (season 4) Sascha Nathan as Hermann Blank, editor-in-chief of the Nazi newspaper Der Angriff (season 4–5) Joachim Meyerhoff as Dr. Ferdinand Voss, a corrupt judge and leader of the White Hand (season 4) Nicolas Wolf as Wolf-Heinrich von Helldorff, Stennes' rival in Sturmabteilung Ost (season 4) Wiebke Puls as Helene Voss, Ferdinand's wife and the warden of Sonnenborn detention facility (season 4) Barbara Philipp as Elisabeth Krüger ("Iron-Else"), the mob boss who controls the boxing rings in the northern part of Berlin (season 4) Karlheinz Schmitt as Eduard Brüning ("Knife-Ede"), a mob boss known for using knives as his signature weapons (season 4) Herold Vomeer as Adolf Leib ("Muscle-Adolf"), a mob boss closely aligned with Weintraub (season 4) Tobi B. as Jacob Reinhardt ("Blinde-Bob"), a mob boss from the northern part of Berlin (season 4) Roberto Thoenelt as Robert Fitzek ("Rat-Robert"), a mob boss who is known for disposing his victims with rats (season 4) Hannes Wegener as Johann "Rukeli" Trollmann, a German Sinti boxer and suspected half-brother of Charlotte (season 4) Le Pustra as Edwina Morell, the flamed-haired host of Kabarett der Namenlosen and owner of the Luxor Nightclub (season 5; guest seasons 3–4)
Overview