Babylon Berlin: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

A metropolis in turmoil. From economy to culture, politics to the underworld – everything is in the grip of radical change.

Speculation and inflation are already tearing away at the foundations of the still young Weimar Republic. Growing poverty and unemployment stand in stark contrast to the excesses and indulgence of the city's night life and its overflowing creative energy.

Gereon Rath, a young police inspector from Cologne, is transferred to Berlin in order to solve a criminal case – a porno ring run by the Berlin Mafia. What at first glance appears to be simply a matter of extortion soon reveals itself to be a scandal that will forever change the lives of both Gereon and his closest associates.

Together with stenotypist Charlotte Ritter and his partner Bruno Wolter, Rath is confronted with a tangled web of corruption, drug dealing, and weapons trafficking, forcing him into an existential conflict as he is torn between loyalty and uncovering the truth. And we are left wondering: in this story, who is friend and who is foe?

With the political unrest spurred by May Day demonstrations and rising National Socialism, even an institution like the "Rote Burg," Berlin's police headquarters and the centre of democracy and the constitutional state, is increasingly becoming the melting pot of a democracy whose days are numbered.

Series details

• Title: Babylon Berlin
• Format: Scripted
• Language: German
• Genres: Drama, Crime, Thriller
• Premiere date: 2017-10-13
• Final broadcast date listed: 2026-09-10
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Web channel listed by TVmaze: ARD Mediathek
• Network country: Germany
• Typical episode runtime: 57 minutes
• TVmaze community rating: 7.8/10
• TVMaze ID: 25245
• IMDb ID: tt4378376
• TVDB ID: 323945

Cast and credited roles

• Volker Bruch — Gereon Rath
• Liv Lisa Fries — Charlotte Ritter
• Lars Eidinger — Alfred Nyssen
• Hannah Herzsprung — Helga Rath
• Benno Fürmann — Oberst Gottfried Wendt
• Fritzi Haberlandt — Elisabeth Behnke
• Karl Markovics — Samuel Katelbach
• Mišel Maticevic — Edgar der Armenier
• Christian Friedel — Reinhold Gräf
• Leonie Benesch — Greta Overbeck
• Ronald Zehrfeld — Walter Weintraub
• Meret Becker — Esther Kasabian

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2017-10-13; final listed air date 2017-11-03; episode order: 8.
• Season 2: premiered 2017-11-10; final listed air date 2017-12-01; episode order: 8.
• Season 3: premiered 2020-01-24; final listed air date 2020-02-28; episode order: 12.
• Season 4: premiered 2022-10-08; final listed air date 2022-11-12; episode order: 12.
• Season 5: premiered 2026-09-10; final listed air date 2026-09-10; episode order: 8.

Source and licence

Adapted from Babylon Berlin on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.