Berlin in 1929 is not a city for the faint of heart. World War One was barely a decade ago; Germany’s Weimar Republic is on shaky ground. Those living only for the moment mingle with people who’ll stop at nothing to seize the future. For Inspector Gereon Rath (Volker Bruch), being transferred to the city opens his eyes to a world he never dreamed of. Welcome to Babylon Berlin.
The Roaring 20s is a period burnt into pop culture. Art Deco style, flappers dancing to jazz, men in tuxedos with slicked back hair, everyone out for a good time after the war and unaware that the Great Depression is just around the corner. Internationally series Babylon Berlin ticks all the boxes with panache and flair, recreating one of Europe’s most colourful and vibrant cities at the peak of its glory. And then the series turns all those cliches on their head, because beneath the lights and polish Germany is a country teetering on the brink of economic and political collapse, and behind all the good times there’s real suffering and conflict.
On the surface, things are golden in Berlin, but this is a time of change. Credit: Frédéric Batier | © X Filme Creative Pool Entertainment / Degeto Film / Beta Film
Rath may be new to Berlin’s grim and glorious streets, but he’s no innocent. A fresh transfer to the nation’s capital from Cologne, he’s immediately plunged into the city’s thriving pornography trade – which, as it turns out, is exactly where he wants to be. He’s been secretly sent to Berlin to track down a film that’s being used to blackmail Cologne’s mayor. He’s about to discover that once you start looking under rocks in this city, you never know what you’re going to find.
Weimar-era Germany is the kind of setting that’s almost too good to be true for a crime drama. Drug use was rampant, whether for pleasure or to deal with the still-fresh memories of war: Rath himself is barely holding himself together, still haunted by the death of his brother in the trenches. For many, hedonism was a way of life, and those looking for a good time could find it in countless bars, dance halls, pubs and cabarets. But it was also a time of crushing poverty, with Germany crippled by war debts. Even those with steady jobs often struggled to survive.
Gereon Rath (Volker Bruch) and Charlotte Ritter (Liv Lisa Fries). Credit: Frédéric Batier | © X Filme Creative Pool Entertainment / Degeto Film / Beta Film
Which is the situation Charlotte Ritter (Liv Lisa Fries) finds herself in. A police clerk at Berlin’s main police station, the “Red Fort”, her days are spent collecting files at the homicide division and dealing with the endless comments from her all-male colleagues. She hopes to become the city’s first female police detective – and not just because then she might be paid enough to give up her double life.
As a part-time sex worker struggling to support her extended family, she’s more than intimate with the city’s seedy side. But it’s her detective skills that first bring her to Rath’s attention (well, that and a moment of kindness when she helps him take the morphine he needs to cope with his PTSD). With what he’s facing, he’s going to need all the help he can get.
While he’s been looking for the blackmailer’s film, he’s also drawn into a mystery surrounding a train from Soviet Russia and its secret cargo smuggled into the city. Some say the train’s carrying gold; the truth may be much more deadly. And the closer Rath gets to the local communists, the more it becomes clear that his partner Bruno (Peter Kurth) is very firmly on the other side of that particular political divide, and has his own violent plans for the future of Germany.
Gereon Rath (Volker Bruch) in Berlin. Credit: Frédéric Batier | © X Filme Creative Pool Entertainment / Degeto Film / Beta Film / Sky Deutschland
The four seasons of Babylon Berlin track Rath’s numerous investigations alongside Charlotte’s slow and difficult march towards her goals. They both have serious obstacles to overcome: Rath’s past remains a constant burden and his efforts to overcome it often make things worse, while Charlotte’s drive and determination are up against a system increasingly determined to block her path.
All of this takes place during a pivotal period in Germany’s history. As the 20s turn into the 30s and the good times are replaced by the Great Depression, it’s increasingly difficult to tell where crime stops and politics begin. Hypnotism, the occult and mysticism exist side by side with criminal conspiracies, sex clubs and the boom in German cinema. It’s a time where the underworld rubs shoulders with high society, activists dream of a better tomorrow, and almost anything seems possible.
But even Babylon can’t last forever.
All four seasons of Babylon Berlin are streaming now at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Babylon Berlin
series • crime drama • German
MA15+
series • crime drama • German
MA15+
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